Tech Forum

I printed a directory of members, and phone numbers that do not exist were added into household records, phone #s were listed twice, and also words such as "do not contact" were placed on records. Neither the different phone # nor the notes were found anywhere on the members' records. . Information seemed to appear out of the blue.

Has anyone had this problem?

pze wrote:I printed a directory of members, and phone numbers that do not exist were added into household records, phone #s were listed twice, and also words such as "do not contact" were placed on records. Neither the different phone # nor the notes were found anywhere on the members' records. . Information seemed to appear out of the blue.

Has anyone had this problem?

I've never heard of such a thing.

So, just to clarify, you are using MLS for a ward, and you go to Reports/Forms > Directory of Members. Since you didn't mention any problems with household members, I assume that the people's names are listed correctly. I also assume you are using MLS 3.1.5, the current version.

Although the phrase "do not contact" should not (by policy) appear anywhere on any record, some wards have been known to put that phrase in a phone number. When you see that phrase (or anything else you describe as "notes"), is it in the same position on a report where a phone number would appear?

Aside from these clarifications, to fix the problem I can only offer these suggestions:

1. Rebuild the database indexes. This can be done by making a backup (File > Backup to a File) and immediately restoring that backup (File > Restore from a File)
2. Request data refresh (File > Request Unit Refresh Data). You then have to do a Send/Receive, wait a few hours, then do another Send/Receive.
3. Contact Local Unit Support. They might have suggestions, or can certainly download your ward's database and examine it for problems.
4. Restore a backup prior to the time this problem started happening. This is the most drastic solution, since it will require you redo all work entered in MLS since the date of that backup, including financial, membership, and organizational changes. That would be a last resort, and advisable only after consulting Support.

Just to be clear, when you say the information wasn't found anywhere on the member's record, are you are using the "Individual Member" mode which shows both "Household" and "Individual" contact information?

Because if you're using "Household Record" mode, you won't see the Individual contact information which can appear under certain situations. Short of a corrupted database, that's the only thing I can think of that could cause what you describe.

RussellHltn wrote:Just to be clear, when you say the information wasn't found anywhere on the member's record, are you are using the "Individual Member" mode which shows both "Household" and "Individual" contact information?

Because if you're using "Household Record" mode, you won't see the Individual contact information which can appear under certain situations. Short of a corrupted database, that's the only thing I can think of that could cause what you describe.

On the wild side, what's the possibility that the members themselves have added that comment to their phone number field? With the members using an LDS account they certainly have access to their phone numbers.

techgy wrote:On the wild side, what's the possibility that the members themselves have added that comment to their phone number field? With the members using an LDS account they certainly have access to their phone numbers.

They could have made the change. But like Russell and Alan I think the MLS individual record needs to be checked to see what is there. Even though the member can change the number on-line the record in MLS should be checked when chasing down these issues.

techgy wrote: what's the possibility that the members themselves have added that comment to their phone number field?

These changes in the directory of members is not member-created changes because the phone numbers are incorrect and are not reflected on the membership records. Something seems to be happening when the directory of members is being generated.

Alan_Brown wrote: Although the phrase "do not contact" should not (by policy) appear anywhere on any record, some wards have been known to put that phrase in a phone number. When you see that phrase (or anything else you describe as "notes"), is it in the same position on a report where a phone number would appear?

On the directory of members, the "Do not contact" is in the place where a phone number should be, but on the member record "Do not contact" is not under contact information or part of the address.

Shouldn't the directory of members only include the household phone number and email address? Several households have more than one phone number on the directory print-out. The second phone number is never found on the member record.

It seems that the directory of members is also pulling information from how the information was previously (several months ago) if that is possible. Some of the phone numbers have a name after them. This was how it was before I removed the names from the phone number slot.

Alan_Brown wrote:So, just to clarify, you are using MLS for a ward, and you go to Reports/Forms > Directory of Members. Since you didn't mention any problems with household members, I assume that the people's names are listed correctly. I also assume you are using MLS 3.1.5, the current version.

Yes, I am using MLS 3.1.5 and I got the directory from Reports/Forms > Directory of Members

Alan_Brown wrote:Aside from these clarifications, to fix the problem I can only offer these suggestions:

1. Rebuild the database indexes. This can be done by making a backup (File > Backup to a File) and immediately restoring that backup (File > Restore from a File)
2. Request data refresh (File > Request Unit Refresh Data). You then have to do a Send/Receive, wait a few hours, then do another Send/Receive.
3. Contact Local Unit Support. They might have suggestions, or can certainly download your ward's database and examine it for problems.
4. Restore a backup prior to the time this problem started happening. This is the most drastic solution, since it will require you redo all work entered in MLS since the date of that backup, including financial, membership, and organizational changes. That would be a last resort, and advisable only after consulting Support.

I tried making a backup and immediately restoring from the backup, but it did not solve the problem. Transmitting does not help the problem as well. I have not tried restoring from an old backup because
I do not know how much time has passed since the problem began (probably 3 weeks but not sure). In this 3 weeks along with tithing I have done a lot of updating, so I would rather not backup from a 3-week old backup if I can help it.

I guess I will talk to Local Unit Support to see if they can help me.

Did you verify that you were looking at individual membership records and not just the household record? In the past year or so, MLS was expanded to allow individual contact information. You will not see this if you are looking at the household level.

Here is a screen shot of what I'm talking about from the test database:



Notice there's two sets of contact information.

RussellHltn wrote:Did you verify that you were looking at individual membership records and not just the household record? In the past year or so, MLS was expanded to allow individual contact information. You will not see this if you are looking at the household level.

No I am definitely looking at both household and individual contact information.

Also the individual contact information does not show up on the directory of members, even though it shows up in other lists such as VT and HT.

Problem solved ...well kind of. I called Local Unit Support and they told me what the problem was. The directory of members still shows "secondary telephone number" information, even though this field no longer exists. That is why I could not find the information on the individual/household records, but it showed up on the directory of members. Basically the last line of information on the household record is bad (if there was a secondary telephone number recorded). Local Unit Support said that the problem will probably be fixed in MLS 3.2, which is due out in the fall.

Meanwhile I won't be using the directory of members.

No one else has had this problem?

pze wrote:No one else has had this problem?

Well, it could be that many of us do have the problem, but it's not as easily noticeable because of the "do not contact" entries you encountered.