Category: Evidentia 3+

Posts about Evidentia 3+, the modern Angular rewrite of Evidentia

Merge Duplicate Subjects Without Losing Evidence
Duplicate subjects are one of the most common headaches I hear about. It usually happens one of two ways:
- You merge in a cousin’s file and end up with two of your great-grandmother.
- You add someone before realizing you already had her under a maiden name.
I built subject merging into Evidentia 3+ to fix exactly that: fold the two into one by dragging the evidence from one record onto the other, and not a single proof gets left behind.

If you have just read Merge Database, you already know why the duplicates appear: when you combine two databases, Evidentia matches records by their internal identity, so the same person from two files arrives as two records. This is the tool that let’s you clean that up.

Open the merge view

Start on the Subjects tab, where your subject list lives. Select either of the two people you want to combine, then click Merge Subjects on the subject’s toolbar. The detail pane changes into a two-column merge view, with an empty panel on the left and another on the right.

Load your two duplicate subjects, and mind the direction

Drag one subject from your list into the left panel and the other into the right. The direction is the one thing to get right, so it is worth saying plainly:
- The subject on the left is the one you are keeping. Everything flows toward it.
- The subject on the right is the duplicate you are clearing out. Once its proofs have moved, Evidentia offers to delete it.
Put the record with the better name, notes, or attributes on the left. You can always press Clear or Reset from the toolbar and start over if you load them the wrong way around.

Move the proofs and evidence

Under Proofs & Evidence on the right-hand record, each item carries a small grip handle, the vertical dotted icon you may recognize from other drag-and-drop tools. That handle is what you grab.
Three ways to transfer
- A whole proof. Grab the grip handle on a proof’s title row and drag it to the left. Its evidence comes along.
- A single piece of evidence. Each evidence item has its own handle, so you can move one item without moving the whole proof.
- Everything at once. Click Transfer All in the toolbar to move every attribute, proof, and evidence item in one go.
Attributes work the same way. If you change your mind mid-merge, drag an item back to the right, and it returns to where it started.

[ Screenshot to add: the subject merge view mid-drag, showing the grip handle on a proof and the drop target on the left. An animated capture works well here. ]

Confirm the merge

When the evidence is where you want it, click Merge. Evidentia shows a Confirm Subject Merge dialog that spells out exactly what is about to happen, for example: “3 attribute(s), 2 proof(s), and 4 evidence item(s) will be moved to the subject on the left.” If every proof has been moved off the right-hand record, the dialog also tells you that the subject on the right will be deleted. Click Yes, Merge to finish, or Cancel to keep looking.

Duplicate sources merge the same way

The same drag-and-drop idea handles duplicate sources. On the Sources tab, drag two sources into the left and right panels, move the citations from the right onto the left, and click Merge. The confirmation reads “{n} citation(s) will be moved to the source on the left.” It is the subject workflow in miniature, aimed at your source list instead.

Read the confirmation before you commit

The merge itself cannot be undone with a single click, so let the confirmation dialog do its job. Its counts and its note about deletion are your last check that the evidence is moving in the direction you intended. When in doubt, cancel, and take a backup first.

Merging duplicate subjects is the tidy end of a larger workflow: split your research into multiple databases when it helps, combine them when you are ready, then fold the duplicates together here. Each proof you preserve is one you never have to reconstruct.

Drag-and-drop merge is part of Evidentia 3+. See what else is new, or start your own research.

Explore Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software
August 11, 2026
Merge Database: Combining Two Evidentia Files Into One
A cousin sent you a database for the branch you share, or you started a separate file for a single line and now want it back with everything else. Merge Database, added in Evidentia 3+, is built for exactly that: it pulls the records from one file into another and leaves what you already have untouched.

When I built Merge, I made it the opposite of Restore, even though the two sound alike: Merge brings new records into what you already have, while Restore wipes the database and drops a backup in its place. Keep them straight before you reach for one. Pulling evidence together this way is also the reasonably exhaustive research the Genealogical Proof Standard expects.

Merge adds. Restore replaces.

Restore takes a backup file and overwrites your current database with it. Everything in the open database is set aside and the backup takes its place. That is the right tool when you are recovering from a problem and want the backup’s version of the world back.

Merge Database does the opposite of overwriting. It reads the records from a file and adds them to your current database. What you already have stays put; the incoming records join it. The featured image at the top of this post lays the two side by side, and it is the one distinction to keep straight before you begin.

