How to edit "About Me" on Profile

[AngeliaR mtDNA: H31a | Y-DNA: R-L21 Find all posts View Profile Close AngeliaR]

When I look at my uncle's kit as a match to me, there is a section on the profile headed as "About Me" with descriptive text. I put it there originally to indicate that I manage his kit for him.

I just logged into his kit to try and edit/update that section, but now I can't find it. I thought it was with the personal information. When I looked there is a new message "The My Personal Story section is coming soon and will be located here. When available, you will be able to enter your personal biographical story to share with your matches."

So, what about the existing text? Will that be retained when this rolls out? Can I edit it in the meantime since it is already there... and viewable by matches?

Hoping someone has some insight on this.

[Epiphyte FTDNA Customer Find all posts View Profile Close Epiphyte]

Here is what I do for kits I manage so that matches can find useful information:

1) Make a tree for the kit, even if it is just a 1 person tree, that is enough.
2) Go to Homepage for kit you manage > click on My Family Tree > click on the person you manage on that tree > click view profile > you will then have ability to edit Profile, Story, and Notes.
3) Under Profile, you could put "c/o your name" at the end of individual's surname. This way matches will see that someone else is in charge.
4) Under Story, you can put other useful things, such as: "see my son/daughter xxxxx's account, which is probably also on your match list, to view our family tree"; "my mtDNA is xxx based on my sister's test result"; "we are also on Ancestry and My Heritage"; GEDmatch kit xxxxxx; "we are researching this and that and would love to hear from you if you have information to share"; some people like to put a little personal bio about where born and raised, etc.

[AngeliaR mtDNA: H31a | Y-DNA: R-L21 Find all posts View Profile Close AngeliaR]

"About Me" or "Story" access not apparent.

Yeah, I do all the typical account maintenance already, but thanks for the response. There may be others who didn't realize those options existed or hadn't thought of doing it yet. Our trees are pretty scaled back and basically ask interested parties to make contact. The most distant ancestors maternal/paternal and the rest of the data is filled out too.

I just don't have access to "About Me" or "Story" to make changes to the description. There is already text there that I entered previously, but it's badly in need of an update, as are several other family members "About" screens. And since I am already there checking settings and projects, I had hoped to get it done now. :-)

In case I am not looking in the right place to make this update, what are the steps you follow to edit the "Story" section?

Maybe these accounts are "in between" an upgrade. I hope the text that is already there isn't lost. I really don't want to start over from scratch for everyone.

[Epiphyte FTDNA Customer Find all posts View Profile Close Epiphyte]

To put information in "Story" follow instructions in my previous post through 2). After you click View Profile, you come to box where you can enter photo at upper left, and there are tabs across the top of the box called Profile, Story and Notes. Click on Story tab at middle top of box, then click the Edit button on upper right. Type in whatever you'd like to share then hit Save button on lower right.

The information in Story will not show up in the same place at the old About Me information, which will still be visible. But at least there is a chance that matches will be able to find what they need somewhere. They will have to click on tree icon and then individual on tree to find it though. This is better than no information.

I believe that the About Me feature is not functional at this point, and that FTDNA is in process of upgrade. Hopefully, we will have access soon and be able to edit what we put there in the past at some point. Or maybe the old information will disappear, who knows. I cannot access this section on any of the accounts I manage right now.

Hope this helps.

[AngeliaR mtDNA: H31a | Y-DNA: R-L21 Find all posts View Profile Close AngeliaR]

Crazy! Edit a profile description from the tree function

Wow. That's CRAZY.
Who would even think to look there?
Edit a profile description from the TREE?!

You can see old text that was already there by clicking on the Story tab. Then there is an edit link on the right above Notes. I was able to make updates AND save them using this method.

Hopefully it will revert to a more comfortable interface for this kind of update.


I guess I will hang tight until the dust settles.
Or maybe not.
Maybe I will give some specific quality feedback... for what it's worth.


Thank you.

[KATM mtDNA: K1a3 / YDNA: R-FGC46379 Find all posts View Profile Close KATM]

I haven't tried using the tree to update a profile yet. It certainly seems unintuitive.

But it does seem that the option to edit the "About Me" information, from within the account, is in limbo right now. The message (about how the "My Personal Story" feature is coming) has been there for a while now, so unless FTDNA communicates anything to the customers about it, we will have to wait and see. Based on other changes in the past, there will be no communication; it will just show up one day.

If those who opt not using the "tree" method to update the profile, I would say, copy and paste, or take a screen shot, of whatever information you want to save from the "About Me" sections in the accounts you manage (viewable when logged into a different account). That way you'll have it, in case it disappears when "My Personal Story" is introduced.

[AngeliaR mtDNA: H31a | Y-DNA: R-L21 Find all posts View Profile Close AngeliaR]

As you said

As you said, the place where you would think to look to update descriptive text has had a "coming soon" message posted for a while.

But, the tree profile update method DOES actually allow you to create/edit what used to be called the "About Me" section. I don't understand the need to change the label to "Story". The title "About Me" makes more sense to me based on how we are using the site. "Story" doesn't seem to belong to dna-based comparisons.

And, you can't opt not to use something if you don't even know it exists.

Yeah, I wish the communication was better about these kind of things. Even posting in the forums when a change is made and we could all look for known issues and developments would be a huge improvement.