Family Tree Maker can't find your media files
Your photographs aren't stored inside your tree — Family Tree Maker only remembers where each one lives. When that path stops being true, you get "file not found". Open the Media workspace, choose , and relink them in bulk. It finds moved files, not renamed ones.
- Applies to
- FTM 2024 · 2019 · 2017 · 2014
- Platform
- Windows & Mac
- Time
- ~30 min
Your photographs have not been deleted.
This is the single most misunderstood thing in Family Tree Maker. The tree file contains names,
dates, sources — and for each photograph, only an address: a line saying "this picture is at
C:\Users\You\Pictures\grandad.jpg". Break that address and the software says the file is
missing. The photograph itself is untouched, still on your disk, waiting to be pointed at again.
What you're probably seeing
- A red "File not found" link at the bottom left of the media window.
- Grey boxes, blank rectangles or a broken-image icon where photographs used to be.
- Hundreds or thousands of items flagged as missing all at once.
- Media that vanished after moving your tree, changing computer, or restoring a backup.
- Photographs that display fine on Ancestry but not in Family Tree Maker.
- A sync that stalls, because it's trying to upload files it can no longer find.
What actually causes it
Every cause below amounts to the same thing: the address stored in the tree no longer matches reality. What differs is how it stopped matching — and that determines which fix will work.
| What happened | How many items break | Find Missing Media can fix it? | Go to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files moved to another folder | Some or all | Yes — this is exactly what it's for | Fix 2 |
| Tree moved without its media folder | All at once | Yes, usually | Fix 4 |
| Drive letter changed (external disk reconnected) |
All on that drive | Yes, usually | Fix 2 |
| Files renamed outside the program | Only the renamed ones | No — it matches on file name | Fix 5 |
| Files deleted | Only the deleted ones | No | Fix 5 |
| Cloud placeholder, not a real file (OneDrive Files On-Demand, iCloud Optimise Storage) |
Varies, comes and goes | No — nothing is there to find | Fix 6 |
| Restored a backup made without media | All at once | No — the files were never in the backup | Fix 5 |
If everything broke at once, that's the good outcome. It means one shared part of the path changed, so one correction repairs the whole library. A handful of scattered broken items is usually the harder job, because each one broke for its own reason.
Fix 1 — Confirm the files are still on the disk
Do this first Two minutes that decide everything else
Relinking and recovering are different jobs. Find out which one you're doing before you start.
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In Family Tree Maker, click a broken media item and note the path it expects — the folder and file name it's looking for.
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Open Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder and go looking for that file yourself, wherever it might be now.
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Read the result:
Fix 2 — Run the Find Missing Media tool
Fixes most cases Relink everything in one pass
Family Tree Maker has a tool that hunts down moved files and repairs every link at once. Most people never find it, because it doesn't live in the Tools menu where you'd expect — it's inside the Media workspace.
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Click the Media button on the main toolbar to open the Media workspace.
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Open the menu.
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A list appears of every item that can't be found at its recorded location. Tick the ones you want, or click Select All.
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Click Search and let it work. On a large library this takes a while — it's checking the disk for each file.
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Read the results. Anything found shows its new location in the Path column and a checkmark in the Status column. Confirm to relink them.
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Anything still unfound was renamed, deleted, or isn't really on the disk. Those go to Fix 5.
This is where most people give up — and they shouldn't. The tool matches on file name. If it finds nothing, that isn't a sign your photographs are gone; it's a sign they were renamed rather than moved. Different problem, different fix, still recoverable. Fix 5 covers it.
Fix 3 — Relink a single item by hand
For one-offs The File Not Found dialog
When only a few items are broken, or the bulk tool missed some, you can point each one at its file directly.
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Select the unlinked media item.
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Click the red File not found link at the bottom left of the window. A File Not Found window opens showing the location and name the file was last known by — useful in itself, because it tells you what you're hunting for.
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Choose "Let Family Tree Maker search for this file" and click OK. If it finds the file, it relinks it automatically.
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If that fails, reopen the dialog and choose "Manually search for this file", then browse to the file yourself. Use this when the file was renamed — you know it's the right picture even though the name no longer matches.
Fix 4 — Put the media folder back beside the tree
If everything broke at once Undo the move that caused it
Family Tree Maker keeps a Media folder in the same place as your tree file. Move one without the other and every link breaks in the same instant. Putting them back together is frequently faster and safer than relinking thousands of items.
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Find your tree file — normally — and look for a Media folder beside it.
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If the Media folder is somewhere else now, move it back next to the tree file. If the tree is what moved, consider moving it back instead.
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Reopen the tree and check the media. In many cases the links resolve on their own.
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If some are still broken, run Find Missing Media to mop up the remainder.
