Answers to the questions people ask most often about opening files, privacy, and what the app can and cannot do.
GED-VIEW opens these files:
Every one of these types can be written as well (GEDCOM as 5.5.1, 5.5.5 or 7; older versions are read only): the Convert tool, part of Pro, turns any of them into any other, plain or for a particular program, with the media packed into a GEDZIP or a zip; see the conversion guide. If a program saved a .rmgc, .ftm, .ftb or similar, that is the program's own database, not a file GED-VIEW reads. Open it in that program and export a GEDCOM first. See the export guides.
Yes. Open a .gdz or .zip the same way as a .ged: pick it or drop it onto the page. The family file inside opens and the photos in the archive appear at once, with no folder to connect. The family file is saved in your browser like any other import; the archive's media stays for the current session only, so open the archive again next time to see the pictures. The GEDZIP guide explains the format.
Most often it is one of four things: it is not actually a GEDCOM, it is missing the last line, the character encoding is wrong, or the file is damaged. The checklist guide walks through each, and Tools > Repair file fixes the common ones (a missing header or trailer, lines that are not GEDCOM, garbled text) into a new file.
Character encoding. The program that wrote the file used one encoding and declared another. GED-VIEW reads UTF-8, UTF-16, ANSEL and the older one-byte encodings (the Windows code pages for Western and Central Europe, Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish and Baltic, the DOS ones and Mac Roman), and when a file only says ANSI it picks the one whose names read like real words, telling you when it had to guess so you can choose another. Tools > Repair file can read it again in any of them, and undo text that was saved with the wrong character set (Müller back to Müller), into a new file. The garbled characters guide shows how.
Files with tens of thousands of people open fine; the current limit is 50,000 individuals per file. Very large files take longer to parse, and some views show items in batches so the browser stays responsive.
Yes, reading and writing. Every GEDCOM 7 structure is read, shared notes and the archive's own media included, and Convert, part of Pro, writes GEDCOM 7 or 5.5.1 from any file (see the question on converting further down). The version guide covers what changed.
No. The file is read by your browser on your own computer. Nothing about your tree is sent to any server. The privacy guide explains how to check this yourself.
Some things, on your device only, using the browser's own storage (localStorage and IndexedDB): preferences like theme, language and tree style, pinned and hidden items, and anything you choose to keep under Saved Data, including saved files and recent exports. Every file you open is kept there so the tree is back on your next visit, until you delete it; entries on the Exports page are kept for 14 days. It never leaves your browser and you can clear it at any time from Saved Data or from your browser settings.
It is not built for it. GED-VIEW loads parts of the app as you open them, so a page you have not visited yet needs a connection. That has nothing to do with your file, which is never sent anywhere either way.
No. No cookies, no advertisements, no third-party scripts and no tracking services; no third party gets any information from this site.
Nothing from your tree. Your file, your photos and everything in them never reach a server. What you type into the support form, the review form or the updates signup form is kept as long as needed to reply, publish a review you agreed to, or send updates you asked for. Details are in the Terms of Use.
No. No AI service or model reads your file, your tree or your photos, here or anywhere else. Every view, chart, report and tool is ordinary code running in your browser.
Yes. Tools > Anonymize makes a copy in which every name, place, note and identifier is a placeholder and every date is a year, while the links, the event kinds and the record IDs stay, so the problem is still in the file and nobody is. The Anonymize guide lists what goes and what stays.
GED-VIEW is built and maintained entirely by Aleksej, a programmer with four years in the finance industry. He has been building it since November 2024, after gathering the family history from his dad and turning his own Serbian family tree into a GEDCOM with Gramps. He wanted a way to share it that did not require every relative to make an account and set things up, so he built his own site, and made it dynamic and modular enough to handle any GEDCOM as practice for sharpening his skills. Before long it had grown into a full website anyone can use. He is proud of how far it has come.
Because a GEDCOM file does not contain photos. It contains the file names of photos that lived on the computer that made the export. GED-VIEW can show them if you point it at the folder they are in. See why photos are missing and the media folder guide.
Open the file menu in the header and click Connect media folder, then choose the folder your photos live in. GED-VIEW matches files by name to the references in your GEDCOM. The media folder guide has the details.
No. The browser reads them from your disk to display them. If the browser asks whether to copy files, that is copying into the browser's own cache on your computer, not to a server.
In current Chrome and Edge, GED-VIEW reconnects the folder you used last time, automatically or with one click on Reconnect media folder. Other browsers ask you to pick it again each session.
Yes. Turn on Edit in the header and every page edits in place: people, families, events, notes, sources, media and places, with Undo, a list of the changes, and a draft kept in your browser until you download the result as a new file or save it to your file. Editing is part of Pro. The tools under the Tools menu change the file in bulk instead (Convert, Merge trees, Split tree, Remove branch, Find duplicates, Privatize living people, Repair file, Standardize places and dates, Anonymize), always into a new file that you review first, and the File editor (File > File editor), also part of Pro, edits the file's own text directly.