Think of Merge as stitching, not swapping. Two pieces of your research come together along a seam, and both are still there when the needle stops. Restore, by contrast, hands you a whole new bolt of cloth and sets the old one aside.

How to use Merge Database

Before you start, one requirement: Merge reads an Evidentia backup or export file. If the research you want to bring in is sitting in another live database, export or back it up first so you have a file to point at. A raw database that is currently in use is not what Merge expects.
Merging step by step
1. Open Options and go to the Databases panel.
2. Click Merge Database.
3. Choose the Evidentia backup or export file you want to bring in.
4. Read the confirmation dialog. It counts, for each kind of record, how many are in the file, how many are duplicates of records you already have, and how many are new.
5. Choose how a record that matches one you already have should be handled: Keep database record or Keep file record. The note just below spells out exactly what each one does.
6. Confirm. Your system templates and claim types are preserved, and the new records join your database.
The one choice that can overwrite your data

Both options add whatever is new. They differ only when a record in the file matches one you already have.
- Keep database record (the default): your version wins. The file’s copy is set aside, and nothing you already have changes. You only gain the new records.
- Keep file record: the file’s version wins. It overwrites your record, and anything you had entered is replaced.
Merging a cousin’s file into your own well-sourced database? Keep database record is almost always what you want. Reach for Keep file record only when the file genuinely holds the better, newer information.
What to expect afterward

When Merge decides whether an incoming record duplicates one you already have, it matches on the record’s internal identity, not on the name. Two databases that were built separately give the same ancestor two different internal identities. So if you merge your cousin’s file and it holds the same Great-Grandfather John you already have, Merge sees two unrelated records and keeps both.

That is not a flaw. Evidentia has no reliable way to know that your John and your cousin’s John are the same man without your judgment, and quietly collapsing them would be worse than leaving the decision to you. The result is that combining two databases often leaves you with a few people entered twice, ready for you to review.

Back up first, and merge with a clear head

Merge never deletes your existing records, but it does change your database, so take a backup before you begin. If you are unsure whether a file is the right one, the confirmation dialog is your friend: its counts tell you what you are about to bring in before anything is written.

Once two databases are combined, the natural next task is cleaning up the people who now appear twice. Evidentia 3+ makes that a matter of dragging one record onto another, and I walk through it in Merge Duplicate Subjects Without Losing Evidence. If you have not yet decided whether to keep your research in one file or several, Multiple Databases in Evidentia covers that choice.

Merge Database is one of the newer additions in Evidentia 3+. If you are not running it yet, here is where to start.

Explore Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software
August 4, 2026
Multiple Databases in Evidentia: Why and When to Split
Most of us begin with a single Evidentia database and never give it a second thought. For most work that is exactly right. A single file keeps everything connected. But splitting your work carries both benefits and costs, and it helps to understand both before you do it.

Below I walk through what a database actually holds, five reasons researchers keep more than one, and how to create a new database when the time comes.

What one database actually holds

A database in Evidentia is a self-contained body of research. It holds its own subjects, sources, citations, claims, and proofs. It also has its own Record Library, so the document images you attach live in a folder tied to that one database.

Two consequences follow from that, and both deserve thought before you split anything:
- Subjects cannot be linked across databases. Evidentia opens one database at a time, so there is no way to connect a person in one file to a person in another.
- Each database keeps its own Record Library. A census image you rely on in two databases has to be stored in each of them separately.
Five reasons to keep multiple databases

Keeping multiple databases earns its keep when your research has a natural seam. These are the five reasons that come up most often in my own work and in questions from the community.

1

Separate family lines that will never connect

Your own ancestry and your spouse’s, or an adoptive line you are keeping apart from a biological one. When two bodies of research will never link to each other, holding them in separate databases costs you nothing, and each stays uncluttered.

2

A focused proof project

Say you are building a case to the Genealogical Proof Standard for one hard question: which of three men named John Smith fathered your ancestor. A dedicated database can hold only the evidence that bears on that question. The proof argument stays clean, and your analysis is not buried under hundreds of unrelated people.

3

Client work and focused studies

If you research for other people, or you run a one-name or one-place study, each project wants its own boundary. Its own subjects, its own sources, and its own Record Library, so a client’s record images never mix in with your family’s.

Think of each database as a labeled box on a shelf. You can carry one to the reading room without hauling the whole archive along with it. The trade is that the boxes do not talk to each other, so it pays to put things where they belong the first time.

4

Research you intend to share

A whole database exports as a single file, Record Library and all, and it can be combined back into another database later. When you want to hand a cousin the branch the two of you share, a separate database lets you send that branch on its own rather than your entire life’s work. The combining side of this is its own topic, which I cover in Merge Database.

