Family Tree Maker software (Mac) - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Re: Tree Syncing Creates Many Duplicates!

linabella55 — 2013-05-25 01:08:58Z

I reported this issue in January of 2012 and they told me I was the only one and I must have merged them multiple times. Some of the records were attached to people I hadn't been working on and were completely unrelated. I have had 30 different relatives attached to one record, none of whom have anything to do with that record.
Glad they're finally working on it. If you find a solution (other than going through and deleting them all one by one), please post it here.

Tree Syncing Creates Many Duplicates!

frogtown1979 — 2013-05-24 03:12:29Z

I was so happy when Ancestry.com came out with capability
to synchronize my member tree with my FTM 2 for Mac tree. I prefer to search for records in the member tree on Ancestry. It's just faster & easier to use, & who can
resist those blinking leaves? But then I needed a way to incorporate all that data from my Ancestry tree to my computer tree. I thought the new "tree syncing" feature was the answer to my dreams.

However, it's causing me many times more work than to manually enter all that data. What's happening is that after a tree synch, I start noticing multiple (I mean 12 or more) census, marriage, birth, death records, etc. There will also be multiple entries for each member of a family. So then I have to go back and remove duplicates, risking removing the listing which would have all the inter- relationships. It's hard to explain, but it's like a virus broke out, creating all these multiples.

Ancestry's tech supp. said it IS an issue they're having, but didn't say when or if it could be fixed. He just walked me thru a way to remove relationships, but that will take forever for all the persons in my tree. Surely there's a way for them to upgrade this software for us. I'm going to start bugging them again.

Is anyone else having this problem? Also, the new "merge" feature in the member trees creates duplicate people, even though I'm wizened & careful as can be about my merges.

Debora

Re: Crashes

phyllismcconnachie_1 — 2013-05-23 19:14:24Z

Allllllllll the time. It's so frustrating.

Re: Internet Connection Not Available

KLeQuia — 2013-05-20 13:52:25Z

Did you ever get this problem figured out? If so, what did you do? because I am having the same one! I did uninstall and reinstall and still no luck. The only thing different is that there was an upgrade at the time that I could not use because it made my FTM crash. So I had to reinstall that time and not update, but that was about the time the internet stopped connecting! I am tired of all this.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

cyndi308 — 2013-05-20 05:30:12Z

Gonna add to the broken record. Yes, use the family trees as clues, but not as sources. They can sometimes be awesome ways to break down brick walls (for example, if a tree gives you someone's maiden name that you didn't have before, you can look up the doc for that and, after it's confirmed, you'll have a whole new branch to explore).

But I wouldn't even use the trees right now. I suggest you start with the primary research. You can start with any doc you have but I find the Census the best place to begin for people in America up to 1940. I record every fact from every Census as far back as the person exists here. Then I go for the ship passage (most of the people I research who weren't born in the US immigrated here between 1880 and 1920...this process doesn't work as well for people who immigrated much earlier or later). I also look for vital records, WWI and WWII draft registrations, naturalization papers, and so on. Later I may flesh things out with city directories. Of course, what I look for depends on the person, place, time, and what's out there.

I don't let Ancestry do the documentation to FTM. I do it by hand. It's not really much slower and I have full control over each fact and the citation.

Cyndi

Re: Automatic Source citation content

silverfox3280 — 2013-05-20 05:24:38Z

I have to agree with the other postings here. I strongly suggest you don't post any of the FTM trees into your file. If you see someone there that interests you, do a search of that person in the databases and start merging database entries into your file - after you have confirmed family relationships to your satisfaction.

Why post junk with kids attached to the wrong mother, step-kids attached as natural kids, folks attached to wrong parents, and on and on. You will find it more difficult fixing and re-adjusting all of the crap you will be importing than just to do your own work from the get-go.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

BurgessDonnelly — 2013-05-20 02:21:29Z

I'm not sure how FTM for Mac handles it - I use FTM 2012 for Windows, in conjunction with an online AMT.

