* Copy or Link?

[RobbieP]

Hi,

Just started using Family Historian 6 and am wading through the "How to Get the Best Out of..." manual. I'm a little confused about importing photos.

1. In the manual (page 43) it states that copying the files into the current project "is recommended".

2. However in the Knowledge Base it states that "It is highly recommended not to use embedded images, even though they are supported."

I assume that with the copy option the file is literally copied into the project and if, God forbid, I was to lose all the photos in the Pictures directory on my computer I would still have the ones in the FH project.

If I linked the files, and then lost the photos on the pc, I assume they would also disappear from the FH project.

Are options 1 and 2 above contradictory, or am I totally missing a trick somewhere!?

Thanks,

Rob

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG Rob.

Yes, I can understand why you are confused, but copying and embedding are two different modes, and there is a third mode, which I shall attempt to explain.

• Embedded Images
  FH uses the GEDCOM file as its database, and the GEDCOM specification allows image files to be literally incorporated or embedded within the GEDCOM file itself, which makes it very large & unwieldy, is not recommended, and is disabled by default in Tools > Preferences > General > Advanced > Enable Multimedia GEDCOM Embedding.
• Copied Images
  The FH Project structure holds the GEDCOM file, and alongside it a Media folder, into which image files should be copied. The Media folder can also be organised into sub-folders. The Media records link to the Media image files using relative file paths, so if the whole Project structure is moved from one location to another or from one PC to another, then the path links remain valid. When a Project Backup is performed the Media folder is included. This mode is highly recommended.
• Remote Images
  The FH Media records can link to image files anywhere on the PC using absolute file paths, but all the benefits of copied images are lost.

You can view the Media record links and manage them via the Tools > External File Links command.

[NickWalker]

Mike replied while I was answering this post but I've posted it anyway in case it helps!

A project is effectively a set of folders that includes the GEDCOM family history text file and your photos (there can be other files too but I'm ignoring those as they don't help with this answer!). The GEDCOM file contains (relative) links to the images. So that is what point 1 is referring to and this is indeed the recommended way to do things. The 'embedded images' point refers to is an obscure facility of the GEDCOM standard to actually encode a photo within the GEDCOM text file itself. No one ever does this and it would be crazy to do so but Family Historian has always prided itself on trying to be 100% GEDCOM compliant hence the comment in point 2. Your assumptions regarding copying and linking are correct.

Best wishes

Nick

[tatewise]

Regarding the possibility of 'lost' images/photos, the Pictures folder is much the same as the Media folder. If one gets corrupted then the chances are that the other will too, unless it is on a different disk drive. The ONLY way to prevent such losses is a comprehensive external backup regime. There have been too many occasions in these Forums where users have had their precious family history files damaged, and only been able to recover because they luckily had a fairly recent copy on a pen-drive, in cloud storage, on another PC, or somewhere else. Other users have not been so lucky.

As a newcomer take a look at how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers which includes the book you mention, but many more tips, such as Backup & Recovery.

[RobbieP]

Thanks, that's perfectly clear now. Be prepared for more stupid questions as I read on!!

[dewilkinson]

Mike,

I have always stored my 'media files' in a separate folder for each person within an Exhibits folder. This currently stands ~7,500 files in 2,200 folders at ~6.3 gb. Now I am using FH I realise that FH stores the linked images again in the Media folder which is fine, and as you say gets backed up. I am just wondering if I would be wise to move the whole of my Exhibits folder structure into the Media folder, although only a proportion are currently actually used in FH. I realise I would have a bit of relinking to do but as I would like to use many more, particularly in citations, I would value your opinion on this.

[tatewise]

There are pros and cons, and also various degrees of implementing that scheme.

It would almost certainly be worth replicating the Exhibits folder structure within the FH Media folder, and then migrate files from Exhibits to Media as required. The one caveat is path length. The Media folder is already buried inside the ...\Documents\Family Historian Projects\<project-name>\<project-name>.fh_data\ folder, and if the Exhibits folder structure is too deep, then the overall path length may exceed the Windows limit of 260 characters, which includes the C:\ at the beginning, the folder path, filename & extension, and null character at the end. So you may need to shorten your <project-name> and the Family Historian Projects folder name. There are some technically tricky workarounds, and Windows 10 now allows the limit to be relaxed, BUT only if all your applications such as FH and AS can handle those longer file paths.