5

Keeping Evidentia responsive

Evidentia keeps your open database in memory so that evidence analysis stays immediate. Past a few thousand subjects, that responsiveness begins to slip. A focused database is simply quicker to work in, and that is the practical reason not to let one file grow without any limit.

How to create a new database

Working with multiple databases begins by creating one, and that takes about a minute, all in a single place.
Creating and switching databases
1. Open Options and find the Databases panel.
2. Click Create New Database.
3. Enter a Database Name. A short Description is optional.
4. Click Create. Evidentia backs up your current work, then opens the new database for you.
5. To move between databases later, select the one you want from the list in that same Databases panel.
Behind the scenes, your new database becomes its own file and gets its own Record Library folder. Nothing from your other databases comes along, which is the whole point.

Before you split

Split along real boundaries, not for tidiness

Multiple databases are a real advantage in the right situation. But because subjects cannot be linked across databases, and each database carries its own Record Library, a split you make for neatness alone can come back to bite you. A line you might one day connect to the rest of your tree is better left where it is. When a body of research genuinely stands on its own, give it a database. Otherwise, one file is the right home.

One database is the right home for most research. When a project stands on its own, a second database keeps both it and your main file in good shape. And when you are ready to bring two of them back together, that is exactly what Merge Database is for.

New to Evidentia, or thinking about how it could organize your research? Take a look at what Evidentia 3+ does.

Explore Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software
July 28, 2026
Switching Cloud Providers Without Starting Over

You picked Dropbox a few years ago. Now you’re not so sure.

Maybe your Microsoft 365 plan came with a terabyte of OneDrive you’ve never touched. Maybe the whole household has moved to Google Drive and Dropbox is the last holdout. Or maybe Dropbox’s free space finally ran out, and paying for a second cloud provider when you already pay for one feels like the wrong way round.

Your record images live in one provider’s folder, your research database expects to find them there, and moving everything by hand sounds like the kind of afternoon that ends in broken links and regret.

So let’s not do it by hand. Switching cloud providers in Evidentia 3+ moves you to a new provider and keeps every attachment connected, start to finish, in one guided run.

Why moving the files by yourself isn’t enough

The part that trips people up when you’re switching cloud providers is this. When you attach a record image to a citation, Evidentia doesn’t only remember the file; it remembers where to look for it. And “where to look” is tied to the cloud provider you chose.

Think of it like a forwarding address. If you drag all your folders into OneDrive yourself, the files arrive safely at the new house, but your database is still mailing everything to the old one. The records keep asking for a building you’ve moved out of, and the attachments come back marked not found.

That second half — telling every record where you’ve moved to — is the part that’s tedious and error-prone to do on your own. It’s also the part Evidentia handles for you.

What we do together, in three steps

Switching cloud providers starts right where you’d look for it: Settings → Storage. We choose the new provider, sign in to it, and from there Evidentia handles the rest in one guided run. The three steps below happen in order, with no babysitting required.

The guided switch in three steps — click to enlarge

First, we copy your folders over. Your Database, your Records, and your Backups are copied into the new provider’s folder, one at a time, with a progress bar at each step so you’re never staring at a still screen wondering whether anything’s happening.

Then we re-point your records. Once the files have landed, Evidentia goes through your research and updates every attachment to look in the new home instead of the old one. It does this for all your databases, not only the one you have open — so nothing gets left behind asking for the old address.

Last, we disconnect from the old service. When you’ve moved between two cloud providers, Evidentia releases its connection to the old one as part of finishing up — so you’re not left signed in to a service you’ve stopped using. To be clear about what that touches: it only lets go of Evidentia’s access. Your account at the old provider, and any files still sitting there, are untouched.

When it’s done, Evidentia restarts itself to finish settling in, and you’re back to your research with everything where it belongs.

Undo is built in, and your originals never move

This is the first question worth asking before switching cloud providers, so let me answer it plainly: the switch copies your folders. It doesn’t pick them up and carry them away. Everything in your old provider stays exactly where it is until you decide to clear it out.

So if something looks off, or you simply change your mind, your original library is sitting right where you left it, safe and complete. We can point Evidentia back at the old provider and carry on as if nothing happened. I built it this way on purpose. The storage decisions people dread are the ones they can’t take back, so I made sure this one you can.

If you keep your files online only

In Short

If you keep your record images online only and you’re switching between two cloud providers, Evidentia moves your database but leaves those files for you to sync across yourself.