If I "add this person to your tree" from the tree someone else has created, a link to that tree is created in the "source information" section. (I don't do this, but I did just test to be sure it worked as I have read that it does.)

My belief is that you would be better served by starting from scratch - entering what you know about yourself, your siblings, your parents, your grandparents - step by baby step. Any time apparently saved by copying from other trees will later be spent many times over in cleaning up the duplicates and mess from other trees.

Good luck and enjoy the search.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

hunsingr — 2013-05-20 02:05:44Z

Thank you for your comment ... I do appreciate what you are saying. And I do understanding how bad some of the data in other's trees can be. I am using this as a start and then doing verification by looking at primary sources. I assumed that Ancestry.com controlled the citation process, but I will try your suggestion.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

hunsingr — 2013-05-20 02:02:25Z

Re: FTM2 Mac changes web address to lower case

BurgessDonnelly — 2013-05-20 00:56:28Z

It is not FTM specific - it is an ancestry online tree issue as well.

Several active threads on the topic; multiple bug reports; nothing more than the dumb form reply.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

DelorisWilliams87 — 2013-05-20 00:46:29Z

I second what Burgess has said, please, do not just merge other trees to yours, you are not doing yourself any favors by doing that. All of the mistakes that anyone else has put into their trees will be transferred to yours and you will deeply regret it when trying to make sense of it afterwards. The best thing to do is to do your own research, get all of the records from the sources and then attach them to your trees, you will get a far better understanding of your family and your ancestors when doing it the right way.

And welcome to Ancestry.

Re: Automatic Source citation content

BurgessDonnelly — 2013-05-19 22:50:03Z

First, welcome to the search.

Second, there is a board specifically for FTM for MAC - you might do better posing your question there. http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.software.ftmmac/mb.ashx

Third - and I'll try to say this gently - searching other trees is not research - it's derivative at best and junk at worst. In the long run, you will have better information by searching the sources directly - census, birth, marriage, death information. There are just too many online trees that have no sources attached - just copied from another tree, that also has no source detail attached. You will often see circular logic - a tree copied from another tree, which was copied from the first tree.

Again, welcome to the hunt.

Automatic Source citation content

hunsingr — 2013-05-19 22:38:45Z

I'm a new Ancestry.com user and just spent many hours building a family tree by finding people in Public Member Trees and merging them with my FTM for Mac tree. I expected that the source citation being automatically added would tell me the data came from Ancestry.com (of course), but also which family tree and the owner. I made the mistake of not looking at this earlier. I was extremely frustrated when I found that the source citation only said it was from Ancestry.com. Also, when looking at person X, the source citation added by Ancestry.com tells me "Record for X." I see no useful purpose for this.

Re: Sync Broken

carrolls9 — 2013-05-11 13:01:22Z

Not sure if it is relevant but I first came across the sync problem when trying to sync over a friend's broadband connection that is probably running about 2-3MBit speed - I had the syncing issue consistently over the 12 days I was there. Back home last night (speed is about 20-30MBit) and the sync worked perfectly - I've made no changes to my setup.

Re: Sync Broken

chriswhite80 — 2013-05-05 18:00:20Z

Got fed up with repeatedly being told to uninstall, reinstall, unlink, relink etc. with out resolving the issue that in the end I recorded the whole installation process (actually started with installation of Mac OSX) and demonstrating the duplication of the issue.

This did finally get them to accept something was wrong and they passed it on to the developers (Error Report #2218), not heard anything back yet.

Re: Sync Broken

SWFranklin — 2013-05-05 17:44:05Z

The download version is not available without a separate purchase - but even the downloadable version is the "Base" version, same as the CDs, and updates must be run after installing it.

