How can I create an interactive RM9 file on an iPhone? 75,000-person file, all with multiple media.
Phone will hold about one terrabyte.
File => Export => Dropbox
You will need a Dropbox account, but a free account is extremely likely to be enough data.
Then install the Dropbox app and RM’s iPhone app on the iPhone. From RM’s iPhone app, open the file from Dropbox.
RM7’s databases were RMGC files and RM9’s databases are RMTREE files. RM’s iPhone app can only handle RMGC files. Therefore, RM9’s File => Export => Dropbox feature creates an RMGC file that can be read by RM’s iPhone app.
Thumbnails of all the media files are included, but not the media files themselves.
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Thank You Very Much!
My current RM9 backup [rmbackup] file is 2.09 GB, which I intend to build on.
This presumably includes all the media files. No?
But those media files will just be downsized to thumbnails?
…And my RM9 rmtree file is just 156 MB.
The iPhone/iPad app is read only, so you can only view some of your data, you cannot amend or add to it.
Dave
Hmmmm… Well, that’s a severe and unacceptable limitation.
…And all the data files only show up as thumbnails?
…If so, that’s a non-starter too.
Bummer, looks like you won’t be using the RM app then.
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Yep. The RM App needs to be upgraded; or a new Roots Magic version for the iPhone which has GB to spare of memory.
An RM backup can include the media files or not include the media files. It’s an option when you make the backup. The media files are not actually in your database.
At 2.09 GB for your backup file, it sounds to me like you are backing up with media files. My RM database of about 40,000 people is only about 71MB (and that’s MB, not GB).
If you backup without media files, your backup file should be a bit smaller than your RM database because an RM backup file is a ZIP file in disguise, and ZIP files are compressed. For example, my RM backup files without media are only about 21MB which is less than half as big as my RM database itself.
In the extremely unlikely event that your RM backup file is 2.09GB without including the media files, then you need to run RM’s database tools to clean up wasted space in your database. The sequence is File => Tools => Database Tools. There are four such tools. Run them in order, left to right. The tool that has the potential to reduce the size of your RM database a bit is the Compact tool. You really should run these tools on a regular basis anyway. Some users run the Database Tools daily. I do it more like weekly.
The thumbnails are actually stored in your database. They are not stored outside the database and then linked into the database like the media files themselves. Because the thumbnails are actually stored in your database, they are automatically included in your backup file. The media files therefore are not downsized to thumbnail files as a part of the backup process. Rather, the media files are downsized to thumbnail size in the RM database as a part of the process of RM creating the thumbnails in the first place.
Note that the RM mobile app for the iPhone/iPad works with your RM database, not with your RM backup file. Therefore, the mobile app never works with your media files because they are not in the database. The mobile app only works with the thumbnails.
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Very Informative. Thank You.
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Yes, I always back up WITH the media files.
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I run the Data Files Compression Et Al Every Day.
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My full media files have a great deal of important, indeed critical, information in them. I want to preserve those data in concert and coupled with the 74,589 people currently in the database. And I need to preserve them at full strength, not as thumbnails.
- Four Database Tools. I run them every day.
The simples, thing to do, is create a free Ancestry account and upload your RM to Ancestry. Then use the free Ancestry app to see and control you tree. Even when the 14 day trial ends, you have full control over your tree. You can still upload other trees if you wish. The only thing you can’t do is view the information on hints.
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Absolutely Brilliant! 
I do hope RootsMagic 10 makes it easier for us to fully deploy RM on an iPhone.
My full media files for those 74,589 people are 27.4 GB.
“L’enfer, c’est les autres” — Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) in Huis Clos (No Exit) 1944
Backing up with media is sheer insanity if you have taken time to build a folder structure to organize and sort all of the media. Restoring that backup will give you one big folder full of media without your carefully constructed folder structure.
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FamilySearch has added a function that has been egregious for decades. It now can import GEDCOM databases from other programs and sort accordingly. Be patient, it can take a while. I did an overnighter to get past the many failed attempts at each phase of the function, due to a very large database, but the next day I had 4 areas where profiles were categorized. I had mistakenly GEDCOMed my ancestry database into RootsMagic a few years ago, not realizing the bug ancestry.com had by creating “blank” profiles (name only). I recently loaded my RootsMagic database (GEDCOM export) into FamilySearch and I now have loads of work to do sorting out the files in each category - but the process removed 40,000 more of those duplicate profiles I had previously taken 3 years to reduce by 20,000 instances. My database in FamilySearch Genealogies currently has around 427,147 profiles from my RootsMagic database.
FamilySearch > Search > Genealogies > UPLOAD YOUR INDIVIDUAL TREE.
You eventually will end up with a “Compare GEDCOM with FamilyTree” file in FamilySearch. Bookmark it for future access so you can work through it.
The four categories are; “Potential Matches”, “Add to Family Tree”, "Already in Family Tree"and “Invalid and Living”.
Give it a go. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain.
Please let me know if media also ports over. FamilySearch does not take video yet, but does take audio files.
GEDCOM wouldn’t support media so Genealogies on FamilySearch wouldn’t have them. If using FamilySearch Person Tools in RM we do not transfer media. If you use AutoMatch on FamilySearch Central it will give you about the same as Genealogies does. It will show you who isn’t matched and let you determine if there is a match or you need to add the person.