When Evidentia copies your files, and when you do — click to enlarge

When you’re switching cloud providers, I’d rather tell you this now than let you trip over it. It only applies in one specific case: if you keep your record images online only — living in the cloud, not also downloaded onto your computer — and you’re moving from one cloud provider straight to another.

In that one situation, Evidentia copies your database, but it leaves the record images for you to move yourself. Everywhere else — if your files are synced down to your computer, or you’re moving to or from local storage — it copies everything.

The reason is mechanical. When your images live only in the cloud, the move would mean pulling thousands of files down from one provider and pushing them up to another, over the internet, with nothing on your computer in between. That kind of transfer is slow and tends to stall partway, so Evidentia copies your database, leaves the record files for you to move the way that suits you, and then cleans up the links so every record reconnects. It tells you when this applies, so it’s never a surprise.

Restoring a backup from your old setup

This next one sounds scarier than it is. Say you switched to OneDrive last month, and now you need to restore a backup you made back when you were on Dropbox. That backup remembers your files the old way, pointing at Dropbox. You might expect it to land in your new OneDrive setup with every link broken.

It doesn’t. Evidentia checks the addresses for you.

When you restore or import a backup, Evidentia notices that its attachment paths were written for a different provider than the one you’re on now, and re-points them to your current setup as part of the restore. The forwarding address gets updated in the same breath the records come back home. There’s no separate step, and you don’t have to remember which provider you were using the day you made that backup.

This holds both ways you might bring a backup in — restoring a full Evidentia backup file, or importing one from the Database options. Either way, your records come back pointing at where your files actually live today.

Old backup, new provider, no broken links. Restore it and get back to the research.

For the hands-on researcher

Already moved your files yourself?

If you’ve already dragged your Evidentia folder over to the new provider and let it finish syncing, there’s no reason to copy it twice. Evidentia notices the folder is already there and skips straight to re-pointing your records. There’s even a “files are already in place — only update my records” path for exactly this: you confirm the move is done, and Evidentia takes care of the address change across all your databases. Handy if you like to move files your own way but still want the database side done right.

The short version

Switching cloud providers used to mean re-attaching files one citation at a time, or living with a library full of dead links. Not anymore. We pick the new provider, Evidentia copies your folders and reconnects every record, releases the old service, and you’re back to the work that actually matters. Your originals stay safe the whole way through.

If a storage change has been sitting on your to-do list because it felt too big to risk, this is where it stops being one.

New to Evidentia 3+, or weighing the upgrade?

Evidentia 3+ works with Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive, and lets you move between them whenever your needs change.

Tell me you’re interested

July 21, 2026

Work Faster with Keyboard Shortcuts

You’re three citations deep into a stubborn source, the wording is finally lining up in your head — and then you reach for the mouse. By the time you’ve clicked to the next screen and back, the sentence you’d composed is gone.

Cartoon bitmoji of a man frantically typing on a laptop with random letters flying off the screen

You know that small stall. The click is quick; recovering the sentence it knocked loose is not. Keyboard shortcuts keep your hands where your attention already is.

I don’t expect anyone to memorize forty shortcuts, and you don’t need to. A handful of the right ones, used until they’re second nature, is what changes how a research session feels.

Where the keyboard shortcuts live, and why you can trust the list

Open the Help menu and choose Keyboard Shortcuts (in the menu it reads HotKeys — same thing). A window opens with every shortcut Evidentia knows, in two columns: Mac on the left, Windows and Linux on the right, grouped by the part of your research you’re working in.

That reference is built into Evidentia itself and ships with every version. Because it travels with the app rather than living in a separate handout someone has to keep current, the shortcuts you see always match the version in front of you. When in doubt, check that window first.

One rule covers most of them

Where Windows and Linux use Ctrl, the Mac uses ⌘ (Command). Where they use Alt, the Mac uses ⌥ (Option). A few keep Ctrl on the Mac on purpose — moving between tabs, for instance, follows the same convention your web browser already uses. Once that pattern clicks, the tables below read themselves.

Move between screens without reaching for the mouse

Go to…	Mac	Windows / Linux
Identify a Source	⌥ I	Alt + I
Analyze Evidence	⌥ G	Alt + G
Record Library	⌥ B	Alt + B
Context help for the screen you’re on	F1	F1
The filter box of any list	⌘ L or /	Ctrl + L or /

That last row is the quiet workhorse. Drop into a long list of sources, press /, and start typing to filter — no hunting for the search box. And F1 opens help for exactly the screen you’re on, which I wrote about in Help When You Need It.