Re: Sync Broken

carrolls9 — 2013-05-05 12:35:21Z

I have experienced the exactly the same problem for the past few weeks only. Only (temporary) solution has been to delete the tree on Ancestry and upload a fresh one from FTM2. However, after a couple of changes to the FTM2 data, the sync issue re-appears.

How can one do a complete re-install of the latest version on a mac. I have the original discs but don't want to go through having to then upgrade them with updates. Is there somewhere I can access a downloadable copy of the latest version?

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

SWFranklin — 2013-05-02 02:46:55Z

Assuming you have FTM2012, yes.

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

johndd189 — 2013-05-02 02:31:04Z

"When I try to migrate a FTMM2 file to FTM2012 everything looks OK and it finishes. But when I try to load or restore the new file, I get an error that something was "out of range" and the file fails".

What was the exact message and/or please supply a screen shot of the message

John D

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

johndd189 — 2013-05-02 02:29:16Z

"Correct John, but also if the original file is from FTMM2 it will only transfer back to FTM2012 format - not to 2011"....

Then from FTM 2012 you save a copy of the file as FTM 2011 format

Scenic route but you get there

John D

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

jedwin31001 — 2013-05-01 16:54:07Z

When I try to migrate a FTMM2 file to FTM2012 everything looks OK and it finishes. But when I try to load or restore the new file, I get an error that something was "out of range" and the file fails.

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

SWFranklin — 2013-05-01 15:49:56Z

Correct John, but also if the original file is from FTMM2 it will only transfer back to FTM2012 format - not to 2011.

FTM2 Mac changes web address to lower case

hstewart34 — 2013-04-30 14:01:01Z

The Update to FTM2 Mac added a separate "web address" field in the source dialog box--great!

I immediatedly started using this field, and have started moving URLs from the body of sources I entered long ago to this new web address field.

Has anyone else noticed that FTM automatically converts ALL capital letters in URLs placed in this field to lower-case letters? This is absolutely wrong behavior. Either the programmers were careless in adding this "feature" or (for you paranoiacs out there) they did it deliberately to "poison" many URLs.

While the DNS address portion of a URL (the part to the left of the single slash) is case-insensitive and is usually rendered all lower-case, the internal machine portion of the address (the part to the right of the single slash) can use capital letters as well as many special characters and punctuation. In such cases, lower-case and capitals are NOT interchangeable.

URLs entered elsewhere in the body of references are not altered and can be used later; only URLs entered into the "web address" field are changed.

To give one specific example: FamilySearch uses capital letters in all of its results URLs. And FTM dutifully changes all those capitals to lower case when entered into its "web address" source field, thus rendering the URL unusable. It's easy enough to manually change all the lower case letters back to caps when you try to use the address, but this is annoying and those who don't catch the nature of the problem will just think that the link is wrong or dead.

1) Is this happening only to me, or have others noticed it in their copies of FTM2 Mac?
2) Has anyone found a way to prevent FTM2 Mac from doing this?

H.

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

johndd189 — 2013-04-30 10:01:33Z

Bare in mind that the file migration utility can only be installed on a Windows computer and only seems to work (both ways) with FTM 2011 and FTM 2012 and FTMM and FTMM2

John D

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

SWFranklin — 2013-04-30 03:51:44Z

I stand by my comments quoted in the prior reply... but...

I did just test out the utility by converting one of my FTMM2 trees back to FTM2012 for Windows. The utility seemed to work OK for me (about 1,500 people and around 4,000 media files). It did state that it only works with FTM 2012 for Windows however, can't open it in any prior versions. Are you using 2012?

Re: FTM2 Mac changes web address to lower case

SWFranklin — 2013-04-30 03:49:42Z

Got a reply confirming the bug & that it's been reported to the Mac developers. The issue does not occur in FTM2012 for Windows. Now we wait for the next update...

