Does anyone else find Merging profiles frustrating? [Bug with submitting merge]

+5 votes
232 views
After comparing two profiles with a pending merge, I edited the biography to add more information and added three sources. When I clicked on what I thought would confirm and merge the profiles, I was sent back to the beginning and lost all the new editing. This is not the first time I've had this frustrating time with WikiTree. Maybe I just don't use it enough, but it is why I seem to avoid working on the site and finishing the profiles I manage. It is not user-friendly IMHO.
in WikiTree Tech by June Higgins G2G5 (5.3k points)
recategorized by Chris Whitten

3 Answers

+7 votes
 
Best answer
That does sound frustrating.

I hope that not many others experience this bug. If they do, I hope they'll post here to help us get to the bottom of it.

June, can you offer more details? When you say you click what you thought would confirm the merge, what button did you click? What sort of computer and web browser are you using? Does this happen with every merge, or just some?

If you give more information, Jamie will attempt to find the pattern. If we can isolate the problem we can fix it.
by Chris Whitten G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
selected by Shaun Doust
Just in case there is any relationship between the merge problem and the following problem, there was a previous query today about edits that wouldn't save, at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/657449/why-wont-my-edits-save -- and it seems like the problem is whenever a second window is opened based on a profile, and then the original is edited. (Like adding a child to a parent's profile.) That seems to disable the ability to continue what you were doing.  It would be nice to get a warning, if there's a way to do that, that tells you that you are about to lose anything you've done in this second window.  It  could warn you that you must complete the original task or you will lose your ability to continue.

This may also be related to the problem with the merges, if editing happened before the merge was completed. There are no warning messages, or any indication of any kind that something has gone wrong until you try to reload the page and find it hasn't "taken", by which time one has often lost research and time.

Reba
I think this is related to my problem. I was adding children and trying to switch back to window of the parent profile, which I then wanted to merge with a duplicate profile. One of these days, I'll get it right. Thanks.
Thanks for your response. I've tried to find the "merge" link I thought would do the job, but I'm not sure now which one it was. I believe it was on some instructional page that showed steps for comparison of the two profiles, and then said, "confirm the merge" at the bottom. I can't find it now. Sorry. But I have completed my part of the merge, using a "merge" link that's at the top of the profile page. Now have to wait for the other profile's manager to agree....
+9 votes
It pays to save the profile every once in a while, so you don't loose edits.  Especially, before you do a merge of the profile.
by Living Moore G2G6 Mach 1 (10.5k points)
Thanks. I should have known to save, but didn't think. In the future, I will, definitely.
+10 votes
Ugh, that sounds super frustrating! I usually keep a document open on my computer, and do the edits on there, and then just copy and paste. Then if anything goes wrong, I still have the document version. It might be a little more work, but it works!
by E Childs G2G6 Pilot (131k points)
Thanks to  you and G Moore for the suggestion. I will compose anything longer than a word outside of WikiTree in the future and then paste it in the right place in WikiTree.

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