The back-end problem appears to have been fixed a short while ago. The current version of the app no longer reports an error, the profile is removed from the list and it does not return when the list is refreshed.
Family Tree app: Remove Task fails
JulianBrown38
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in Family Tree
I am using a Samsung phone with Family Tree app version 5.0.7. I have a number of tasks on my Task list. If I try to remove them by swiping them left or right and tapping Remove, the operation fails and a message is displayed: "We were unable to remove the item from the Task list. Please try again later.". Retrying days later gets the same response, even after signing out and in again. This has been the case for some months now.
Now, I happen to have another older Lenovo phone which, because of its age and OS level, cannot upgrade the app to the current version. It is running version 4.8.16. On this device, the task removal operates properly.
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Thank you for the update! It's nice to know how things turned out. 😊
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It looks as though there's been an update with the app as of 27 Feb 2025. Would you be able to update your app version and try again, to see if that addresses the issue?
If not, I've flagged the discussion to see if a moderator might be able to let the dev team know, and to see if others are having this issue.
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Thanks for flagging this, David. I had already upgraded the app to 5.0.8 on 26 Feb 2025, but the problem remained. I assume that you also see the problem.
Today, 2 Mar, I have upgraded the app again to the latest 5.0.9 version. I have no tasks available at present, even though I have turned on the most relaxed hinting option in the app ("Show More Ancestors with Tasks"). I will try again later; maybe it takes the system some time to generate the tasks.
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This problem is not in the app itself, so no app update will make any difference. Rather, the problem is in a backend service that the app uses. Once that is fixed, task removal will start working immediately, independent of any app updates.
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For the record, version 5.0.9 didn't fix the issue. I still find it strange that the old version of the app works correctly. I guess I will have to keep my old phone on life support for a while yet.
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Is this a backend service on the FamilySearch server side, or on the client side?
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I probably used overly technical wording. In this context, "backend" and "server side" are synonymous. And "client side" is synonymous to "in the app".
What I was trying to explain is that no change is needed in the app (the client side), but only in the backend service (the server side). Unfortunately the fix to the backend service is not deemed to be a high priority at this point.
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As I explained, version 5.0.9 couldn't possibly fix it, since the error is not in the app itself, but in a backend service that the app relies on. Every 5.x version will fail to remove record hints as long as the service fails, and each of those versions will work properly when the service is fixed.
And although it might appear that the old 4.x versions of the app "work correctly", that's not actually true. Even with the 4.x versions, the backend service fails to remove the hint from the master list of hints (which is provided by the server). But the 4.x app versions didn't detect and report the error and so very temporarily removed the hint from the task list on the screen. But if you pull to refresh the list, or back out of the list and later return to it, you'll find that the record hints you thought you had dismissed are back in the list again.
I can see how that it might be slightly helpful to have unwanted record hints removed from the list, even if it's very temporary. But you're benefiting from a bug (the 4.x app failing to report the service error) on top of a bug (the backend service failure). The 5.x app is more honest in reporting the failure.
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The back-end problem appears to have been fixed a short while ago. The current version of the app no longer reports an error, the profile is removed from the list and it does not return when the list is refreshed.
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There is another scenario where the current version of the app is apparently encountering an error when I click REMOVE on an entry in my Tasks list. No error is reported and the profile is removed from the list, but, when I refresh the list, the profile is still there. This is similar to what was happening in the older version 4.8.16.
In this case, the error appears to be caused by the presence of Record Hints relating to an unusable collection ("Switzerland, Catholic and Reformed Church Records, 1418-1996").
I have reported the root cause of the unusable collection in a separate discussion, but the background code that services the app's Remove request needs further attention. It's been suggested in another thread tonight that an error 503 might be the cause.
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Now that the issue of inaccessible sources has been resolved, I have tried removing a profile from my list of tasks. It is still behaving in the same way. I had previously removed a large number of profiles while their hinted sources were inaccessible. Only KCW4-KYS Anna Tobler's profile did not disappear permanently. While it disappeared from the displayed list, it returned when I refreshed the list.
When I look at her profile, I see that she has 55 Research Helps (53 Record Hints and 2 Research Suggestions). Is it possible that this is too many for the REMOVE code to handle?
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