Evidentia Portability

[A guest post from one of our sponsors, Evidentia Software]

Evidentia Software is the software program that makes it easy to collect information, analyze evidence, highlight missed connections and feel confident with your conclusions. It is also a proud sponsor of the podcast.

A frequent question that Ed Thompson, the designer behind Evidentia, gets in the Evidentia support forums is “Where is my file?”

This is usually submitted by someone who needs to move their data from one device to another. The assumption is that there is a single database file that has all their Evidentia data. While some genealogy software is designed that way, in Evidentia the data is stored in one or more hidden files. The reason is simple: that’s the way the software that Evidentia is built on works.

However, that doesn’t answer the user's real question, which is “how do I move my Evidentia data from device A to device B?”

For that, there is a simple process - Backup/Restore.  

1.   Navigate to the Database screen at Settings>Database.

2.   Make sure the database you want to copy is selected.

3.   Select Backup and note the location you choose to save the file.

At this point you have a portable file. This file can be transferred to another device and then the reverse process can be used to restore it.

1.   Navigate to the Database screen on the new device.

2.   Select an existing database or create a new one.

3.   Select Restore and browse to the file you previously created.

You can also restore the backup to a new database on the same device. You might want to do this to share citations, or to experiment with reorganizing your data.

"What if I want to use a laptop and a desktop and keep the data in sync?"

For this Ed recommends using a Dropbox account. You can get one for free, and the process of using Evidentia and Dropbox together is documented in the help guide here. Just open the guide and search for Dropbox.

Ed Thompson is the designer behind Evidentia. He loves researching ancestors, spending time with his two boys and his wife of 30+ years.  He especially likes spending time with his new grandson. Feel free to drop Ed a line on the Evidentia website