Attempting to connect your account only to be greeted by an empty gray or white box brings your genealogy workflow to a halt. When you encounter the Family Tree Maker Ancestry login screen white or blank bug, an outdated web rendering engine or blocked script cache is preventing the authorization window from loading properly.
Why the Login Screen Stays Blank
Family Tree Maker relies on an embedded browser component to render the Ancestry sign-in portal. When this viewport fails to display anything, it usually stems from:
- Corrupted Edge WebView2 Runtime: The software depends on the Microsoft Edge rendering environment to display modern secure web pages.
- Stale Authentication Cookies: Outdated session cookies get stuck in the embedded browser’s temporary storage, triggering a silent script crash.
- Security Suite Blocking Scripts: Aggressive anti-tracking shields intercept the login script before it draws the input fields.
Direct Fixes to Restore the Sign-In Form
Follow these steps in order to clear the embedded browser cache and load the login portal.
1. Clear the Edge WebView2 User Data Folder
Close Family Tree Maker completely. Press Windows Key + R, type %localappdata%, and press Enter. Locate the The_Software_MacKiev_Company folder (or Family Tree Maker folder depending on your version) and open it. Find the folder named EBWebView or WebView2, which holds the embedded browser’s cached cookies and scripts, and delete it. When you relaunch the software, it will regenerate a clean browsing session.
2. Update or Repair Microsoft Edge WebView2
Open the Windows Settings app, go to Installed Apps, and search for Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime. Click the three dots next to it, select Modify, and choose Repair. If it is missing entirely, download the Evergreen Bootstrapper installer directly from Microsoft’s official developer site to reinstall the required web component.
3. Add FTM to Browser Security Exceptions
Open Microsoft Edge (or your default system browser), open its settings menu, and navigate to Privacy, search, and services. Ensure tracking prevention is set to Balanced rather than Strict. If third-party cookie blocking is set to block all, add [*.]ancestry.com to the allowed sites list so the authentication token can pass back to the desktop application.
