Ability to Manage Photos is Missing

As a website administrator, I used to have the ability to upload, approve, and manage directory photos. Now, those options are missing from the directory. Has it been determined that website administrators (who are not clerks) should no longer have this privilege?

It's possible, but I'm thinking it's more likely that you've somehow been dropped from your calling.

russellhltn wrote:It's possible, but I'm thinking it's more likely that you've somehow been dropped from your calling.

I'm not sure that's the reason. I still have administrative capabilities (assigned to me by calling) within the Newsletter and Calendar.

AileneRHerrick wrote:

russellhltn wrote:I still have administrative capabilities (assigned to me by calling) within the Newsletter and Calendar.

For now. I'm not sure how big a spread there might be between the first and last to get the updates.

I can confirm the recent loss of all admin rights to the Directory by website administrators. I think this just occurred today because I had admin rights last night.

I am guessing admin rights for website administrators were temporarily removed while they work out the website administrator's unplanned ability to view MRNs that came with the latest release of the Directory.

jdlessley wrote:I am guessing admin rights for website administrators were temporarily removed while they work out the website administrator's unplanned ability to view MRNs that came with the latest release of the Directory.

I think you're right. I thought I was able to see MRNs (as a STS) as well as privacy settings, but now I can't (except for myself).

I am out ward technology specialist and I have had access to upload member pictures to LDS.org for over a year. All of the sudden this past Sunday, the option to "upload" photos disappeared form my log-in. The ward clerk has confirmed nothing changed on their end. Any ideas? I have lots of pictures to upload.

[Moderator note: I moved this post into the existing topic for this issue.]

heuyx4 wrote:Any ideas?

As you can see from the other posts in this topic, you're not alone. There is a current problem where ward Website Administrators cannot upload photos. Your only options would be to wait until it is fixed (we haven't heard any estimates), or to ask a clerk or bishopric member to do the needed maintenance if the need is urgent.

Understand this is a general issue (not being able to manage photos). But wanted to comment on the comment above regarding MRN's. It was handy to me as the website administrator charged with "encouraging" members to post their photos, to update their own personal information, to log-in to lds.org to use the vast amount of resources there and so forth, to give them their MRN and help them get connected. Now, it would seem (if this wasn't supposed to be something I had access to) we're back to having to have them track down the ward clerk at a convenient time for both of them... which means more delay, months of getting around to it's... shame. There still are many members who have never gotten onto lds.org and it was my charge from our bishop, as being the ward website administrator, to get the entire ward on board.

[Moderator note: The topic of this thread is the loss of the ability to manage photos. The mention of the ability to view MRNs was postulated as having something to do with the loss of this ability. We do not know for certainty if this ability to view MRNs is the reason for this loss of administrator rights. Any discussions about the benefit of a website administrator to view MRNs and the retention of this ability should be discussed in another thread so as to not fork this thread. The Code of Conduct states, "Do not start a new topic in an existing thread; instead start a new thread." Let's please keep any discussion about the ability by website administrators to view MRNs in this thread focused on the the loss of administrator rights.]

I too am unable to manage photos in the lds.org Directory app. I see in the Help that there is a Directory 2013 beta. Is photo management still working in the beta?

martin1 wrote:I see in the Help that there is a Directory 2013 beta.

That beta was delayed. I have not heard whether it is on again or not.

I am kind of new to being a Ward Website Administrator. I got on today to check for any new photos I may need to approve and found the ability missing, which led me to this discussion. Does anyone have knowledge of when this problem will be fixed? Is it something my Ward Clerk can fix for me?

suetcall wrote:Does anyone have knowledge of when this problem will be fixed?

No.

suetcall wrote:Is it something my Ward Clerk can fix for me?

Approve the photos? Yes, he should be able to.

Fix the problem so you can do it? No.

I recently uploaded photos for our ward's directory about a week ago, but this past Sunday (June 30), I was unable to do it--in fact the left side selection bar no longer lists it as an option. I thought someone had changed the settings for my calling in the ward as an administrator to manage the directory and the calendar. When I checked with the clerk, he told me no changes had been made but that several people had been having problems with the software that morning. So the only thing I can think of is that "they" are making changes to the software and that at present, no one has access to that function. Usually time takes care of it.

Ditto here. I am a website administrator and still have rights on the Calendar and Newsletter, but cannot upload photos through the Directory website now.

I see that nobody so far has any idea what happened or when rights will be restored. Does anyone here know if the developers have read this thread? Is there someone we can contact to find our more or at least make sure the right person knows of the problem?

Thanks!

