Review Insights · Google Play
Ancestry: Family History & DNA
Ancestry.com · 178,800 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
178,800 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 49 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
10 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "THEIVES!!!! I PURCHASED A TEST AS A GIFT. I NEVER AGREED TO PAY FOR A SUBSCRIPTION, BUT YOU CHARGED MY ACCOUNT ANYWAY. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE LIARS AND THEIVES!!!!" - Blue Water Jim
2
"tree"
9 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "1/2026 TICKED OFF - 5 stars down to 1. My 2 yr old pixel 7 stopped running my app soon after I checked my tree for errors. I asked for help multiple times & felt like I was in your IT department as I followed every tedious suggestion. I rel…" - WanderWren NH Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
3
"family"
8 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "1/2026 TICKED OFF - 5 stars down to 1. My 2 yr old pixel 7 stopped running my app soon after I checked my tree for errors. I asked for help multiple times & felt like I was in your IT department as I followed every tedious suggestion. I rel…" - WanderWren NH Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
4
"account"
7 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I was going to buy a DNA kit. but during checkout it keeps putting in my maiden name not my legal name that's on my bank card. This is totally unacceptable. customers should be able to put their current name in not have ancestry automatical…" - E* D*
5
"anything"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Do not make me close 3 separate windows when I screenshot anything. it's freaking obnoxious and screws the entire UI experience. fix it. stop being greedy" - Daniel Korepta
6
"access"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app has been buggy for years and I rarely use it as a result. If I need to access Ancestry from my phone, I open it in a browser window. How does such a wealthy company have such a poorly designed, continuously flawed app?" - Lauren Amber
7
"work"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "barely works. use the desktop site. it works much better." - Britney Peralta
8
"update"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "once again...I reached out to the Leaf bot last week regarding an issue with my mobile app. One of my ancestors is not loading at all. I've done all the steps - updated my phone, updated the app, restarted my phone, deleted and reinstalled …" - Jennifer Wentzlaff
9
"doesn"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this app doesn't even let me sign in!" - tsukishima yay
10
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app has been buggy for years and I rarely use it as a result. If I need to access Ancestry from my phone, I open it in a browser window. How does such a wealthy company have such a poorly designed, continuously flawed app?" - Lauren Amber
📋 All 49 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Do not make me close 3 separate windows when I screenshot anything. it's freaking obnoxious and screws the entire UI experience. fix it. stop being greedy
once again...I reached out to the Leaf bot last week regarding an issue with my mobile app. One of my ancestors is not loading at all. I've done all the steps - updated my phone, updated the app, restarted my phone, deleted and reinstalled the app twice and it's still not working.
I was going to buy a DNA kit. but during checkout it keeps putting in my maiden name not my legal name that's on my bank card. This is totally unacceptable. customers should be able to put their current name in not have ancestry automatically put the wrong name in. looks like I'm not going to buy a DNA kit! about to delete my whole account.
It keeps logging on and out.
this app doesn't even let me sign in!
THEIVES!!!! I PURCHASED A TEST AS A GIFT. I NEVER AGREED TO PAY FOR A SUBSCRIPTION, BUT YOU CHARGED MY ACCOUNT ANYWAY. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE LIARS AND THEIVES!!!!
They have stolen money from me for months. they told me they canceled my subscription but kept charging me. i've called 4 different times now and they refuse to give me back the money they stole from me. do not us the free subscription trial (or this AT ALL) because it doesn't actually cancel. You can call them and they still won't actually cancel it, then won't give you your money back after even after they telling you it was cancelled. I will be unfortunately calling AGAIN money.
Beware - Read the FAQ carefully how to cancel the subscription. the "Cancel my Membership" button does not work and does not give any indication if you have purchased through the mobile app.
Blocking screenshots for the results of a test because you want to control access to it is anti-consumer. I wish I hadn't been gifted your product. 🔄 Re: It is not a mistake. As soon as the screenshot intent is made, the app switches to a fullscreen blocker with the message "Free to view, no account needed"
app doesnt work
1/2026 TICKED OFF - 5 stars down to 1. My 2 yr old pixel 7 stopped running my app soon after I checked my tree for errors. I asked for help multiple times & felt like I was in your IT department as I followed every tedious suggestion. I reluctantly began my 2400+ family tree again on my very old Samsung phone. 4/26/26 I contacted support AGAIN for resolution & hopefully some kind of credit but was extremely disappointed. The online platform is NOT THE SAME! I want access to my app & tree!!!
Please stop emailing , it's annoying me really badly and its quite irritating...
can't save output as pdf or word documents, unable to view wife side of family tree.
thought by paying it would auto populate. nope I had to enter my own relatives and it would find any new ones..... did not find out anything new.... not what I thought it was . not worth the money
it's simply ridiculous to still have to pay for the subscription to view accepted hints.
Not worth it if your looking for solid answers will not repay.
