Please improve server capacity and Sunday software issues!

Hi, I'm a ward clerk, and I work in Software. It is so frustrating that the church websites and apps ALWAYS have server problems, especially on Sundays when we need it most! It makes it really hard for us to fulfill our callings. The LDS Tools app consistently has login issues. On the website, trying to submit and enter payments didn't work for nearly 2 hours earlier today. It's the same problem over the years. Please be more serious about this and dedicate more time and resources to fixing these issues. It's critical for the work to continue and I don't feel like it's getting the attention it needs. Please pay attention to the lousy member tools app ratings, members are trying to voice their discontent with it and it continues to be a problem. Thank you.

jeffreyglennbitton@gmail.com wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 10:34 am Hi, I'm a ward clerk, and I work in Software. It is so frustrating that the church websites and apps ALWAYS have server problems, especially on Sundays when we need it most! It makes it really hard for us to fulfill our callings. The LDS Tools app consistently has login issues. On the website, trying to submit and enter payments didn't work for nearly 2 hours earlier today. It's the same problem over the years. Please be more serious about this and dedicate more time and resources to fixing these issues. It's critical for the work to continue and I don't feel like it's getting the attention it needs. Please pay attention to the lousy member tools app ratings, members are trying to voice their discontent with it and it continues to be a problem. Thank you.

The Church Tech Forum is user-to-user discussion and collaborative self help. It is not an official support channel and there is no means of forwarding your concerns to those who can address them. Most of the Church online web pages have a feedback link at the bottom of the page to report issues, suggestions, and other feedback. The Church mobile apps have an in-app feedback feature to communicate feedback. Due to the large volume of messages for web pages as well as for mobile apps and the limited support personnel to manage them, you may not receive a personal response, or in many cases, any response at all. Most responses that are sent are automated receipt acknowledgements. Know, however, your messages will be forwarded to the appropriate person, team, or department for consideration.

Take time to search the forum and you will find all the issues and concerns mentioned have been identified and are actively discussed.

Many developers hold callings in their ward and are painfully aware of the issues. But they have to work within the projects assigned and the resources given.

russellhltn wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 7:20 pm Many developers hold callings in their ward and are painfully aware of the issues. But they have to work within the projects assigned and the resources given.

That is correct, and when some people get tired of how painful it is dealing with the "resources given" they give up and stop doing it. I spent nearly six hours at church today and a good chunk was that it took us nearly two hours to do tithing because we kept getting "internal server error" and couldn't process the donations nor print the report for the unit/deposit. Then when we finally got tithing done we needed to cut a check for a member in need and LCR failed us again so what should have taken just a couple minutes is now going to take much longer.

Personally I don't mind spending (nearly) six hours at church on Sunday...but I'm also fully retired, have no kids at the house, and to be honest, Sunday is my most exciting and fulfilling day. In addition, I have time Monday - Friday to take care of other things we weren't able to complete on Sunday and do the extra running around needed because we couldn't get something to someone when they were able to make it to church. But these folks with full-time jobs, little children, and a lot of other things going on in their lives...they are the ones I worry about when we basically tell them, 'You get what you get...just deal with it.'

tonynocchi wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 4:03 pm That is correct, and when some people get tired of how painful it is dealing with the "resources given" they give up and stop doing it. I spent nearly six hours at church today and a good chunk was that it took us nearly two hours to do tithing because we kept getting "internal server error" and couldn't process the donations nor print the report for the unit/deposit. Then when we finally got tithing done we needed to cut a check for a member in need and LCR failed us again so what should have taken just a couple minutes is now going to take much longer.

Personally I don't mind spending (nearly) six hours at church on Sunday...but I'm also fully retired, have no kids at the house, and to be honest, Sunday is my most exciting and fulfilling day. In addition, I have time Monday - Friday to take care of other things we weren't able to complete on Sunday and do the extra running around needed because we couldn't get something to someone when they were able to make it to church. But these folks with full-time jobs, little children, and a lot of other things going on in their lives...they are the ones I worry about when we basically tell them, 'You get what you get...just deal with it.'

As mentioned, since many Forum members have experienced similar roadblocks in performing tasks that are time-sensitive, you'll probably find general agreement with your feelings. But again, this Forum doesn't have any influence over Church operations -- its primary role is for user-to-user discussion and self-help, and Forum members provide ideas and suggestions within what they are aware of.

Another option if you have recurring issues like you describe, is to ask to speak with your Stake President, and detail exactly what is occurring. I've often found that when leaders understand specifically what is going on in situations like this, even if they cannot resolve the issues, they may provide additional options. And there's always the possibility/hope they might send this information up the leadership channel.

While I don't have any insight, I've gotten the impression that the problem is much deeper than simply throwing a few extra servers at the problem. Something like bandwidth to the disk system, or some other process bottleneck that can't be easily resolved.

The problem may be deep enough that the solution will take a long to time to resolve as the system needs to stay "live" and it needs to be fully debugged before going live.

russellhltn wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 11:46 am I've gotten the impression that the problem is much deeper than simply throwing a few extra servers at the problem.

A few years ago during a particularly stressful time of server nonfunctionality (is that a real word?), a few of us were brave enough to share our insights on how the Church could solve all of their technical woes. This resulted in one of the best posts I have seen from a Church employee on the subject. He is no longer employed by the Church, but his comments still stand remarkably well, even though they may seem dated.

[EDIT: The link to the post has been removed because it went to a post that is not generally available.]
Here is the link to the post. Read also the two or three posts immediately before and then the rest of the thread if you have an interest in these sorts of things.

There are many, many clues as to the challenges the Church is facing in managing an online system that serves members worldwide. That does not mean we do not provide feedback where needed. But this topic, along with several others, has caused me to be more kind and patient than normal for me.

And while the Church ICS Department has gotten much better over the years, I am certain that the challenges they face have increased exponentially, as well.

lajackson wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 12:37 pmHere is the link to the post. Read also the two or three posts immediately before and then the rest of the thread if you have an interest in these sorts of things.

I tried a bunch of ways (private mode as well), but can't access this link. Clicking it says "You are not authorised to read this forum." Is that forum perhaps a locked or archived forum? Just weird, other links I click on in other posts seem to work okay.

Or maybe it's an issue with the servers...

BrianEdwards wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 2:14 pm

lajackson wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 12:37 pmHere is the link to the post.

Or maybe it's an issue with the servers...

It was an issue with my brain. My sincerest apologies. That post is in the moderator forum.

This is the main part what he said:

There is a pretty complex set of things going on and it isn't any one issue. The solution can't be pinned down to "move to the cloud," "add more servers," "better load balancing," or any of the other suggestions we see, but they all play a part in the solution.

jeffreyglennbitton@gmail.com wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 10:34 am Hi, I'm a ward clerk, and I work in Software. It is so frustrating that the church websites and apps ALWAYS have server problems, especially on Sundays when we need it most! It makes it really hard for us to fulfill our callings. The LDS Tools app consistently has login issues. On the website, trying to submit and enter payments didn't work for nearly 2 hours earlier today. It's the same problem over the years. Please be more serious about this and dedicate more time and resources to fixing these issues. It's critical for the work to continue and I don't feel like it's getting the attention it needs. Please pay attention to the lousy member tools app ratings, members are trying to voice their discontent with it and it continues to be a problem. Thank you.

I submitted a ticket for this and I got a response that it's a capacity issue. One recommendation is to use Incognito mode.