The problem has been reported through the LDS.org feedback link and the response is that the issue has been passed along to those responsible. I have also elevated the issue through the contacts we have within ICS. If you have not personally reported the problem using the LDS.org feedback link I recommend you add your feedback to those who have already done so. Other than that we can but wait patiently for the administrator rights to be restored.

With many members holding more than one calling a bishop who wants the website administrator to still be able to publish photos could consider putting his name in as an assistant ward clerk. This would only apply to the male website administrators. Then you wouldn't need to wait for the administrator rights to be restored. I know this is only a partial work around.

pierce1of5 wrote:With many members holding more than one calling a bishop who wants the website administrator to still be able to publish photos could consider putting his name in as an assistant ward clerk. This would only apply to the male website administrators. Then you wouldn't need to wait for the administrator rights to be restored. I know this is only a partial work around.

And you have to be careful because it gives a lot of extra rights to membership information in Directory and Clerk Resources.

I have been a ward and stake administrator for several years now. Although recently released as the stake admin., I am still listed on the MLS for our ward. I too, find I cannot manage photos for ward members. Hope this issue is soon resolved. We have a new Stake President who needs the photos to get to know stake members.

I am in the same fix as the rest of these people and the discussion of a possible reason makes sense. But what puzzles me is dropping our rights with no explanation. I don't understand why we aren't in the loop. As admins we need all the info we can get and keeping us in the dark confuses me.

Noticed the same restriction here. I serve as the ward website administrator and still have access to the calendar and the newsletter sections, but can no longer upload and/or approve photos to the directory. No idea if this is a temporary glitch or a new policy restricting admin rights to this feature. Guess I'll wait and see what develops.

I am a ward clerk and rely on the ward website administrator to manage the photos where i don't have a membership clerk and have lots of other things to worry about so it would be appreciated if they could restore this function or at least give some sort of explanation as to why it is no longer available. Even if it is simply that the first presidency said that it shouldn't be there.

hiltpatr wrote:I am a ward clerk and rely on the ward website administrator to manage the photos where i don't have a membership clerk and have lots of other things to worry about so it would be appreciated if they could restore this function or at least give some sort of explanation as to why it is no longer available. Even if it is simply that the first presidency said that it shouldn't be there.

Why don't you talk to the Bishop about having the Ward Website Administrator called as the Assistant Ward Clerk - Membership.

I would do that but the website admin is a female so we can't do that.

hiltpatr wrote:I would do that but the website admin is a female so we can't do that.

That would be a problem.

Gary_Miller wrote:

hiltpatr wrote:I would do that but the website admin is a female so we can't do that.

That would be a problem.

Yes. You would also want to be careful about what RKJones mentioned earlier in this topic.

And you have to be careful because it gives a lot of extra rights to membership information in Directory and Clerk Resources.

lajackson wrote:

Gary_Miller wrote:

hiltpatr wrote:I would do that but the website admin is a female so we can't do that.

That would be a problem.

Yes. You would also want to be careful about what RKJones mentioned earlier in this topic.

And you have to be careful because it gives a lot of extra rights to membership information in Directory and Clerk Resources.

Yes however I was speaking of calling the individual as an "Assistant Ward Clerk - Membership" through official approved methods where they would do more than just manage photos. Not just changing the calling in MLS to "Assistant Ward Clerk" so they can manage photos.

What would help in a thread like this is something like

• "On June 26, 2013, Ward Website Administrators had permission to manage photos temporarily suspended due to...[something about MRNs?]"
• "We expect the functionality to return in release 1.10.15, which is tentatively scheduled for [August 2013]"

Absent this, some member's imaginations tend to wander quickly into extreme explanations: "I wasn't doing my calling correctly or quickly enough," "the Church doesn't think I was obtaining consent for the photos I was posting," etc. And I have no means of managing expectations on a decision I have no impact on.

lajackson wrote:

Gary_Miller wrote:

hiltpatr wrote:I would do that but the website admin is a female so we can't do that.

That would be a problem.

Yes. You would also want to be careful about what RKJones mentioned earlier in this topic.

And you have to be careful because it gives a lot of extra rights to membership information in Directory and Clerk Resources.

Yes however I was speaking of calling the individual as an "Assistant Ward Clerk - Membership" through official approved methods where they would do more than just manage photos. Not just changing the calling in MLS to "Assistant Ward Clerk" so they can manage photos.

I am someone who was called as an assistant ward clerk. Yes, I have access to more things, but remember that an assistant ward clerk also must be approved by and called by the stake, so there is some additional scrutiny before granting access to additional permissions.

It seems to me that a webmaster should be able to manage photos (unless someone somewhere messed up and the church decided to tighten it up). Another guess is that it has something to do with privacy issues and they need to keep it in the hands of the bishopric/clerks.