Stay in the flow while you work

The screens where you spend the most time have their own shortcuts, aimed at the actions you repeat dozens of times a session.

Identify a Source

Do this	Mac	Windows / Linux
Start a new Source	⌘ ⇧ S	Ctrl + Shift + S
Start a new Citation	⌘ ⇧ C	Ctrl + Shift + C
Open the pop-out editor for a note field	⌘ E	Ctrl + E

Analyze Evidence

Do this	Mac	Windows / Linux
Open the Date Calculator	⌘ D	Ctrl + D
Generate a proof report	⌘ G	Ctrl + G

The Date Calculator (⌘D / Ctrl+D) is one you’d rarely stumble onto on your own. It opens in its own small window for working out an age or a date gap without leaving your analysis.

And generating a proof report (⌘G / Ctrl+G) gathers your analysis into a document built around the Genealogical Proof Standard — the methodology this whole workflow is designed to support.

Start with three, not thirty

You’ll get nothing from trying to absorb the whole list at once. Pick three that match what you do most (for many researchers that’s Alt+I to jump to Identify a Source, / to filter a list, and F1 for help) and use only those for a week. They’ll drop below conscious thought, and then you add three more. Do that for a few weeks and you’ll stop noticing the keyboard at all. It becomes part of how you work.

Cartoon bitmoji of a man straining to carry a tall heavy stack of colorful books

Keep the reference close

You don’t have to keep that window open. But the first few times you forget one, open Help → Keyboard Shortcuts, find it in the column for your platform, and use it once on the spot. That’s usually all it takes for it to stick.

New to Evidentia 3+? The interest form is the best place to follow along as this series continues.

— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software

July 14, 2026

Help When You Need It: Evidentia’s Built-In Documentation
Genealogy rarely happens at a desk with reliable WiFi. Sometimes it’s a long flight home with a folder of photocopies on the tray table and a question you want settled before the details fade.

There’s no connection at 35,000 feet, and the record won’t wait for one.

Evidentia’s help doesn’t need the connection. It travels with the program, ready the moment you press F1.

Press F1, and Evidentia already knows where you are

Evidentia’s help lives inside the program, on your computer, and it pays attention to what you’re doing. There’s no website to visit and nothing to load.

Press F1 from any screen, and Evidentia opens the help for that screen. If you’re in Analyze Evidence, you get the Analyze Evidence guide. If you’re in the Record Library, you land on the Record Library. You don’t go hunting for the right topic. Evidentia hands it to you.

I think of it the way I’d think of a knowledgeable colleague sitting beside me. They can see my screen. When I ask “how does this work?”, they don’t make me explain where I am first; they already know, and they answer the question I actually have.

A full guide, open beside your work

F1 opens Evidentia’s offline help in its own window, so you can keep it open beside your research and refer back as you work. Down the side is a list of every part of Evidentia — Identify Source, Catalog Claims, Analyze Evidence, the Record Library, Reports, and the rest. Click any one to read its guide, or collapse the list when you want the page to itself.

At the top sits a search box. Type a word — citation, attachment, cousin — and the list narrows to the topics that match. It’s the quickest way in when you know what you’re after but not which screen it lives on.

Offline help, built for where research happens

All of this works with no internet at all, and that was deliberate. Evidentia’s help travels with the program: every page and every guide, already on your machine. Online or off, F1 works the same.

That matters because genealogy doesn’t happen at a desk with reliable WiFi. It happens in archives with thick walls and no signal, or in a rural courthouse basement where your phone hasn’t found a bar since you walked in. Those are the moments you most need to look something up, and exactly the moments a web-based help page leaves you stranded.
Three ways to find an answer
- F1 — opens the guide for whatever screen you’re on
- The sidebar — browse the guide for any part of Evidentia
- Search — type a word and jump straight to the topic
All of it offline, every time.
Answer the question without leaving your work

The next time you’re mid-source and a question comes up, wherever you are, signal or not, press F1 and let Evidentia answer it. There’s no browser to open and no connection to wait on.

New to Evidentia?

See how Evidentia helps you turn sources into sound, well-documented conclusions — with offline help that’s always a keypress away.

Explore Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software
July 10, 2026
Finally: Evidentia Works with Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive
For years, Evidentia cloud storage meant one thing: Dropbox. Just Dropbox. Dropbox and nothing else.

A number of you had thoughts about this.

