Why Have My Ancestry Matches Disappeared? (Explained & Fixed)

Are you looking in vain for an Ancestry DNA match that you’re certain you saw before in your match list? Do you see an empty web page where your match list should be? Or are you wondering why half your Ancestry matches have disappeared?

This article runs through every scenario of the incredible disappearing Ancestry DNA match (or matches). And we’ll show you how to solve technical issues – and which scenarios cannot be reversed.

Why Has My Ancestry DNA Match Suddenly Disappeared?

In this scenario, you’ve spotted an interesting DNA match but hadn’t finished reviewing the possible connections. You may even have starred the match to remind yourself to check back later.

And then you can’t find the match!

There are three possible reasons that a single Ancestry DNA match disappears from your match list:

  • You have inadvertently hidden the DNA match
  • The user has opted out of DNA matching
  • The user has deleted their DNA from Ancestry

Let’s run through the scenarios and their remedies.

Your fault!

Did you forget that you deliberately hid the match? Or perhaps you did so by accident?

Read our next section on Hidden Matches to check if you hid the match – and take action to unhide it.

Opting out

All users can opt-out of Ancestry DNA matching at any time. This is a fairly drastic choice, as it stops the person opting out from being able to see any of their DNA matches.

But it also removes them from the match lists of all other Ancestry accounts.

Opting out is reversible. The user may choose to opt back in at a later date. In that case, the match will reappear in your list. The match will also reappear in any groups that you may have added them to.

There is nothing you can do about other users opting out. However, you can take some preventative action to preserve the details of matches that are particularly important to you. I’ll discuss this in the section on preserving DNA match details.

Removing DNA from Ancestry

This is an even more drastic step than opting out of DNA matching. Every Ancestry user can delete their DNA from the website at any time.

Unlike opting out, this is not a reversible action. The user would have to purchase another Ancestry DNA kit to “come back” to Ancestry matching.

As with opting out, you can take some steps with important matches to protect yourself against losing all their information.

How To Check For Hidden Ancestry Matches

That Ancestry match that “disappeared” may just be hidden. Which is something that you must do yourself. It’s possible you may have hidden the wrong DNA match, or have simply forgotten that you took this action.

Here’s how to check and fix the issue.

Hidden Ancestry matches are listed in a special group. To check if your match is hidden:

  1. Expand the groups’ drop-down menu.
  2. Select the “Hidden matches” group
  3. Click the Apply button to view the hidden list

How to unhide an Ancestry match

If the match you were looking for is on the hidden list, then you can unhide it from here.

  1. Click on the DNA match on the hidden list
  2. Expand the tools menu on the match page
  3. Click on “Show Match”
  4. Click the “Show match” button to confirm your choice

Why Have All My Ancestry DNA Matches Disappeared?

There are several possible reasons why you can’t see any DNA matches on Ancestry.

  • Your browser cache is interfering with an Ancestry software change
  • Ancestry server issues are preventing the web page from displaying information
  • A browser plug-in is interfering with the web page
  • You have logged in with an email used for an alternative account
  • You opted out of DNA matches

Let’s run through each cause, and how to fix the problem. Don’t worry, you’ll get those DNA matches back.

Browser cache issues

Ancestry’s go-to response to support queries is to advise you to clear your browser cache. And often they’re right.

This problem can happen when the company rolls out a software change to the match list page. If your browser has cached the display, then the cached old version may not understand the latest changes. This breaks the page.

The solution is to clear the browser cache. Then refresh the page.

But what if that doesn’t solve the problem? Read on.

Ancestry server display issues

In this scenario, you’ve launched the DNA match list page. You may see your name at the top as usual. But no matches are shown on the page.

Unfortunately, the Ancestry website occasionally has technical issues with loading its web pages to your browser. The web page may show an error message telling you that the server is overloaded.

Or you may just see a spinning wheel like this:

The usual solution is to come back to the website later when the problem is resolved. If you haven’t shut the page down, you’ll need to refresh the browser page.

Browser plug-in interference.

This happened to me a few years ago. Despite repeatedly clearing my browser cache, the match list page kept showing the spinning wheel. I did get to see a few DNA matches, but the page was broken.

The problem turned out to be a browser plug-in. I had installed it long before the problem started occurring. It’s possible that an Ancestry software change suddenly became incompatible with the plug-in.

