Tech Forum

Hi,

I'm a clerk in the CCID branch in China. My wife is the Primary President. We noticed some differences in the names that were showing up in the directory on her LDS tools(iPhone). A number of them were missing. So I asked her to resync and see if that cleared it up. She got a sync error, so I asked her to uninstall it, and reinstall the application with the latest version. She did this and after logging on and syncing up she saw the same problem.

So I had her logon to LDS.org and check the member list (https://www.lds.org/mls/mbr/records/mem ... t?lang=eng)

The member list showed all of the names that were missing. So puzzled by this I started looking at forums and help and learned that the lds tools app relies on the information in the "Directory" not the "Member List". Makes sense, so I had her logon to LDS tools and check the "Directory". Sure enough, it looks the same as it does on her phone, missing well over half the branch.

So at this point as a clerk I have a few things running through my head but most of all I'm thinking I've got some clean up to do somewhere. So I logon under my account and check the directory expecting to see inconsistency between the "Directory" and "Member List". There was none. So now I'm just puzzled.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I don't think it's an application problem, looks like there's something wrong with my wife's lds.org account. How can I get this resolved?

Matt Frazier
CCID Branch Clerk
Shenyang, China

I don't know what caused the sync error or the problems with the LDS Tools app, but I don't think the LDS.org Directory tool extends access to ward council members to see people whose privacy settings are set to "Leadership Only" – only to bishopric members and clerks. Chances are that the people who are hidden are set to "Leadership Only" in their privacy settings. Depending on the local laws, that may be the default setting, with members needing to opt in.

The most complete access for ward council members is in Leader and Clerk Resources, and the LDS Tools apps are slowly catching up. The LDS.org Directory may take longer to catch up, or they may decide to keep it as primarily a tool for non-leaders.

The individual privacy settings is likely the issue. Of course that shouldn't be changed without the member's permission.

Identical tools/apps can show different things depending on one's calling.

That's 100% accurate. I went back and took a closer look at this. Sure enough everyone who's got their privacy settings set to "Private - Leadership Only" show up with a lock icon next to it in my view of the directory and don't show up at all on my wife's. Because she doesn't fall under the a leadership role by the definition of the application, she doesn't get access. It appears we're defining PEC as leadership vice Ward Council (based on the Access Table). In any event, the application is working as designed.

Thank you for your help. Mystery solved.

Matt Frazier
CCID Branch Clerk
Shenyang, China

frazierm8 wrote:It appears we're defining PEC as leadership vice Ward Council (based on the Access Table). In any event, the application is working as designed.

Just to be clear, in the Directory only bishopric, exec. sec. and clerks have access to records marked as private. It's not the entire PEC. The Access Table only applies to LCR (at least at this point).

In many countries, the privacy sharing defaults to "Leadership Only" rather than "Everyone". That may be the default setting for China. You may want to educate your branch members about this setting so they can allow others in the branch to see their membership information. To expedite matters, you could change the privacy setting with the member's permission. Often times waiting for people to change the setting themselves means it never happens.

mevans wrote:In many countries, the privacy sharing defaults to "Leadership Only" rather than "Everyone".

Just so it is clear, the visibility and privacy settings are "Private - Leadership Only", "Ward", and "Stake". "Private - Leadership Only" displays the information with this setting only to ward/branch leaders and stake Leaders. The leader set is a limited set of callings. "Ward" displays the information to all ward/branch members and stake leaders. "Stake" displays the information with this setting to all ward/branch members and all stake members. This would be the "Everyone" setting mentioned in mevans' post. For more information see Editing Your Profile.