I heard you. Trust me, I heard you. Evidentia 3+ now supports Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive.

That means you can store your research database and all your attached files — scans, images, documents — in a cloud folder that stays in sync across every computer where you do your research. No more copying databases on a thumb drive. No more wondering which version you had open last week.

Evidentia Cloud Storage — Pick the Provider You’re Already Paying For

The honest answer to “which provider should I use?” is almost always: the one whose subscription you’re already paying for.

If you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber, OneDrive is sitting on your computer right now, paid for, probably mostly empty. If Dropbox has been your file-sync home for years, stick with Dropbox — you already trust it and know where things live. If Google Workspace runs your life, Google Drive is right there.

The only cloud storage more annoying than the one you don’t like is a second monthly subscription for the one you switched to.

What It Looks Like in Your Research

Once you connect a provider, Evidentia stores your database and attached files in a folder you can see and manage yourself — no black box. Every computer where you install Evidentia and sign in with the same account stays in sync automatically.

The Record Library shows a small provider badge on each cloud-stored file so you always know at a glance where it lives. Everything else works the same way it always has. (If you’re new to the Record Library, this post walks through it in detail.)

One Thing Worth Knowing About Google Drive

All three Evidentia cloud storage options work well for everyday research. But there’s a meaningful difference for researchers who work in places where the internet is… optimistic about its own availability.

Offline access: Dropbox and OneDrive only

Dropbox and OneDrive both support Evidentia’s offline mode. Mark your research folder for offline availability in the provider’s app, and Evidentia can read and write your files even without a connection. When you’re back online, everything syncs up.

Google Drive works beautifully when you’re connected, but as of Evidentia 3.8.25, offline access isn’t available for Google Drive. If courthouse basements and rural archives are a regular part of your research life, Dropbox or OneDrive will serve you better.

How to Connect Your Provider
Connecting a cloud provider takes about 30 seconds.
Getting started takes about 30 seconds:

Open Settings → Storage

Choose your provider

Authenticate with your account

Select or confirm your research folder location

The next time you open a database, Evidentia begins syncing. That’s the whole setup.
You’re Not Stuck

Here’s the part I’m genuinely happy we built: if you connect Dropbox today and decide OneDrive makes more sense next year — or if your Google Workspace situation changes — there’s a guided migration tool. It moves your database, your attached files, your backups, and updates every file reference across all your databases so nothing goes missing in the process.

You don’t have to commit. Start with whatever makes sense today. If you change your mind next year, the migration tool handles the move — files, database, backups, all of it. I’ll walk through that process in detail in an upcoming post.

Ready to try Evidentia 3+?

Download it below, or sign up for the interest list and I’ll let you know when the next license cohort opens.

Download Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson / Evidentia Software
June 30, 2026
One Database, Two Computers — How Evidentia Decides Which One Is Right
You’ve got Evidentia set up on your desktop at home. You also take your laptop to the archive on Tuesdays. Both machines connect to the same cloud storage. And somewhere in the back of your mind is a question you haven’t wanted to ask out loud:

If I work on my database on both computers, which version wins?

That’s a fair question, and you deserve a straight answer. Here’s exactly how Evidentia handles it.

The Evidentia Cloud Sync Rule

Every time you open a database, Evidentia does one thing before loading your research: it compares two timestamps.
- The modification time of the database file on your local disk
- The modification time of the same file in the cloud
Whichever one is newer tells Evidentia what to do next:
What Evidentia Does at Startup
- Local is newer → uploads your local database to the cloud automatically. No prompt, no confirmation dialog.
- Cloud is newer → syncs the cloud version to your local disk automatically. No prompt, no confirmation — same as the upload direction.
- They match → opens your database and gets out of the way.
What Happens When You Go Offline

This is where it gets interesting for anyone who’s ever worked in a place where the archive WiFi requires a form, a prayer, or a password that expired three months ago.

When Evidentia opens a database without an internet connection, it skips the cloud check entirely and opens your local copy. No error. No “you must be connected to continue.” You just work.

Click to enlarge ↗

When you reconnect — whether that’s ten minutes later when you find the library’s guest network, or when you get home that evening — Evidentia checks the timestamps again. Your local copy is newer (you’ve been working on it all day). So it uploads automatically. The cloud catches up, and your other computer gets the updated version the next time you open the database there.

Watch out for stale copies

If PC A has done work since your last sync on PC B, opening PC B offline is risky. PC B works from an old version all day. When it reconnects, Evidentia detects the conflict and asks which version to keep — but either way, one session’s work is gone.

