# Running gramps on live data/installed version with main/debug

**URL:** <https://gramps.discourse.group/t/running-gramps-on-live-data-installed-version-with-main-debug/9845>\
**Category:** Development\
**Tags:** data-import\
**Created:** [August 15, 2026, 12:52pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/running-gramps-on-live-data-installed-version-with-main-debug/9845 "2026-08-15T12:52:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dicaveman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/dicaveman/32/9710_2.png) [@dicaveman](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/dicaveman)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2026, 12:52pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/running-gramps-on-live-data-installed-version-with-main-debug/9845/1 "2026-08-15T12:52:34Z")

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Running Windows/latest (installed) vs git/main (debug/development)

I am running debug using vscode as a “gramps” user from my repo to isolate any local/database interaction between my debug sessions and just working on my family tree. Of course there was once where I forgot to run my “run as user” script to start vscode, and I totally scrogged my main family tree file. It was a painful recovery, as _none_ of the gramps recovery options worked, it did not even detect that anything was wrong with the scrogged entry.

But I now have several new features that I wish to utilize on my personal family tree. So I export to a .ged file as my regular user, copy that to my gramps user, import and go to town. I am adding media files to my development interest next, so I am planning to keep a directory at the top level of my hard disk (C:\family\_tree\_pics), which I hate, but realize it’s likely the easiest path forward.

Anyway, I was interested to know how other developers manage this aspect of development.

A side-question would be - I see references to multimedia, gallery and thumbnails, so what are they used for if you can’t display them in the reports?

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/2ac1e712b7adf612e31ca08a55419f4cf37c0158.png) [@system](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/running-gramps-on-live-data-installed-version-with-main-debug/9845/2 "2026-09-14T12:53:35Z")

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