There are a lot of people out there who could serve very well in a webmaster capacity who may not be able to be called as an assistant clerk (sisters, youth, recent converts, less-active members). I'm not sure what the permission differences are, but I imagine most of what I do I could do if I was webmaster instead of assistant clerk. (Sometimes I update membership records and callings; a webmaster wouldn't be able to do that.)

Hi, I am having the same problem.

I am a ward webmaster, but not a ward clerk. I used to be able to upload photos fine, but our ward clerk left, and this happened soon after. Our new ward clerk does not know how to solve this problem. I checked MLS, and it seems like my callings have not been changed. I haven't used CDOL before though.

Do you have any suggestions for how I could help my ward clerk know how to resolve this issue?

Thank you,
Steven

stevennordin wrote:Do you have any suggestions for how I could help my ward clerk know how to resolve this issue?

I moved your post to a more current thread.

Short of making you a clerk, there is no way to resolve the issue at this time. We don't know when it will be fixed.

Is anyone here in communication with the developers? Is the bug being tracked somewhere?

martin1 wrote:Is anyone here in communication with the developers?

The issue has been reported. Without a response then it appears that the communication has been one way at this point.

martin1 wrote:Is the bug being tracked somewhere?

We don't know if it is a bug or if the loss of administrative rights is intentionally permanent or if the loss of rights is temporary while they work out some issues. All we can do is wait for a response as to what the reason is for the loss of rights, or for the rights to be restored.

jdlessley wrote:

martin1 wrote:Is anyone here in communication with the developers?

The issue has been reported. Without a response then it appears that the communication has been one way at this point.

Let me get this straight -- we don't even know if the developers are working on it?? Wow! So I just looked around the site and ended up finding the bug reported in Jira. And just as I suspected, nobody is working on it! There is no one assigned to the bug and it is listed as a minor bug (priority 4). In fact, it's on backlog and likely won't be fixed anytime soon. That is, unless we let them know the magnitude of the problem. If you want your voices to be heard, you should join the Directory "project" located here:

https://tech.lds.org/projects?controlle ... rojectid=3

And then view the bug here:

https://tech.lds.org/jira/browse/LUD-1729

Upvote the bug and place a comment for good measure. I'm not sure if that is the best way but it seems a much better alternative than this forum.

martin1 wrote:In fact, it's on backlog and likely won't be fixed anytime soon. That is, unless we let them know the magnitude of the problem. . . .

Upvote the bug and place a comment for good measure. I'm not sure if that is the best way but it seems a much better alternative than this forum.

As you have discovered, this is an information forum, not a developer's forum. I am glad you have found the information you were seeking.

You are welcome to follow your plan. Keep in mind, though, that bugs are not prioritized based on the magnitude of the problem. They are prioritized by the assignments from priesthood leaders at Church Headquarters, not by any comments that are found here or on Jira.

The developers work for the Church, not for us. With limited resources, that is often frustrating, but that is the way it is.

lajackson wrote:As you have discovered, this is an information forum, not a developer's forum. I am glad you have found the information you were seeking.

If this is just an information forum, then maybe you should be clear and upfront about this and direct us to the proper location to report these. This thread perfectly illustrates the disconnect between the developers and the users. The moderators here, while useful for limited informational purposes, appear to be just as disconnected from the projects as everyone else. You should likely be directing us to the Jira Projects themselves. By joining these projects we can help close that dev/user gap.

lajackson wrote:You are welcome to follow your plan. Keep in mind, though, that bugs are not prioritized based on the magnitude of the problem.

I'm inclined to believe you here. I just checked out the bugs currently listed as "critical" priority. It seems completely insane. For example, one of the "critical" bugs is: "Sister missionaries assigned to the ***** Ward no longer as listing in the Ward Leaders Missionaries section.". Are you kidding me?

lajackson wrote:They are prioritized by the assignments from priesthood leaders at Church Headquarters, not by any comments that are found here or on Jira.

I'm baffled you think "priesthood leaders" at CHQ are in intimately involved in bug prioritization -- and appalled that you think the developers would completely disregard our input on Jira -- their project management system.

lajackson wrote:The developers work for the Church, not for us.

If you mean the developers get a paycheck from the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, then you are exactly correct. But I would be very saddened if their mindset was not oriented toward the members and hastening the work.

martin1 wrote:If this is just an information forum, then maybe you should be clear and upfront about this and direct us to the proper location to report these.