The fix is simple: always open Evidentia while connected before you start work. If the cloud is newer, you’ll see a notification to download first. Going to the archive? Sync at home before you leave.

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A Small Detail That Saves a Lot of Trouble

Here’s something you’d probably never think to worry about: what if the clocks on your two computers disagree by a few seconds?

System clocks drift. It’s completely normal. If your desktop is two seconds ahead of your laptop, and both databases have similar modification times, Evidentia shouldn’t declare one “winner” based on a meaningless two-second difference. So it doesn’t. Evidentia treats timestamps within 5 seconds of each other as equal — no upload, no notification. Just open and go.

What Sync Doesn’t Do

Evidentia’s sync is built for one researcher working across multiple machines — not for two people editing the same database at the same time. If two computers open the same database simultaneously, each makes changes, and both try to save — you’ll be asked which version to keep. Either way, one session’s work is gone.

Click to enlarge ↗

For most Evidentia users, this is never a concern. But if you’re collaborating closely with a family member, take turns — or use separate databases and cross-reference them.

The Safety Net: Offline Reconciliation

When you reconnect after working offline, Evidentia cloud sync doesn’t just check the database you happen to have open. It quietly checks every database in your cloud storage folder and makes sure the cloud copies are current. If you worked offline across several databases over a few days, they all catch up when you reconnect — not just the one that happened to be open at the time. It runs in the background. You won’t notice it, which is exactly the goal.

Seeing It in Settings

If you want to verify how your cloud sync is configured — or just confirm it’s actually connected — Settings → Storage shows your current provider, connection status, and the path where your databases live.

Your cloud provider, connection status, and database storage path are all visible here. If the sync isn’t behaving as expected, this is the first place to look.

For your cloud provider’s own sync troubleshooting, the official Dropbox sync documentation, OneDrive sync guide, and Google Drive offline access help each have detailed walkthroughs.

Evidentia 3+ is available now. If you haven’t upgraded yet, the store has all the details — including what’s new since Evidentia 3.

Visit the Store →

— Ed Thompson / Evidentia Software
June 23, 2026
Audit Your Attachments Before They Go Missing
Imagine this: you’re writing up your proof argument. You need to double-check something on a census scan you attached three years ago. You click the thumbnail in the file detail dialog — and nothing opens.

Not an error. Not a crash. Just silence, because Evidentia dutifully stored the path to that file, and the file is no longer there.

(If this has happened to you, you are not alone. If it hasn’t, keep reading — you’ll want to get ahead of it.)

How Files Go Missing (Without Anyone Making a Mistake)

Files drift from their database references in ways that feel perfectly innocent at the time:
- You reorganized your research folder to tidy things up
- You got a new computer — you copied your database over, but the Records folder ended up in a slightly different location, and now every path Evidentia memorized points somewhere that no longer exists
- You migrated from one database to another — you may have moved some records manually, leaving the attachments behind in the original database’s folder
- Your sync client had a bad day and dropped something
- You deleted a file from disk, not realizing Evidentia still pointed to it
From Evidentia’s perspective, the source record is still there, the attachment reference is still there — but the file it describes is not. Your database and your disk have quietly disagreed with each other, possibly for months.

The reverse problem also exists: orphaned files. These are files sitting in your Evidentia Records folder that no source or citation claims. Maybe they belonged to a record you later deleted. Maybe they were imported but never fully linked. They aren’t broken exactly — they just aren’t connected to anything.

The Attachment Audit Tool

Evidentia 3+ includes a built-in attachment audit that surfaces both kinds of drift at once. You’ll find it in the Record Library, in the toolbar: look for the Validate Attachments button.

When you open it, Evidentia runs two scans simultaneously — one checking every attachment reference in your database against the disk, and another walking your Records folder for files no record claims. Both scans run concurrently, so the wait is no longer than the slower of the two.

The Missing Tab: What to Do When a File Is Gone

If any missing files are found, the Missing tab opens by default. Each row shows you which source or citation owned the attachment, the filename Evidentia expected, and the path where it looked.

For each missing item, you have two options — covered below.

Browse or Remove — Which to Choose

Browse — Opens a file picker so you can locate the file wherever it ended up. When you find it, Evidentia re-attaches it to the original record and updates the path. The old dangling reference is cleared automatically.

Remove — Strips the reference from the record entirely. Use this when the file is genuinely gone and you’d rather have a clean record than a ghost pointer.

After either action, Evidentia re-scans automatically — the list stays current as you work through it.

