Houston Issue

[TeresaJill]

Very Thin

It's appalling that FTDNA thinks it's ok to tell customers they aren't going to fix GEDCOMS for a month.

We took our tests (or paid to transfer them)with the belief that we could use the information to find our distant cousins. DNA alone won't do it. Trees are necessary. By choosing not to fix it, you're telling us you don't value your customers enough to provide a very basic and primary feature that existed when we paid you.

Fixes and upgrades need to be prioritized and this one should be near the top of your list.

[John McCoy]

Ditto on the "shared novel variants". It just doesn't work, and that was presumably the big innovation that was supposed to be provided by Big Y matching.

For the GEDCOM problem, I am astonished that the issue has been allowed to go on for such a long time. A GEDCOM is just a text file with a simple structure of "tags". Dozens of programs have been written, over a period of decades, to read the GEDCOM structure and turn them into useful information, such as pedigree charts, reports, databases, etc. These programs can be found all over the internet. It is not a complicated or mysterious problem. And it's not the case that FTDNA is attempting to do something strange or original with GEDCOM files. Only a few of the available tags need to be processed, everything else can be ignored. Only a couple months ago, FTDNA was able to read these files. Excuses have worn thin.

[muso]

I can't get the view "shared novel variants" option in the BigY tests to work. Somebody suggested trying a different OS, which I did (I have tried on both Windows 7 and 8). I have also tried using IE and Chrome. No success. Any suggestions other than to contact my project administrator(s) to ask them for my results?

[Marosjor]

Still can't see some Gedcoms

I am really fed up with the issue with not being able to see some gedcoms. It is limiting when trying to assess matches on Family Finder.

Margaret Jordan

[MoberlyDrake]

I received an answer from my match telling to just look at his tree! I told him in my email that there was a problem with that.

QUESTION: If I can't see his tree, does that mean that no one else can? Should I tell him to delete it and upload it again?

[MoberlyDrake]

My cousin got a new match dated May 20. He has a long list of Italian surnames. Almost every Italian match I get is in the line of my paternal grandmother from Sicily. But these weren't familiar Termini Imerese surnames, so I thought the match might be related to my paternal grandfather, who was born in Cappelle sul Tavo. I have nothing on that line.

I clicked to view his tree to see place names and got the Houston error page.

Bummer!!! I will be emailing him, but when someone bothers to post a tree it would be nice to see it.

[Time Traveler]

As I previously reported, FTDNA stated they were able to replicate this issue and were turning it over to programmers. Nothing has changed. It occurs only on the newer matches. Sometimes I am able to view one match before I get the Houston response. Obviously with all of the viewers having the same problem they must be getting hundreds of reports as stated on the Houston page.

[BJackson]

For the time being, my Houston issue seems to be resolved.

[cbon20]

Reply from Information Specialist

I am also seeing this problem. When I supply my email address I DO NOT get an email (as someone has said). It does appear to only be certain trees that are affected.

I reported this problem on 5/11 and received a reply on 5/13 (happy to get an acknowledgement so soon).

At first the Information Specialist suggested that I have the tree owner "reload" their tree. I responded that that was impractical, and that request should really come from the company, not me.

He then responded with a reasonable response below. Guess we will just have to wait.... But a target date (once established) would be nice.

"I can assure you that our engineering team is aware of this issue and pursuing a solution, but we do not have any additional information at this time regarding this issue."

Charles

[BJackson]

I am getting it, as well, when I try to view FF matches. It tells me the matches page doesn't exist.

Details:
URL /family-finder-matches.aspx
Username 329348
Error The file '/family-finder-matches.aspx' does not exist.

It has been like this since yesterday morning. Also, as someone else mentioned, I tried to enter my email a few times to get a copy of the message and never got any of the emails.

[jbarry6899]

Pending Lab Results Page Error

I'm getting a Houston error when trying to view the Pending Lab Results page from the GAP home page for a surname project.

Jim

[MoberlyDrake]

I just went back and tried again and I still get the error page for the same matches I did a few days ago.

Whatever the problem is, it's still not fixed.

[MoberlyDrake]

I thought this might be fixed yesterday, but I just went to one project member and clicked to view the gedcom of the newest match that had one and got the Houston page with this error displayed "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I went to the next one who had a tree, and that one worked fine, as did the next 2. Then I got the Houston page on the 5th one. The next 2 were fine, then another Houston page.

I'm not seeing any pattern.

[Serket]

I think yesterday was the first time I've seen the Houston error. There is a 3rd to 5th cousin that I'd like to check. However, it seems to be kind of random, some work and some don't. These are the results I got for my matches:

2 out of 4 for May
4 out of 5 for April
4 out of 6 for March

[JuanCarlos]

I was just trying to see my matches when I get: Houston, error message. What is that? Well, I was unable to open my FF matches. I'll try again later. I never had a problem before.