Get error when uploading ANcestryDNA

[wilters]

Ada

Ive just read that you are getting a different rejection message. That is significant. There may be a temporary problem at FTDNA's end. I suggest you leave it for a few hours and try again.

Graham

[ada]

Ada

Ive just read that you are getting a different rejection message. That is significant. There may be a temporary problem at FTDNA's end. I suggest you leave it for a few hours and try again.

Graham

Will do! Thanks

[Darren]

Hi Graham,

I sent you a private message. Thanks.

-Darren
Family Tree DNA

[ada]

I uploaded the same file (with the correct header) the next day and it worked the first time i tried. I'm now waiting for my matches.

[Grant Brown]

For those of you unable to upload Ancestry raw dna data to FTDNA.

The latest I got from FTDNA Customer Support asserted that "reads for specific SNPs are in the wrong locations in the files". This turns out to be rubbish.

I imported into Excel a file that would upload and a file that would not. I then got Excel to identify differences between the files. The differences are NOT associated with SNP locations. The differences are purely related to the pre-amble text in the Ancestry raw dna data files. By changing the preamble text, the files will upload.

The following preamble is from a file that will not upload:

#AncestryDNA raw data download
#This file was generated by AncestryDNA at: 05/15/2017 03:51:26 UTC
#Data was collected using AncestryDNA array version: V1.0
#Data is formatted using AncestryDNA converter version: V1.0
#Below is a text version of your DNA file from Ancestry.com DNA, LLC. THIS
#INFORMATION IS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE AND IS INTENDED FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
#ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR MEDICAL OR HEALTH PURPOSES. THE EXPORTED DATA IS


However, this text will upload:

#AncestryDNA raw data download
#This file was generated by AncestryDNA at: 05/28/2017 23:32:38 UTC
#Data was collected using AncestryDNA array version: V2.0
#Data is formatted using AncestryDNA converter version: V1.0
#Below is a text version of your DNA file from Ancestry.com DNA, LLC. THIS
#INFORMATION IS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE AND IS INTENDED FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
#ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR MEDICAL, DIAGNOSTIC, OR HEALTH PURPOSES. THE EXPORTED DATA IS

Ignoring the different times in line 2, the key changes are:

Line 3: "V2.0" instead of "V1.0"

Line beginning "#ONLY": add ", DIAGNOSTIC,"

When I changed the text as above, two Ancestry files that previously failed (many times) to upload, then uploaded at the first attempt.

Heaven knows why the FTDNA upload converter concerns itself with the preamble. Clearly GEDMATCH does not because as I and others discovered our unaltered files would readily upload to GEDMATCH.

And shame on you FTDNA to assert the problem was related to SNPs being in the wrong location. FTDNA: get your house in order!

There is, of course, another issue related to why Ancestry changed the collection version and other text. Ancestry DNA extractions in Feb and 28 May had "V2.0" text, while extractions on 15 May had "V1.0". I am tackling Ancestry on that point.

G

Thanks heaps!!!!

It worked for me about a week ago, I now have my matches.

Thanks again
Grant.

[MayaXo]

How long did it take your matches to show up?!?
I am still waiting, since May 30... getting the 'check again in 24 hours' msg..

[joe4227]

Ancestry header is corrupt

I independently arrived at the same solution, after comparing several Ancestry Raw Data Downloads going back to March.

Indeed, it appears Ancestry somehow have picked up an old file header when building these text files. I have notified Ancestry as well as FTDNA support.

On changing the header to "AncestryDNA array version: V2.0" everything works fine once again. There is NOTHING wrong with the data itself.

Uploaded file immediately got matches to know linked individuals in our trees.

And YES, this IS the correct solution to "Error uploading file "XXXXXXX" as starting this thread...

It's been a short trip, but a long journey...

[pbear]

This solution worked great.

For those of you unable to upload Ancestry raw dna data to FTDNA.

The latest I got from FTDNA Customer Support asserted that "reads for specific SNPs are in the wrong locations in the files". This turns out to be rubbish.

I imported into Excel a file that would upload and a file that would not. I then got Excel to identify differences between the files. The differences are NOT associated with SNP locations. The differences are purely related to the pre-amble text in the Ancestry raw dna data files. By changing the preamble text, the files will upload.

The following preamble is from a file that will not upload:

#AncestryDNA raw data download
#This file was generated by AncestryDNA at: 05/15/2017 03:51:26 UTC
#Data was collected using AncestryDNA array version: V1.0
#Data is formatted using AncestryDNA converter version: V1.0
#Below is a text version of your DNA file from Ancestry.com DNA, LLC. THIS
#INFORMATION IS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE AND IS INTENDED FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
#ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR MEDICAL OR HEALTH PURPOSES. THE EXPORTED DATA IS


However, this text will upload:

#AncestryDNA raw data download
#This file was generated by AncestryDNA at: 05/28/2017 23:32:38 UTC
#Data was collected using AncestryDNA array version: V2.0
#Data is formatted using AncestryDNA converter version: V1.0
#Below is a text version of your DNA file from Ancestry.com DNA, LLC. THIS
#INFORMATION IS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE AND IS INTENDED FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
#ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR MEDICAL, DIAGNOSTIC, OR HEALTH PURPOSES. THE EXPORTED DATA IS

Ignoring the different times in line 2, the key changes are:

Line 3: "V2.0" instead of "V1.0"

Line beginning "#ONLY": add ", DIAGNOSTIC,"

When I changed the text as above, two Ancestry files that previously failed (many times) to upload, then uploaded at the first attempt.