The Orphans Tab: Files on Disk That No Record Claims

The second half of the attachment audit — the Orphans tab — lists files in your Records folder that aren’t referenced by any source or citation: filename, relative path, and file size.

Orphaned files won’t cause errors, but they do take up space, and they’re a sign that at some point a record was deleted without its attached files following along. What you do with them is your call: if you recognize a file, you may be able to re-attach it manually. If you don’t, it’s probably safe to remove it from disk yourself — the audit tool surfaces the list, but doesn’t delete anything for you.

One useful detail: if the Missing scan comes back clean but orphaned files exist, Evidentia automatically switches to the Orphans tab — so you see the most actionable information first.

How Often Should You Run It?

Think of it the way you think about backing up your database: not something you do after disaster strikes, but something you do regularly so you’re not headed toward disaster.

A few good triggers:
- After reorganizing your research folder structure
- After migrating to a new computer or switching cloud providers
- After migrating records from one database to another
- A few times a year as a routine check
An attachment audit with no findings takes about fifteen seconds. The peace of mind is free.

Good research practice means maintaining your evidence as carefully as you gather it — a commitment reflected in the Genealogical Proof Standard. Regular file audits are part of that same discipline.

Ready to try it? The Attachment Audit Tool is available in Evidentia 3+.

Download Evidentia 3+

— Ed Thompson / Evidentia Software
June 16, 2026
The Record Library: A Card Catalog for Your Research Files
If you’ve been doing this long enough, you know the feeling. You have the image of that 1880 census page. You scanned it yourself. It’s attached to your database somewhere. It’s just… not immediately obvious where.

The Record Library in Evidentia 3+ is built for exactly that moment. Think of it as the card catalog for your research files — every image, PDF, audio file, and document, all in one browsable, searchable, filterable view.

What You’re Looking At

When you open the Record Library, you see every attachment in your database laid out in front of you. Each file shows its thumbnail (or a file-type icon for non-image formats), its name, its category, and which source or citation it belongs to.

You can switch between grid view — the default, visual layout — and tree view, which organizes your files the same way your categories are organized: broad on the left, specific on the right. If you’ve spent time building a category structure like census.us.1880 or vital.birth.ma, the tree view makes it feel like a proper filing cabinet rather than a pile of thumbnails.

Five Filters, Working Together

Above the file grid, five independent filters let you narrow things down. You can use any combination:
- Search by name or parent — type any part of a filename, or the name of the source or citation it’s attached to
- Category — narrow down to a specific category or subtree
- File type — images, PDFs, audio, video, or other
- Attachment type — source attachment, citation attachment, or both
- Cloud provider — if you’re using cloud storage, filter by which provider the file lives on
Each filter takes effect immediately. The results update as you type.

What’s Inside a File
Double-click any file in the grid to open the File Detail dialog. This is where the Record Library goes from a browser to a genuinely useful research tool.

A full-size preview (or a download link for formats that don’t preview)
The file’s category
Its caption — which you can add or edit right here
The source or citation it’s attached to, with a link to open it directly
The cloud provider badge, if applicable
An Open in system app button

That last item matters more than it sounds. If you’re working with a multi-page PDF and want to actually read it, or an audio recording from a family interview, one click opens it in the right app without any hunting through your file system.
If You’re Coming from Evidentia 3

In Evidentia 3, the closest equivalent was the Document File Manager tab — the DFM. It showed you a list of file paths. You could confirm a file was attached and see where it lived on disk, but there was no browsing, no thumbnails, no filtering by anything.

The Record Library is a different tool entirely. Where the DFM gave you a location list, the Record Library gives you an interface for actually working with your files.

Getting the Most Out of the Record Librar

The Record Library gets more useful the more consistently you work. A few habits that pay off:
- Write captions when you attach a file. The caption shows in the detail dialog and helps you distinguish between twenty scans that are all named census-1880.jpg.
- Use descriptive category names. The tree view and category filter work best when your taxonomy is specific — census.us.1880 is far more useful than documents.
- Use “Open in system app” freely. There’s no need to hunt through your folders — let the Record Library hand the file to the right app.
New to Evidentia 3+?

Start with the step-by-step tutorial series before diving into the Record Library — it covers attaching files and setting up categories from scratch.

Ready to try Evidentia 3+?

Evidentia 3+ is available now in the store. If you’re not sure yet, the interest form is a good place to start — I use it to answer questions and send updates before you buy.

Download Free Trial

— Ed Thompson / Evidentia Software
June 9, 2026