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

SWFranklin — 2013-04-28 21:38:43Z

When in doubt, reboot :)

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

ryanmarist — 2013-04-28 21:18:32Z

Thanks so much it lets me sync again!!
EDIT: with the restarting computer method

Re: FTM2 Mac changes web address to lower case

SWFranklin — 2013-04-28 21:01:29Z

Yep, it's a bug. I'll report it to support@ancestry.com, suggest you do the same.

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

SWFranklin — 2013-04-28 20:58:47Z

I ran into that a lot with a previous revision of FTM 2012 for Windows. Solution was normally to completely quit the program and restart, it would clear itself. Assuming you've tried that (not just the red dot, but quitting as I described in the first post) - try restarting your computer completely, open FTM, click Logout in the Web Dashboard panel, then log back in to Ancestry (Login link will appear in the same spot). Also try File > Go Offline, then File > Go Online. Hopefully one of those steps will knock some sense into the sync process :p

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

ryanmarist — 2013-04-28 20:53:02Z

This is the plan page.

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

SWFranklin — 2013-04-28 17:14:07Z

What does the Plan page say in this area?

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

ryanmarist — 2013-04-28 13:32:22Z

It says it is up to date.

Re: Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

SWFranklin — 2013-04-28 12:54:18Z

Quit FTM completely (command-Q or "Family Tree Maker 2" menu > "Quit") and restart. Before opening your tree, run an FTM update ("Family Tree Maker 2" menu > "Check for Updates"). Then go ahead and open your tree and check the Plan page.

If you see "Not uploaded & linked" on the Plan page, then the tree has become unlinked & needs to be re-uploaded or re-downloaded.

Family tree maker for mac 2 problem can't find online tree

ryanmarist — 2013-04-28 04:06:15Z

I used Family tree maker for mac 2 as soon as it came out and it worked perfectly. I took a few months off of genealogy and now came back, but I synced it once maybe twice until it said it can't find online tree. It says it thinks it was deleted, but it is still online. I can't find out the problem. Has anybody else been having similar problems or know how to resolve it because it is really frustrating.

Re: Step siblings

davet651 — 2013-04-24 17:39:55Z

I am aware of the blended family button, and it does not really address my issue.

In a nutshell, if I have a person selected and choose the Relationships tab, all of the relationships EXCEPT SIBLINGS allows you to further define the relationship. Even if step siblings are properly identified with the parents, they show up as brother/sister with no further definition possible - at least not as far as I can see.

Re: Step siblings

lrq420 — 2013-04-24 11:04:03Z

The latest update to FTM for Mac has a new button that allows you to shows blended family. No documentation in the user guide. Not sure how that impacts your problem.

I have a problem with the FTM for MAC displays relationships. The program displays the most direct relationship, while it ignores common ancestors. So cousin marriages really fouls up the relationship display.

Re: Step siblings

SWFranklin — 2013-04-22 14:58:53Z

Personally, I don't codify step-children in my tree. It just confuses things in reports and charts, showing children twice (once as a biological child of the one parent, then again as a step-child of the other). So the way I've done it, there is no formal relationship between, say, my wife's daughter from her first marriage to me when looking at our tree.

If I attached her to me as a step-daughter, then I and my ancestors would show up in an ahnentafel report or pedigree chart, and she would show up on a descendant report for my ancestors.

I'm curious how other people deal with this, I'm not going to claim my way is the best - but it's what works for me.

Step siblings

davet651 — 2013-04-21 20:15:09Z

WARNING: I am a novice w/r/t FTM Mac2!

Step siblings are NOT shown properly on my FTM Mac2 tree, but are shown properly on my uploaded and synced tree on ancestry.com. If I go to the FTM Person page and the Relationship tab, all siblings show as direct, though the parents are properly listed Mother-Natural and Mother-Step. On ancestry.com, on the Person Profile - Show Siblings, all are correct.

Why? How can I fix it so that step siblings are shown properly on the FTM tree?

I suspect it has something to do with attach/detach a person, but my attempts at that created a mess such that I had to go back to a backup file to recover.

