Page 1 of 1

Edit member phone number online

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:00 pm
by dscatdan1
Can a member of bishopric edit member phone number in lds.org. I tried to do so online but received message number had to be in digits, + or spaces. No combination of digits, etc, would save.

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:47 pm
by aebrown
dscatdan1 wrote:Can a member of bishopric edit member phone number in lds.org. I tried to do so online but received message number had to be in digits, + or spaces. No combination of digits, etc, would save.
Any member can edit his or her own household profile. In addition, bishopric members, stake presidencies, and clerks can edit household profiles in their units.

If you can edit the profile of some other member in your ward, then you indeed have the necessary permissions to edit phone numbers. The problem you seem to be reporting has to do with the format of the particular number you are entering.

What exactly are you entering? Change all the digits to 5 or obscure the details in some other way, so that there will be no privacy concerns. For example if you are trying to enter "(800) 555-1212" then in your reply type "(555) 555-5555". That way we might be able to see what is wrong. Have you tried just pure digits, such as "1234567890"? That should work, no matter what.

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:48 pm
by dscatdan1
I have tried all combinations, including just numbers, and tried entering 555-555-5555. When I try to save I get message that only digits, + and space are allowed. I have access since I am administrator for calendar.

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:05 pm
by aebrown
dscatdan1 wrote:I have tried all combinations, including just numbers, and tried entering 555-555-5555. When I try to save I get message that only digits, + and space are allowed. I have access since I am administrator for calendar.
I thought from your first message that you were a bishopric member. Now it appears that you are a ward website administrator. If so, that makes a big difference. Ward website administrators cannot change profile information in the directory. See this post.

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:53 am
by dscatdan1
aebrown wrote:I thought from your first message that you were a bishopric member. Now it appears that you are a ward website administrator. If so, that makes a big difference. Ward website administrators cannot change profile information in the directory. See this post.

I am member of bishopric and am responsible for scheduling our building via the calendar. Sorry if I used wrong term. For example, I have access to Leader Resources. I tried to edit member profile and include area code and got the message I described.

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:27 am
by aebrown
dscatdan1 wrote:I am member of bishopric and am responsible for scheduling our building via the calendar. Sorry if I used wrong term. For example, I have access to Leader Resources. I tried to edit member profile and include area code and got the message I described.
Thanks for clearing that up. I think I understand your situation now, but I can't explain why you are getting the error message. Here's what I can do as an assistant stake clerk, and what you should be able to do as a bishopric member as well:
  1. Go to the Directory (lds.org > Tools > Directory or directly to http://lds.org/directory)
  2. Sign in with your LDS Account
  3. In the Households list, click on a household name.
  4. The selected household's profile will appear on the right.
  5. Click the Edit Profile link
  6. The Edit panel will appear on the right, with a Household Information section followed by the Household Members section.
  7. Click in any of the Phone fields
  8. Enter a number that consists purely of digits, e.g., 8005551212 (some other characters are possible, such as hyphens or parentheses or spaces, but let's keep this as simple as possible)
  9. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.
At this point, I get a popup reminding me that changes will become effective after 24 hours. I only get a popup that says "Phone number: Only digits, + and spaces are allowed" if I include text such as letters in the number.

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that you get that popup about "Only digits..." even when you enter a number with pure digits. Is that correct?

If so, perhaps there is something strange happening with your browser. What browser are you using? What operating system? Have you tried this from another computer, such as your ward's administrative computer? Can other bishopric members successfully make such edits?

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:22 pm
by russellhltn
dscatdan1 wrote:I tried to do so online but received message number had to be in digits, + or spaces. No combination of digits, etc, would save.

Is it doing this only with that one particular member you are trying to save, or is it doing it for everyone? I'm wondering if the message is being triggered by some other field(s) other then the one your editing.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:26 pm
by dscatdan1
RussellHltn wrote:Is it doing this only with that one particular member you are trying to save, or is it doing it for everyone? I'm wondering if the message is being triggered by some other field(s) other then the one your editing.
I have tried editing the home phone numbers of several members of the ward by adding the area code. I use only numbers. When I try to save, I get the message re digits. I have attempted to do this on my ipad2 and on my PC running windows XP via IE.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:32 pm
by dscatdan1
aebrown wrote:If so, perhaps there is something strange happening with your browser. What browser are you using? What operating system? Have you tried this from another computer, such as your ward's administrative computer? Can other bishopric members successfully make such edits?
I am able to make changes in the MLS at the computer at church. In the MLS I have added phone numbers without a problem. We do not have internet access at church.

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:38 pm
by aebrown
dscatdan1 wrote:I am able to make changes in the MLS at the computer at church. In the MLS I have added phone numbers without a problem. We do not have internet access at church.
Although it's good that you can make changes in MLS, that really has no bearing on the question of editing phone numbers in the Directory on lds.org.

My suggestion to try the ward's administrative computer was just one possibility. The point of my suggestion was that you try editing a phone number on the Directory from another computer. That will help eliminate a set of possible problems. To help narrow this down, I would suggest that you:
  • Try the same operation on another computer
  • Edit a different household
  • Ask someone else (who has similar permissions, such as your ward clerk or another bishopric member) to try the same thing.
The results of those three tests should help narrow down where the problem lies.