Free Family Tree Maker support guides

Family Tree Maker problems, and how to fix them

Every guide below is free, written in plain English, and shows the exact menu path to click. Start by describing what you're seeing — or browse by symptom underneath.

Before you try anything: make a backup. Almost every problem below is recoverable — and almost every one gets harder if you start changing things without a copy of the file first. It takes about thirty seconds. Here's how.

Most read this month

01 Family Tree Maker won't sync

Five fixes for a sync that hangs, stalls or fails — starting with the one that solves it most often.

02 My tree has disappeared

Six places to look, in order. Most people find their file in the first two.

03 How to back up properly

The thirty seconds that prevents almost everything else on this page.

Syncing with Ancestry

5 guides

The most common category by a distance. Sync problems look alarming but almost never mean data loss.

Family Tree Maker won't sync Most read

The sync wheel spins forever, or stops partway with an error. Usually a stale link between FTM and Ancestry.

FTM 2024·2019·201725 min TreeVault isn't backing up

TreeVault is a separate paid service from Ancestry sync — and the two get confused constantly.

FTM 2024·201915 min

Lost, damaged or missing files

5 guides

The frightening ones. In the overwhelming majority of cases the data is still sitting on the drive.

My tree has disappeared Most read

Opens empty, or missing from the list entirely. Six places to look, in order of likelihood.

All versions20 min The file is damaged or corrupted

FTM reports a problem it can't repair itself. There's a built-in routine most people never find.

All versions30 min Compact and repair a tree file

Twice-yearly maintenance that prevents slow decay, stalled syncs and mysterious crashes.

All versions15 min How to back up properly

Including the media checkbox almost everybody misses, and where the backup should actually live.

All versions5 min Restore from a backup

How to restore without overwriting the file you might still need, and how to check it worked.

All versions15 min

Photos and media

2 guides

Broken image links are almost always a path problem, not a lost-file problem.

Missing media files

Your images are still on the computer — FTM has just lost the path after a move or rename.

All versions20 min Photos not displaying

Thumbnails blank or grey even though the file opens fine elsewhere. Usually a format or cache issue.

All versions10 min

The program itself

3 guides

Crashes, freezes and startup failures — usually an OS update the software hasn't caught up with.

Family Tree Maker won't open

Nothing happens on launch, or it closes immediately. Usually a failed update or an OS version gap.

macOS Sonoma+ · Win 1125 min Very slow with a large tree

Ten thousand people and everything crawls. What actually helps, and what makes no difference.

All versions20 min

Installing and signing in

5 guides

Getting the software onto the machine — and proving you already bought it.

Installation error codes

The common codes decoded, with the fix for each rather than a generic "try again".

All versions20 min Ancestry login not working

Rejected credentials, or endless sign-in prompts that never stick between sessions.

All versions15 min

Tidying up your tree

3 guides

Duplicates, relationships and printing — the everyday friction of a tree that's been going for years.

The same person appears twice

Find every duplicate and merge safely — without losing sources or attached media in the process.

All versions30 min Using the Managing Relationships tool

Adopted, step, foster and biological links — recording them correctly so charts come out right.

FTM 2024·2019·201715 min Charts won't print correctly

Cut off at the edges, blank pages, or a poster that won't fit. Layout settings that actually matter.

All versions20 min

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