When updating RM11 from Ancestry using TreeShare, it appears that all of my media files were saved in a particular file folder. I have some files on a thumb drive that I saved from the FamilySearch library and I want to attach them to people in RM. Should I save those files in the same folder and attach them from there?
all media files should be saved on your computer (and backed up elsewhere).
I would suggest one main media folder then organized in subfolders. and Media should be named by some organization.
1 Like
RM actually has two systems for managing your media files. One system is for media files downloaded via TreeShare and the other system is for all other media files.
You have no control over the folder where the media files downloaded via TreeShare are stored. The folder set up by RM for TreeShare media is a subfolder of the same folder where your RM database is stored. If your RM database is called smithfamily, then your TreeShare subfolder is named smithfamily_media. The file names are meaningless file names and only RM itself knows which of those meaningless file names are linked to which people and facts and sources in your RM database.
You have total control over all other media files - both about where they are stored and what they are named. And indeed, RM never stores the other media files. You store them and you name them. You have to develop your own filing system and naming system. You can have one big folder or you can have many different folders. It is all up to you. After you store them, you simply tell RM what the file names are and where you store them. It’s called “adding” the files to RM, but the files are no more “added” to RM than are the files added to the man in the moon. They are not in the RM database. They are only linked into the RM database.
There is nothing that prevents you from storing the files that you download or create yourself into the same folder that TreeShare sets up for you and uses for itself. But as a sample size of 1, I don’t do it that way. I have a folder and subfolders for the media files that I store and name myself that is separate from the folder that TreeShare manages for media it downloads for you.
1 Like
I agree with @thejerrybryan and maintain a separate folder structure for other media. For me, it gets fun since part of my goal is to maintain parity with the people in my RM database that I share on Ancestry. So if I add a picture to a person in RM and then upload it to Ancestry from Treeshare, RM wants to download it right back to the _media folder to keep itself happy, and I end up with duplicate files. Or, I’ll upload the file on the Ancestry website, pull it down on Treeshare, and use that copy as the “master” copy of the picture, except that now I’m relying on RM for organization and can’t just browse the folder myself to find a file.
One thing I am doing is using https://www.digikam.org/ to add face tags to the pictures so that each picture’s metadata has the record of where on the picture a person’s face it - i.e. for pictures with more than 1 person, I can tell who’s who without consulting any other resource, website, etc. Media library managers like that let you tag things to your hearts content to organize files irrespective of folder structure, so RM’s 1 flat media file isn’t a total killer.
Also, the file name isn’t completely random, RM will try to use the media’s title from ancestry as the filename if it can. Sometimes, whoever uploaded the file had already given it some gibberish name.
1 Like
Thank you. Very helpful responses and much appreciated!
2 Likes