Thank you.

Re: constantly getting a "This program cannot display the webpage"

cliveledger1 — 2013-04-21 19:22:48Z

I have had same problem for weeks now. Tried Sean's trouble shooting tips but still have same issue.

Re: FTMM2 Migration to FTM

daciodan — 2013-04-21 13:57:22Z

I believe the migration tool in the Mac package is one way, FTM (PC versions) to FTMM.

Your best bet to migrate between the two programs and platforms is to use the Ancestry member tree program.

User seanfranklin explained this very well, simply reverse the process. Read his entire post in this thread here: http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.software.ftmmac/283/mb.ash...

Here's an excerpt:

"Frankly the simplest and most reliable method of migrating a tree with all its media from FTM2012 to FTM Mac 2 is to use Ancestry.com to do the migration. If the FTM2012 tree wasn't already synced to Ancestry, upload it (many people with FTM2012 are already using TreeSync so this step is done). Then unlink the tree at Ancestry.com, and download it to the Mac. Very simple, straightforward, and reliable.

It's not perfect. First, all your media is transiting your Internet connection twice - once up to Ancestry, then back down to the Mac. With a lot of media, and/or a slow Internet connection, this can take a long time. Also things like saved reports, custom short place names, research notes, and the like that aren't on the Ancestry version of the tree of course won't be on the new computer either. Given the extreme ease & reliability this method offers with the bulk of the data, though, this is a good trade-off for most users."

FTMM2 Migration to FTM

jedwin31001 — 2013-04-21 12:27:03Z

The migration from FTM Windows to FTM Mac work very well for me but, so far, I have never gotten a migration from Mac to Windows to work. It appears to go through all the steps but then the new file will not open. I get an error message that something was expected but was not in the file.

Re: Avoid FTM 2 for MAC

SWFranklin — 2013-04-20 00:25:16Z

The biggest benefit of FTM for Mac 2 is that it will synchronize your tree with Ancestry.com. I use FTM and am very happy with it.

I know a lot of Mac users also like Reunion 10. it looks like very nice software, some great features. If I weren't using Ancestry.com as heavily as I am (with many invited guests & contributors in the family) I'd think seriously about switching.

Re: Avoid FTM 2 for MAC

booka123 — 2013-04-19 22:56:18Z

WHAT SOFTWARE IS RECOMMENDED FOR Mac?????

Re: Avoid FTM 2 for MAC

SWFranklin — 2013-04-16 19:00:00Z

Definitely unfortunate that you had to go through that. Reconnecting media should not be necessary. I agree that Ancestry's guide on migrating data is cumbersome, presumably this is what you used:

http://ftm.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5313

Of course the utility can only run on a Windows computer, which can be cumbersome if the Windows machine is out of the picture - but it normally does the job OK. The real key though is that not only must the conversion be run on "A" Windows computer, it really must be run on a Windows computer with a working FTM tree with attached media. Suppose you had FTM2012 running on a Windows computer, and the computer died. You have backups of your files. You use a different Windows computer to restore the files, then run the conversion utility and move everything over to the Mac. Unlinked media files are almost sure to be a result.

Frankly the simplest and most reliable method of migrating a tree with all its media from FTM2012 to FTM Mac 2 is to use Ancestry.com to do the migration. If the FTM2012 tree wasn't already synced to Ancestry, upload it (many people with FTM2012 are already using TreeSync so this step is done). Then unlink the tree at Ancestry.com, and download it to the Mac. Very simple, straightforward, and reliable.

It's not perfect. First, all your media is transiting your Internet connection twice - once up to Ancestry, then back down to the Mac. With a lot of media, and/or a slow Internet connection, this can take a long time. Also things like saved reports, custom short place names, research notes, and the like that aren't on the Ancestry version of the tree of course won't be on the new computer either. Given the extreme ease & reliability this method offers with the bulk of the data, though, this is a good trade-off for most users.

