When your desktop workspace suddenly stops displaying the green leaf icons next to your ancestors’ names, knowing how to fix Family Tree Maker Ancestry hints not showing up will immediately bring back record matches, census documents, and source suggestions to your family lines.
Why Family Tree Maker Ancestry Hints Not Showing Up Happens
Hints stop appearing when the background communication between your local installation and the online database gets interrupted, or when local tracking logs become clogged.
- Expired Account Credentials: Your Ancestry session expired silently in the background, cutting off the automated search engine.
- Disabled Global Hint Settings: Software updates occasionally reset default workspace preferences to prioritize offline performance.
- Corrupted Hint Cache: Accumulated temporary files block new web queries from updating your family profiles.
Quick Steps to Restore Your Green Leaf Hints
1. Reset Your Ancestry Sign-In
Click the small Ancestry icon in the upper-right corner of the workspace. If it shows you are signed in, select Log Out, wait ten seconds, and log back in with your username and password. This renews your security token and immediately restarts the background search engine.
2. Verify Hint Preferences Are Active
Go to Tools > Options and click the Hints tab. Ensure the box labeled Turn on online hints is checked. Verify that Ancestry hints is specifically selected, and make sure the slider for minimum confidence matches is set to normal rather than off.
3. Clear the Temporary Program Cache
Close the software completely. On Windows, press Windows Key + R, type %localappdata%, and hit Enter. Locate the Software MacKiev or Family Tree Maker data folder, open it, and delete the contents of the Cache folder. Relaunch the program—it will build a fresh search log and repopulate your green leaves within minutes.
