Detect Relationship Error trying to Review Attachments, Unfinished Attachments, Adding a source
I get this error message trying to add a source, see present attachments, or to review unfinished attachments for ID https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/linker?pal=/ark:/61903/1:1:QV54-BKZ3&id=L55K-LMG (daughter Mary of ID in the error message). For example, when selecting the 1940 census on her ID, I wanted to review the attachments. Selecting it started (for less than a second) to give me the source attachments page, but was overridden by this error! I asked an Elder at Family Search help to confirm, and he did NOT get this error and instead was able to review the individuals source records. Also, note the error reported is against the father https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L2RZ-FGF as indicated in the error message and a missing child (his tree is perfectly correct). Yet, when I go to his ID sources and do a Review Attachments for his attached 1940 census (same as in daughter’s ID), all is fine. Thus, the error is only for sources re his daughter's ID https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L55K-LMG ! All of them.
I asked how to report a technical error and the Elder had no clue, The online help indicates a FEEDBACK button somewhere. DOESN’T Exist! So I am asking that you forward this email to a software engineer to fix. I posed this under General and was told to do so under Source Linker. I found exact same problem reported by "Rosemarygrounds" here, but detail is not as much as my detail.
Note also that I have a living daughter [name removed], Mary’s sister) both in FamilySearch’s tree and my Groups tree. Don’t know if some how this is a factor in the error above. She has both a FamilySearch Tree ID (I put her there before Groups Trees were available) AND a Group’s tree ID. I could test other IDs where living individuals exist in both trees for same error if you desire to eliminate the possibility that a living person in the same father’s ID is causing the error. Just let me know. I would appreciate a response to this email’s resolution. You can always contact me by email or phone to discuss the problem and any testing.
All steps in Error performed, as well as other suggestions like resetting cookies within FamilySearch. Problem exists in both Chrome and Edge. Yes, all cache and cookies deleted in both browsers. On Windows 11, 4H2 with all updates to date.
-- Rich Long
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We detected a possible relationship issue in the tree.It seems unlikely that the following relationships could exist at the same time:
Louis William Wasser (L2RZ-FGF) has a missing child.
If our analysis is correct, the historical record was incorrectly transcribed. Here is what to do:
- Review the names and relationships you see in Family Tree.
- Correct any mistakes you see
- If you know the information is correct, proceed to attach.
Forstep-by-step instructions, visit Help and Learning.
Comments
-
Is there a FamilySearch software engineer/technical person who can respond to this BUG post?
0 -
7/29/2025
Just finished a Remote session for BUG Ticket # 1852054. The FamilySearch rep wants me to document what we did and found, but is passing off to a technical person due to lack of expertise needed at the software level. So, Please ensure this information gets to a software technical person;
Today we confirmed that this problem is unique to my ID along with the following information:
- Everything is fine on the beta FamilySearch system! On Beta there are 8 sources for Mary Wasser, the person where the error occurs reporting that a Detected Relationship error for her father Louis (re missing child). On the active FamilySearch there are 11 sources for Mary.
- I have been able to confirm now that the error occurs for every deceased child of the father Louis, but the two living children can get to all sources successfully. So, on active FamilySearch.org, living children's sources (for father Louis) works, whereas all 4 deceased children experience the Relationship error. No errors on father Louis or mother Else when doing a View Relationship. The error pops up after about a 1/2 second display of Sourcelinker when any of the following operations are attempted: View Relationship, Unfinished Attachments, Attaching a new source.
- My account is a public account and nothing was noticed as a problem on it by the FamilySearch rep.
If I were the software tech, I would be looking in SourceLinker code for the invocation of the documented Detected Relationship error to determining which software module is kicking it out and why. It's obvious that some condition is present that puts ut this error message. Since the error message notes the FATHER's ID and that "missing child" is a secondary condition almost pinpoints the conditions present.
Having executed the operations on both the active FamilySearch system AND the beta System which is an abstract (so I understand) of the active system for testing. So, what is in the Active vs. the Bata which is different? My observation was the number of sources, but I didn't compare the dates the sources were entered in both systems. Since the error persists for EVERY deceased child of Louis Wasser, I'd be hesitant to believe the addition of other sources beyond the abstract database created for Beta version. However, I did not have the time to execute all diagnostic alternatives between the two systems.
Furthermore, as I noted, my FamilySearch defaults to my Groups Tree. I did reset it back to FamilySearch Tree for my testing only to find that it presented the same error. So, I am ruling out the Groups Tree vs. FamilySearch Tree as an issue.
Let me remind your that the operation View Source, instead of View Attachments/Unfinished Attachments DOES present the source linker screen successfully. In all testing to date, the error presents itself for anything dealing with ATTACHMENTS and only for the deceased children of the father, for which the error indicates.
As before, I am available to your Technical person to help resolve this issue. A Technical person is required as per the work I did today with a FamilySearch representative who who saw everything step by step via Remote Session.
