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Effects of Synchronisation Failure in FTM 2012

I have recently had several failures of synchronisation and that has been picked up by the Ancestry.com team who are addressing the issue.

This had led me to the realisation that failure is eventually inevitable, even in the most well constructed systems, and to consider what good practice might be in order to preserve the many hours of work represented by synchronised family trees.

It seems that when synchronisation fails there is currently no information as to why that occurrs or any way to address the problem of relinking other than to either upload the Family Tree Maker version to Ancestry.com or to download the Ancestry.com version and relink. As the versions are different that leads to information loss. For instance, if the FTM version is used the links to other trees are lost or, if the web version is downloaded tasks are lost as is any organisation of media into sub folders. There are many other implications.

If I have any of the foregoing wrong, then I'd like to understand what is the actual situation.

I have currently opted for downloading the web version (partly because it is faster given that my download speed is much higher than my upload speed) but this had led to many problems. The most urgent one is that the behaviour of downloading seems to differ each time. The last but one download automatically included all the Ancestry source material (copies of census forms etc) whereas the last one only included my own media (photos, etc). Given that I consider it important that I have copies of all source material available locally and properly linked to FTM, the last download is less than satisfactory.

The purpose of this message is not necessarily to address any particular issue but to point out that there are problems and to find out if others see similar problems and are wishing to discuss them with a view to them being addressed by Ancestry.com and to determine what are the considerations relative to good practice in the real world of occasional system failure. I appreciate that I am new here and that the matters may have been addressed elsewhere. If so then can somebody point me in the right direction?

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Permalink Reply by John on December 3, 2011 at 2:40pm

Ahh Russ - I've just realised the import of what you are saying!

So, it might go like this:

1. Synch failure

2. Download Ancestry.com version

3. Backup new version and old failed version

3. Merge old failed version into newly downloaded version

4. All data recovered including tasks (and any missing media not downloaded in place?)

5 Get on with research.

Does that make sense?

I have been wary of merging files as it has always seemed to me to be potentially to be a way of creating a really messy situation but with backups it should be possible to recover.

John

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on December 3, 2011 at 2:47pm

John,

As long as I have been using the TreeSync feature, on a number of trees, I haven't had a Sync Failure that wasn't resolved by restarting FTM2012 or the computer, and running the Compact file routine. Guess I am lucky.

The only issue that you may have with Merging files is the Duplication that MAY happen in a Persons Note Field (People Workspace, Person View, Notes tab).

Russ

Permalink Reply by John on December 9, 2011 at 10:50pm

Hi Russ,

I've had another synch failure! This is getting too frustrating.

I added a census result to a member of my tree at Ancestry and then did a synch. I got the following message:

`Synch Error

An error occurred while synchronizing this tree. You can try again later, but if this message recurs, you may need to unlink your trees and upload a new linked tree from Family Tree Maker.'

Even though I had very recently compacted my file I did that again with the same result on synch. So I rebooted and tried again. The indication was that the trees were in synch but actually they wern't as the census results, while they were still in the Ancestry version were missing from the FTM version. So I made an addition to the description on the Ancestry version was offered and accepted a synch. Same error message.

At the moment there is an exclamation mark in the synch button of FTM and if I click on it I get a message that the trees are in synch.

So even though I've updated FTM there is still a problem - any thoughts?

Presumably the developers at Ancestry see these messages - they would be welcome to test on my tree as this fault seems repeatable.

John

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on December 9, 2011 at 11:09pm

John,

The developers do NOT do not monitor message boards. Broad statement but true.

Please provide feedback to the developers by clicking on Help, within Family Tree Maker, the Online Help Center, and click on the Enhancement Request link.

http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/ask_feedback.php

OR, using the Help Menu, Online Help Center, use the Contact Us and create an Incident Report.

Russ

Permalink Reply by John on January 10, 2012 at 2:16pm

Hi Russ,

Despite installing the new version and frequent compacts I had another sync failure at the weekend. I've been through several cycles of reboot, compact and attempted sync without success since then. I have advised the FTM people and am awaiting a response.

This is getting so frustrating that I am doing all of my work on-line and syncing with FTM only as a backup - not quite what the developers envisaged I'm sure. I think I will need a considerable period of stability before I could trust the system sufficiently to do substantial work off-line and expect a trouble free sync.

I do hope the developers get it sorted soon.

John

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on January 10, 2012 at 2:53pm

John,

I am sorry that you are having these issues. I worked on ALL of my FTM2012 files, and many of them Test Files, and I did NOT run into one issue. I was linking, unlinking, deleting, uploading, downloading, all of my files trying to make sure all of my test files were backed up, and archived, and files removed from Ancestry.com. I didn't have one issue.

I know that doesn't help you, but FTM2012 works as it should, as expected, for most, but not all. I am sorry that you are one of them.

How did you contact the FTM folks? Who, how, and what was their response?

Russ

Permalink Reply by John on January 10, 2012 at 4:44pm

Russ,

On Monday I replied to a previous incident report response on the same subject quoting the original incident number [Incident: 111114-000309]. I have deferred downloading again in case they want to see the original data. So far there has been no response.

Unfortunately there is no information as to the cause of the failure in the error message received on failure. If there was something it might be easier to find the cause.

My original data uploaded to Ancestry was from a GEDCOM file generated by Legacy. There were quite a few problems in that data but I sorted out what I could find prior to receipt of my copy of FTM that I am now using. I wonder if there is some peculiarity remaining in the data that is causing the problem.

John

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on January 10, 2012 at 4:51pm

John,

Don't let that IR expire, Check it and update it every couple of days, if you don't get a response.

What happens if you open that Legacy GEDCOM file in FTM2012? Especially look at the Eifor Report or .LOG file if there are errors.

Then do an Upload hid Link to this new file.

Russ

Permalink Reply by John on January 10, 2012 at 6:55pm

Thanks Russ,

I will keep following up.

The original GEDCOM file has gone now (the creation was mid last year and things have moved on somewhat since then). But I created a new one from Legacy and loaded it into FTM. There were 39 errors in the log mostly related to `Invalid tag' and the associated line was ignored. The others were `Unknown relationship' and again the line was ignored.

I imagine that, since the erroneous data was ignored it would have no effect in FTM.

John

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on January 10, 2012 at 8:35pm

John,

Have you tried to upload and link on this new file?

Russ

Permalink Reply by John on January 11, 2012 at 7:03pm

Hi Russ,

Yes I have now done that and all seems OK and sync works. However this tree is now about a year out of date and supersceeded by the one which is experiencing sync errors. It is probably not practicable to do more than a few test changes but I will and let you know the result.

John

Permalink Reply by John on January 12, 2012 at 12:19am

Hi again Russ,

My previous message was sent before all media files were updated. This has now been done except for 2 media files that failed because of a `process error' - whatever that means. Possibly it could not find two files because they no longer exist where they did 1 year ago.

Test updates of my on-line test file seem to work OK but then they do also for my main file until eventually a sync failure occurs.I'm not sure if it is worth persuing further testing in this way but I would be pleased to accept any suggestions.

Effects of Synchronisation Failure in FTM 2012

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