Family Tree Maker Not Syncing With Ancestry getfamilytreemaker.com/family-tree-maker-not-syncing-with-ancestry Andy
August 13, 2026
Family Tree Maker and Ancestry work simultaneously through FamilySync, making it easy to keep your genealogy research properly synchronized. Keep in mind that not every type of information gets transferred between the two platforms. If you find your Family Tree Maker Not Syncing With Ancestry, there are some kinds of data that remain only in Family Tree Maker, some Ancestry content does not get downloaded, and there are some items that get synchronized with specific types of limitation guide will walk you through everything you need to know about FamilySync so that you can understand how your data is handled during the synchronization. Here are some of the FTM data types which do not sync to ancestry. Here are some of them mention in the below given table: Private Data
Private facts, notes and media Elements linked to private data
Sources
Source citations not linked to a fact Source citation ratings Source media link Links to different individuals within a single citation Source data from templates unavailable on ancestry
1/5
Source Data From
Source information entered in the templates filed which are not available on ancestry.
Templates Media
Media file names Media categories Audio media items Video media items Web page archives AlbumWalk talking photos Documents exceeding 15MB Smart stories Media changes outside FTM
Notes
Research notes Fact notes Media notes Relationship notes Reference notes Citation notes Text attributes Text formatting
Places
Short places names GPS location coordinates
Facts
Ancestral file numbers, person IDs and relationship IDs. Deleting one spouse in FTM 2024 removes the shared facts for both the spouses from ancestry.
Documents Created On Ancestry
When a document is created on Ancestry, it is synced to Family Tree Maker 2024 as an .html file, which can be easily viewed in a web browser. You can easily edit the file with the help of a word processing program, but those edits will not sync back into the original document on Ancestry.
2/5
Other Data
Tasks Saved charts, reports and books Person web links Color coding Change log (turn back time) Link to TreeVault antenna tree Guests on connect workspace Relative hints and sticky notes
Types of Data In Family Tree Maker Not Syncing With Ancestry Comments Media categories, headstone category and document/certificate category Military pages Albums DNA results Stories Photo tags Web links
Other Changes With FamilySync Here are some of the changes mention below that you must keep in mind while syncing: Paragraph Formatting Paragraph breaks in citation detail text for source citation information remove during synchronization. Home Person On Mac, if you change the home person in Family Tree Maker, it will not update the home person on Ancestry during synchronization. Media Linked To Relationships 1. Media link to a relationship in Family Tree Maker gets attach to both the individuals instead of getting link only to the relationship. 2. Relationship media gets upload to Ancestry in the form of personal media for every individual in the relationship. Conflict Resolution The Resolve Conflicts dialog does not showcase a conflict in the following situations: 3/5
1. The preferred option (fact, spouse, parent, etc) has been change in both Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. 2. Information has been added into Family Tree Maker and Ancestry for repositories, new people, and pictures for the same person. These are the additional conflict limitations which include: 1. If a fact, source citation, or media item is deleted or unlinked on one computer and has been edited on another linked computer, it disappears after the next sync. (Exception: Source repository and source title) 2. If an alternate fact gets deleted in Family Tree Maker and the corresponding preferred fact gets deleted later on Ancestry, the person’s name changes to “<no name>” after syncing. 3. Parent-child relationship conflicts cannot be resolve with the help of overwrite conflicts with the FTM data option.
Facts 1. Many of the fact names, dates, places, and descriptions sync correctly. 2. Some of the fact names are showcase differently on Ancestry. Example – Family Tree Maker (physical description), Ancestry (description).
Person, Fact, Citation, And Relationship Media 1. Media captions in Family Tree Maker become the title of the media item on Ancestry. 2. Records that are merged from Ancestry into Family Tree Maker are not uploaded again to Ancestry. 3. Documents are uploaded only if they are 15 MB or smaller, and they must be in the .pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf formats 4. Photos that are larger than 15 MB are not uploaded on Mac and Windows automatically; they are resized before uploading. The original file stays unchanged. 5. All the supported image formats include .bmg, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .ico, .j2k, .jp2.
Sources, Citations, And Repositories 1. Family Tree Maker lets a single citation be link to facts for multiple people. 2. Ancestry lets a citation belong to only one person. 3. During the process of synchronization, all the share citations is duplicate so that each person has an individual citation on Ancestry. If that particular Ancestry tree is download once again into Family Tree Maker, the duplicated citations remain.
4/5
Smart Stories 1. Smart stories, which made in Family Tree Maker sync to Ancestry in the form of .rtf documents. 2. They are hard to view directly within an Ancestry tree. 3. The .rtf can be easily download and open separately.
Conclusion! With Family Tree Maker, it becomes simple and easy to keep your Family Tree and ancestry properly synchronized. But as a user, you must also know what does and does not sync with it, along with knowing the benefits of its features. By getting familiar with these limitations, including Family Tree Maker not syncing with Ancestry, and following the recommended syncing practices, you can protect your genealogy research, avoid data discrepancies, and enjoy a more reliable synchronization experience. For more information please do contact us.
5/5