Upload Readiness Checker
Before you spend an hour watching a FamilySearch upload fail, hang, or silently drop data, this tool checks your GEDCOM file against every documented limit and known failure pattern we could find — and tells you specifically what to fix.
Runs in your browser · nothing is uploaded
Drop your GEDCOM file here
Everything happens inside your browser — the file is never uploaded, and we never see it.
Choose a fileWhat this tool does
Most GEDCOM upload failures on FamilySearch come down to a small set of causes: file size, individual count, and structural problems inside the file itself — broken references between family and individual records, or encoding issues that garble names. FamilySearch documents almost none of this clearly, and when an upload fails, the error you get back is rarely specific enough to act on.
This tool parses your file locally, checks it against the real thresholds we researched and cited in FamilySearch GEDCOM Size and Individual Limits: What We Found, and gives you a plain-language report — not a generic pass or fail, but something like "your file is 163 MB with roughly 130,000 individuals; files this large have been reported to fail on FamilySearch's importer, here's what to do about it."
Who this is for
Anyone with a family tree large enough that a FamilySearch upload has already failed, or anyone who wants to check before attempting one for the first time — particularly if your tree has grown past a few hundred individuals, the point where FamilySearch's own documentation stops giving clear guidance.
What happens after a diagnosis
If your file is flagged as a size or count risk, the report links directly into the Tree Splitter, so fixing the problem doesn't mean starting a separate research project — diagnosis and fix are one continuous flow.
Common questions
- Does this tool upload my GEDCOM file anywhere?
- No. The file is read and parsed entirely in your browser using JavaScript running on your own device. It is never sent to our servers or any third party. See our Privacy Policy for full detail.
- What exactly does it check?
- File size against FamilySearch's documented 100 MB cap, individual count against the patterns of risk described in our research, and structural issues in the file itself — such as broken references between records — that are known to cause upload problems independent of size.
- What do I do if my file is flagged as high-risk?
- The checker hands off directly into the Tree Splitter, so you can extract a smaller, valid subset of your tree — direct ancestors, a specific branch, or everyone born after a given year — without starting from scratch in your genealogy software.
- Will this guarantee my upload succeeds on FamilySearch?
- No tool can guarantee that, since FamilySearch doesn't publish every rule its importer applies. What this tool does is check your file against every documented limit and every well-evidenced failure pattern we could find, so you're not uploading blind.