Ancestry Image Problem

[Tim]

Well, I'm keeping everything crossed, but I think I may finally have made some progress. I've just spent nearly an hour on the phone to Ancestry, and was eventually able to speak to someone in the customer help team with authority to try and replicate the issue there and then - and he managed to do so! So he's now going to refer it back to technical support and will report back to me tomorrow.

Err, is it tomorrow yet?

 

[Pauline]

Err, is it tomorrow yet?

Tomorrow never comes, you know ....

Somewhat to my surprise I did get a call back more or less when promised, and have had another update since. I am assured that the issue is being investigated by the developers as a high priority, although there is no sign of it being fixed as yet.

To solve the problem from my point of view, all that's needed is for one digit to be changed in one javascript file, but of course I have no idea what other consequences that change might have. Hopefully the developers will know why they designed two different Save button menus and why they used screen resolution to determine which one you get, although my experience so far with Ancestry makes me feel like I shouldn't bank on that.

Incidentally, I see that in the last couple of days, Ancestry have updated their list of recommended browsers to exclude all versions of IE except version 11 (although elsewhere they say the site only works properly with IE 11 when used in compatibility mode). I don't know if this is connected, and am hoping it doesn't mean they are going to try and claim that the issue is being caused by IE10 rather than fixing it.

 

[Pauline]

Just to add to what I wrote above, am I correct in thinking that it is inconsistent for Ancestry to say that the "site is optimized to perform best on ......... Internet Explorer 11" and also to have an article on "Making Ancestry compatible with Internet Explorer 11"? I always thought compatibility view was for when sites were not optimised for that version of IE.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Yes those statements are inconsistent and your idea of compatibility view is correct. Incidentally they will have to do something soon as yesterday was Patch Tuesday and Microsoft have now flagged IE11 as a critical update which means it will get installed by default by windows updates as opposed to the user having to opt to be updated.

 

[Tim]

Big Brother is watching your Windows!

 

[Pauline]

Incidentally they will have to do something soon as yesterday was Patch Tuesday

Isn't it next Tuesday? I haven't had any notifications of Windows updates yet this month - and it has checked today.

and Microsoft have now flagged IE11 as a critical update which means it will get installed by default by windows updates as opposed to the user having to opt to be updated.

Unless you have the relevant box unticked .....

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Good point it should be the second Tuesday of the month odd that there were 9 updates this morning!! Due to that fact I'd just assumed yesterday was patch Tuesday. However it isn't that's next Tuesday 13th May.

What I did note is that IE11 is now critical update, and as I say will be installed by default. As you say Pauline a user would have to specifically untick the box to avoid it being installed. I can't see any good reason to avoid it though. However the vast majority of people would just find it auto updates when they reboot their machine. Very few would look at what is being updated and choose to untick a box.

NB. this is only for Windows 7 and above users. XP users will never get any more updates and vista users are stuck on IE9 although that will be updated for the next year or so.

 

[Tim]

Poor old XP, I'll miss you

 

[Bob Spiers]

Incidentally, I see that in the last couple of days, Ancestry have updated their list of recommended browsers to exclude all versions of IE except version 11 (although elsewhere they say the site only works properly with IE 11 when used in compatibility mode). I don't know if this is connected, and am hoping it doesn't mean they are going to try and claim that the issue is being caused by IE10 rather than fixing it.

Rather strange reading that because on a whim recently I decided to upgrade to IE11 on my secondary PC and that is the one I always use to view Ancestry but not in compatibility mode. I have not had a problem so far (Pauline's dilemma aside) but was not aware that IE11 was now their preferred version. On the other hand no surprise either as I recall being told by them when reporting some technical problem in the past that they could only advise on the performance/response of Ancestry if used with Microsoft Internet Explorer. They were most unhelpful at my suggestion that perhaps the problem would go away if I used Firefox or Chrome.

I am the first to admit that some sites (the Forum for one) can give problems in IE11, and these mostly go away in compatibility mode, or rejecting the upgrade and reverting to 10 which I have done on my main computer. I accept many use either Firefox or Chrome and I have uses for both but mainly as they offer multiple browser choice which -like second monitors - are a great boon. For me however IE with a Windows computer will always be my default browser if for no other reason than that seems to be default recommendation of most software developers. But each to his own

 

[Pauline]

Good point it should be the second Tuesday of the month odd that there were 9 updates this morning!! Due to that fact I'd just assumed yesterday was patch Tuesday. However it isn't that's next Tuesday 13th May.

What I did note is that IE11 is now critical update, and as I say will be installed by default.

Which version of Windows is this? I'm on 7, and I haven't been offered any updates today. Also, IE11 is still showing as optional rather than critical.

 

[Bryman]

I thought ALL versions of IE were updated a few days ago (including for XP !!!!) due to a severe exposure.
I heard that US Homeland Security advised everyone to stop using IE until fixed.
I use Firefox and my copy of IE was auto updated but only as Important rather than Critical.