The forum is not just for information. The forum is a good place to discuss problems. We have found that some problems are operator error and other community users can help work out a problem or provide a work-around. When it appears the problem needs to be reported, and it has not been, then that recommendation is made. On occasion we get church employees who visit the forum and provide valuable assistance.

There is no single location to report issues for all the topic areas covered by LDSTech Forum. The LDS.org feedback link is an official channel for reporting many issues. It is this channel that is the approved method for reporting the issue discussed in this thread. Other forum areas such as the Mobile Applications area use e-mail addresses for each of the applications and the operating systems involved to report problems or bugs.

Note that the issue discussed in this thread was reported using the LDS.org feedback link and posts made stating a report was submitted. That is how the issue ended up in JIRA. There is no direct input by the community into the JIRA for new issues. That was tried for a period of time and it did not work out.

martin1 wrote:This thread perfectly illustrates the disconnect between the developers and the users.

The developers do not answer to the community. The community is a consumer of the Directory but they are not the client. The client is the church department sponsoring the technology. The Priesthood Department is the sponsoring department for a lot of the church sites including LDS.org and tools applications such as the Directory.

martin1 wrote:The moderators here, while useful for limited informational purposes, appear to be just as disconnected from the projects as everyone else.

The purpose and charter of the moderators is to moderate the LDSTech Forum. We are community volunteers and not church employees. Community moderator comments are as community users just like everyone else unless we specifically identify our comments to be as moderators or administrators. Many community moderators and community administrators have a long history of experience with technology in the church and other clerk topics and a desire to help others with those topics. For the most part the community moderators and community administrators have no privileged connections or communications other than through some LDSTech managers on a limit scope.

martin1 wrote:I'm baffled you think "priesthood leaders" at CHQ are in intimately involved in bug prioritization -- and appalled that you think the developers would completely disregard our input on Jira -- their project management system.

The priesthood leaders at headquarters are not intimately involved in bug prioritization. You misunderstand lajackson's explanation of who the client is. The Priesthood Department is the client for the Directory tools application. They approve the management of the priorities for development. The developers do not disregard community input. Rather they have many projects with limited resources and must follow the priorities they receive from the sponsoring church departments. Since the community is not the client then our input as consumers is heard but put on the consideration list to be prioritized within the direction given by the sponsoring department.

JD,

You post her perfectly explains what is going on, however, the need for the post illustrates a great deal of frustration felt by the end user community. The disconnect is between the 'Client' and the 'consumers' - while there is overlap between the 'client' and the 'consumer' - in the cases of these apps, the client isn't who the apps are developed for.

I, admittedly, am not a fan of this process, however, I can't do anything about it. Clearly the dev teams have been pulled and are doing other things. Potentially they are working on this tablet stuff for Missionaries.. they've been doing dev on lds.org.

Until the Church teams publish (to those interested in knowing) the dev projects they are working on and the priorities they are being assigned, we'll have this type of discussion. Again, a roadmap is a great idea I've been championing for years now. But I'm a bit more Joseph Smith in my democratization of the church.

The dev team often does not comment on these forums but we do check them and read them. We are aware of this issue. We are working currently on refining permissions across the app with what data can be seen and changed per user calling. I know it may seem like we are slow but we are working the best we can to get this resolved.
Thank you for your patience.

jeffevannelson wrote:Thank you for your patience.

And thank you for posting.

JohnShaw wrote: Until the Church teams publish (to those interested in knowing) the dev projects they are working on and the priorities they are being assigned, we'll have this type of discussion. Again, a roadmap is a great idea I've been championing for years now. But I'm a bit more Joseph Smith in my democratization of the church.

Just a reminder...one of the church employees was kind enough to give us a rough roadmap of some changes that are planned. See this link. Rejoice in what information we've been given, express gratitude, and show them they can trust us when they share plans in advance.

My second-hand understanding is that it's a pretty small team doing all of lds.org. Perhaps the same people who do directory, newsletter, journal, lesson schedules, etc. is the same team who works on clerk resources, too? We've been seeing more activity on the clerk and administrative tools lately, so perhaps that's the focus.

Remember there was a beta directory release in progress with some modest changes. For whatever reason, this was put on hold. Many of us had input on the changes. Perhaps they decided to take our input and plan a better effort in the future when there's more time? I don't know. Maybe they'll be coming back to the directory project later and aren't going to much effort to fix the current problems because they want to fix them in the codebase they're already working on.

I love this video clip on the church employment web site from someone in the information technology department. At 2:12 they ask him what it's like to work for the church: "...it's like working for a large, non-profit, bureaucratic organization...". It's kind of fun and refreshing that they poke fun at themselves and it's officially published on the church web site trying to attract employees. I've worked for a few multinational, large, for-profit, bureaucratic organizations and I find it refreshing that the church would publish this. Remember, it's your fellow temple-worthy brothers and sisters working to improve the kingdom through technology. It's not the Lord's democracy, it's the Lord's kingdom. The Lord entrusts us imperfect people to do his work and helps us.

