Thursday, February 23, 2023

Farewell again to FamilySearch

Update

I was going to update this with the good news that FamilySearch had once again made their pages accessible, and that for the last few weeks I have been able to work with their site, and was going to rejoin the Facebook groups for FamilySearch users that I had had to leave, but today I found that I was locked out completely. Has anyone else had messages like these?

Access Denied
Error 15
I wonder what Error 15 is?

Earlier FamilySearch made their "new discovery page" compulsory, but it didn't work on my computer, so that cut down drastically on my family history research. Then I discovered that they had fixed it, so I continued working with it. But now I seem to be locked out completely.

Thanks to FamilySearch I was able to add some 30000 people to my family tree in the last 3-4 years, and make considerable contributions to the FamilySearch collaborative family tree as a result, but that has come to an end now that my access has been blocked.

Anyway, thanks to all the people who contributed to the FamilySearch Family Tree, and who helped by indexing source documents. It was good fun while it lasted.

5 comments:

Katja said...

Have you tried using FamilySearch in private or incognito mode? I've had a good number of issues with them, the latest of which access is denied unless I go into "private" browsing.

Anthony said...

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/solutions-to-error-15#:~:text=Error%2015%20is%20the%20result,history%20data%20on%20our%20site.

Solutions to Error 15
Article Id: 22106
March 16, 2023
Error 15 Overview
Error 15 is the result of a new cyber security system integrated into FamilySearch. It has been added to our site to protect data in Family Tree, historical records, and memories from online attackers. It is very important to us to protect our users and the family history data on our site. We also need to honor the contractual agreements we make with our collaborating third-party genealogy companies. This new security system provides important protection that achieves these goals.

While it has been successful in shielding the site from attacks, the security system may block honest users from interacting with our site. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

Solutions
Here are the top 3 solutions that we find work for most of our users who experience Error 15:

Turn off or adjust the settings of any add-ons or extensions that you have installed in your browser (this is the most common issue). We can't provide a list of problematic add-ons, since there are many. TO TEST: Try running FamilySearch with your browser in Incognito or Private mode. If you do not see an error while in Incognito or Private mode, then you can be fairly certain that a browser add-on is the problem.
Disable your VPN while you use FamilySearch.
Try using FamilySearch on a different browser.
If the above does not work, one of the following solutions may help:

Fix the date and time on your device.
Clear cache and cookies.
Reset your browser to its default configuration. Note: This will disable and potentially remove any extensions you may have installed.
Make sure your device and operating system are fully updated.
Related Information
For more instructions, please visit these websites:

Solved this Request Was Blocked by the Security Rules
Error Code 15, this Request Was Blocked by the Security Rules

Anthony Gillespie said...

https://www.supereasy.com/solved-this-request-was-blocked-by-the-security-rules/

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/error-code-15-this-request-was-blocked-by-the-security-rules.html

Gary Hunter said...

Gutted, all this has come to an end. I found your blog last night and have been researching the ellwood's since. I'm from a hidden branch of the tree relating to Bridget Ellwood. Whitehaven UK. Would be great to get in touch.

Steve Hayes said...

The error 15 thing came right, for a while, but from about August 2023 features of FamilySearch started disappearing, one page at a time. First the Search page went, then the Records (though I could still access them for a while under Sources, but then that too disappeared, and finally the Family page itself.

I can still access it via the RootsMagic interface, so if someone else adds something, I can copy it, or if I discover something elsewhere, I can copy it to FamilySearch, but I can't verify anything, or do new research of FamilySearch any more, and its meed like that since about October 2023.