This article describes various issues you might run into when logging in to your TreeVault® Cloud Services account, creating or deleting an Antenna tree, having your Antenna tree automatically updated, or restoring your FTM Source tree using the Emergency Tree® restore service.
If you are experiencing a problem with one of these processes, you will probably have been made aware of it by the appearance of an alert message. Please look through the topics below that describe the various circumstances in which messages may appear, and then use the suggested solutions to try to resolve the issue.
We have also included some best practice tips to help you avoid encountering problems in the future.
The article is divided into the following topics:
- TreeVault account-in-use issues
An alert message will appear if your computer is unable to connect to the TreeVault servers when you are attempting to:
- Log in to TreeVault
- Create your Antenna tree
- Open TreeVault Account Manager
- Open the TreeVault pane of Tree Browser
- Restore your FTM Source tree using the Emergency Tree restore service
Connectivity issues may be caused by a problem with your computer’s Internet connection or, less commonly, by a temporary server outage for planned maintenance or to resolve a server-side issue.
1.1 Internet connection issues
You may get a message that asks you to check your computer’s Internet connection.
How to resolve the issue
Important: After applying any of the solutions below, please wait several minutes for the changes to take effect before you try to work with TreeVault services again.
- Make sure that your Internet connection is enabled and available. Check that you can open any website (for example mackiev.com) in your web browser.
- Check that you are still logged in to TreeVault.
- Check that Family Tree Maker® is in online mode: click the File menu and make sure that the last item is Go Offline; if Go Online is shown, click it. If you have checked all the points above and the issue persists, there may be a problem on the server side. Please see section 1.2 for more details.
Best practices to avoid Internet connection issues
There are a few things you can do, or avoid doing, to prevent Internet connection issues from occurring:
-Do not log out of TreeVault while your Antenna tree is being created. If you do, you will have to start creating the Antenna tree again from the very beginning. (Note: Applies to version 24.0 only; version 24.1 and 24.2 do not allow logout during Antenna tree creation.)
- Do not put Family Tree Maker into offline mode while your Antenna tree is being created or when using the Emergency Tree restore service. If you do, you will have to start creating or restoring the tree again from the very beginning.
- Disable sleep mode on your computer. If the computer goes to sleep for more than five minutes while your Antenna tree is being created or when using the Emergency Tree restore service, there is a chance the process will be cancelled and you will have to start it again from the very beginning.
1.2 Server-related issues
Sometimes you might not be able to use TreeVault services because of maintenance being carried out or problems on the server side. In such cases, a message telling you that “Service is temporarily unavailable” or “Connection to TreeVault Cloud Services is unavailable” is likely to appear.
How to resolve the issue
If you get a message like one of those described above, it probably means the TreeVault servers are temporarily out of operation, and you should just wait for them to come back on stream.
However, there is something you can do to find out more about the situation: click the TreeVault icon (and then choose Manage TreeVault Account if TreeVault Account Manager doesn’t open automatically) and take a look at the message that is shown in TreeVault Account Manager.
- If you see a Server Maintenance message, you should wait until the maintenance is completed. The expected time of completion should be specified in the message.
- If you see a message stating that “Connection to TreeVault is unavailable” and you don’t have any problems with your Internet connection, then there is an error on the server side that we know about and our engineers will already be working to resolve the problem. Please allow some time for them to get things back up and running before you try working with TreeVault services again.
2. TreeVault account-in-use issues
There are a couple of operations you might not be able to perform if your TreeVault account is currently being used to run a process in another window or on a different computer or device:
- Creating your Antenna tree
- Restoring your FTM Source tree using the Emergency Tree restore service
In these cases, you will see an alert message telling you that the TreeVault account “is currently in use”.
How to resolve the issue
- Check whether any TreeVault-related process is already active in another FTM window on your current computer. If it is, wait until the process is finished.
- Check whether your TreeVault account is in use with a related process running on a different computer or a mobile device (in the Family Tree Maker Connect app, for example). If it is, wait until the process is finished or cancel it and try working with TreeVault services again on your current computer.
3. Tree-related issues
Problems with your FTM Source tree can lead to an alert message with a Compact and Try Again button appearing during the creation or updating of your TreeVault Antenna tree.
Similarly, problems with your Antenna tree can prevent successful restoration of the Source tree using the Emergency Tree restore service. In this case, the message that appears will ask you to send an error report.
How to resolve the issue
- First of all, click the Compact and Try Again button when prompted. Your Source tree file will be compacted and, if that solves the problem, the creation or updating of your Antenna tree will resume automatically.
- If compacting the Source tree does not solve the problem, it would appear the issue is one that you cannot resolve on your own. You will be asked to send an automatically generated error report which will enable us to look into what went wrong and try to find a solution for you.
- You will also be asked to send an error report if there is a problem with your Antenna tree when you are using it to restore your Source tree.
- After you have sent the report, please come to Live Chat so that our support specialists can assist you further.
- If the error report cannot be sent for some reason, check your Internet connection (see “Connection issues”). Then repeat your attempt to create the Antenna tree or restore the Source tree, and if the process is still unsuccessful, try to send the error report again when prompted. If the original problem occurred during updating of your Antenna tree, wait for updating to resume automatically or click the TreeVault icon and choose the Unsuccessful update. Send Report item. If the report fails to be sent once more, please come to Live Chat where one of our support agents will try to assist you.
- Take a look through the “TreeVault best practices” tips at the end of this article for advice on avoiding problems in the future.
4. Next of Kin® locked account
If you have created a Next of Kin certificate and already given it to your designated successor and that person uses it to activate the Next of Kin service at any point, your TreeVault account will be locked. This means you will not be able to:
- Log in to your TreeVault account
Or, if you were already logged in, you will not be able to:
- Create a new Antenna tree
- Delete your Antenna tree
- Have your Antenna tree automatically updated with changes to your Source tree
When any of these operations are attempted, an alert message will appear telling you that your TreeVault account is locked.
How to resolve the issue
Contact your designated successor to find out if they have activated the Next of Kin service by mistake or due to a misunderstanding. After that, please come to Live Chat to get matters sorted.
5. TreeVault best practices
Best practices for successfully creating and updating your TreeVault Antenna tree and restoring your FTM Source tree:
- Always make a manual backup of your tree before making significant changes to it (choose File > Backup).
-Always compact your Source tree before creating an Antenna tree or making significant changes which will be applied automatically to your Antenna tree (choose Tools > Compact File). Make a manual backup before compacting the tree.
- For smooth, swift transfer of your tree data, use a wired Internet connection with an adequate speed (1 Mbps or faster). You can check your speed using the speedtest.net website.
- Do not replace (overwrite), rename, or move your FTM Source tree file as this might break the link with your Antenna tree.
- If you need to move your Source tree to another computer, please read this article first: Moving your FTM Source Tree between Two Computers.
- Generate a Data Errors Report (available through the Person Reports section on the Publish workspace). That can help you to see if there are any potential data problems in your tree.
- Use the Find Duplicate People feature (available from the Edit menu). That can help you to avoid problems occurring due to a large number of duplicate people in your tree.
- Use Resolve All Place Names (available from the Tools menu). That can help you to avoid problems occurring due to a large number of unresolved places in your tree.
- If you sync your tree with Ancestry, always check the Sync Change Log to make sure that no unexpected changes were made to your tree during syncing.
- When merging people or trees, always double-check what is going to be merged beforehand and what has been merged afterward. And always make a manual backup of the tree before any merging operation.