Never. Every tool (Convert, Merge trees, Split tree, Remove branch, Compare files, Find duplicates, Privatize living people, Repair file, Standardize places and dates, Anonymize) shows a review of what would change, then makes a new file: download it, open it in the app next to your other files, or preview it first, with every page coloring what goes red, what changes amber and what is new green, and Accept in the file menu to save it. The file you opened stays exactly as it was.
Yes. Tools > Convert, part of Pro, rewrites the open file as GEDCOM 5.5.1, 5.5.5 or 7, plain or with the tags a program expects (Ancestry, MyHeritage, Family Tree Maker, FamilySearch, Reunion, Gramps, RootsMagic, Legacy, Geni, The Master Genealogist, PAF), as a GEDZIP or zip with the media packed in, or as GEDCOM X, Gramps XML or Gramps CSV. It lists what the target cannot carry over before it runs and reports every change afterwards. The conversion guide explains the choices.
Yes, with the Pro tools. Merge trees joins a second file into the open one, with every "same person" decision and every differing fact yours to decide. Split tree writes one branch (the descendants, ancestors, one side or one household of a chosen person) as its own file and the rest as another. Remove branch takes a branch out. Compare files shows what differs between two files, and Find duplicates folds records entered twice into one. The merge, branch and compare guides walk through them.
Yes. Privatize living people lists who counts as living, with the reason, and lets you choose per kind of information what happens: initials or the word Living for names, the year only or nothing for dates, the country only for places, and whether notes, sources, media or the whole person go. Anonymize goes further, for a bug report: every name, place and note becomes a placeholder. The sharing guide covers the careful way to share.
Repair file finds what is wrong with the file as a file (links to records that do not exist, two records with the same ID, records without an ID, lines that are not GEDCOM, a missing header or trailer, garbled text) and applies the fixes you tick. Standardize places and dates rewrites loose dates in strict GEDCOM form (the date format guide says which) and unifies the spellings of places, part by part, adding commas and coordinates from the site's place data. Both write a new file and leave the original as it was. Repair file is free; Standardize places and dates is part of Pro.
Export, yes, with Pro. The browser's own Print command is not used (it shows only a notice); to put something on paper, export a PDF and print that. GED-VIEW exports PDF, PNG, Excel and CSV depending on the view, calendar (ICS) files for birthdays and death anniversaries, and a per-person summary of every fact and its citations. The tree itself can be written as a file too: every tool downloads the file it makes, and Convert writes the open file in any GEDCOM version, for any program, as a GEDZIP with media, or as GEDCOM X, Gramps XML or Gramps CSV. The export guide lists what each view offers.
Today, send them the .ged file and a link to GED-VIEW; they open it the same way you do and nothing is uploaded on their side either. Privatize living people (free) and Split tree (Pro) make a smaller file first. Sharing by link is planned, with no change to the privacy model. See sharing without exposing living relatives.
Viewing works. Choosing a media folder is limited on phones because mobile browsers restrict folder access.
About sixty. The interface translations are generated automatically, so they may contain mistakes. If something reads wrongly, the support form is the place to say so. The guides are in English for now.
Use the support form. Say which page it happened on, what you did, and what you expected instead. Your file never leaves your browser, so nobody else can see the record; a short description of it helps a lot.
Viewing is free and stays free: open a file and use every page, the Research pages included, and the Privatize living people, Repair file and Anonymize tools. Pro is the paid part: exporting, editing, the File editor, and Convert, Merge trees, Split tree, Remove branch, Compare files, Find duplicates and Standardize places and dates. The Pro page has the list. Pro is free for a limited time; sign up for updates to hear before that changes.
No.
Pro is the paid part of GED-VIEW and the way to support it. It is free for a limited time while it is finished, so for now the most useful thing is feedback through the support and review forms.
Each has its own guide. Ancestry and MyHeritage export in a few clicks; FamilySearch is the exception, see the next question.
Because it is one shared tree rather than a private copy. Programs like RootsMagic Essentials (free) can pull your branch down and export it. The FamilySearch guide walks through it.
Plain GEDCOM 5.5.1 for a program or a person you know nothing about, GEDZIP or the zip with a media folder when the photos should travel too, Gramps XML for Gramps, and GEDCOM X only for software built on FamilySearch's model. The file types guide says what each one keeps on the way there and back, and the program by program guide covers the Program dropdown.
Reloading usually fixes this. Your files and drafts are saved in this browser and will still be there. If reloading does not help, copy the details and paste them into the support form at /support.