I don’t know what the future holds for 23andMe, but the financial floodwaters are rising. I’ve been torn about whether I should risk alarming people, perhaps unnecessarily, by writing about this, and if so, exactly what to say.
I’ve decided that the responsible action is to share my concerns with you and suggest that you act proactively – just in case.
Contrary to linking within this article which is what I normally do, I’m placing a list of relevant articles about what’s happening at 23andMe at the end for your reference. There are quite a few. I’ve located reputable articles without paywalls. There are even more publications today.
What’s Going On?
If you’re following the saga of 23andMe, you’ll know that they have been in financial trouble for some time, worsened by their data breach in October 2023. Not only was customer information accessed and downloaded, but 23andMe reacted extremely slowly, which made the situation worse. Lawsuits followed. I’ve written about the deteriorating situation several times.
Their financial situation has continued its decline ever since.
Recent developments, including the inability of Anne Wojcicki to raise funding to take the company private again, the $30 million data breach settlement this week, a further drop in their stock price, and just yesterday, the resignation of the board of directors in its entirety (except for Wojcicki), makes their future increasingly uncertain if not outright bleak.
Concerns
I am very concerned about the future of 23andMe. Never having experienced anything like this in our industry, I have no prediction about exactly what will happen, or when. That’s unknowable. I do know that I’m quite worried as are other professionals in this field.
I am strongly considering deleting my 23andme accounts. My personal hesitation is that I author this blog and I can’t write about 23andMe if I don’t have an account there.
Were it not for that, I would strongly consider deleting my account after recording my matches and downloading my data. 23andMe has ceased to be useful for me and has increasingly become a liability.
Please do NOT panic and run over there and delete your account without thoughtful consideration and taking these preservation measures first. Truly, I will tell you if I think you need to act on something immediately, as I have in the past.
I am NOT specifically recommending deleting your account. Everyone’s circumstances and goals are different.
For example, if you’re an adoptee fishing in all the ponds, you may want to wait. If your focus is health, you’re probably not reading this article, but that might be justification for people to wait. Or, if you’re a genealogist who wants as many matches as possible, you may want to wait and see how things shake out.
Regardless, the following recommendations ARE for everyone. Being prepared is better than being surprised.
Recommendations
Whether you choose to delete your account at 23andMe in the near future, wait, or maybe never, I have the following recommendations, just in case.
- Download your raw DNA data file.
- Preserve your matches in some fashion.
- Save your ethnicity segments file.
Here are step-by-step instructions for each item, plus several tips and hints.
Download Your Raw DNA File
Download your raw DNA file so that you can upload it elsewhere if you wish.
To download your raw DNA file, click on Resources, then “Browse Data.”
Select “Download” at the top of the next page where you will be prompted for your birth date.
You will then see a full page of “Important Warnings to Consider.”
Scroll to the bottom
Check the “I understand” box and then click on “Submit Request.”
You will receive an email when your file is ready to be downloaded.
If your email is not current, you will need to call or contact 23andMe support for assistance.
You can upload your 23andMe DNA file to MyHeritage, here, to GEDmatch, and to FamilyTreeDNA again soon. I’ve written instructions for uploading and downloading data to/from each vendor in the article DNA File Upload-Download and Transfer Instructions to and from DNA Testing Companies, here.
Preserve Your 23andMe Matches
Next, review and preserve your matches shown under DNA Relatives. You may want to use screenshots or create a spreadsheet, which is my recommendation. You’ll be able to retain and preserve a LOT more information using a spreadsheet, including how your matches are related to each other.
The good news, or bad news, depending on your perspective, is that unless you have paid for a subscription, you’ll only have 1500 matches to deal with. With a subscription, you’ll have up to about 5,000.
Match Information Spreadsheet
I suggest working with your closest matches first.
You’ll find your matches under “Ancestry,” then “DNA Relatives.” Matches are listed in the closest match order.
For each match you can view information, including:
- Birth year and location
- Your predicted relationship
- If they are in the genetic tree that 23andMe has created for you
- Their ancestors’ birthplaces, if they have provided that information.
- Their family surnames
- An important link to their family tree if they have provided that link
- Their ethnicity which may be important if you share a common ethnicity that suggests or precludes lineages
- High level Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups
- Relatives in Common which are shared matches – and how much DNA your two matches share with each other
- Any notes you’ve made
Other features previously available at 23andMe were discontinued after the breach.
If you downloaded your matches file before the October 2023 breach, you’re in luck because you can simply update that file with your new matches except for segment information. That’s what I’m doing. Your download file will be a CSV file styled “roberta_estes_relatives_download” where your name replaces mine.
If you didn’t download your matches before the breach, you can’t today, as that’s one of the features they removed after the breach.
Recording your matches’ information is the first step, but there’s an important second step too that will help you piece all of this information together.
