Missing pictures in Legacy 7.5 and earlier could be a real problem, especially if pictures were kept in different folders. If you have Legacy 8, finding missing pictures/media is easy. Click Here for more information.
Background: Legacy Family Tree does not embed multimedia files (picture, sound, video and document files) in the family file. Rather, Legacy only stores the path locations from which you load multimedia files (picture, sound, and video files) and the picture file names.
When multimedia files, like pictures, can't be found, you will see a large “ ? “ in the Picture Gallery, or when you make a multimedia backup you get a list of missing pictures. This means the pictures or videos, etc. were deleted, renamed, moved to another location, and now Legacy does not know where to find them (for example, pictures on a memory stick were attached to Legacy and then the memory stick was removed from the computer).
Where there is a “ ? “ in the Picture Gallery, the pictures will have to be re-attached. When you open the Picture Gallery with a missing picture the Find File screen will open. Click the Have Legacy Search for the file button.
Legacy will then start searching for the missing picture or missing media file.
If it finds the picture, you will see the following box. Simply click the Yes and the picture will be relinked. The good news is that any other missing pictures in this same location will automatically reappear as this directory is added to the list of media paths for Legacy to look in.
If Legacy does not find the missing picture, it will have to be manually reattached. The hardest thing is how to browse into the folder where their pictures are saved. Browsing to the pictures is done in the Load Picture window that is reached by clicking the Picture button in the Picture Gallery. To change to a different drive, click the down arrow on the drive box at the very bottom of the Load Picture screen and select it.
Once you are in the right drive, start browsing at the top folder of the vertical “directory tree” and double click on it. Next go to the subfolder below and double click on it. For example if you are browsing to images in the Legacy’s Picture subfolder, first double click on C:\ at the top, next double click the Legacy folder under it, and then double click on the Pictures folder under the Legacy folder.
If you pictures are saved in your Documents folder, you can jump right to it by clicking the My Documents button.
To reach the Check All Picture, Sound, Video, and Document Locations window, click Options on the menu bar, then select Customize and click on the Locations tab and then click the Test All Multimedia Paths… button.
Legacy then tests to see if each picture exists. The bright news is that once Legacy finds one missing picture, it automatically finds all of the other pictures saved in the same folder or directory.
If a multimedia file cannot be found within the current list of paths, you are given the opportunity to find it yourself or to delete the reference. (If you delete the reference, all record of it is completely gone. I don't recommend this option.)
• First, uncheck the box for 'Unlink unreferenced pictures, sound, video and document paths'.
• Next, Check the box for 'Make List of all missing multimedia files'.
• Last, click the Proceed button.
When prompted, click Yes to view the list of missing multimedia files and print it. Examine the list and copy the picture filename. The filename appears after the last slash ( \ ) in the location path. (For example, if the complete path is C:\Legacy\Pictures\JohnSmithBabyPicture.jpg, the picture filename is only the last part JohnSmithBabyPicture.jpg.)
Do a window's Search for the missing file. Click on the Start button in the lower left corner of the desktop screen and go to Search. Enter or paste the filename and click Search. Click the F1 function key on your keyboard for Window’s guidance on this subject. If the picture is found, make note of its location.
In Legacy go to the person missing the picture and open his/her Picture Gallery and re-add the picture from the location that you found in the Search. Keep in mind that once you re-add one picture, all other pictures in that same folder will automatically re-appear. This simplifies the process. Repeat these steps for the other missing pictures in the list that you printed. If a window's Search fails to find a picture, it will have to be either copied from another computer or scanned again.
