# Multi Media referencing in moving back to Linux **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Tags:** media-records, data-recovery\ **Created:** [April 15, 2024, 6:46am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268 "2024-04-15T06:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Paul](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Paul)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 6:46am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/1 "2024-04-15T06:46:26Z")
Gramp 5.2.1 I’m moving my data from Windows to Linux. All went well but the many hundreds of media references did not work. I have changed the Media base in preferences and tried the media reference in Tools but neither worked ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/2 "2024-04-15T15:52:34Z")
Hi Paul, Good to see you here too, and [please check my reply on the list](https://sourceforge.net/p/gramps/mailman/gramps-users/thread/bf8b2efd-bda1-42d1-9474-bed6bb89658a%40iinet.net.au/#msg58760284). Changing paths is easy if you see the logic behind it, but it’s almost impossible to help you with that without some real data. Enno ---
**Author:** ![Paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Paul](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Paul)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 10:41pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/3 "2024-04-15T22:41:50Z")
See my two answers in my email Thank you for your assistance ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/4 "2024-04-16T14:02:35Z")
Hi Paul, When I look at these, the paths are quite a mess, and it looks like this mess is caused by Gramps, which is why I reply here, so that others can comment on it too. I see Windows drive letters in those paths, and the full paths seem to be inside the grampsdb folder, and that is very weird. If you still have access to the Windows version of your tree, I suggest that you set the base path there to your media folder, whatever that is, and then use the media manager to convert all absolute paths to relative ones. The effect of that is that the individual media paths stored in Gramps, which you can see in the media category, don’t start with something like C:\Users\Paul anymore. It also helps to avoid creating backups with media. They seem to make things easier at first sight, because you can just transfer one big file to the new machine or OS, but they have a nasty effect on the restore process, because Gramps creates a .media folder named after the backup file, where it stores all restored media files. It does that to prevent overwriting existing files, which is good, but it also results in very long paths, which can be quite awkward on the long term. And if you already backed up your Documents and Pictures folders, and transfered those to the new OS, you get a lot of duplicates, which are a waste of time and space. IMO, life is much easier if you use a baclup without media. When you restore that, and have relative paths, all you need to do is change the base path on Linux, so that it points to the location where you restored your media. Please let us know whether this works for you. Enno ---
**Author:** ![Paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Paul](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Paul)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 7:22am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/5 "2024-04-19T07:22:25Z")
This issue is now solved and should be closed ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 12:32pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/6 "2024-04-19T12:32:52Z")
I can’t close it, but you can mark one message, like my earlier answer, as a solution. ---
**Author:** ![Nick-Hall](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/nick-hall/32/95_2.png) [@Nick-Hall](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Nick-Hall)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 1:15pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/multi-media-referencing-in-moving-back-to-linux/5268/7 "2024-04-19T13:15:48Z")
Closed on April 19, 2024, 1:15pm UTC