Relatives in Common Relationship Grid
I strongly suggest creating a relationship grid detailing who matches whom for your shared matches. Yes, I know that’s a LOT of work, but it may well be worth it to wring every ounce out of your DNA matches. Plus, you can then keep it current as new matches arrive. Right now, I’ve set a goal for myself to complete 100 per day. That’s do able.
The “Relatives in Common” feature is extremely useful and facilitates constructing your tree and fitting your matches into their relative places in your tree. Relatives in Common tells you not only how much DNA you share with your matches but also their estimated relationship to each other and how much DNA they share.
To begin the process, you really only need to be able to identify “someone” and then chain people together based on shared matches and estimated relationships. I’ll show you.
To find Relatives in Common information and how much DNA they share with each other, click on a specific match, preferably one that you know, under DNA Relatives, then scroll down to “Find Relatives in Common.”
Here’s the list of matches shared between DH and me.
Here’s the beginning of the relationship spreadsheet I created.
This example shows the amount of DNA I share with my matches in the left column, then how much they share with each other. I’ve color-coded the results. Blue is my father’s paternal line. His mother’s line is not represented in these matches. Purple is my mother’s maternal line, and apricot is her paternal line.
DH is estimated by 23andMe to be my second cousin and shares 7.13% of my paternal DNA across 17 segments. DH also shares DNA with James, George, Daniel, RA, and Joyce.
You can see how much DNA any match shares with me, as well as with any other match, which I’ve entered into the chart.
Unfortunately, only one person, Patricia, has included a link to a tree, but our common ancestor was shown there. In two other cases, surnames provided information, as did previous communications. I can fit almost every one of these people into my tree, at least tentatively, using this information. Sometimes I match them at other vendors too, providing additional information.
If you used Genetic Affairs to cluster your 23andMe matches before the breach, you may already have at least part of your match and shared match information. I save everything to my computer, and I hope you did too.
I happen to know how two of these people are related to me, so I can begin my “shared tree” there, adding other people as I figure out their shared relationships. For example, if a match is my second cousin and also a second cousin to another match, chances are really good that we all share great-grandparents. Remember that 23andMe has taken a stab at genetic tree construction on their genetically created (now nearly unreadable) Family Tree, found under “Family and Friends.”
This tree may or may not help you.
Please note – if you wish to message any of your matches, you need to do that through the 23andMe internal platform, so don’t wait, do it now by clicking on your match, then “Message.”
Download Your Ethnicity Results and Segments
Download your ethnicity results and segment information so that you can use your segment location information to compare to matches from other companies that provide matching segment information.
Your ethnicity information is available under Ancestry, then Ancestry Composition, then Select Scientific Details.
Scroll all the way to the bottom – which is a LONG way.
Select the confidence level and then click on Download Raw Data.” I use 50%, but you can download each one if you want.
The resulting file holds the locations on your chromosomes of your various estimated ethnicities. You can upload that file to DNAPainter to correlate with your matches from any testing company, and with ancestors whose DNA you’ve identified.
I wrote about that, here, and have discussed how to “walk ethnicity segments back in time” using DNAPainter in several presentations. This technique is how I identified my Native American ancestor on my mother’s side, which was then confirmed by mitochondrial DNA testing on an appropriately descended individual.
Prognosis
If 23andMe remains viable, you’ll be ahead of the game. You’ll have preserved your information and may have identified some new matches and their ancestors.
However, if 23andMe doesn’t survive or is sold, you’ll have protected your investment and won’t be caught by surprise.
If you’re thinking about deleting your account, take the steps set forth above, first. The reason I’m providing this information now is so that, in case something happens, you have time to complete these tasks to protect your important information and matches.
If you choose to delete your 23andMe account, you’ll have preserved as much of your investment as possible. Remember, think before deleting because once you’ve deleted your account, you can’t undo it without testing again. This is especially important if you’re managing the DNA of someone who is now deceased. In that case, delete is irrecoverable.
Let’s just hope this all blows over, and you’ll have benefitted by finding new genealogy information.
Recent News Articles
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/09/18/23andme-board-turmoil-dna-test/
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/18/23andme-resignations-anne-wojcicki
https://investors.23andme.com/node/9531/pdf
My Articles
https://dna-explained.com/2023/10/07/23andme-user-accounts-exposed-change-your-password-now/
Share this:
Discover more from DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thanks for the update. There is no link after the last match to download my list of matches! I have searched and searched and it is not there. Even asking their bot support didn’t help. It says to try a different method but no match list link there either. Any advice would be appreciated
You’re right. That’s what I said before the breach. They took it away so you either need to start with an older one or start from scratch yourself.
Thanks Roberta. This is disappointing to hear. 23andMe was the first company we tested with back in 2013, after I told my Dad we might find (through matches) who his unknown maternal grandfather was. We struck gold with a very close match, on the first day, on that family line! The man was not in other sites and I know we would have struggled with the more distant matches who tested elsewhere. So I feel a fondness for 23andMe.
Maybe they could merge with another company? I know some of our 23andMe matches have since died so I don’t know how permission to merge would be got from them.
