Unable to access my temple recommend on my Android phone

I renewed my temple recommend last night. Heard about a mobile version and cheered. When I access Member Tools I can confirm that my recommend is active. Our stake clerk has confirmed that it is active. But, no Temple Recommend button exists for me in my Member Tools. I deleted the old version and reinstalled and I have restarted the phone multiple times and it has not appeared.

So, what am I doing wrong? I confirmed with a very helpful sister at the temple that they can look me up, but I think it would be better to be able to access it for myself.

All help appreciated.

Have you confirmed your district has been enabled for digital temple recommends?

Seems there more to it then that:

From the Help Center:
Mobile Temple Recommends

But that only works if the leaders have done their part:
Issuing a Mobile Temple Recommend

Well, My Stake President said we cleared to have mobile recommends. It is possible, I suppose, that he was premature in that statement. I am a humble, and grateful, Nursery Leader and I don't have access to that information directly. Can anyone here see if the San Diego temple district is cleared?

TBH, the leaders here seem really uncertain about the in's and out's of the new mobile recommends. I may just have to increase my patience skill in this. Anyway, I confirmed with the Redlands temple that they can look up things so all should go well. /em crosses fingers.

Liahona999 wrote: Wed Feb 05, 2025 6:25 pm Heard about a mobile version and cheered.

Mobile recommends are only available in certain temple districts that are participating in a pilot program. Originally there was only one temple district in the U.S. and two more internationally. The pilot program has since been expanded to include a number of other temple districts.

If your temple district is not in the pilot program, you will not be able to obtain a mobile recommend, even though Member Tools still shows your recommend information.

If your temple district is in the pilot program, once the recommend interviews are complete, your bishop turns on access to the mobile recommend and then you activate it in Member Tools. Otherwise, you would continue to use your current paper recommend.

russellhltn wrote: Wed Feb 05, 2025 6:43 pm Seems there more to it then that:

From the Help Center:
Mobile Temple Recommends

But that only works if the leaders have done their part:
Issuing a Mobile Temple Recommend

Thanks for sharing those help docs. One interesting side note is that a member profile pic is required for mobile temple recommends, so once the mobile recommend program expands, the Forum might get an increase in questions about how to update profile pictures!

To renew a question, does anyone here know which temple districts have been cleared to issue Mobile Recommends? My Stake leaders seem a bit vague on the topic.

I understand that the Newport Beach California Temple was one of the three original temples in the pilot program. The other two temples were on different continents.

I have also heard that several more temples in California are included among others in the expanded pilot test. I do not have any specific information personally, and most certainly nothing official.

Your stake presidency and your bishop should know if your assigned temple is participating in the pilot program. You might also ask at your assigned temple. If your assigned temple is a part of the pilot program, all of the stakes in your temple district should be able to issue mobile recommends to those members who request them.

New information. Others in my Ward see their mobile temple recommends but I cannot. Who can I contact to see if my account is bugged somehow?

From the link above:

Members may choose to receive either a printed or a mobile temple recommend. If members desire to receive or switch to a mobile recommend, members need to contact their local priesthood leader.

And from the linked guide:

A profile picture on your Member Tools account is required. This should be uploaded
before requesting a mobile recommend.

That doesn't actually answer the question. Does the Church have a help line for for mobile stuff?

Liahona999 wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:57 pm That doesn't actually answer the question. Does the Church have a help line for for mobile stuff?

First tier support is your clerk. If he can't help you resolve it, he can give you the number to call the Global Service Department. You can also send feedback from within the Member Tools app which will get to the developers to investigate.

Also, I believe that mobile recommends must be activated as such during the recommend issue process - if you have a current paper recommend, you can switch to mobile at your next recommend interview if your stake is participating.

Liahona999 wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:57 pm That doesn't actually answer the question. Does the Church have a help line for for mobile stuff?

Your ward clerk is your help line. He should begin by asking these two questions.

Do you have a photo attached to your Church account?
Have you asked your local leaders for a mobile recommend?

If the answer to those two questions is yes, your clerk should then check to see if a member of the bishopric has set your recommend to be a mobile one. If so, you should no longer have a paper recommend.

After those steps, your clerk should be able to put you in touch with the Global Services Department for further troubleshooting.

I have a photo attached and the Stake clerk says it is activated. Anyway, pardon my frustration and I will contact the Global folks. Oddly, my photo and that of my youngest daughter do not show if you just browse the Stake directory but they do show if you click on them. Also, a few minutes ago my Bishop offered to give me a printout of my recommend. All will be well. It reminds me a bit of when a Fortune 500 company I worked for first tried to computerize things in their branches. Fun times there.

davesudweeks wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2025 6:03 pm
Also, I believe that mobile recommends must be activated as such during the recommend issue process - if you have a current paper recommend, you can switch to mobile at your next recommend interview if your stake is participating.

Certainly not true here in the UK. The mobile option can be activated at anytime during the validity of the recommendation, provided all the criteria for a mobile recommend is met.

I know this because a member whose recommend expires in September this year, just last week, had their recommendation changed to the mobile option!

Liahona999 wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2025 10:19 pm Oddly, my photo and that of my youngest daughter do not show if you just browse the Stake directory but they do show if you click on them.

When a photo is submitted or changed it will only be displayed to members of your household and will not be fully in the system, nor visible to others, until it is approved. What you stated indicates your photo and your youngest daughter's photo have not been approved. I am assuming that what you mean by "Stake directory" is actually either the online Ward Directory and Map or the directory in the Member Tools mobile app. Ask your ward clerk to check 'Photos to Approve' in the 'Actions and Messages' tile of Leader and Clerk Resources to see if your photo and your daughter's photo are waiting in the approval queue.

The question is does the photo have to be approved for the mobile temple recommend to work? That part is unclear.

russellhltn wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 3:35 am The question is does the photo have to be approved for the mobile temple recommend to work? That part is unclear.

I would think so. And that may be the reason the mobile recommend was not working in the first place.

It will be interesting to see what programming has been put into place for things like a member removing their picture once their mobile recommend has been enabled.

Does the mobile recommend show the member picture alongside the barcode to be scanned? That seems implied to me by the "requirement" for a profile picture, so that when the recommend is presented at the desk, there's a visual confirmation (otherwise why require a picture?). I had assumed just the barcode would be displayed, but perhaps the pic accompanies it.

BrianEdwards wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 9:00 am Does the mobile recommend show the member picture alongside the barcode to be scanned?

A mobile recommend displays the Member Tools photo and a QR code that is valid for only a short period of time. If the QR code does not scan, the first thing done is to ask the member to back out of Tools and then select the recommend again, hopefully generating a more timely QR code that will be accepted. That almost always works.

lajackson wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2025 9:28 am A mobile recommend displays the Member Tools photo and a QR code

That answers that. And it might be a requirement to be approved so the ward is in a sense vouching that the photo matches the member, and not something that got taken just before entering the temple.

In that case, some wards will need to step up their game in approving photos.