# Can't set default image viewer **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [February 8, 2024, 11:10am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831 "2024-02-08T11:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@JohnH](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/JohnH)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 11:10am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/1 "2024-02-08T11:10:56Z")
I’ve installed Gramps 5.1.6 on my Arch Linux aging 64-bit PC and uploaded my tree (about 2000 people, lots of BMD certificates, travel records, photos, etc). I was hoping to see some of them but from dawn to dusk I’ve tried in vain to get a single picture. What I get in the gallery is a row (0, 1, several) of little rectangles with red crosses and if I click them, a terminal (kitty). I’ve installed libgexiv2 and python-pillow. I’m baffled by the media manager tool. I succeeded in setting the path for most of the media to the directory where the tree is and for those items I get a thumbnail and activating I do get Pinta, as I want. But my problem is the ones with red crosses and no path data. Well I managed to set the path data, but instead of all thumbnails they’re aa red crosses now. I’m exhausted now. Try again tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![DaveSch](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/davesch/32/40_2.png) [@DaveSch](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/DaveSch)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/2 "2024-02-09T17:22:07Z")
Welcome I am not a Linux user so always reluctant to wade in. But let’s see if I can help. You indicate that you _uploaded_ your database. I assume you imported the database. Two questions. 1. What program did you use to create your database? 2. What method did you use to move the database into Gramps? Imported a GEDCOM file? The red X icon indicates that Gramps is not seeing/finding the raw image file on your hard drive. Gramps only stores the path to the raw file. And if the path field is empty it is obvious that Gramps has nothing to use to find the file. [Media Manager](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_Tools#Media_Manager) only works when the media record’s Path field has information to manipulate. Your [Preferences](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_Settings#Preferences) (menu Edit \>\> Preferences) can store the Base relative media path. I am on Win10 and mine is `c:\users\public\Genealogy\Media`. All my media files for Gramps are stored in various sub-folders in Media. Gramps will store only the sub-folders and file name in the media record’s path field stripping out `c:\users\public\Genealogy\Media`. ---
**Author:** ![JohnH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@JohnH](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/JohnH)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/3 "2024-02-10T04:21:08Z")
Thanks for your response, Dave. By “uploaded” I did indeed mean “imported”. In fact when I imported the db there was a message box that said 32000 errors like “line not understood” and I assumed that might be something to do with the “OBJE @[key]@” and following \_type, \_width and what not lines in the gedcom file. So I was pleasantly surprised to see my tree in apparent working order. I know that being a text file the gedcom can only store indexes to media in some collection such as a gallery on AncestryDNA website (the origin of that tree). Therefore I couldn’t expect to see photos. However I was hopeful of BMD and Census records and other data in the public domain having indexes accessible by Gramps. When I upload gedcom files among online companies like MyHeritage, FindMyPast, etc these are usually ok and it’s only media I lose. So I started storing some locally. It’s a question of setting a base pointer in Gramps preferences and then fine tuning. Hopefully you could set the media path for a lot of records at one time. I find however this doesn’t seem to be the Gramps design. Not only can’t I use any wild card symbols like \* or ^ in pattern-matching but it seems I can only do one at a time. Gramps is probably designed to build a tree from scratch, rather than manipulate blocs of hundreds of records. I tried again with an FMP tree (only 10000 lines not recognised by parser) and once again the repositories include the ones the BMD records originate from. No way to see them, though. My sister says I should get “Family Tree Maker” and they synchronise with Ancestry so you can download your media any time. Well there was a discussion of gedcomx at one time and I thought Gramps might be using that but I couldn’t import an xml file. Thanks for help, Dave. Cheers, John Hendry. ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/4 "2024-02-10T13:32:10Z")
> [@JohnH](#): > > Not only > can’t I use any wild card symbols like \* or ^ in pattern-matching but > it seems I can only do one at a time. Use the RegEx ([Regular Expressions](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_Filters#Regular_Expressions)) switch in the Filters gramplet to use pattern matching. If you want to do changes en masse, you probably want to try out the SuperTool addon. There are also addon Media tools for resolving paths to media objects on local drives and [another for downloading media objects](https://www.gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Addon:DownloadMedia) with URLs. (You’ll want to set your “relative media path” in Preferences before downloading.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@JohnH](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/JohnH)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/5 "2024-02-11T12:20:13Z")
Thanks for your advice, Brian: I did try checking the Regex box but that filter doesn’t seem to have any effect on the media displayed. For instance I put “O00\*” in ID to test whether it would filter media with ID beginning wiyh O then 2 zeros, but no effect. I was able to filter citations a bit but it claimed no matches a couple of times when there definitely were (filtering on ID). ``` What I don't understand is how this gedcom, which I downloaded ``` from AncestryDNA, has a whole heap of BMD and Census sources with different titles, but I can’t see any of these records, not even my own. In my case I noticed “records not imported into INDI @ID@:…” and then several lines not understood, all of the form \_CRP, \_LEFT 8, etc. When including phantom media, the gedcom depicts them as “OBJE @ID@” followed by several attributes of the form \_ABCD [value] and I guess the underscores don’t parse. ``` It wouldn't surprise me that Ancestry would be reluctant to ``` share some sources. Gramps seems to be capable of reasonable charts with dates but I do like to see these travel records. Still learning Gramps, thanks for a helping hand, Brian. ``` John Hendry ``` ---
**Author:** ![JohnH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@JohnH](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/JohnH)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/6 "2024-02-13T05:46:24Z")
Has anyone successfully installed this plugin? I tried with and without PG running. Didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/2ac1e712b7adf612e31ca08a55419f4cf37c0158.png) [@system](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/cant-set-default-image-viewer/4831/7 "2024-03-14T05:46:47Z")
Closed on March 14, 2024, 5:46am UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.