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How to Keep your FTM Source Tree Media Folder Backed Up in the Cloud

While your TreeVault® Antenna tree contains a continuously updated copy of all your FTM Source tree’s data which you can use to restore the tree in case of emergency, it does not contain the Source tree’s media. Therefore, to insure against unlikely but possible catastrophes such as major hard drive failure, it’s best to keep a copy of your Source tree’s media folder backed up separately away from your computer.

One of the most convenient and reliable ways to do that is to use an external file hosting service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud, many of which are free up to certain storage limits.

The particular file hosting service you use is completely up to you. Just for your convenience, a few of the most popular ones are listed below together with links to instructions on how to set up the automatic backup of selected folders.

File hosting sites
Dropbox — click here to get instructions on uploading files.
Google Drive — click here to get instructions on setting up folder backup.
OneDrive — click here to get instructions on setting up folder backup.
iCloud — click here for more information..

Before You Start

Before you start backing up your Source tree’s media folder, there are a couple of important things you should check.

First of all, make sure you know the name and location of the media folder on your computer. The folder is named <Tree Name> Media (so, for example, if your tree is named “Johnson Family”, its media folder will be called Johnson Family Media) and it is in the same location as the tree file, which by default is in the Family Tree Maker folder in your Documents folder.

Secondly, it's possible that some or all of your Source tree's media files are not stored directly in the tree's media folder but are just linked to the tree from different locations on your computer. Therefore, you should also make sure that copies of all the media files used in the tree are gathered together in the media folder. To do that, follow these steps:

On Windows:

1. In FTM 2019, go to the Collection tab on the Media workspace and click any media item to select it.
2. Choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A, and then choose Edit > Copy or press Ctrl+C to copy all the media items in the collection.
3. Go to the tree’s media folder in File Explorer and click Paste on the Home tab, or right-click and click Paste on the context menu, or press Ctrl+V.
4. In the alert message that appears, make sure the Do this for all current items checkbox is selected and then click Skip — this will prevent the media files that are already present in the media folder from being rewritten. Your media files that are stored outside the media folder will be copied to the media folder.

You now have all your media files in one place and can go ahead and back up the folder.

On Mac:

1. Rename the tree’s media folder to anything other than its current name. This is a temporary measure that will prevent duplicate media files appearing in the folder in step 4 below.
2. In FTM 2019, go to the Collection tab on the Media workspace and click any media item to select it.
3. Choose Edit > Select All and then Edit > Copy to copy all the media items in the collection.
4. Go back to the renamed media folder and choose Edit > Paste. Your media files that are stored outside the media folder will be copied to the media folder.
5. Rename the media folder back to its original name (<Tree Name> Media).

Note: The media items you have copied from the Collection tab to the media folder will remain linked to the original files outside the folder. For this reason, if you need to restore your Source tree on another computer following a hard drive crash, those media items will not be correctly linked to their media files even after you have restored the media folder backup. This is very easy to solve, however. Since all of the files are now located in the media folder, you can just run the Find Missing Media tool to make sure they are all properly linked to the tree. To learn how to use this tool, click one of the following links:

For full instructions on how to restore your Source tree and the cloud backup of its media folder in case of emergency, please see this article:

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