Ancestry is being strange

[jorghes]

Is anyone else having these problems with Ancestry?

Suddenly Ancestry is forgetting that I have a full subscription and half the time will bring up the "buy a subscription" page every time I click on a link...

It's been happening all day and clicking every link about three times before Ancestry remembers I have a subscription is getting old fast.

Anyone else suffering?

 

[Tim]

Afraid so. And other things, when you're on a person and click search, it goes to a generic search asking you to input data instead of just searching with the data from the person you're on.

 

[jorghes]

Luckily I haven't tried that one! I've just been attempting to get through my hints.

Although before that it was simply refusing to follow the link through... kept going to a "can't do this" page, and I had to repeat every click.

 

[peter]

I haven't had any of those problems, but I've had the 'data unavailable' (or similar message come up quite a few times recently). It reminds of the old FamilySearch website, which was frequently overloaded.

The reload button often solves the problem first time, but sometimes it requires more patience. It might be worth trying one of the other Ancestry sites - I'm not sure whether they all share the same servers.

 

[Chris from Stansted]

Just had this message from Ancestry.

My name is Audrey and I am a Directly Ancestry Expert. I will be happy to assist you with your question!

I am so sorry for the inconvenience. This is a widespread problem that is affecting many users and Ancestry is working to resolve it. Hopefully things will be restored very quickly.

Thank you for your patience. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[PhoebeW]

I had lost access for over a week. I found that I could access records through Chrome. The Directly Ancestry Experts are saying that Ancestry recommends using either Chrome or Safari for the best experience.

 

[jorghes]

Well, it seems to have fixed itself whatever was going on. Keeping my fingers crossed however!

 

[Bob Spiers]

I recall reading postings about Ancestry when I had nothing to contribute. But things have changed as now Ancestry is giving me problems when it refuses to open when I click on its pinned tab after non use for just an hour, and always when opening next day. It reports 'cant reach this page' each time and rarely responds when refreshed.

The only thing to do is to search anew for Ancestry.Co.Uk and that causes further angst as every 'Ancestry' lookalike and his dog vies for attention (reminds me of the Donkey in 'Shrek' shouting "pick me, pick me"). I refer to the like of My Heritage 'Free Ancestry Site' and even FMP touting 'Discover your Ancestry'...so I have to seek the 'Ancestry -Official site'. Sometimes this shows clearly and other times it require a re-search before being found.

So am I alone in this or is everyone suffering the same?

 

[peter]

The only thing to do is to search anew for Ancestry.Co.Uk

Why do you have to search for Ancestry - just type ancestry.co.uk into the command line of any half decent browser and it will take you straight there.

I have noticed that some pages time out - but it doesn't apply to all pages. I imagine this is intended to prevent out of date information being displayed.

 

[Susan]

Or bookmark Ancestry and just click on the bookmark.

 

[Chris from Stansted]

I had not logged into Ancestry for a few days but today I received a number of emails from Ancestry regarding tree access. When I logged into Ancestry I have unread messages regarding others giving me access to their trees dated up to 5 days ago. It appears that Ancestry’s has an issues with notifications as those emails should have arrived days ago. I check my email frequently and have been receiving emails without issue, no issue with my email service. When access to a private tree is given Ancestry sends an email with link to that tree, it is these email notifications that have been delayed.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Why do you have to search for Ancestry - just type ancestry.co.uk into the command line of any half decent browser and it will take you straight there.

Well in a way that is what I am having to do, when before Ancestry was one of two tabs set to open when the Browser is actioned. In other words they are pre-sets! ..'choose what to do when the Browser opens'. I have different pre-sets on different devices, and for that matter different Browsers. On the device in question the other pre-set is for my bank, and that opens correctly. So QED Ancestry is defaulting.

I have now changed the pre-set from 'a specific page or pages' (Ancestry/Bank) to 'Previous pages' which 'should' again be Ancestry & Bank by default (because they will always have been opened previously) but will now include any other tab that remained open at close down. Will see if that works, but as other pre-set tabs open correctly, again I ask why not Ancestry?

Or bookmark Ancestry and just click on the bookmark.

It is a while since I used Bookmarks and nowadays I only set a Bookmark for a web site that I think may come in useful at a later point (e-Greeting cards spring to mind). All regular sites, especially genealogical ones, are on pre-set. I suppose it might be quicker to have Ancestry bookmarked even if only to speed things up.

 

[PhilGee]

It is a while since I used Bookmarks and nowadays I only set a Bookmark for a web site that I think may come in useful at a later point (e-Greeting cards spring to mind). All regular sites, especially genealogical ones, are on pre-set. I suppose it might be quicker to have Ancestry bookmarked even if only to speed things up.

I prefer to access websites when I want and not open multiple pages I probably will not use in many sessions (just as I find HTML emails totally unnecessary, just provide a link to all the garbage, so that I can easily ignore it ).

The alternative I find useful is the "bookmarks toolbar" (or "favourites bar"?), where I have a mix of single web-sites (FMP, Ancestry etc) and drop-down folders ("County BMD", "Lost Cousins" and "DNA", for example). That way I can easily find a commonly used links or even "middle click" the LC folder and open all the included links in tabs

Phil

 

[jorghes]

I have noticed a few more "page needs reloading" errors of late.

But really, my problems have shifted from Ancestry to FTM.

 

[Britjan]

I'm surprised that many people don't use book marks as a giant filing cabinet !! I use the search function on Google Chrome History as well if I haven't thought to book mark a site before leaving it. I'm also using Google drive to paste quotes etc into existing documents. That way I can quickly add a new entry to my "phrase origin" file for example and share it with a family member. The phrase that started it all was "damn with faint praise".

 

[Bob Spiers]

Just thought I would add that since I dabbled with start-up tabs, changing to 'open as previous' - which worked but became too overcrowded for my liking - I went back to specific tabs (Ancestry & the Bank as before)...would you believe (yes you would), Ancestry has not defaulted since. Fingers crossed it will remain so.