A GEDCOM knows the file names of your photos but does not contain the photos themselves. GED-VIEW can join the two back together if you show it the folder they are in. This takes about a minute the first time.
What you need
Two things: the .ged file, and the folder where the images and documents live on this computer.
If the file was exported from a desktop program, that folder already exists and the program made it:
- RootsMagic keeps media in a folder called Media, usually next to the database file or under Documents.
- Family Tree Maker keeps a Media folder next to the .ftm file.
- Gramps has a "base media path" in Preferences; that folder is the one to pick.
- Legacy, Family Historian and most others work the same way. If in doubt, open the program's settings and look for anything mentioning media, pictures or multimedia.
If the file came from a website, there usually is no folder, because websites do not include photos in a GEDCOM. The guide on why photos are missing explains what to do about that.
Connecting the folder
- Open the GEDCOM in GED-VIEW as usual.
- Open the file menu in the header (the file name at the top right).
- Click Connect media folder.
- In the dialog, pick the folder that contains the images. The exact folder or any folder above it both work; subfolders are always included.
- The browser may ask whether to allow access or whether to copy the files. Allowing access lets the page read the files; copying means copying into the browser's own cache on this computer. Neither sends anything anywhere.
- Wait a moment. A few hundred files is instant. Several thousand can take a few seconds.
When it finishes, GED-VIEW reports how many references it matched and how many it could not find. Photos then appear on each person's profile, in the Gallery, and on any source they are attached to. PDFs and other documents open in a preview inside GED-VIEW.
Coming back later
In current Chrome and Edge, GED-VIEW can reconnect the same folder on your next visit, either automatically or with one click on Reconnect media folder, depending on the browser's permission rules. Other browsers ask you to pick the folder again. Either way, nothing about the folder is stored anywhere except in your own browser.
Which folder to pick
GED-VIEW reads the paths inside the GEDCOM and shows the folder they point at. Something like: "This file references C:\Users\Jane\Documents\RootsMagic\Media\. Select that folder, or any folder above it."
Pick that one if it still exists. If things have moved, or the file came from another computer, pick the folder where the images actually are now. Picking a folder that is too high up (say, the whole Documents folder) costs nothing except a longer scan. Picking one that is too low means some files will not be found, and the report says which.
How matching works
GED-VIEW matches on the file name, not on the full path.
The GEDCOM might say C:\Users\Jane\Documents\RootsMagic\Media\Scans\1940s\smith.jpg. The folder you picked might contain Media/Scans/1940s/smith.jpg, or Media/smith.jpg, or old-photos/smith.jpg. All of those match, because the name is the same.
If two files in the folder share a name (a scan001.jpg in four different subfolders, say), GED-VIEW compares the folder names around them and picks the one whose path most closely matches the GEDCOM's. If it still cannot tell, it asks.
Matching is case-insensitive, so Smith.JPG in the file and smith.jpg on disk are the same.
In practice: you can move the media folder, rename subfolders, copy everything to a USB stick or dump it all into a single folder, and it still works. Renaming the files themselves is the one thing that breaks it.
People organize their media in many ways, and the matching rules cover the common ones. If your files are arranged in a way that does not match well (a naming scheme, a folder structure, a program not listed above), please describe it in the support form. The matching can be extended to handle more arrangements once they are known.
Nothing is uploaded
When you pick a folder, the browser reads the images from your disk to display them. They are not sent to any server; there is no server that receives them. GED-VIEW is a set of static files and the browser does all the work.
To check, open the browser's developer tools (F12 in most browsers), go to the Network tab, and pick the folder. No request carrying your images will appear.
What shows where
- Person profile: every photo and document attached to that person.
- Gallery: everything, with filters.
- Sources: any scan or document attached to a source or citation, shown next to the citation. Census pages and certificates usually live here.
Images (jpg, png, gif, webp) display inline. PDFs and other documents open in a preview inside GED-VIEW. Anything the browser cannot render is shown as a card you can download and open in the right program.
Two formats that trip people up: TIFF scans from archives, and HEIC photos from iPhones. Browsers mostly do not display these natively. GED-VIEW shows them as download cards for now.
When things do not match
Nothing matched. Either the wrong folder was picked, or the GEDCOM came from another computer and the files were never here. Check the folder GED-VIEW says the file references.
Some matched, some did not. The unmatched references are shown greyed out with the file name GED-VIEW was looking for. Common causes: renamed files, files on a different drive, deleted files. Searching the computer for one of the missing names usually shows where they went.
Photos are there but on the wrong person. Two files with the same name in different folders, and the tiebreak guessed wrong. Renaming one in the desktop program and re-exporting fixes it. If this happens with your files, the support form is the place to say so; the tiebreak can be improved.
On phones and tablets
Folder picking is a desktop browser feature. Phones limit what a web page may read, so this part of GED-VIEW works best on a laptop or desktop.
Next
If there is no media folder because the tree lives on Ancestry, the guide on getting your photos out of Ancestry walks through the RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker route.