{"id":13237,"date":"2026-09-23T10:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/?post_type=kb_article&#038;p=13237"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:16:13","slug":"finding-lost-projects-backups-and-gedcom-files","status":"publish","type":"kb_article","link":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/finding-lost-projects-backups-and-gedcom-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Lost Projects, Backups and GEDCOM Files"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span>8 can search your PC for projects, backup files and standalone GEDCOM files. This is useful if you have lost track of a copy of a project, a backup or a GEDCOM file you were sent.<\/p>\n<h2>Running a Search<\/h2>\n<p>Open the Project Window (<a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">File&nbsp&gt;&nbspProject&nbspWindow<\/a>, or close the current project), click <em>More Tasks<\/em> and choose <em>Search for Projects, Backups &amp; Gedcom Files<\/em>. In the File Search Options dialog:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Under <em>Search For<\/em>, tick any of <em>Projects<\/em> (<code>.fh_proj<\/code> files), <em>Backup Files<\/em> and <em>Standalone Gedcom Files<\/em> (<code>.ged<\/code> files that are not part of a project).<\/li>\n<li>Under <em>Search Location<\/em>, choose your Documents folder, the whole computer (every internal drive), or a folder of your own.<\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Search Now<\/em>. Results appear in the Search Results window as they are found, and you can stop the search at any time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To see the results again later, choose <em>View Last Search Results<\/em> from the same <em>More Tasks<\/em> menu.<\/p>\n<h2>Older Backups<\/h2>\n<p>Backups made by <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> since version 7.0.10 are <code>.fhbak<\/code> files, and a backup search always finds those. Earlier versions saved backups as <code>.zip<\/code> files. You can include zip files in the search, either all of them or only those whose names contain some text you specify, such as &#8220;backup&#8221; or a project name. Searching for every zip file is not recommended, as many other programs use them.<\/p>\n<h2>Opening What You Find<\/h2>\n<p>A project found outside your usual projects folder can be opened with <em>Browse for Project<\/em> on the <em>More Tasks<\/em> menu, without changing where <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> looks for projects. For backups, use <em>Restore Backup<\/em>. A standalone GEDCOM file is better imported into a new project than edited directly. See <a href=\"\/kb\/kb-article\/understanding-projects\/\">Understanding Projects<\/a> and <a href=\"\/kb\/kb-article\/backup-and-recovery\/\">Backup and Recovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","fh_version":[826],"skill_level":[17,16],"topic":[96,92],"class_list":["post-13237","kb_article","type-kb_article","status-publish","hentry","fh_version-v8","skill_level-intermediate","skill_level-newcomer","topic-backup-and-restore","topic-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article\/13237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb_article"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fh_version","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fh_version?post=13237"},{"taxonomy":"skill_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/skill_level?post=13237"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=13237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}