This article details my problem with an ad-blocker and Ancestry. One solution was to disable the plug-in. For this particular type of plugin, I could also stop it from running on particular websites (like Ancestry.com)

Wrong email?

Did you create a free guest account with Ancestry before you did your DNA test?

Check that you’ve signed into Ancestry with the account associated with your DNA results. If the DNA option isn’t available, that’s a clue.

Opted out

This possibility is last because I figured you’d likely remember if you told Ancestry to remove your account from DNA matching.

If you opted out of the DNA matches feature, then you just need to opt back in again. Read the next section in this article on how to do so.

Opting Back In To Ancestry Matching

When you activate your DNA kit on Ancestry, you are opted in to DNA matching by default.

You can opt out and in to Ancestry matching at any time. If you opt out, you will no longer see any DNA matches. And you will not show up on any Ancestry user’s DNA match list.

If you want to opt back in to the Ancestry DNA matching, follow these steps.

  • Open the DNA tab and click on the Settings menu (top right).
  • Scroll down to the Privacy section
  • Click on the “Change” link in the DNA matches section
  • Toggle the option to “You can’t see your DNA matches and you’re not listed as a match.

Why Have Half My Ancestry DNA Matches Disappeared?

Has it been a while since you logged into Ancestry and took a look at your total count of DNA matches?

Ancestry took the drastic step of removing the display of DNA matches below 8 centimorgans back in September 2020. Our article will give you the background to the Ancestry match purge if you’re interested. Note that the instructions for preserving matches are now obsolete.

Ancestry users who took no action lost an average of about half their DNA matches. If this is you, unfortunately, there’s no way to get those low centimorgan matches back.

More Articles And Tutorials?

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Margaret created a family tree on a genealogy website in 2012. She purchased her first DNA kit in 2017. She created this website to share insights and how-to guides on DNA, genealogy, and family research.

10 thoughts on “Why Have My Ancestry Matches Disappeared? (Explained & Fixed)”

  1. In my case, DNA matches have remained intact. Only one branch of the family has lost all matches. There were several and now 0. I contacted one known match who is showing the other matches and gave me the user names. All show the message there is no match or they haven’t taken the test. Have cleared caches, cookies, rebooted and contacted ancestry, receiving no answer. Any ideas?

    Reply
  2. My ancestry dna results suddenly disappeared. I had spent dozens of hour’s categorizing cousins groupings and putting in research notes on many matches. I’d spent hundreds of hours analyzing dna matches, shared matches etc.

    I contacted ancestry support chat and was told I deleted my dna as of an exact time on Sunday. There is absolutely no way I did that. A) I would never do that B) I was at a meeting at church at the time they claimed I did it and did not have my computer with me C) I live with my wife only who never uses my computer and does not even have the password to the computer not to my ancestry account. She has never even used ancestry and would never delete my dna even if she had any idea how to.

    The best ancestry says they can do is send me a replacement kit which I appreciate but I still lose dozens of hours of work and weeks I cannot continue my dna analysis. I’ve asked ancestry to escalate the issue and find out what really happened to my dna results.

    Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

    Reply
  3. Thank you for your blog
    I have a situation not described in the post.
    My sister and I have done the DNA. As well our Dad
    The situation us the we have a match. We. ran Matches. Came up w/ 2 other unknowns. Then when we ran each one seperate. 2 of our sisters and a brother were both in the matches. We have our dad 9 children, plus 5 grandchildren and 1 great grandchildren.
    Now when we ran one of our unknown new matches. Viola our dad is connected, then the grandchildren. Very funny thing is they skipped our whole generation. None of us are connected. How is it in DNA matches that my dad is there none of the next generation, then the grand and great grand children are listed?
    Ancestry is just trying to hit a moving target these days the integraty of the original Ancestry owners no longer exist. Can anyone of us get ouŕ older mail back? No cause they lost that too.
    The day I heard Ancestry was sold. I suspected things would not be as good. I do occasionally take screen shots to help my memory as to what I saw.
    If we all told Ancestry we want our money back there might be more concern. Good luck all on your search. There’s alot of rocks out there that still need to be looked under.

    Reply
  4. Just this last few days, all my ancestry matches have vanished. When I click on one parent or the other, or the unassigned list, all I get is a blank beige page. I checked the settings – dna matching IS switched on, everything is as it should be for the matches to show. I have cleared the browser cache several times, signed out, restarted the computer, signed back in, cleared the cache again, and still not one match appears.
    Any ideas, anyone?

    Reply

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