Family Tree Maker photos not showing
If the photograph opens fine in the Media workspace but won't appear on a person's profile, the link isn't broken — nothing needs relinking. Family Tree Maker shows one image per person, their portrait (also called the primary photo), and attaching a picture does not make it the portrait. You have to assign it. That one step explains most empty silhouettes.
- Applies to
- FTM 2024 · 2019 · 2017 · 2014
- Platform
- Windows & Mac
- Time
- ~25 min
Seeing a red "file not found" warning instead? That's a different problem — the picture has moved and the link needs repairing. Go to missing media files and how to relink them. This page is for photographs that are correctly attached and still refuse to appear.
What you're probably seeing
- An empty portrait frame on someone's profile, though photos are attached to them.
- Pictures visible in the Media workspace but absent from charts and reports.
- A grey or blank rectangle where a scanned document should preview.
- Photos present in Family Tree Maker but not on your Ancestry tree after syncing.
- One chart shows pictures and another, built from the same tree, doesn't.
- An image that displays perfectly in Windows Photos or Preview, but not in FTM.
What actually causes it
These causes have nothing to do with broken links, which is why running the media repair tools achieves nothing and sends people round in circles. Match your symptom to the row below.
| Where it's missing | Most likely cause | Is the link broken? | Go to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Person's profile only | No portrait assigned | No | Fix 2 |
| Charts and reports | Images not enabled on that chart | No | Fix 3 |
| Everywhere, one file only | Unsupported or damaged image format | No | Fix 4 |
| Preview is grey or blank | Scan too large to render | No | Fix 4 |
| On Ancestry, not locally | Sync never completed the media stage | No | Fix 5 |
| Everywhere, with a red warning | The file moved or was renamed | Yes | Relinking guide |
Fix 1 — Separate a display problem from a broken link
Do this first Thirty seconds, saves an hour
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Open the Media workspace and find the photograph you're missing.
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Look at the item itself:
- It displays normally here → the link is fine. The problem is a display setting. Carry on down this page.
- A red "file not found" warning → the link is broken. Stop, and use the relinking guide instead.
Fix 2 — Assign the person's portrait
Fixes most cases Attaching a photo doesn't make it the portrait
Family Tree Maker shows exactly one photograph per person on their profile, in the pedigree view and in charts — their portrait, which the software also calls the primary photo. Attaching an image to someone does not promote it to that slot. So a person can have twenty photographs attached and still show the blank grey silhouette. It's the most common reason for "my photos aren't showing", and it isn't a fault at all.
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Open the person whose photograph is missing so their editing panel is showing.
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Right-click the silhouette — or the current portrait, if you're replacing one.
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Choose Link to Existing Picture.
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Find the image you want, select it, and click Open. It becomes the portrait immediately, and follows that person into charts and reports.
Two things worth knowing. There's an auto-crop feature that pulls a usable head-and-shoulders portrait out of a group photograph, which saves editing a copy by hand. And changing someone's portrait changes it everywhere — you can't have one face in a wall chart and a different one on screen.
Fix 2b — When the portrait still won't appear
Reported by users The Ancestry round-trip
A smaller group of people assign the portrait correctly and it still doesn't render — the silhouette stays put, or a stale thumbnail persists. This comes up repeatedly in user groups, and the workaround people land on is to set the picture on the other side and let the sync carry it back.
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Open your tree on Ancestry in a web browser and go to the same person.
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Set the image you want as their profile picture there.
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Return to Family Tree Maker and run a sync. The portrait usually comes back down correctly.
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If a stale thumbnail is the problem rather than a missing one, closing and reopening the tree forces the media previews to be rebuilt.
Fix 3 — Turn images on in the chart itself
Per chart, not global Why one chart has photos and another doesn't
Including photographs is a setting on each individual chart and report, not a preference for the whole program. Turn it on for one chart and every other chart you've already built stays exactly as it was. That inconsistency is what convinces people something is broken.
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Open the chart or report where the pictures are missing.
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Open that chart's own settings or options panel — usually alongside the chart rather than in the main menus.
