Why are some of the Memories in My Gallery missing?

During a recent, routine data backup, we inadvertently deleted some Memories from the FamilySearch archive. Unfortunately, a small percentage of the deleted Memories could not be fully restored. The basic information for each Memory, like the title and description, was recovered, but the files and some text are no longer available. We are sorry for any trouble this mistake may cause. Rest assured that we have instituted new safeguards to make sure it never happens again.

How to recover your Memories

We've created a Memories Recovery tool that shows which Memories were lost. It provides a way for you to restore what's missing and link it to any details we were able to recover. You can get to the tool by following the link in the notice at the top of your Gallery, or on the individual page for each missing Memory. These links will be available as long as you have Memories in your Gallery that have not been restored or deleted.

Note: If you don’t see a notice in your Gallery about missing Memories you don’t need to do anything. Your Memories were not impacted by the data loss.

About the Memories Recovery Tool

Here is a summary of the key features of the recovery tool.

Dashboard

The Memories Restoration dashboard shows a list of all the missing Memories for the signed-in user. The dashboard includes:

• An itemized list of each missing Memory along with any associated information that had been added, like title or description.
• A status bar that shows restoration progress.
• Filter chips to show “missing memories” and “restored memories.”
• A toggle to group missing items by person or Memory.

From the dashboard, you can restore image or document files, add missing text to stories, or permanently delete the details about the missing Memory. The two main features you will use are Edit and Delete.

Edit/Upload

Each Memory listed within the dashboard will have either an upload or edit option depending on whether it is a story or image/document. Use this to restore what was lost and reunite the details with the Memory they belong to.

Keep in mind, the replacement image or document must be in the same file format as the lost item. So, if the original upload was a JPEG, the replacement you upload as part of the restoration process must also be a JPEG. You can use photo editing software to save files in the appropriate format.

TIP: If you are not sure where a photo or document is located on your computer or device, try using your system's file-exploring app (e.g. Windows File Explorer, or Finder on Mac) to search for the missing item using the original file name.

Delete

If you don’t have the original file or if you don’t want to restore one of the missing Memories, you can simply delete the Memory details from FamilySearch using the delete button. This action is permanent and, once deleted, the data cannot be recovered. This is the best course of action if what was lost is a duplicate of another item in Memories.