Jerry Bryan

If you open an RM database with the RM program, then the RM program will write into the database even you never change any actual data. You will not be able to look at the data with the RM program unless the RM program has read/write access to it.

Robert's suggestion to make a copy that you mark read-only is your best best. Then you can look at the copy that's still marked read/write. If ever you change it by accident, you can then delete the read/write copy, make a second copy from the read-only copy, and mark one of the two copies read/write again.

Jerry

I agree that dragging a complete folder or multiple images into Media "Gallery" is not so beneficial as they do then need to be tagged.

It may just be terminology, but when this question is asked my sense is that users wish to drag and drop dozens or hundreds of files into RM at the same time. That's where I don't see the benefit because of all the subsequent tagging that's required.

Jerry

It's been a while since I've done it and I don't remember the details. But the basic idea is that you have two windows open side by side. One window is Windows File Explorer, opened to the folder containing the files you wish to link into RM. The other window is RM open to the RM Media Gallery. You may have to resize the windows to make them both fit on the screen at the same time. Then just drag and drop the files from Windows File Explorer to the RM Media Gallery.

Some RM users love this facility. I confess I have never quite seen the benefit. The reason is that getting the files linked into RM's Media Gallery doesn't seem to me to accomplish very much. You still have to tag the files to specific objects in RM such as People, Names, Sources, Citations, Events, and Places. And it's the latter task that's more time consuming. So I usually just use RM's Add process to the files directly to People, Names, Sources, Citations, Events, and Places. The Add process serves the dual process linking the files into the RM Media Gallery and tagging the files to the appropriate People, Names, etc. in RM. It's one file at a  time. But after a bulk drag and drop of files into RM's Media Gallery, each file still has to be tagged to the appropriate places in RM, one file at a time.

Jerry

I think the best way to think about it is what if you weren't at the wedding, but one of your cousins was and your cousin sent you an email or text or Facebook message or something like that with information about the wedding. How would you cite the information in that case?

There are probably several different reasonable answers to that question. But whatever the answer is for the cousin is really the same answer for yourself. So "write yourself an email", either literally or figuratively and cite that information with your name the same way you would cite it with your cousin's name.

Jerry

Inside the RM App on iPhone select File>Dropbox and your file should be there is you already uploaded it. 

Indeed, if that's the way you moved the file to your iPhone, out don't even need your iPhone to get the file back. It should still be on Dropbox. Re-install Dropbox on your machine with the reformatted hard disk, using the same Dropbox account. Within the Dropbox folder, go to the Apps folder, and within the Apps folder go to the RootsMagic folder. Your RM database should be there.

Jerry