Trouble logging in on an iPhone
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Hello, Anitra Whittle, or Community,
Your Community Help reply on January 28, 2021, to Wanda, regarding her inability to use her FamilySearch Login and Password on her iPhone, is similar to my question.
1) Does FamilySearch continue to not support their product on iPhones or mobile phones in general?
2) When I took your advice on *deleting the app on my iPhone and then reinstalling the app from the app store, to fix the Login and Password, I received a message similar to this: Delete the app from the homepage and the app will still be in my app list OR Delete the app altogether and you will lose all of your data. To clear up any iPhone/FamilySearch issues, wouldn't Deleting the app altogether (on my iPhone) be the correct choice ... OR by deleting the app altogether on my iPhone cause ALL of my Tree Data and Account to disappear on my laptop as well? 3) Earlier this year when I had Logins and Passwords not working on my iPhone and I kept at it for what seemed like a long time, the FamilySearch Software (instinctively or because I’d been trying so hard for so long) *created a SECOND Account for me. Not knowing it was a SECOND Account, I was just happy to be able to work on my Tree on my iPhone, again. It was later that I discovered the numerals after my Name had changed and the DataPrivacyOfficer at FamilySearch explained that I had TWO Accounts and how to cancel the SECOND Account and that I'd lose whatever I’d done to my Tree, since using the SECOND Account. I decided not to work on my Tree or as little as possible within the SECOND Account because the fix they had sent to me appeared too intimidating. I didn't perform the fix for months and rarely used FamilySearch due to inaccuracy and I was miserable not working on FamilySearch. Not long ago I decided to try the fix, and if I lost everything, so be it. I WAS INSTRUCTED TO ONLY USE MY COMPUTER (my laptop). When I pressed the final command to Delete the SECOND Account, I was shaking and holding my breath! I immediately logged in to see the correct numerals after my name and my FIRST & ORIGINAL Account was what I saw! I was so excited and double and triple-checked to see if I truly had just my original account and all I had WAS my original, YES! After all that ... I ONLY USED MY COMPUTER (laptop) and had catching up to accomplish, but was so happy that I didn't care. ***4) Today, I tried to get into the FamilySearch App ON MY iPHONE to add photos of my ancestors ... and I've tried only twice to log in... and it's a flashback to my previous issue :(. I didn't try any longer and immediately came here to ask for help or advice. It is really frustrating not being able to work on FamilySearch freely on my iPhone. I cannot carry my laptop with me everywhere. To anyone, thank you in advance. Lisa
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@LisaHarris41 First of all, the answer from Anitra was 2 1/2 years ago, and was a bit confused (although it's true that FamilySearch doesn't support mobile apps for Windows, no on ever mentioned that). I'll ignore that and answer your questions directly.
- FamilySearch has Family Tree, Memories, and Get Involved apps for both iOS and Android. These are all active applications being developed and updated, and they are supported by FamilySearch. You can get help here in the Community or by using the Contact Us options within the apps or here on FamilySearch.org. It sounds like you're focused on the Family Tree app, so I'll concentrate on that for the rest of this comment.
- If you want to get a fresh start with the app, then you could delete (uninstall) the app and associated data. All your Tree data in your app is synchronized with the Family Tree, so you will be able to get back your Tree data when you sign in again. Uninstalling the app won't have any negative impact on what you see when you use a browser to view FamilySearch.org on your laptop.
- Although it's possible to create a second account, it's not a good idea. If you have difficulty signing in, make sure you recover your existing account instead of creating a new one. It sounds like you unintentionally created a second account. Although it sounds like it was nerve-wracking, deleting the duplicate account was the right thing to do -- you really want to have only one account, with one set of private (living) persons in the Tree.
- You can and should sign in to the Family Tree app on your iPhone in the exact same way you sign in on your laptop. There are options on both your laptop and iPhone to sign in to FamilySearch using your FamilySearch credentials, or to use a third-party login such as Church Account, Google, Apple, or Facebook. It's safest to use the FamilySearch account, since then you can be certain that using the same FamilySearch username and password will result in you logging in to the same FamilySearch account wherever you sign in. Double check that you are using the same username and password. Sometimes people save their username and password in their browser and so can login easily to FamilySearch.org, but when they try to sign in to the Family Tree app, they aren't really using the same username and password, or they sign in to FamilySearch in one place but use Church Account in the other place, and don't realize those are completely different username/password combinations.
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A disclaimer to start with: I don't use the mobile apps much but yes, the iPhone FamilySearch apps are fully supported and frequently updated. These are:
There is also the option to use the web browser on your phone to access the regular web version of the program that you use on your laptop. It does work but is kind of clumsy due to the screen size.
Now a major misconception in your post has to be fully straightened out. If you are properly using your iPhone app in that you are connected to the internet, nothing is stored on your phone and so there is nothing to lose if you delete the mobile app on your phone.
Also, deleting the mobile app on you phone will do nothing to your FamilySearch account.
The only thing deleting and reinstalling the app might do is fix any mixed up remnants of prior versions of the app and give you a clean start.
When you sign in to the mobile app you are still just working directly in the Family Tree database. You are just using a different interface to access the exact same information that is strictly on FamilySearch's servers. It is not on your phone and not on your laptop.
Since you are back to just one account, you should not have any trouble using your iPhone. Just be sure you have the latest version of the mobile app. You should be able just sign on, exactly as you do on your computer:
So when you click Sign in and enter your user name and password, what happens? Aren't you just signed in then? If not, can you describe exactly what you do see?
Also, if you can't sign in, what kind of iPhone do you have? What iOS version is it running? The app does require iOS 15.1 or later.
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