Heaven knows why the FTDNA upload converter concerns itself with the preamble. Clearly GEDMATCH does not because as I and others discovered our unaltered files would readily upload to GEDMATCH.

And shame on you FTDNA to assert the problem was related to SNPs being in the wrong location. FTDNA: get your house in order!

There is, of course, another issue related to why Ancestry changed the collection version and other text. Ancestry DNA extractions in Feb and 28 May had "V2.0" text, while extractions on 15 May had "V1.0". I am tackling Ancestry on that point.

G

[OldFinneyKid]

Autosomal Transfer from Ancestry

I also independently arrived at the solution since 2 of my kits finished on Ancestry yesterday. FTDNA Customer Support correctly pointed me to the version discrepancy on line 3 between V1 and V2. I called Ancestry, and they were not aware they had changed anything, and they said if I need it to say V2, then change it to V2. Essentially, not their problem.

I changed line 3 to reference V2 instead of V1, recompressed the file, and the transfer worked perfectly. I did not have to make the second correction some people have noted.

Just for my own information, I had a copy of the raw data from an Ancestry kit I loaded successfully 2 weeks ago, and it had the V2 in line 3. I downloaded it today and it now has V1 in that spot, so the headers Ancestry is building currently will have the problem, no matter when the kit finished.

[nooni]

I also independently arrived at the solution since 2 of my kits finished on Ancestry yesterday. FTDNA Customer Support correctly pointed me to the version discrepancy on line 3 between V1 and V2. I called Ancestry, and they were not aware they had changed anything, and they said if I need it to say V2, then change it to V2. Essentially, not their problem.

I changed line 3 to reference V2 instead of V1, recompressed the file, and the transfer worked perfectly. I did not have to make the second correction some people have noted.

Just for my own information, I had a copy of the raw data from an Ancestry kit I loaded successfully 2 weeks ago, and it had the V2 in line 3. I downloaded it today and it now has V1 in that spot, so the headers Ancestry is building currently will have the problem, no matter when the kit finished.

Did your final file sizes match the numbers given earlier in the thread? FTDNA and WeGene are both throwing up errors to my .zip file no matter what text changes I'm making.

[CFegley]

I have been experiencing the same "error" message about the file being unsupported, "corrupt" or "malformed." This has happened on both my son's (which finished processing 8/12) and my husband's, which finished processing yesterday, 8/16. Ancestry is blaming FTDNA, saying it is their (FTDNA's) attempt to make people buy their tests and FTDNA says Ancestry has deliberately messed up the header so that it doesn't match the data in order to prevent people from using other services. Ancestry's response is that if that were the case, why would it still work on MyHeritage, Promethease, Codegen.en, DNA Land, etc.

I have opened/extracted the file, corrected "V1" to "V2" in line 3, as well as adding "Diagnostic" and then re-compressed the file and attempted to upload; yet, I am still getting the same error message. HELP!

[OldFinneyKid]

Notepad++

Don't want to be obvious here, but just make sure the editor you use doesn't introduce additional (invisible) formatting problems. Rather than Windows Notepad or a word processor, I used an old programmer's editor, Notepad++, free download from the Internet. I made the change to a single digit in line 3 (from 1 to 2). I didn't bother with the other suggested change. I then saved the file, used 7-Zip to compress the file to ZIP. The resulting file was smaller than the original Ancestry download, but it still worked fine. I have done this for 4 kits in the last 2 days and they all failed before this change and worked afterward.

[nooni]

Operating System

Don't want to be obvious here, but just make sure the editor you use doesn't introduce additional (invisible) formatting problems. Rather than Windows Notepad or a word processor, I used an old programmer's editor, Notepad++, free download from the Internet. I made the change to a single digit in line 3 (from 1 to 2). I didn't bother with the other suggested change. I then saved the file, used 7-Zip to compress the file to ZIP. The resulting file was smaller than the original Ancestry download, but it still worked fine. I have done this for 4 kits in the last 2 days and they all failed before this change and worked afterward.

I was wondering if the OS could be affecting this. I was using a Mac computer to edit and recompress, and I know Notepad++ isn't compatible with Apple computers. Maybe I should try my hand on a Windows machine.

[CFegley]

I know nothing about the tools, editing code, etc. I downloaded one of the notepad++ programs. I unzipped the file. I tried to "open" from within notepad++...but the .txt file wasn't visible to the program...? So, I had to open it in the regular notepad and copy it into notepad++. I made the change to the third line only (1 to 2.) Saved the file as a "normal text" file and compressed it into a zipped file. I attempted to upload it, but got the same error.

[OldFinneyKid]

Notepad++

After you install Notepad++, you can open the DNA text file from within the program if you know how. Alternatively, you can hover your mouse over the file name in your folder and press the right-click button for the options menu. One of those options will be to "Edit with Notepad++" -- This feature saves you from having to know how to locate and open your file from within Notepad++.
If you are on a Mac and do not have access to Notepad++ or another programming editor, you can use Adobe’s Brackets (it's also free).