 

[Pauline]

I thought ALL versions of IE were updated a few days ago (including for XP !!!!) due to a severe exposure.

Yes, I got this security update for all IE versions about a week ago (including IE8 on XP), but it's the upgrade to IE11 that is still showing up as an optional update for me. Currently I'm still using IE10.

 

[Pauline]

Rather strange reading that because on a whim recently I decided to upgrade to IE11 on my secondary PC and that is the one I always use to view Ancestry but not in compatibility mode. I have not had a problem so far (Pauline's dilemma aside) but was not aware that IE11 was now their preferred version.

There do seem to be a number of inconsistencies in the Ancestry Help articles, so it's not impossible that compatibility mode is no longer needed with IE11.

It's their article on "Recommended web browsers" which now includes only v.11 of IE, but in "Optimizing your Ancestry experience" they are still saying the site is "optimized to perform best on ... Internet Explorer versions 9, 10, 11 ...". Both articles were last updated on the same day.

The Optimizing article still includes something about listing Ancestry as a trusted site, and that ceased to be necessary a couple of years ago when they stopped using the previous image viewer that had to be installed separately. So who knows what is current and what isn't?

Still no fix on the Save button menu issue.

 

[Pauline]

Somewhat to my surprise I did get a call back more or less when promised, and have had another update since. I am assured that the issue is being investigated by the developers as a high priority, although there is no sign of it being fixed as yet.

Nothing further from Ancestry and still no sign of a fix so we emailed for an update, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just being led up the garden path. Today's update is that the issue has gone to the development team "for review" and that they can't give an estimated time for resolution since the issue is not being reported elsewhere.

To me this seems suspiciously like I'm being told no one is currently doing anything to fix this, and that as I am supposedly the only one reporting it, they don't know when - or maybe even if - anyone ever will.

The long delay for a fix might not be so bad if the inferior "Save image" function was a bit more efficient. It works (as I've mentioned before) by opening the image in a pop-up window from where you can then save it to computer by right-clicking. However, the more you try this the more you discover that it's somewhat hit and miss as to whether the image actually loads into this pop-up window, and sometimes you just have to keep on trying until it does.

 

[Bryman]

Once again, I suggest that if any other members can reproduce this problem then it would be helpful if they also report it so that Pauline is not seen by Ancestry as the only person affected. A few more disgruntled users might just prod them into life in the belief that this is a growing problem which will not quietly go away.

 

[Jean999]

I use the Library Edition of Ancestry in various locations. I have found that I have recently had to change the way I save images.

When viewing an image, there is a pull down menu called "Tools".

If you are having problems saving an image, try selecting "Use the Basic Viewer". This seems to work for me.

 

[Pauline]

I use the Library Edition of Ancestry in various locations. I have found that I have recently had to change the way I save images.

When viewing an image, there is a pull down menu called "Tools".

If you are having problems saving an image, try selecting "Use the Basic Viewer". This seems to work for me.

I did try this a while back and have just tried it again, but unfortunately it doesn't change anything - I still get the Save menu with "Save image" rather than "Save to your computer".

But thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Jean999]

There is always another way to save the images from Ancestry.

Select "Use the Basic Viewer" as I suggested above.

The right click on the image and select "Save Picture As".

If you forget to select the Basic Viewer you only get a section of the image saved.

 

[Pauline]

There is always another way to save the images from Ancestry.

Select "Use the Basic Viewer" as I suggested above.

The right click on the image and select "Save Picture As".

If you forget to select the Basic Viewer you only get a section of the image saved.

I think I may have done this previously but it's not working now despite switching to the basic viewer - maybe it is different in the Library Edition.

Also, the images are lower quality in the basic viewer - or at least they used to be.

 

[Pauline]

I'm not sure quite what is going on with this Save issue at Ancestry. I've been checking more or less daily and I'm still getting the "Save image" option rather than the normal "Save to your computer" and customer support say they still cannot give any idea how soon the issue might be fixed.

Then yesterday I needed to save a couple of images, so I clicked on "Save image" and the usual IE10 dialogue about pop-ups appeared at the bottom of the screen. However, as I moved my cursor down to click to allow the pop-up, the IE Save/Open dialogue suddenly appeared as well and from there I was able to download the image to my default downloads folder just as I always used to.

I tried this several times and the same thing kept happening. And later in the day I tried the same thing in Firefox (with XP) where it started to open the pop-up in a new tab, and then suddenly the Save/Open dialogue appeared and again I was able to download the image normally.

So although my middle save option was still "Save image" I was able to download images normally - or if I'd chosen to, I could have opened them in my default image viewer instead.

But today it's gone back to just opening up a pop-up window again and I can't get the Save/Open dialogue to appear.