Hymnal Favorites Icon Removed from List of Instances?

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Tue, 11/04/2025 - 09:51 — lauras

Was the hymnal favorites icon removed from the list of instances (in a specific entry page) or is there something I can do to make it come back?

I use that to locate whether I own a hymnal with a particular hymn.

I am signed in for sure.

Is there a place I can request it be returned?

Thanks all!


Comments

Tue, 11/04/2025 - 13:25 — dianneshapiro

Is this the My Hymnals icon? It is still working. You should see it on searches. You may want to check to see the hymnals you own are selected under the My Hymnals heading on your account age.

Tue, 11/04/2025 - 15:25 — lauras

Thanks for your reply.

So in the search results the heart icon DOES show up, but if I pick a particular hymn title and scroll down to the list of hymnals it appears in, I swear it used to put the heart icon next to the hymnals I had favorited.  Or did I just suddenly make that up in my memory? 

I thought that's how I figured out in the past if I owned a particular hymnal with a particular hymn in it.  I don't know how else I figured it out before without reading through the list and checking my library for every hymnal on the list. 


 

Wed, 12/17/2025 - 09:15 — dianneshapiro

We have changed how the "My Hymnals" works in the list of instances. Instead of an icon next to your hymnals in the list, you should see only instances in your hymnals by default. There is a button to switch to the full list of instances. In addition, the representative text will be from one of  your hymnals, when possible.

Sat, 12/20/2025 - 19:08 — lookitup

Is there a way to change this default for our own account? I almost always want to see all of the instances, and it's a headache to have to always choose that option now.

Mon, 12/22/2025 - 08:50 — dianneshapiro

If you have no hymnals selected for My Hymnals, the instance display will revert to what it has been in the past. But we can explore having this option along with having hymnals selected.

Mon, 01/05/2026 - 11:32 — dianneshapiro

There is now an option to select “Instances in My Hymnals” and “Instances in all hymnals." The system will remember the option you selected the last time. 

Tue, 12/23/2025 - 21:47 — Haruo

Strongly seconding “lookitup”'s (I think it was) request. This thing where I have to constantly scroll up to click on a link to get the instances that aren't in My Hymnals is extremely annoying! For a lot of users it will be a plus, but for some of us it is the opposite. Please don't join the algorithm-wagon that assumes we're all alike! (…is the way I feel when confronted by stuff like this.) I am usually at least as much interested in the hymnals/instances that I don't have as in the ones I have! I'm largely focused on things like changes in tune pairings over time. What made the new system coming out of nowhere even more irritating was that if I am looking at a hymn like “Not all the outward forms”, the header starts out

Not all the outward forms on earth

Author: Isaac Watts
Published in 155 hymnals (8 in My Hymnals)

But if I click on “155 hymnals” it presents me with a list of only 8 instances (the way the database uses “hymnal” when it means “instance” is another point of irritation; with hymns like “Away in a Manger”, “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”, or “All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name”, where a sizable number of hymnals have at least two tune settings, it results in some very seriously misleading statistics). And when I get to the list of 8 hymnals, in order to see the other 140+ instances I have to click again, this time on 

Instances in My Hymnals | Instances in all hymnals

Instances in My Hymnals

Instances (1 - 8 of 8)

“Instances in all hymnals”. It works, but it can actually be a significant chunk of time when I'm rushing to get stuff done before the library closes or whatever.

Wed, 11/05/2025 - 10:24 — dianneshapiro

The icons should appear in the instance list as well, but there is a bug which is preventing this. It is in the process of being fixed.

Wed, 11/05/2025 - 13:24 — episema

Thank you--this has been bothering me for some time!

Thu, 11/06/2025 - 10:10 — lauras

Phew, good to know it'll be back!

Mon, 11/10/2025 - 21:29 — oconnor

Thank you so much for working on this!

Tue, 01/06/2026 - 11:25 — lauras

I see there is an option now to show me instances only in my hymnals in a separate list, but honestly I'd rather have the icon in the master list.  I don't trust it to show everything, as the search option of “only in my hymnals” has never fully worked (at least the last time I used it and I gave up using it since then).

I appreciate all the features of this site SO much, but to change stuff for the sake of change is always a frustrating thing.

As always THANK YOU!!  I'm still ever so appreciative of this site.

 

Tue, 01/06/2026 - 11:40 — dianneshapiro

The intent was prioritize hymnals in a My Hymnals list. The icon will show up in the search results, but the hymnals listed (and the representative text) will only be from hymnals in the My Hymnals list. It is possible to select all instances instead of the My Hymnals list. For certain searches, such as scripture passages and topics, it works better to search without the My Hymnals box checked. For example, the 1991 Baptist Hymnal is in my My Hymnals list. If I want hymns for Epiphany and I search with the My Hymnals box checked I will not get any results because this hymnal does not use Epiphany as a topic in its topic index. However, there are results with icons if I search without the box checked; and if I go to those hymns I can easily find which hymnal and what the hymn number is. 

Tue, 01/06/2026 - 12:51 — lauras

Thanks again for replying.  That's helpful to know about that search criteria, makes total sense.  I have no memory if I had searched by a passage or if I searched for a title.  I may try it again sometime with that in mind.

But as I said when I began this thread,  I'm only talking about the Hymn Instance pages and the list at the bottom of the page with all hymnals containing that hymn.  I was told it was a bug and would be restored.

My whole desire is to see the My Hymnals icon IN the list of all hymnals, rather than a just a separate list of My Hymnals. 

The search results do indeed still include the icon (and that is very helpful), but its no longer in the list of hymnals on a single hymn's page.

Obviously I can live without it, but it was my preference.

Wed, 01/07/2026 - 09:56 — dianneshapiro

We found that there are performance issues that make it infeasible to show the icons with the instances. It slows down the website.

Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:12 — lauras

Thank you for indulging my questions.  This site is still infinitely helpful.

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