0 -
Still NO TECHNICAL HELP for this SOFTWARE BUG!!!! See previous post for 7/29/2025 update
8/2/2025 Update with additional debugging information:
Today I created a new FamilySearch Account and discovered the problem documented is related to approving this new account into a FAMILY GROUPS TREE. Here is what I did and results:
- Created new FamilySearch Account
- Went to the Person having the error and did a VIEW Attachments on the 1940 source entry. This is just one of the source entries that failed with the Detected Relationship Error (ALL FAILED). This new account worked fine, NO ERROR!
- Now I went back to my account and invited new account to my FAMILY GROUPS, went through the process of inviting, went to the new account and executed the invite, went back to original account and approved it to join the Family Groups. At this stage the new account is now a member of the FAMILY GROUPS.
- Now I again signed in to the new account (now a member of FAMILY GROUPS and TREE)
- Tried the VIEW Attachments for the person causing the error. Unlike # 2 where it didn't fail, it NOW FAILS!!
- Summary, when NOT joined to FAMILY GROUPS, all is good. When joined to FAMILY GROUPS, the ERROR Occurs! Thus, the error is related to joining a FAMILY GROUP. If you read the details of the previous update on 7/29, you would also have learned that LIVING children in the family having the error, do NOT have the problem. ONLY deceased children in the family, and all of them (4 others) have the problem.
- Hope this sheds some light on what causes the ERROR (# 6 above) and you can get it fixed. I could check other families in the FAMILY GROUPS that have a mix of both living and deceased children to see if the ERROR appears for those families, but its about time FamilySearch gets involved to debug there own problems!
Again, I offer my expertise WITHOUT any technical specs to help resolve your issue that could affect all individuals using FAMILY GROUPS!
0 -
This BUG has been assigned Ticket # 1852054
0 -
Update 8/2/25 12:25 pm DT:
Talked to Elder Thomas. He agrees that the problem is reproducible as the Remote Session again confirmed. However, as before, the Error occurs only to my account OR an account that has been joined to my Family Groups. After explaining the details of the problem and diagnostics over the last 4-5 weeks, I asked Elder Thomas to confirm the results of looking at a family on his Family Groups that had a mix of deceased and living persons. Unfortunately, he did NOT get the error on one he tried. Thus, although when I had a new ID (that worked fine) join my Family Groups tree and saw the error, it does not seem to occur on other his Family Groups tree. So, did the change to my Family Groups, i.e., inviting others, occur before/after a certain date that could be responsible for the cause the problem?
Summary, we know how to reproduce, i.e., make the error occur, on my Family Groups ID (invite and join a new user today), but since it can't be confirmed for other Family Group owners (like Elder Thomas).
This leads to more need for Technical person to debug the cause(s) of the problem, which now seem to be multiple. I'd still look for a Family Groups technical person to start with. However, a Source Linker person may also be valuable since the error comes out after Source Linker tries to display its content (less than 0.5 seconds) before being overridden by the error.
The error happens on my FamilySearch userid AND the newly created and joined userid I did today. It does NOT happen using the Beta FamilySearch system. It DOES happen using the Family Groups tree AND the Family Search tree.
I await a technical person again.
0 -
@Tpanc13RichL Thank you for reporting this issue. We have sent it to the engineers to be looked into. It may take some time. Thank you for your patience while we work on a resolution.
0 -
Ashlee,
f.y.i 8/12/2025 Update. Today I tested again. I switched tree back to Family Tree from Groups Tree. Although this returned an error before on FAMILY TREE, the error is NOT present any more for the deceased children of father Louis. The error DOES still exist if using the GROUPS tree. So, it looks like some progress has been made to correct this.
More insight: Both the FAMILY TREE and my GROUPS TREE have the two living children of Louis defined. Of course, the IDs are different between trees. The sources, take the 1940 census specifically, originally had UNFINISHEDATTACHMENTS status since the living child https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L55K-LV7 was not attached. I added the living child (above) to remove the UNFINISHED STATUS and that removed that status. Question now is if this attachment was made for that ID in FAMILY TREE, how is it handled for the new ID in my GROUPS TREE. Are both supposed to work? It appears that my GROUPS TREE ID is now the only one that presents the error. this suggests that the attachment status should be independent for each tree. Yes? That is, when asking to view Attachments in my GROUPS TREE, it should check the GROUPS TREE person ID, not the FAMILY TREE person. Could thsi be the problem?
A few moths ago, I sent in a feedback re the design of GROUPS that never had a response. I submitted a design that would eliminate the need for TWO separate trees (FAMILY and GROUPS) to implement GROUPS. It would be based on the implementation that existed to keep LIVING persons isolated to just the user defining them. My implementation if done would have just ONE Living person id per individual. If already defined in FAMILY TREE before GROUPS CREATED, the original ID would have been preserved and used INSTEAD of creating a new and second ID for a living person. This would have resolved the issue of this posted error. So, with the current implementation, maybe determining whether a living person has an two IDS (FAMILY TREE and GROUPS TREE) before determining an error might resolve this issue for the GROUPS TREE ID. Just a guess.
0 -
It's now another month of no action and no response.
0
