"Name Unknown" Households

[aebrown]

I don't know why this problem appeared when it did. My only clue is that this is the first such export I had extracted from MLS since we installed v. 2.9. Does such an install rewrite the database?

I don't know about "rewriting" the database, but MLS definitely upgrades the database. The first time you open a database after the conversion to MLS 2.9, you will see a progress gauge with the message "updating database" (or words to that effect). So some sort of database update is happening; I would guess that it involves adding columns to some tables, adding one or more tables, and perhaps other changes.

It seems odd that this would affect the home teaching assignments. As I recall from previous threads on this topic, the problem has happened in many reported instances independent of an MLS upgrade. But I wouldn't rule anything out -- I haven't seen any reliable diagnosis of the cause of the problem yet.

[lajackson]

This "Name Unknown" problem occurred in our ward recently.

I don't know why this problem appeared when it did. My only clue is that this is the first such export I had extracted from MLS since we installed v. 2.9. Does such an install rewrite the database?

Updating to 2.9 would have the same effect as reindexing the database. If these were the same names you had just deleted, the 2.9 update may have come before the database was actually cleared in MLS and the problem reappeared. If the names were different ones, my guess would be that the database just got a thorough cleaning and reindexing, and now you are seeing the complete residue instead of just part of it.

In any event, one of my favorite help desk quotes comes from a phone call where two folks at CHQ were working on this problem for me. "Wow! Look at what it did. Isn't that interesting."

Obviously, they are still in the amazement phase along the continuum toward solving this problem. [grin]

[RossEvans]

I It seems odd that this would affect the home teaching assignments. As I recall from previous threads on this topic, the problem has happened in many reported instances independent of an MLS upgrade. But I wouldn't rule anything out -- I haven't seen any reliable diagnosis of the cause of the problem yet.

I was not very clear. Home teaching assignments were not affected. The "Name Unknown"" household records appeared in the HomeTeaching.csv file but had no assignments. The HomeTeaching.csv file is normally a file of all households in the ward, whether they are assigned home teachers or not. That file's records normally correspond precisely to the household records in PalmFamily.csv. (That might have been the case here. I have overwritten my copy of the corrupted files, so I don't know.)

Those symptoms, combined with the fact that the Households screen in MLS displayed the spurious records, leads me to guess that there is a table of households within the MLS schema, and that table somewhow was corrupted during the "updating database" step you describe.

[lajackson]

Those symptoms, combined with the fact that the Households screen in MLS displayed the spurious records, leads me to guess that there is a table of households within the MLS schema, and that table somewhow was corrupted during the "updating database" step you describe.

There is a table of households. In fact, there are two ways of accessing households to assign home teachers, and you can actually get two different lists using the two different ways. I do not know if that means there are two tables that are not in sync, or if the two different access methods return different results from the same database table.

In either event, the problem has not yet been solved in the programming world of MLS.

I first ran across the table of households problem in working with geocodes when I could not get rid of the code for a household that still showed up even though the family had moved.

At the stake level, solving the problem took a series of MLS record entries, followed by member data refreshes from CHQ done in the proper order at the Stake, Ward, and then Stake again.

[russellhltn]

Those symptoms, combined with the fact that the Households screen in MLS displayed the spurious records, leads me to guess that there is a table of households within the MLS schema, and that table somewhow was corrupted during the "updating database" step you describe.

There's another pair of possibilities:

- In the past when that family was deleted, the index was deleted and record was marked, but failed to be deleted. Because they were no longer in the index, everything appeared fine - until it was reindexed. In that case the database was always corrupt, just didn't become obvious until that point.

- As part of a upgrade it's not usual for MLS to automatically request a membership refresh. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a refresh as something to do with it.

[mkmurray]

- As part of a upgrade it's not usual for MLS to automatically request a membership refresh. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a refresh as something to do with it.

...And I'm pretty sure the 2.9 upgrade required a membership refresh afterward.

[crislapi]

Our EQ presidency noticed this a couple months ago (MLS 2.8.3) when making new assignments. I called HQ and was informed that this was indeed for those who had moved out of the ward. I was told it was a place holder for stats, and at the end of the quarter they would automatically be removed. I never followed up to see if that happened, but will look into it.

I'm not sure if it was hurting us on the months they were gone, but it helped us on the months they were here and were visited.

[RossEvans]

Our EQ presidency noticed this a couple months ago (MLS 2.8.3) when making new assignments. I called HQ and was informed that this was indeed for those who had moved out of the ward. I was told it was a place holder for stats, and at the end of the quarter they would automatically be removed..

If these records are there by design then there really needs to be a cleaner solution that does not show up in the Households screen, export files, etc. And if this is true, the workaround that has been disseminated on this forum -- manually deleting the records from the Households screen -- might actually be defeating the purpose of the "place holder." The common wisdom on this forum is that this is the symptom of an undiagnosed bug.

It still sounds fishy to me, since we have lots of move-outs in our ward and this is the first time I have "encountered the "Name Unknown" records. Perhaps our membership clerk has quetly been deleting these phantom records all along, but this was news to the rest of us in our clerk's office.

[lajackson]

...And I'm pretty sure the 2.9 upgrade required a membership refresh afterward.

Yes, it did.

[crislapi]

If these records are there by design then there really needs to be a cleaner solution that does not show up in the Households screen, export files, etc.

I agree.

And if this is true, the workaround that has been disseminated on this forum -- manually deleting the records from the Households screen -- might actually be defeating the purpose of the "place holder."

That's why I'd recommend finding out why they are there before you start deleting them. Perhaps a call to HQ? Wait - I did that already. I was told they are place holders for stats, and would be removed at the end of the quarter. I will check the next time I get a chance to see if they were in fact removed.

The common wisdom on this forum is that this is the symptom of an undiagnosed bug.

I'd still prefer calling and finding out for sure.

It still sounds fishy to me, since we have lots of move-outs in our ward and this is the first time I have "encountered the "Name Unknown" records. Perhaps our membership clerk has quetly been deleting these phantom records all along, but this was news to the rest of us in our clerk's office.

We're a student stake. A week doesn't go by where we don't have at least 20 move-outs. This was also the first time I'd heard of it. Perhaps it's the first time someone said something.