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Enable the option to include images or include portraits, then regenerate the chart.
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If images are on but some people still have no picture, those individuals have no portrait assigned. The two settings work together — both must be right.
Fix 4 — Unsupported formats and oversized scans
Modern cause The iPhone photo problem
Family Tree Maker handles the long-established image formats well. Where it struggles is with newer camera formats and enormous archival scans — and both are increasingly common as people photograph documents on a phone and scan at ever higher resolutions.
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Check the file extension of the image that won't display. HEIC files, which recent iPhones produce by default, are the usual offender — they often appear blank or grey rather than as an image.
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Convert the file to JPEG. On iPhone you can also change the camera setting to capture in a more compatible format from the start, which prevents the problem recurring.
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For very large scans — multi-page or high-resolution TIFF files especially — save a reduced copy at around 300 dpi as a JPEG. That's ample for genealogy and displays without trouble.
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Attach the converted copy in place of the original, and archive the master scan elsewhere. You keep the archival quality; the tree gets a file it can actually render.
Oversized media is also a leading cause of syncs that stall at the same percentage every time — see when Family Tree Maker won't sync. Fixing the images fixes both problems at once.
Fix 5 — Photos that won't reach Ancestry
Sync-related Present locally, absent online
Photographs only reach your online tree through a completed sync. If the sync stopped partway — and the media stage runs late in the process — the names and dates arrive while the pictures don't.
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Confirm the images were attached before your last sync. Anything added since simply hasn't been uploaded yet.
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Check the sync actually finished rather than being closed while it was still running.
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Look for oversized images. One enormous file can stall the media stage indefinitely — reduce it as in Fix 4.
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Run the sync again and let it complete fully, then check a few people on Ancestry to confirm.
If none of these worked
A photograph that opens elsewhere, is in a supported format, is marked preferred, and still refuses to display points at the tree file rather than the image. Two honest options:
- Try the file repair routine. A damaged media index can produce exactly this — see repairing a corrupted tree file.
- Go to the publisher. The publisher documents the media tools for each version and platform, and runs a free support centre.
Photos still not appearing?
We'll go through the media settings with you on a screen-share and set the portraits up properly across the whole tree. If we can't fix it, you don't pay.
Stopping it happening again
- Assign the portrait as you attach photos, not months later when a chart comes out blank.
- Save phone photographs as JPEG rather than HEIC, especially anything destined for the tree.
- Attach a 300 dpi working copy and archive the master scan elsewhere.
- Build a test chart occasionally with images on, to catch people missing a portrait.
- Let syncs finish. The media stage runs last, so an interrupted sync loses pictures first.
- Keep media in one folder beside the tree — see the relinking guide for why this prevents most media trouble.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no photo on a person's profile when I have attached one?
Because Family Tree Maker shows one image per person — their portrait — and attaching a photograph doesn't promote it to that slot. Someone can have twenty images attached and still show the blank silhouette. Fix 2 covers the exact steps.
Why do my photos show in Family Tree Maker but not in my charts?
Including images is a setting on each chart and report, not a global preference. A chart built before you enabled it won't gain pictures on its own — open that chart's settings, turn images on, and regenerate it.
Which image formats does Family Tree Maker display?
The long-established formats — JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF — display reliably. Newer camera formats can be a problem, particularly HEIC from recent iPhones, which often shows as blank or grey. Convert those to JPEG and reattach.
Why did my photos disappear after syncing with Ancestry?
A sync doesn't delete photographs, but an interrupted one can leave the media stage incomplete, so images land on one side and not the other. Check the sync finished, then run it again. Oversized images are the usual reason it stalls.
Why are my scanned documents blank or grey?
Very large scans — multi-page or high-resolution TIFFs especially — can exceed what the preview will render even though the file is perfectly valid. Attach a 300 dpi JPEG copy and archive the master elsewhere. It fixes the display and helps sync at the same time.
Can I set a different photo for the same person in different charts?
No. Charts use the person's portrait, so changing which image appears means changing it for that person everywhere. Worth knowing before you rearrange a large tree to suit one chart.