Old Family Search Account

I recently tried to help a member in our ward with family history. He didn't remember his log-in information so I searched for his church account by his membership number. An account didn't come up so I helped him create a church account. When we tried to access Family Search, we got an error ("Invalid Oauth2 Request). Consequently, we went back to the Church's website to sign into this account to see if the problem was with his church account or with Family Search. We were able to log-in at the Church's website so we realized it wasn't an issue with his church account. We then went to the Contact Information page on the Account Settings page on the Church's website. That's when we realized that he had another church account (that church account was not associated with this membership number which is why it didn't come up when I had searched for his account by his membership number, but it was associated with his phone number).

We then called Global Services to get his old account deleted. While on the phone with the Global Services rep, and after he had deleted this brother's old account, we tried to log into this brother's Family Search account, but we got the aforementioned error again. The G/S rep told us to call Family Search. Long story short, we called F/S three times and each time we got a different answer on how to fix this error, none of which worked. Based on those calls, it appears the F/S system still has this brother's old account info (which, as I mentioned, was deleted by G/S). Anyway the last F/S rep that we spoke to said old accounts take up to 90 days to be removed from the F/S system. I'm not being critical, but those F/S reps didn't appear to know how to handle this problem - they seemed to give me canned answers that weren't really related to this issue (which is why we kept calling back hoping to get someone that could actually help us). Anyway, my questions are (1) Does anyone know how I can fix said error and (2) Is it true that it takes 90 days for an old F/S account to be removed from the F/S system? Seems kinda long to me.

By the way, I did search for this error online, but none of the potential solutions worked.

How is he logging into FamilySearch? Does he click on the "Continue with Church Account" icon before entering his information?

The reason I ask is because Church Account and FamilySearch accounts went their separate ways some time ago - leaving some members with two separate accounts with identical logins. If you don't click on anything before entering the login, you are logging in with a FamilySearch account (which may be identical to your old Church account).

You can try and recover your FS account, or try logging in using Church.

russellhltn wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 10:36 am How is he logging into FamilySearch? Does he click on the "Continue with Church Account" icon before entering his information?

The reason I ask is because Church Account and FamilySearch accounts went their separate ways some time ago - leaving some members with two separate accounts with identical logins. If you don't click on anything before entering the login, you are logging in with a FamilySearch account (which may be identical to your old Church account).

You can try and recover your FS account, or try logging in using Church.

We tried logging into the Family Search website via the "Continue with Church Account" option. After entering his credentials, we got the aforementioned error.

We've had issues that were caused by members with two accounts and each time we ran into that issue, we would just call Global Services and they would deleted the duplicate account. We would then be able to log into the member's F/S account with their church account without any issues. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case this time.

In calling Family Search, they still have this brother's old account in their system, which was the account that was deleted by Global Services after we made a church account for him. I've tried to explain to the F/S folks that the account that they have in their system was deleted by G/S and that we're now trying to log-in with this brother's new church account. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they quite understand that and they keep telling us that we need to log-in with this brother's old account, which what they see in their system (even though it was deleted by G/S). I think the last F/S person that we spoke to kind of understood that, who was the person that told us that it takes 90 days for an old account to be purged from the F/S system. It's interesting that the F/S folks can't manually purge this brother's old account from their system so that we can access F/S with his church account (or maybe they can, but the F/S folks that I've talked to don't quite understand that that's what needs to be done).

FamilySearch and Church Account Split

As of September 13, 2021, FamilySearch accounts and accounts on ChurchofJesusChrist.org (“Church Accounts”) are no longer linked. The change does not change how most users sign in to FamilySearch.

In the previous system used to manage accounts, any account created on FamilySearch.org created a matching account on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Similarly, any account created on ChurchofJesusChrist.org created a matching FamilySearch account. The dual linked accounts existed for all users. Now, FamilySearch accounts are created and managed only on FamilySearch.org and Church Accounts are created and managed only on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Hilohi wrote: Sun Feb 25, 2024 3:53 pm I've tried to explain to the F/S folks that the account that they have in their system was deleted by G/S and that we're now trying to log-in with this brother's new church account.

G/S deleted the church account. The FamilySearch account with cloned login/password was unaffected. It's still there. That's not how it used to be, but that's how it is now.

I'd suggest working with FS to recover the username and reset the password and just live with the fact they are now separate.