Problem with FTM 2011

[Huwcyn]

Since about 10 pm this morning, my computer won't open the FTM programme, saying that its stopped working and that windows will search for a solution (hasn't found one, needless to say). Is there any way I can restart the programmer, or failing that , access the data I fear is lost to transfer elsewhere ?

[juiceanca]

Hi
have you tried closing computer and restarting ?sometimes gets a bit confused,also there should be a backup in my documents under Ftm.
 
julian

[mrsruz]

I have exactly the same problem with FTM 2012. It first started back in March & no amount of persuasion will get it to openIf I look in My Docs,all the info is there, but again, it wonīt open.
Have had a couple of "gurus" look at it, but they canīt see why either.
Wouņ
ld love to know the answer.

[Flattybasher9]

Have you tried re-installing it ??

Regards

Malky

[FearlessFred]

I haven't logged on to RootsChat for a while, but just did so and saw your problem with entering sources. I can tell you that you are not the first person to have exactly this problem. If you haven't already sorted out the problem you may be interested in something I wrote up describing how to enter sources (and not lose them). You can download it from http://sdrv.ms/17OJsQN.

Fred

PS  SORRY - Please ignore this - I posted this answer to the wrong question.

[mrsruz]

I have exactly the same problem with FTM 2011.
All the info is there in my documents, but the programme wonīt open, nor will the docs.
Ancestry is still showing my tree as attached to FTM, but thatīs not much help.
So annoying & itīs been like that since about March.

[Stuart P]

I also had a problem with FTM refusing to open - with message "Family Tree Maker has encountered a problem and needs to close".
The problem was a damaged file called user.config - this is a hidden file which can be opened and edited with Notepad. It contains things like your preferred charting configurations and the list of family tree files you have worked on.
To find it (Windows 7 & Windows XP) click
Start-->My Computer-->Tools-->Folder Options-->View-->tick box "Show hidden files....." OK
Click on Users (Windows 7) or Documents & Settings (Windows XP)
Click on the the User with which you log in to Windows-->Local Settings

(Windows 7) Click on AppData-->Local-->Ancestry.com
(Windows XP) Click on Application Data-->Ancestry.com

Click on ftm.exe_strongname_cfy... 
At this point you may see several folders depending on your history of program installation - each of them contains a user.config file.
20.0.0... refers to FTM2010
21.0.0... refers to FTM2011
22.0.0... refers to FTM2012

In my case, user.config was over 100kb in size but appeared to be empty when opened in Notepad. I deleted it and ran FTM - it automatically created a new config file with default settings.
If your config file DOES appear to be intact, you can try editing it: find "IsSearchFirstRun" and change the value from >False< to >True<