I know that telephone agents have referred callers to Nova for Mac questions, which is incorrect. Nova handles the electronic downloads of all FTM products, so if there is an installation or purchase question regarding an electronic downloaded product, then Nova is the proper company to contact. The agents at 1-800-ANCESTRY should be able to handle any technical questions regarding the app, TreeSync, conversion, and so forth. I say "Should be able", I know very well that they often can't. Unfortunately many of their agents have no direct exposure to Mac systems, can't see or run the software, and are absolutely ill-suited to answer questions... and last I knew, there was no dedicated Mac support department or queue (which is desperately needed). Some of the agents, knowing that THEY don't know how to support it, give Nova's number because they just don't know what else to do.

Having extensive experience with both FTM2012 and FTM Mac 2, I will say that until the most recent update, FTM 2012 for Windows had substantial benefits. Since the latest Mac update (21.2.7.542 for CD-installed, version number may be slightly different for electronic downloads) that gap is considerably smaller. Every major feature, and the vast majority of minor features, that are present in FTM 2012 are now working in FTM Mac2. The two major drawbacks of FTM Mac2 vs. FTM 2012 Windows currently are that the Mac version costs more, and the majority of telephone support reps are clueless about it - if you go to http://ftm.custhelp.com you'll have every bit of knowledge that the average telephone rep does about the program.

Avoid FTM 2 for MAC

daniellecr — 2013-04-15 01:37:41Z

wow. Wish I had known. Have been with Ancestry for 10+ years. Actually checked to make sure they had a Mac version before I left the PC world. It has been one hideous debacle after another, and I feel like I am reasonably tech savy. Migration - there is no useful or uptodate info on migrating from PC (FTM 2012) to MAC (FTM 2). Several weeks later, figured it out (had to reconnect ALL 900+media by hand). Roughly a month ago there was a software update, which crashed my computer/tree/software. After MANY hours could not rectify, called ancestry, only to be informed that they don't handle FTM for MAC - an outside company does, NOVA. Fortunately for me, I have a job. Unfortunately, NOVA is only available during working hours. 5 weeks later, multiple emails later, I can't get them to respond. Call ancestry back - too bad. Not their problem. I can't access my tree, I have wasted money on the program, and almost 2 months of my annual subscription. Avoid, at all costs.

Avoid FTM 2 for MAC

daniellecr — 2013-04-15 01:37:39Z

I give up

patriciarohn — 2013-04-14 01:58:24Z

I've been having problems with FTM2 since New Year's Day of this year. I kept getting errors when syncing. So I unlinked my trees, deleted my FTM tree, downloaded my Ancestry tree and linked. Weeks later, I received more errors. So I repeated deleting, downloading and linking. In the meantime, I noticed the duplication of sources and individuals. I've been painstakingly trying to clean up my tree, media and sources.

Today, all was going well and then suddenly after a sync, it says that my FTM2 tree and my Ancestry tree is not linked at all. And I know that the solution will be to download my Ancestry tree and delete my FTM2 tree.

It just seems like all the problems stem from syncing. So I feel like I should just give up on keeping my trees in sync, and do it all "the old fashioned" way. It's a shame because tree sync would be a sweet feature, if it worked.

Re: Displaying the relationship between two individuals

lrq420 — 2013-04-13 11:27:26Z

I am not sure that the relationship was displayed in earlier FTM, especially the DOS version and early Windows versions. Certainly would like to know the definition of "Closest". I have cases where people with common ancestors are do not show up as cousins in the upper right on the Family tab.

As this large old tree was created on FTM DOS, converted from FTM for Windows to FTM for MAC and has been through all of the sync problems, I need to clean up this file. I use the relationship between the home person and person to determine if I should retain a person in my tree.

Re: Merges wrong census page!

SBos1950 — 2013-04-13 06:44:36Z

Hi, I'm merging UK 1901 census.