Family Treemaker

[PatsyAlice]

I use this software to record my tree. The last time I used it I did not close it down. When I returned to it today I thought my computer had done an update (it may well have done - I did not check but will). When this happens it usually says it closed unexpectedly do I want to go back to it (or words to that effect). This morning there was nothing - certainly no means of looking at my tree. I went into total panic mode and rushed to get help from my long suffering husband. He eventually managed to restore my current tree (It is all backed up thankfully). He was not particularly happy as he does not think much of this software. Looking at my email later I found an email received at just after 7am from TreeVault offering me a reduced subscription for their backup/restore service. I am deeply suspicious of this. Would it be possible for them to sabotage my tree? I have never received any communications from them before. I would be interested to hear any thoughts on this - maybe I am being fanciful but it seems to me to be a bit of a coincidence. In future I will make sure I close it down properly.

[Mick Loney]

Whilst I have no knowledge of Treevault, I do have a suggestion for you.
Family trre Maker (FTM) has its own built in proprietary database, which can only be accessed by FTM itself, so losing FTM may mean you lose access to your data. Making a frequent FTM backup is fine, but if FTM fails, the backup will be useless without FTM.

You’d be better of exporting your tree into Gedcom file on a regular basis. This type of file is text only, and can be imported into most good genealogy programs, so you will no longer be reliant on FTM to recover your data.

(You could of course do as I did, and move to Family Historian (FH), which stores its data straight into a Gedcom file, so even if FH crashes, you can always access the Gedcom file directly to recover your data )

[PatsyAlice]

Thanks Mick - I will definitely take on the Gedcom advice.

[AdrianBruce]

Looking at my email later I found an email received at just after 7am from TreeVault offering me a reduced subscription for their backup/restore service. I am deeply suspicious of this. Would it be possible for them to sabotage my tree?

If you didn't open the mail until after you lost the FTM data, then it would be virtually impossible for any malware in such an email to do anything. I am no expert on malware but, so far as I know, you have to open any mail containing malware before it's activated (open includes preview).

My own view is that home PCs should never be left on overnight - it only needs a power cut in the middle of the night to cause a disaster - particularly if it's a desktop PC or it's a laptop with a flat battery.

[PatsyAlice]

I have already been ticked off and resolve to do better in future! A lucky escape.