Fix 5 — Renamed or deleted files
The tool can't help here Four routes back
The Find Missing Media tool searches by file name. Rename a file and it becomes invisible to the tool, even though it's sitting right there. Delete it and there's nothing to find at all. Both are recoverable more often than people expect.
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Search the disk by size and date instead of name. The File Not Found dialog tells you the original name; sort your pictures folder by date taken or file size and the renamed file usually stands out. Relink it with manual search.
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Check the Recycle Bin or Trash. Obvious, frequently skipped, and it works surprisingly often.
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Restore a backup that included media. Only backups created with the include-media option ticked contain your photographs — see restoring from a backup.
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Download them back from Ancestry. If you'd synced before the loss, images uploaded to your online tree can be saved back down. This is the route that rescues people who have no local backup at all.
Fix 6 — Cloud placeholders pretending to be files
Modern cause, rarely diagnosed Make the files real again
OneDrive's Files On-Demand and iCloud's Optimise Storage save disk space by leaving a small placeholder where a file used to be and fetching the real thing only when something opens it. Family Tree Maker often can't trigger that fetch, so it reports the file as missing — and the file looks present in Explorer, which makes this maddening to diagnose.
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Look for cloud status icons next to your image files. A cloud outline means placeholder; a solid tick or green circle means the file is genuinely on the disk.
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Right-click your media folder and choose the option to always keep on this device. In iCloud, turn off Optimise Storage for that folder.
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Wait for the download to finish — the whole folder, not just what's visible.
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Better still, move the media folder out of the cloud-synced area entirely and keep it on the local drive next to your tree. Keep the cloud for backups.
The trap that catches people out: a cloud backup of the tree file is not a backup of your photographs.
Automatic cloud backups capture the .ftmb file, and unless media was included when that
backup was made, your images aren't in it. People discover this at the worst possible moment — the
tree restores perfectly and every picture is missing. Back up the media folder separately
to the cloud, and keep the working copy local.
This isn't a rare edge case — broken media links after storing a tree in Dropbox or OneDrive are widely reported by users on those services' own support forums. The same folders are also a leading cause of tree file damage, for related reasons.
If none of these worked
Thousands of broken links with no backup and no Ancestry copy is a genuinely difficult position, but rarely a hopeless one. Two honest options:
- Go to the publisher. Software MacKiev publishes Family Tree Maker and documents the media tools for each version, on both platforms.
- Or have someone do the bulk work with you. Repairing several thousand links is a pattern-matching job. Done properly it's one session; done by hand, one item at a time, it's weeks.
Thousands of broken photo links?
We relink media libraries in bulk and put the folder structure right so it doesn't happen again. If we can't reconnect them, you don't pay.
Stopping it happening again
- One media folder, beside the tree file. Not the desktop, not Downloads, not scattered across five picture folders.
- Never rename or reorganise image files outside Family Tree Maker once they're attached. Do it in the software, or accept the relinking work.
- Keep media off cloud-sync folders. Local drive for working files, cloud for backups.
- Always tick "include media" when you back up. A backup without it protects your names and dates and none of your photographs.
- Move house properly. To change computer, restore a backup made with media included, rather than copying the tree file on its own.
- Sync after relinking, so Ancestry and your local copy agree again.
Frequently asked questions
Are my photos actually deleted when Family Tree Maker says media is missing?
Almost never. Family Tree Maker doesn't store photographs inside the tree file — it stores the location of each one and displays it from there. "Missing" means the stored location no longer matches where the file is. The photograph is usually exactly where you left it.
Why did all my media break at once?
Because every link shared the same broken piece of path. Moving the tree without its media folder, changing a drive letter, renaming a parent folder, or restoring onto a new computer breaks them all simultaneously. That's good news — one correction usually repairs the lot.
Why can't the Find Missing Media tool find my files?
Where should I keep my media folder?
One folder, beside the tree file, on a local drive. Family Tree Maker puts a Media folder there by default. Keeping everything together means moving your research later breaks nothing — scattering images across the desktop and Downloads is what causes most of these problems.
Will relinking media affect my Ancestry tree?
Relinking corrects the local path only and doesn't change what's already on Ancestry. Once the links are repaired, run a sync so both copies agree — anything that failed to upload while unlinked will go up then.
Does a Family Tree Maker backup include my photographs?
Only if you tick the include-media option, and it isn't ticked for you. A backup made without it contains names, dates and sources but not one photograph — which people tend to discover at the worst possible moment. See how to back up properly.
Can I move my tree to a new computer without breaking the media?
Yes — move the tree file and its media folder together, keeping the same arrangement. The safest route is a backup created with include-media ticked and restored on the new machine, because that rebuilds both sides of the link at once.