I just want to say that I really appreciate all the hard work that is put into these resources. It can be frustrating when there are problems but it's only because we know the blessing of having it in the first place. I am so grateful for all these tools and how they have helped me fulfill my calling. I believe that as these tools are properly used and utilized the church will be more efficient and growth will accelerate. I guess sometimes I forget how hard it was before these tools were available. Thank you everyone that is working on these features and tools.

Just wanted to add that I'm another web admin who *really* misses this functionality...

It has been over a month since the photo management button was removed from the website administrator tool page is there any update as to when or if this tool will be relinked to the web admin? if this task is now in the wheel house of the ward clerk when will the know I ask as I often get tasked to conduct tech training. The bishop cornered me to make sure I keep up on the photo along with other tasked and was surprised that I could no longer manage the photos in the dircetory. Any thoughts on when a resolution of this issue will be forth coming?

kh7cp wrote:Any thoughts on when a resolution of this issue will be forth coming?

I suspect the underlying problem was that all admins could see member's MRN. So now they need to re-code to allow a new level of Admin - ones that cannot see the MRN. Depending on what else has to be done with roles, it might make better sense to do the fix while coding for new features.

I am having the same problem. As Ward Website Administrator I can no longer manage photos. It would be really great if the developers would let us know if this is permanent or if the issue is being worked.

I am having the same problem. As Branch Website Administrator I can no longer manage photos. Is there a resolution[/b] to this problem? Or is this feature gone forever...

One idea as a work around to this limitation is for the bishop to call the ward website administrator as an assistant ward clerk. As an assistant ward clerk, the administrator will have the ability to upload photos again and have the new ability to update member contact information such as mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses. As an assistant ward clerk, the administrator will also have the sacred responsibility to save guard the membership records.

patrickclemes wrote:One idea as a work around to this limitation is for the bishop to call the ward website administrator as an assistant ward clerk.

The problem with this work around is that many of the Website Administrators are sisters.

patrickclemes wrote:One idea as a work around to this limitation is for the bishop to call the ward website administrator as an assistant ward clerk.

This was already recommended but has limitations. The first is mention here. The second is mentioned here.

ok, we fixed this. Ward website admins can now manage photos.

jeffevannelson wrote:ok, we fixed this. Ward website admins can now manage photos.

Great news! Thanks for letting us know.

Woo-hoo! So glad. Thanks!

jeffevannelson wrote:ok, we fixed this. Ward website admins can now manage photos.

I am a ward website administrator. I see no administrator rights of any kind on the Directory. I see no capability to manage photos.I tried Firefox, Chrome, and IE8 with the same results.

I was elated with the news that the "problem" had been fixed. I too am a ward website administrator and found that nothing has changed. There is still no uploading button for photos on the directory site. Perhaps it takes a little longer for the fix to get to Idaho. Currently I email new photos that I take to the Ward Clerk. He in turn puts the photos in the directory.

Sorry guys The fix is out there apparently Its a caching issue. I am trying to resolve that now.

Problem solved. Fix is in. Thanks for your efforts.

It is working fine for me now. Thanks.

Thank you thank you thank you for fixing this!

One aspect of managing photos that is still not available is the ability to remove or edit a photo from the Household section of Directory (right column of Directory) as before. When a ward website administrator needs to replace, or edit, a photo he/she must do so in the Manage Photos section. This requires more steps than was previously available from within the Household section. This is only a minor inconvenience that does not prevent a ward website administrator from being able to do all the functions of managing photos.

I'm a newly called ward web administrator, charged with taking and uploading members photos (with their permission of course). I appear to have rights to edit calendar events, but not to update or add photos (other than for my own family). This tread is from 2013.... is it possible that this has still not been resolved? Please let me know what I have to do to be able to upload photos of ward members (hopefully load them myself rather than have to ask the clerk to do it)

danhibbert wrote:I appear to have rights to edit calendar events, but not to update or add photos (other than for my own family).

It's possible you have access to the calendar because of granting rights another way. You might double-check with the clerk that you've been added to the Ward Website position as a "standard position" and not a custom one.

After verifying that you have been put in as a standard calling, you may have to wait at least a day or two for all the permissions to be added to your account. I can verify it has been fixed. I'm a sister web admin and ovviously have no clerk rights as well. I had to give it sometime before everything showed up. Good luck!