Bothersome minor issues with FamilySearch Photos

OK, the FamilySearch Photos program keeps evolving (if that is the word) from day-to-day. I have noticed several changes this past week and my YouTube video on the subject is still sort-of accurate as far as I went at the time it was made. Now there are some more nuances in the process of choosing a default image for the FamilySearch Family Tree program. As it turns out even if all of the photos are a named exactly the same way, you cannot choose some of them because they all have to show the same thumbnail. So you choose the options not by name but by photo. The names can all be the same, but if the thumbnail photos are different then you cannot change the default.

This really is more complicated than it sounds. In FamilySearch Family Tree, the default photo is called the "Portrait Photo." Each user can select a different photo for each ancestor. You will see the photo you select and they will see the photo they select. See, no conflicts. You can choose photos even if you did not upload them. The first photo uploaded will be automatically selected unless changed.

Here are the instructions as of today, but you have to do exactly what the manual says:

1. Go to either the Photos section of FamilySearch.org or to Family Tree:
• To change a portrait using the Photos section, click Photos, and then click People.
Then click the person that you want.
• To change the portrait photo of a person using Family Tree, click Family Tree.
On the fan chart or pedigree view, click the person’s name. On the summary card,
click Photos.
2. Click the current portrait (the picture that appears in the circle).
A popup containing all of the person’s uploaded photos appears.
3. Click the photo that you want to use.

If this sounds confusing, it is because it is. It took me a couple of times to figure out what was really saying.  Good luck. I might do the video over after a while when I figure out how to duplicate the issues.

The way to tell if all the photos have the same thumbnail is to go to the People view in the Photos programs and see if you have more than one photo showing for any individual. If you do, you have selected different thumbnails and/or names for the people in the photos. You have to delete the tags and re-tag the people with exactly the same name and the same thumbnail photo. Good luck again.