Problem with merging
I did a merge on each of two people (a couple). One of these merges was a Research Help Hint, and one was Merge by ID.
When I finished, only the Memories (.jpg files) from the right side of the merge page came through. The others were missing in Memories and, yes, they were tagged. The Sources I made from these Memories came through the merge okay.
This is bad! I wonder how many other images I have lost and didn't realize it.
Comments
-
I am so sorry!
I tried this scenario myself. When I merged the individual, however, I had the memories merge as well. So I'm not sure why you are experiencing this situation. Again, let me check some of my sources and see what might be behind this.
In the meantime, there is a Knowledge Article that says what is supposed to happen with Memories and Merges. . . What happens to memories when Family Tree records are merged?
0 -
I agree this goes against all of my past experiences with memories.
Have you gone in since and seen if the memories are back?
The one thing that I could imagine is some sort of caching issue whereby the items were not really deleted - but temporarily could have appeared as if they were deleted due to caching.
but as soon as you refreshed the page that should have fixed itself.
Memories have always merged when I have done a merge.
Maybe see if you can upload some "dummy" images and see if you can replicate it.
For engineers to fix any bugs they are going to want something that can be replicated.
so I would try to see if this can be replicated using some dummy memories items
Bugs that cant be consistently replicated and are intermittent - are very hard for engineers to detect and fix.
But I have done extensive work in FS memories and have never seen this - so I dont think it is widespread.0 -
After reading the article I think this may be what is happening:
I put a .jpg file into the Memories section of Person A. I tag Person A, then I tag Person B and Person C in that same file. That puts the Memory in their records too.
But, if I merge Person B with Person D, the tag is no longer correct, so the Memory does not show up in Person D's record. (It would still be in A's record where I originally put it.)
Could this be the problem? The records where my Memories disappeared were records where the Memories got there by tagging.
0 -
what do you mean by "no longer correct"
If B and D both have memories items - a merge should (after the merge) now have the combination of both of their memories items. or if only one had memories items - those should still be there after the merge - thats the whole point of the merge.
whom you first uploaded the item to should not matter.And for anyone who is ever tagged in a photo - such photo will then show up in that persons memories tab - even if you uploaded the item (first) to some other person. all people tagged in a photo at any point - have the item in their memories tab.
0 -
I mean that the name I originally tagged the image with (eg. Johann Georg Ahrens) is not the name of the resulting person after the merge (eg. Johann Georg Wilhelm Ahrens).
In the article linked by Amber, it says:
- "Check each tagged item that you added in Memories. Be sure that all items are attached to the surviving ID number.
- If the Memories tab for a person is empty or the portrait is missing, reattach the tag to the current ID."
I'm wondering if this (now) incorrect tag is the problem. (Just my best guess.)
0 -
that is an interesting comment in the article - - as if there is indeed some sort of scenario where by the tag ends up broken . .
but I have always been told the tag name and the person name do NOT need match to work.0 -
Since it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the above thread, I presume you know you can (and did) an "unmerge" to revert to the pre-merge condition. Nothing should have been lost if you did that. Hopefully, that's already been done, however, until a fix can be found by engineers.
The only concern about that is an older post in the Community that says unmerges can't be done if there have been changes to either or both of the persons subsequent to the unmerge. I can't find anything (so far) that states that's been fixed. My presumption is that any post-merge changes would have to also be undone first, before attempting to complete the unmerge.
(SO glad I learned enough about programming decades ago that the issues make sense to me, but also very glad I did not pursue programming as a profession!) 😉
—Chris
0 -
That would be interesting to see if an un-merge brought some memories item deleted back.
I mean thats obviously the intent of an unmerge -to bring it back to the previous state - and indeed may work .
But if the original merge - encountered a bug - its quite possible the unmerge will not always work because its a situation not coded for (the bug may have prevented necessary code from being executed and saving the copy). (if it truly did delete it may not be able to undelete) - though I have doubts that it actually deleted the item - rather merely that it simply got disconnected.1 -
I didn't do an unmerge. I had the original images and I just put them into Memories again so I don't know what would have happened. (I had made other changes before discovering the problem.)
I agree with you Dennis. I think the item is still out there, but not connected in the right place. I'm hoping (as another former programmer myself) that it won't be a difficult fix.
0 -
I'm sure the memories still exist. I did some investigation.
It looks like GRG5-LFK, GRLS-TPM, and GRXV-JMW were all the same person and they were merged together. GRXV-JMW is the current PID. According to the change logs, each of these Person IDs (PIDs) had one photo attached. All three of these photos are now attached to GRXV-JMW.
There was a 4th image that was only attached to his wife and his son. Since father and son shared the same name, I imagine this may be were the confusion came in. I added a tag for the father, since they are all mentioned in the son's birth record.Did you upload other images? If so, they will be searchable within your Gallery.
Merges cannot delete Memories, so you don't need to worry about that happening.
Memories you upload will all remain in your Gallery (or your Archive, if you moved them there). If someone else uploaded the memory, you can use the "Find" page (under the memory tab) to search for the Memory. However, others can always delete a memory, if they were the one who uploaded it.
Today, Memories are also backed up, so if you need further assistance, please let us know.1
