Page Viewer broken

A.Nonymous

When will the Page Viewer in the Books section of the Library be fixed? I now get only black pages. Two weeks ago it was working perfectly.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

It's working for me. I just searched for a random book and it displayed fine. Windows 10 Chrome 98.

MaureenE123

I also get a blank screen.

In addition, to get to that blank screen, I had to sign in three times, one of which said "Bad Gateway". I had to sign in to FamilySeach, but that didn't carry across to the individual books, then I had to sign in again to access the book.

The second book I accessed a page briefly showed, the the screen went blank.

Possibly the blank screen for the book is browser related. I use an iMac with Safari, but not the most recent version.

Before the recent changes I was able to access books without problems.

Edit: Perhaps you could contact the Digital Library directly: DigitalLibrary@familysearch.org

A.Nonymous

It's not browser-related, I use Windows 10 and Chrome 98. I made contact with a live person at FS yesterday. She said this is a known problem, reported by many recently, and that they are working on a fix.

Thanks, though, for your comments and suggestion

A.Nonymous

N Tychonievich

@A.Nonymous Thank you for reporting the problems you have experiences using the Digital Library. Would you please provide us with a few more details? We'd like to report the problems to the engineers, but we need very specific examples. You let us know that you are using a Windows 10 computer and the Chrome browser. If you can give us more details, it would really be helpful:

• Go to familysearch.org/cookies and clear your FamilySearch cookies. Then sign in to FamilySearch again. Did that fix it?
• What is the title of the book?
• Did the problem of black pages happen as soon as you started using the Digital Library, or was it after you had been looking at books for a while?
• Did the system seem to work up to the point of the black pages? Search results load promptly and respond when you clicked to view inside, etc?
• Any other details you can provide would be really helpful. Thanks!

MaureenE123

I commented recently on another topic "Software Problems with Digital Library Upgrade!" about my recent experience with the Digital Library

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/428013#Comment_428013

and another one "Content won't load"

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/427998/#Comment_427998

Using iMac Safari Version 12.1.2 (12607.3.10) which I know is probably not recent enough for FamilySearch, but was perfectly OK prior to current changes to the Digital Library.

MaureenE123

@N Tychonievich Attempted to comment, then edited a typo and entire comment has vanished

But briefly,

also see https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/428013/#Comment_428013 and

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/427998#Comment_427998

I Mac, Safari, not latest version, but worked perfectly OK prior to recent Digital Library changes.

N Tychonievich

@MaureenE123 How close to the latest version of Safari are you using? From what I see in Wikipedia, Safari 15.2 is the current version. FamilySearch supports the current version and one version back from it.

MaureenE123

@N Tychonievich Version 12.1.2 (12607.3.10) which I am pretty sure is older than than the latest two. I did look at upgrading, but there was some problem (which I can't quite recall) about which I felt I needed advice. What with changed conditions for covid...

MaureenE123

Perhaps the problem has been fixed, as I was able to read a book in the Digital Library just now without problem, looking at a book someone mentioned in another Discussion

www.familysearch.org/library/books/idviewer/299723/1

A.Nonymous

Thanks for your comments! I'm working other directions today but will check on status of the Library soon.

Melissa S Himes

12 is the latest version of Mac OS - it is also known as Monterey, Safari is up to 15.2

Laura Nygaard

I have not been getting anything but black pages for 2 weeks.

I have a mac and it is up to date. Says it is OS 10.15.7 and up to date. Safari is 15.6.1

Very frustrating when doing research.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@Laura Nygaard, does clearing your FS-related saved files (cache and cookies) help?

I haven't used the Books section much, but I have noticed that I need to repeat my commands/actions: when I first follow a Books link in a browser session, it goes to the landing/general page, not the book that the link is for. Does reloading the page do anything when you get nothing but black? Also, if your pointer isn't right over a next/previous arrow, then there is no arrow, so I wonder if there's a similarly-hidden pixel somewhere that could clear up black pages.

MaureenE123

Since my comments in 2022 I have upgraded my I Mac and now have MacOSMonterey 12.6.3 and Safari 16.3.

I was able to access two digital books without problems, one each using both Safari and Chrome, although it seemed to me the pages using Safari took longer to load.

I think my upgrades are more recent than @Laura Nygaard perhaps her problems are related to the versions she has.

Perhaps Laura could try downloading the book

Melissa S Himes

I think she has Catalina 10.15.7. That was the last update for Catalina in 2022. There are three new Operating Systems since that one; Big Sur (11), Monteray (12), and Ventura (13). Safari is currently Version 16.6. Family Search fully supports the "previous and current version" of most browsers including the Apple Safari browser. So, it should be supporting 16.6 and 15.6, but, it might not work with Catalina. Depending on the age of your Mac, you might be able to upgrade at least to Big Sur and Safari 16.6.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/which-internet-browsers-are-compatible

I would definitely clear the cookies and your cache if you haven't tried that.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-delete-all-of-the-cookies-and-temporary-files-stored-by-my-internet-browser