I dont like paying for an app that is full of bugs and doesn't work correctly and crashes. get it together or I'm moving to another genealogy site, app.
Doesn't give much information on anything. Waste of money. Plus everything is too high.
THIIS APP IS A LOAD OF RUBBISH, WANT TO MAKE A FAMILY TREE SO I PUT ALL MY DETAILS AND SISTERS DETAILS IN IT 🤔 IT SURELY BE ABLE TO WORK OUT MY FAMILY TREE 🤔 NOOOOO! WANTS MORE INFORMATION LIKE THE DATE OF BIRTH AND PLACE OF MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS 🙄 HARDLY ANYONE KNOWS THAT INFORMATION 🤬 SO BASICALLY WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE APP IF IT CANNOT WORK OUT THE FAMILY TREE FOR YOU 🤔
ok. its April 2026. you have done at least 3 updates since my first complaint. i still have to force stop, then reopen the app. whats it take to fix this???? It has a glitch. you cannot see"DNA" matches. asks to upload a kit. Go in phone settings to force stop on the app. reopen and it works for a day. this has been going on since an update a few months ago.
horrible app. service is great but they let the app die. for love of god update it maybe? we do pay for the service
Upgrading to current version of app reduced its functionality and usefulness. When I took my Ancestry DNA test the deal was that testers would get certain free DNA match information, eg, their tree, common ancestral name, shared DNA matches. Now you need a subscription to see anything beyond the match name. Exploitative. Use Wikitree instead. It's free and accepts all major family tree DNA results.
New update and now I cannot access my tree. If that's an issue tomorrow I'm cancelling my subscription.
Zero stars if I could. Lost 2 DNA kits despite me paying for a service they cant provide because they lose them and their customer service is genuinely abysmal, or non-existent.
Needs lots of spit, impossible to get hold of once bought, medical condition prevents me from using it, why not a cheek swab like My Heritage. Having to return it with a note, as there's no way of talking to anyone.
can't log in or reset password. keeps reporting errors. I have latest app installed and I also cleared my cache. still no bueno!
This app compared to logging in on a PC is completely unusable. The only value that I can get from it is looking at my tree and sharing docs/photos with family via sms (I'm on a paid subscription too so, I'd like it to function close to the web browser experience). Even connecting to subsidiary services like the Newspaper lookup or Fold3 doesn't work like a single sign on feature, would it kill them to make an API to connect to these services from my mobile app account?
horrible! will continue to charge you unfairly and when you've had enough, they'll charge you still after your subscription is cancelled. NEVER TRUST THIS COMPANY!
It's giving me family members that are not related to me!
Freezes when any button is pressed. An absolute disaster of an update.
have to be a member to find anything out
It's rather ridiculous that I can't even get the email code. i can get every other spam email from ancestry that comes through, but I've been trying to sign into my account for some time now with zero luck. I am not getting the emails to be able to change my password. I can't even get into my account to update any of my info- this absolutely frustrating.
complicated but got it for free using a library account. Go get it
won't even let me sign in anymore. I'm furious! I have my Dad's, my Aunt's and my dna in an app I can't access.
I had to start a new tree because it won't let me access my other one.
I used to be able to see family matches but you took that away
this last update the app 3march 2026 its stopped working 99% of app.never had a problem until this update 1 star now.if fixed will put back to 5.as of the 11th of April 2026 the app fails to work.Also I'm on my 3rd try of the DNA as 1st was faulty kit,2nd time waiting 4 months for them to say I didn't have enough dna in sample.will try again but really at this stage just want my $ back.
barely works. use the desktop site. it works much better.
This app has been buggy for years and I rarely use it as a result. If I need to access Ancestry from my phone, I open it in a browser window. How does such a wealthy company have such a poorly designed, continuously flawed app?
not working android
it's kinda cool, but I definitely don't like that if you want to cancel your membership they want to charge a extra 30$ just to cancel it, that's criminal I I'll never use this again
so far its been ok. my biggest issue is the my DNA history and kit have disappeared from my account... its saying I dont have a kit registered when I in fact took a DNA kit and have been using it from research for a couple years and now its GONE!!! im not paying for another kit.
Scammy Cash Grab. Poorly Designed Garbage
The genetic testing is all right. The part i dont like is they charge you money to cancel your subscription.
slow lagging. sometimes I need to reenter people because they disappear from my tree
This sucks I'm having to put in all the information I don't get it.
hard to navigate the site !!!!!
The monthly subscription is too much and they hit you up whenever you try and see info of family members. 23 and me is better!
There needs to be a means of automating the removal of duplicate entries. It is impossible to return to my place in the Search List after editing an entry. Going back returns me to the homepage. I'm also not a fan of the new page for editing current entries. Feels like change for change's sake rather than an improvement. I also only care about hints that add people to the tree and see no means of sorting hints for just those. Also unable to save changes anymore in the app. Not great.
Sentiment summary
90%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)