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Oh yeah, all my scanned photos which are attached to my tree are web quality versions - the original print quality versions are backed up to my OneDrive cloud (along with all my other photos). I used to use an external hard drive to back up all my photos but it's too much hassle - plugging it in, moving things over, etc. With the cloud, you just have a folder on your computer that is synced automatically to your cloud so anything you put in that folder gets automatically backed up.
Plus as someone else pointed out, if (God forbid) there was a fire or something, you would lose both your computer and your external drive unless you kept the external somewhere else (which then makes updating it a pain because you have to go get it). I used to always joke that if there was a fire, the first thing I would save would be my external hard drive, lol. Don't have to worry about that anymore, even if it is an unlikely event.
Ha, where I used to live we had horrible thunder storms with dangerous lightening all summer long. I would sit there on the kitchen stool, purse and the beginnings of my family history on one arm, cat in the other. I was ready to run if the lightening struck the house and started a fire.
I also have an external hard drive. I copy My Documents, My Pictures, and any other important files, including genealogy, to it frequently from my desktop and laptop. I don't keep it plugged in so that a power surge or loss won't fry it.
I've just been reminded of this ongoing concern because on my online UK genealogy news group some people have been reporting that their sources in Ancestry have been disappearing. I wish I had saved the messages but that's all I remember and it's enough to worry me.
I need to back up my Ancestry.UK and my Ancestry.com but I don't know how. That's where my family trees are stored. Previous posts have mentioned thumb drives. Will a thumb drive also save my pictures and sources? How about an external hard drive? I want to back up everything. I do not have all the original photos as some were sent to me or I snagged them off other trees. I have some photos on my computer but what happens when my computer dies? Do I buy Family Tree Maker and export a GEDCOM to that? I don't think a GEDCOM has the photos and sources, does it?
What is the best way to do this if you want to back it ALL up?
I've just been reminded of this ongoing concern because on my online UK genealogy news group some people have been reporting that their sources in Ancestry have been disappearing. I wish I had saved the messages but that's all I remember and it's enough to worry me.
Some people are saying the same thing on the Ancestry.com message boards, but when asked specifically what they are missing, they never respond. I haven't had any loss of data/sources. I suspect that some people are just not looking closely enough and then panicking. IIRC, the old site used to lump all sources together, whether they were from Ancestry.com, or manually added. Now they have Ancestry.com sources listed first, and "other sources" listed below it where they are more separate than they used to be. I am wondering if some people just don't initially notice this, and post about it immediately but by the time someone asks about more details, they have found the "other sources" and don't respond. They never provide a link to their (public) tree, or at least some screenshots, so we can see for ourselves that there is a source attached to someone in the old site, but it is missing in the new site. So without any evidence whatsoever, I don't put a lot of faith in what these people are claiming.
And some people are doing this with some of the other features too. There are people complaining that notes, comments, or other tools are missing... but they are not, they are just in a new place and instead of taking a look around first, they panic and post a rant about it. Someone always points out to them where these tools are now found, and of course they rarely respond, not even to say "thanks for pointing it out to me". Even if what they are looking for is not there, but Ancestry.com have announced that they plan to re-add it soon, some of these people will STILL have their panties in a twist about it, like if they can't have it NOW, it is the greatest injustice they have ever known.
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I need to back up my Ancestry.UK and my Ancestry.com but I don't know how. That's where my family trees are stored. Previous posts have mentioned thumb drives. Will a thumb drive also save my pictures and sources? How about an external hard drive? I want to back up everything. I do not have all the original photos as some were sent to me or I snagged them off other trees. I have some photos on my computer but what happens when my computer dies? Do I buy Family Tree Maker and export a GEDCOM to that? I don't think a GEDCOM has the photos and sources, does it?
What is the best way to do this if you want to back it ALL up?
If you export a gedcom from your online tree, you can use it in any tree software (doesn't have to be FTM), but you are correct, it will not include any media/images of documents. For me, the easiest way to download everything is to use FTM. With the latest versions, there is a tree sync tool which will download everything for you. The only way to download everything, including media, without having to manually download each record/media item individually, is with FTM.
Once it's all downloaded to your computer, you can export it from FTM with the media included and back it up elsewhere if you want.
FTR, gedcoms do support media, it's just that exporting one from Ancestry.com doesn't, I guess they were worried about the download taking too long and people complaining.
I used to have Family Tree Maker but it was on CDs. That must be passe. Now ALL my family history is in two large trees on Ancestry with the exception of some from years ago that is handwritten on paper and some Ancestry printouts.
If this is, as you say, probably inaccurate panic about losing things on Ancestry, then I won't immediately run out and buy anything. But it sounds as though I should eventually get FTM and use the tree sync tool so that I get media and sources AND from that, I can transfer it all to a flash drive?
Does that sound right? If it is correct, then does the flash drive need to have a GEDCOM feature?
I used to have Family Tree Maker but it was on CDs. That must be passe. Now ALL my family history is in two large trees on Ancestry with the exception of some from years ago that is handwritten on paper and some Ancestry printouts.
If this is, as you say, probably inaccurate panic about losing things on Ancestry, then I won't immediately run out and buy anything. But it sounds as though I should eventually get FTM and use the tree sync tool so that I get media and sources AND from that, I can transfer it all to a flash drive?
Yep, I think it's also worth doing because then if you ever cancel your Ancestry.com subscription, you'll still have access to all the records attached to your tree from Ancestry.com. When you cancel you're subscription, although all the records remain on your tree and you can still use your tree, you won't be able to open the Ancestry.com records. So using FTM to download them means you'll always have access to them.
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Does that sound right? If it is correct, then does the flash drive need to have a GEDCOM feature?
Not unless you want to view it from the flash drive. Presumably, you just want to back it up so if your computer crashes and you no longer have an Ancestry.com subscription, you have a copy of your complete tree that you can move over from the flash drive to your new computer, so it's only the new computer that needs tree software/gedcom support. But I personally don't back mine up as long as my subscription is active because that means I already have two copies of it.
I used to have Family Tree Maker but it was on CDs. That must be passe. Now ALL my family history is in two large trees on Ancestry with the exception of some from years ago that is handwritten on paper and some Ancestry printouts.
If this is, as you say, probably inaccurate panic about losing things on Ancestry, then I won't immediately run out and buy anything. But it sounds as though I should eventually get FTM and use the tree sync tool so that I get media and sources AND from that, I can transfer it all to a flash drive?
Does that sound right? If it is correct, then does the flash drive need to have a GEDCOM feature?
I have Family Tree Maker on two computers (the max they allow). I work mostly on the desktop and sync my Ancestry tree to that one. Every 2 weeks or so, more often if I've been busy, I copy the FTM files (tree and media) to an external hard drive and then to the 2nd computer. That's a laptop I can take anywhere I plan to research. That way I have a current tree and media wherever I happen to be looking for info.
I have a lot of non-Ancestry info, my own written work, photos, downloaded books, etc. that I handle the same way.
If your tree is on Ancestry and you download it to FTM, do your pictures and sources come along too?
Yes, everything is downloaded.
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