If the proportion of files already linked into FH is high, and planned to increase, then moving all Exhibits into Media probably makes their management easier as they are all in one location. You can always discover which files are not linked to FH by using the Check for Unlinked Media Plugin. It is OK to add Media record links to files already inside the Media folder. FH recognises a file is inside the Media folder and skips the Add Media to Project dialogue with Copy File(s) to option.

I assume the Media files already linked to FH have the same file-names as their equivalent Exhibits. If so, then when you replace the Media folder structure with the Exhibits folder structure, relinking is easy. In Tools > External File Links use the Auto Repair Links button and the new path to each file should be automatically detected.

[dewilkinson]

Mike,

Many thanks for your advice, I shall do this after my next full backup.

Thank you

[E Wilcock]

Mike, thank you as usual for a very clear explanation. I need to clarify the follow up.

I do not use folder names like Exhibit and Media - I dont understand them. No one reading this should copy what I do.

My family history images are filed in Windows 7 under Pictures/Family History/ and then the Project Name (family name).
Within each family there are sub folders for an individual, but there may also be sub folders for groups of images given me by another family member from their own archive. Not all people in the pictures have been identified and some are family groups.

In many folders there may also be a word document cataloguing the contents of various inherited photograph albums including the names of (unrelated) people whose pictures have not been scanned. Attaching transferrable, uploadable text notes and captions to image files is an ongoing problem for digital photographers and not one I have solved.
Each family folder also has a sub folder Family History Records, holding wills, certificates etc.
And a sub folder Document Images holding page images of family memoirs, letters, diaries etc and of my father's genealogical research files.

Census Images are currently filed separately under Pictures/Census Images, with sub folders for year and place with the images within listed in alphabetical order by surname. This isnt particularly sensible but when the first census images became available and one paid for each one, it was how I worked.

In TMG I did at one stage put my TMG linked images in a separate dedicated folder but it became too complicated if a picture was edited or a better more up to date digital copy was made.

These scattered external links seem to have survived an import to fh and I wonder about the advantage of incorporating them within the folders for a genealogy package?

I may have misread, but this thread suggested to me that any image one links in fh is copied and added to the fh folder? I had intended to link many source images after moving to fh, but having them on my hard disc twice would not be a happy situation. And that was why the OP was advised to move all his images into a fh folder?

But I feel it is not the case. I have already added document images (sources) to some sources and some events in fh, by linking them to the images on the hard disc in their normal places. I have just checked both my Project imported from TMG and one started in fh and in both cases the (local) Project media file is empty.

I understand that if scattered image files are not included and moved with the fh folder, the links will be lost e.g. when I run fh on my lap top. However my lap top is tiny, with no massive hard drive and one can upload the image files to Dropbox or One drive if one needs to view them when one is away from home. And the text documents and images can go up together.

And one further advantage of leaving family history images within the Windows Picture folder is that they are backed up via any regular incremental back up of one's digital photographs.

[tatewise]

OK, so your usage of the Pictures\Family History\ folder and Pictures\Census Images\ folder is similar to the Exhibits folder and come under the heading of Remote Images that do not have the benefits of Copied Images as discussed earlier.

I would hope that your regular incremental backups include more that just the Pictures folder and should include at least your Documents folder, or wherever your Family Historian Projects folder resides, otherwise you risk losing ALL your researched family history Project database.

When (not if) your current PC breaks-down permanently, you must migrate your Family Historian Projects to a new PC. That will probably upset all Remote Image file links in FH Media records. However, in FH V6 there is the Tools > External File Links > Auto Repair Links button that will probably fix those links, and was not available in earlier FH versions. So providing you have backups in external media of all your images and family history databases, then you should be able to recover.