If you’re a registered owner of Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2019, by now you should have received an email from the developer, Software MacKiev, announcing a free update for both the Windows and Mac versions. The update is version 24.2.2, build 560, and it fixes problems to syncing that resulted from changes to Ancestry.com and caused the sync weather icon to go orange for about three months. According to an email from Software MacKiev president, Jack Minsky, they worked closely with Ancestry engineers and extensively beta-tested the update before releasing it. In fact, I received the initial email on Aug 12 stating the release was just a couple of days away, and then nothing. I finally received the actual release email on Sep 1 and promptly installed it. So far the update seems to be working smoothly, with syncing going back to green and happening very quickly. Today I pruned 7,000+ profiles from a tree and replaced them with new profiles from a different tree, syncing in two steps. The sync deleting the profiles went pretty fast, though uploading the new profiles took a little longer, but I don’t see any problems so far.
Software MacKiev says that, if syncing failed while the sync weather was orange, just try again after installing the update, and it should work. If you still have issues with syncing after the update is installed, click here for sync troubleshooting instructions, and if that doesn’t help, contact Live Chat at ftm.support/chat.
As always, make sure you have a full backup of your tree before you install the update. FTM will even ask you if you’ve made the backup first. You should first successfully compact your trees (click here for instructions) before backing them up. Software MacKiev suggests moving a copy of each backup to someplace outside your computer – ideally cloud storage or an external drive you can take to a secure location away from where your computer is located. I think this is overkill, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
If you believe you’re a registered owner of FTM 2019 but still haven’t received the release email yet, make sure the email address you registered with is still available and, of course, check your spam folder. According to Software MacKiev, they’ve sent out all the email notifications. You can go to the Update Center and follow the on-screen instructions all the way through to the end to get your free download links. If that doesn’t work, we can only suggest that you contact Software MacKiev at their Live Chat page.
For more information about the free update, go here.
It has been 9 months since sync for version 2017 broke. Every 2 months I have contacted MacKiev. They respond with “no fix yet”. I have been using FTM for over 10 years. This type of service is unacceptable
Sorry to say it, but I’m with John VanZant above.
My recent experiences with the company suggest that they are much more interested in making money from new sales than in fixing problems with their product.
On 3 January 2023 I had a “livechat” session with a Technical Support Officer.
It involved the merging of sources. I said, in part: “When I tried to merge (“replace”) sources, the dialogue boxes greyed out as I pressed the “okay” button after choosing the original then the replacement source. I then had to do a force quit to get rid of the boxes.”
I also I told them I was running a new Macbook with the M1 chip and Ventura.
I told them what checks I’d made and suggested that perhaps there was some incompatibility between FTM and the new Apple M1 because the function worked fine on my old 2012 Macbook running Catalina.
The problem wasn’t resolved in the session. They would get back to me, they said. My emails 2 and 3 days later were ignored until 13 January when I was asked, and then answered, 3 irrelevant questions. No luck.
On 15 January a more senior Technical Support Officer emailed to say the problem had been investigated with engineers and there was a compatibility conflict with Mac Os Ventura. She said: “The new application bug has been submitted and dedicated team of engineers have been assigned to develop a fix for it as it’s our top priority to make FTM 2019 compatible with all the updates Apple releases.”
They would email me as soon as it was fixed, they said.
Sympathetic to the Ukraine situation, I left any further follow up, until my patience was running low on 8 June 2023. I was told 5 days after that (13 June) that they were still working on it.
I followed up again after another 6 months (3 Jan) and finally received an email on 19 January saying:
“The issue is still on the product teams roadmap for future development and bug fixes. Due to the limited resources available it could not be fixed in the latest update and has been rescheduled to be addressed in the next update.
“I am afraid we do not have ETA for the new update yet, but as soon as there’s one you will be notified by email.”
Now…
Today I received an email from Software MacKiev giving me 3 days to buy the brand new FTM 2024 at a reduced price. If their blurb had included a full list of useful changes and bug fixes to the program I might have been interested, particularly if it mentioned that my problem was fixed. But all the blurb did was tout some (to me, frivolous) bells and whistles that collectively move FTM further away from its raison d’etre. And clicking on links from the blurb, looking for more detail, is a waste of time; they all simply take you to the Buy Now page.
The way the technical support email reads, the “latest update” is most likely the new version announced today, so the “new update” would be a future update, perhaps a year or more further down the road.
So, they don’t have enough resources to fix bugs… because they’re too busy working on new bells and whistles.
I’ve been using FTM since 2012, a similar time to John above, As he says, their service is now “unacceptable”.
Peter
I have been having significant issues with syncing my FTM 2019 tree to my Ancestry.com tree for the past month or so (April – May 2024). It appears as if FTM is trying to download all the individuals and citations from Ancestry. I let the process run overnight and gave up.
I’ve gotten so far apart between what’s in FTM and what’s on Ancestry, that I just threw in the towel and removed my FTM tree downloaded my Ancestry with the thought that I would just manually update and resync. The download process took 8 hours, and although it said it was successful, the trees aren’t actually linked. Now I regret buying FTM 2024 (whenever that rolls out).
Ancestry.com seems to be having significant performance problems, too.