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Backup a Family File and/or Media Files

 
It is very important that you make regular backup copies of your family files as you work on them.  All computers eventually fail in one way or another.  Sometimes the hard drives fail, sometimes the memory goes bad, sometimes the motherboard goes out - or maybe you lose your computer or it gets stolen.  When one of these things happens, you will be very happy if you have a currently backup of your important files (or you will feel terrible if you don't).  This goes for all of the information that you keep on your computer, not just your family files.  Make regular backup copies of anything that you don't want to lose. 

  To check out the QuickTip video on How to make a Backup, click here.


To backup an existing Legacy Family File and/or Media Files:
1. Choose Backup File... from the File tab on the Ribbon bar.  The Backup dialog appears.

You can backup your family file as well as any media files that you have attached to individuals, events, or sources in your file.  

2. You can also backup your files to either your local computer or to the Legacy Cloud.  Select either Backup to My Computer or Backup to Legacy Cloud, or both.  When backing up to your computer, you can choose to include your family file and/or the media files which are the pictures, sound files, videos, and other documents that you have linked to individuals, event, and sources within your family file. The family file is backed up in one file and the media files are backed up in a second separate file.

3. Backup to My Computer
Family File
The current path and name of the backup file Legacy will create on your computer is shown under.  If you want to change this location, click the Change link to the right.   By default, Legacy takes the name of the family file and adds the current date and time to create a unique file name. 

Media Files
Likewise, you can change the location and file name for the media backup file by clicking the Change button to the right of the Media Files section.   By default, Legacy takes the name of the family file and adds "-media" the current date and time to create a unique file name.

The backup files can be put on your hard drive, or a flash drive (thumb drive) or even a rewritable CD disk.  (If you create a copy on your hard drive, you should copy it to a CD or transfer a copy to a different computer, or in some other way get a copy off of your computer.  Sending a copy to a family member or close friend is also a good way to make sure that you will have access to it if your computer goes down.)
  
4. Backup to Legacy Cloud
Currently only your family file can be backed up to the Legacy Cloud.  The first thing you need to do is set up a free account by clicking the Manage Account link.  This opens the Manage Account screen in your web browser where you can enter your email address and password.

Note:  It is the best practice to make backups of your information in more than one place.  Computers crash, websites crash, CDs and DVDs go bad.  Fires and floods and theft happen.  If you don't want to lose your data, make several backups on different media and in different locations.  You will be glad you did.

5. To start the backup creation, click the Backup button at the bottom.  If you are backing up to the cloud, the Legacy Cloud Login screen appears where you fill in the email address and password for your account.  (If you haven't started an account yet, click the Click here to register for a Legacy Cloud account link to set up a free account.)

6. Legacy collects all the needed files and compresses them into a ZIP file in the location(s) specified and backs it up to your local computer to the selected path and/or to the Legacy Cloud server.

To restore your information from these backup files, see Restore Family File.

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