RM8 does not access the media folder specified in ‘Folder Settings’ when
Linking media
Selecting ‘Media’ from the left hand panel.
In my case, it seems to be accessing a media folder on a different drive used in a test setup when RM8 was first installed.
(There isn’t a tag for ‘Programming Error’ or equivalent, so I’ve used ‘Question’. Is this the right way to get this fixed?)
Given the symptoms you describe, I wonder if RM8 is returning to the most recent folder you accessed rather than to the one specified in Folder Settings. There have been some recent messages about this issue where the symptoms were the reverse of yours. The poster wanted RM8 to go to the most recent folder like RM7 did instead of to the Folder Settings folder like RM8 appears to do. Except that your symptoms are the opposite.
I don’t know. If it doesn’t open to where I want, I shrug and navigate to the correct folder. I don’t understand how it’s really supposed to work.
I have the same question about exactly how to report problems. There was a clear process during the Community Preview. I’m not quite sure what the process is now.
I believe one is supposed to contact Technical Support via the link at the bottom of the webpage, but it doesn’t actually say to use this for bug reports. Is the difference between support and report semantics?
This does not appear to be so in my case…
I entered new people in RM8. (The are new to my database and are not in my RM7 data)
I attached a photo of the pair to one of them which was correctly saved in the folder specified in ‘Settings’
I attempted to attach the photo to the second person but the ‘Select Existing Media’ option references the wrong folder and I can see no way of correcting this.
I have looked at the Technical Support area of RM’s web site. I may be missing something obvious, but I don’t see any way to submit a bug report per se. The only I thing I see is a button to click for online support. I haven’t clicked it, but I assume it tries to open a chat with a live person.
If you link in one media file and immediately try to link in a second one, it should first go either to the most recent folder or to the default media folder. In your case, it sounds like these two possibilities are one and the same. So surely there is a bug.
Are you at least able to use Windows File Explorer to navigate to the correct folder for the file?
https://support.rootsmagic.com/hc/en-us
Top right “Submit a request” opens a form to give your details and the issue. They respond by email acknowledging and then updating. People refer to this as getting a ticket opened.
Can you give the correct & incorrect paths? Might make it easier to sort out.
Info from RootsMagic thankyou email received 2 Oct 2021:
Q: In the official release, the “Envelope” button to give feedback is gone. How do I submit feedback?
New feedback should be addressed to our regular support channels, such as emailing support@rootsmagic.com.
Clarification of the issue…
Thank you for your responses. I have also received a response from Support from which it appears that the problem is not fully understood. So here it is in tedious detail.
Background
I have a large database of about 100,000 persons, ½ million events, and thousands of attached media files
Data resides on an external hard disk. The location of the media is G:\Family History Exhibits
Data used to reside on my C: drive in …\Family History Exhibits, and is now very out of date
Many exhibits are correctly reported as broken links. I am manually relocating (and renaming) these files from C: to G: and redefining the location for each event attachment
When first creating an RM8 database I used the C: drive data as a test, and this looking OK then created the live file from the G:\ drive. I cannot recall the exact sequence of events.
I have read the Help files and searched the forum for a solution
RM8 Settings
All folder settings point to various folders on the G: drive
RM8 has been closed and reopened several times. The computer has been rebooted.
RM8 seems to remember, in some circumstances, the original C: drive location for the Media files…
New media attachments are correctly accessible from the G: drive
Selecting ‘Media’ from the left side menu displays the contents of C:…\Family History Exhibits and not G:\Family History Exhibits as specified in settings.
Existing media cannot be attached to an event. The ‘Select Existing Media’ option on the ‘Add Media’ page displays the contents of C:…\Family History Exhibits and not G:\Family History Exhibits as specified in settings
Apologies for the length of this post but hopefully it will make the problem clearer
I think you have made the symptoms very clear. But the actual cause does not yet seem very clear. 
@JAS_UK
No apology necessary. I think your explanation helped me to understand the issues you were having.
“ Data resides on an external hard disk”
I operate a PC with Windows 10 and use an external hard drive for my main data storage so perhaps I can help. Presumably our systems are similar.
“ RM8 does not access the media folder specified in ‘Folder Settings’ when …”
That seems like a path related problem, possibly stemming from work done before you moved data to drive G:.
“ The location of the media is G:\Family History Exhibits”
I’ll assume that “G” has been assigned to your external hard drive rather than having windows allocate that drive letter. Please ask if this comment causes any confusion.
“ Data used to reside on my C: drive”
That’s the windows default drive and could well be the root cause of your problem since any paths used in linking data would have been based on that drive letter during your earlier testing and stored within RM8 links to individual items. Those links will probably not be changed by any subsequent settings changes in RM8.
“ Many exhibits are correctly reported as broken links. I am manually relocating (and renaming) these files from C: to G: and redefining the location for each event attachment”
I would proceed as follows:
COPY the whole Media Directory structure from C: to G:. This will give you two identical copies of your media files one on each drive with the existing links in RM8 still linking to the C: drive media directory and the second copy on G: drive unlinked.
Next Rename the C:drive media set head-directory by prefixing its name with XXX. This should break all the links but will allow you to reverse the process if the need arises.
Don’t be alarmed by the mass of red crosses that will appear on the icons in the RM8 media folder.
Now in RM8 go Media > 3-dot Menu > Fix broken media links > A selected drive or folder > Enter the path to the head folder of your G:drive media set > Select Search for missing files. This will allow RM8 to establish corrected links to your relocated media files subject to no file renaming having been done in the meantime.
Hopefully all the red crosses should now disappear from the media icons in the media panel of RM8.
If any don’t these will have to be re-linked manually by editing their individual link paths on the MEDIA page of RM8.
Procedure:
Select an Icon with a red cross in the Multimedia panel > In the Edit Media panel Click in the “Filename” box > Select the file icon at the end of the box This opens the windows file manager > Navigate to your G:drive media storage and select the required file. Check in the Edit Media > Filename box that the path and filename is correct. When satisfied, repeat for next problem file until done.
Note that each link correction done here corrects for ALL uses of the associated media item and should avoid the need to edit each individual fact, etc, separately.
This probably helps to explain the behaviours that you described in the latter part of your post. I hope it helps but feel free to query anything that is still not clear.
Subsequent edit.
And of course, once all the red crosses are dealt with, the original MEDIA data-set on drive C: can be deleted unless you need it there for some other purpose.
