Birthdate for LDS Account?

I must have been sleeping but I just discovered they are now using the date of birth instead of the confirmation date to register for an LDS Account. When did this happen? Whenever it did, I like it! As a ward web administrator this will speed things up because members know their birth date, while very few remember their confirmation date.

zaneclark wrote:I must have been sleeping but I just discovered they are now using the date of birth instead of the confirmation date to register for an LDS Account. When did this happen? Whenever it did, I like it! As a ward web administrator this will speed things up because members know their birth date, while very few remember their confirmation date.

I saw another thread discuss this change very briefly, but this change couldn't have been more than 2-3 months ago. It was fairly recent, and likely the change was made for the exact reasoning you mention.

mkmurray wrote:...this change couldn't have been more than 2-3 months ago.

Here's the earliest thread I could find about it (June 2009).

This is true for creating an LDS account, but anywhere you need to grand access to members still uses confirmation date. For example, adding non-resident members to your stake website and initiating a new missionary recommend both still require membership number and confirmation date.

I haven't seen this as I already had an LDS Account, but is the only authentication to create an account a full name and birthdate? If so, that seems fairly insecure as many friends of people would know their name and birthdate, but likely not their membership record number.

kgthunder wrote:I haven't seen this as I already had an LDS Account, but is the only authentication to create an account a full name and birthdate? If so, that seems fairly insecure as many friends of people would know their name and birthdate, but likely not their membership record number.

Look again. You need membership number and birthdate.

crislapi wrote:Look again. You need membership number and birthdate.

Oh, good catch. I didn't notice he had said "full name." It is true that LDSAccount has never required full name as a credential for registering. In fact, it's instead used as a verification step to make sure you and LDS databases are talking about the same person.

I understand that in situations such as resetting a forgotten LDS Account password, MRN and confirmation date are still required. But MRN and birthdate are sufficient to register in the first place.

Thanks for the catch. I trust y'all, I haven't had need to go back since I have an active LDS Account. Glad to hear MRN is still needed.

I am still a little confused about when you can use birthdate vs confirmation date. I opened NFS, clicked on the "register" link, and it asked for the member number and confirmation date.... Does this mean that a member who obtains an LDS Account for the LUWS using his birthdate would still need his confirmation number for NFS? Or can he use his LDS Account username and password for NFS?

zaneclark wrote:I am still a little confused about when you can use birthdate vs confirmation date. I opened NFS, clicked on the "register" link, and it asked for the member number and confirmation date.... Does this mean that a member who obtains an LDS Account for the LUWS using his birthdate would still need his confirmation number for NFS? Or can he use his LDS Account username and password for NFS?

NFS does not use the LDSAccount authentication system yet. It is a separate system of login credentials at the moment.

LDS Account, FamilySearch, newFamilySearch, and MLS all use different logins from each other.

At this point, it's LDS Account (which is used for LUWS) that will accept a birth date for creating an account.