I have not uploaded any DNA files yet. Is there a preferable selection among MyHeritage, GEDMatch, or FamilyTree? I don’t know much about any of them. Thank you for letting us know about this concern.
All 3 are free for matching, and all 3 have a relatively inexpensive unlock or subscription for advanced features. I would recommend uploading to all 3.
Thank you for this detailed analysis and the step-by-step instructions for downloading DNA. Much appreciated!
So following your steps, I choose a relative, went to common ancestors, but there is no red save box like the one in your instructions. Did you add the red save on there or should I have one showing.
Well that’s interesting. I had to go and look because I didn’t know what you were referencing. There is no Save button at 23andMe. But when I was viewing the article, I realized that when I mouse over the images, the red Save button appears, then disappears if I move on. That Save button is for you to save that image from the article. There’s no Save at 23andMe unfortunately.
Nice write up and good suggestions about how to download your info, but I may have missed the reason WHY you might want to delete your account. Ar you worried that your data or acc’t info could fall into the hands of scoundrels? What is the negative?
I was somewhat hesitant to share my opinion since that’s what it is. I feel that 23andMe shot their own credibility by waiting months before acknowledging the breach, then trying to blame their customers. Then they removed features we need and have not returned them. Finally, their financial burn rate only suggests a few months before they have to do something, and I don’t trust them anymore. I wonder if something else is going on behind the scenes to cause the entire board to resign. Given that the segments are gone now along with match downloads and triangulation, there no good reason for me to stay except for the blog.
Even if it comes to nothing and 23andMe survives, this will make a great back-up plan 🙂
I took on the genealogy and dna research for my family (late father, 2 brothers, daughter, 2 cousins and myself). Everyone has done Ancestry DNA and the Males except my father have done the FTDNA Big Y test. Here I learned my dad’s father was not his biological father, found a half sister and health issues that help guide me as I age up. In reviewing 23&Me Halpogroups I notice that big find of new biological grandfather does not appear in the scientific data. I’ve download the Raw Data but doubt I will ever upload to another site.
Thank you for “ringing the bell”. I was diligent up to 2023 downloading DNA matches so now I will scroll thru my 23&Me matches to see what’s new.
Wow! Thanks for the detailed information. This is news to me. I just recently submitted my sample for non-health DNA testing. How long does that process generally take? Hopefully I will have time on the back end to follow your sage advice/guidance for preserving my test results.
I don’t know what their turn-around time is now. I don’t suspect you’ll have an issue. I think it’s more like weeks to months, if at all. Just don’t dally when your results come back.
Thanks for the reply. I’m only doing this test to cast a wider net for possible bio father matches that haven’t shown up on the other sites so plan to dedicate a fair amount of time once the results come back, plus will take your advice regarding the spreadshert and taw data download just to be on the safe side.
I can’t find instructions anywhere on how to create a csv file of matches
You can’t anymore. That’s why I said if you had downloaded that info before the breach you could add to it, and if not, it’s a manual process.
How did you build your relationship spreadsheet. And did you have to enter all the info manually?
Yes. They don’t provide it.
That is what I don’t know how to do
Out of the Big-4 DNA companies, 23andMe was the last where I tested. Oddly enough, I did it AFTER the breach, as I found a kit for sale on eBay that really tempted me into finally doing it. Someone sold it at a loss for sure.
Anyway, and coming from a population with very few DNA testers (Portugal) I wasn’t really expecting a lot out of 23andMe, and I was not wrong. My best matches are somewhat under 40cM (thanks to the 74.5 rule), and with no tree attached, they might as well be E.T.s.
Truth be told, the only place where I get meaningful matches is in MyHeritage where I have a couple of matches above 80cM. Even on Ancestry, other than the fluke of a great-uncle that tested, my top 3 matches are in the 50cM to 40cM range with no trees attached.
I feel that in continental Europe, it is easier to buy MyHeritage kits than the others. And 23andMe is by far the worse here as their EU shop is limited to Scandinavia (not Norway), Ireland and the Netherlands, and you have to pay international postage and in USD if you want to buy their kits, which then ends up being 2-3 times as expensive as MyHeritage.
Francisco Partners the owners of MyHeritage would do well to “scoop” up 23andMe and finally fix two problems with MyHeritage: the smaller size of the database vs Ancestry, and the awful admixture algorithm.
LivingDNA offers a chromosome browser
livingdna accepts uploads from these companies
AncestryDNA
23AndMe
MyHeritage
FamilyTreeDNA (family finder)
Gene by Gene
Genographic (Geno 2.0)
https://support.livingdna.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012509652-Uploading-to-Living-DNA#:~:text=Which%20companies%20do%20we%20accept%3F%20We%27ve%20done%20a,23AndMe%20MyHeritage%20FamilyTreeDNA%20%28family%20finder%29%20Gene%20by%20Gene
Yes, but read about the company first. Also, their data base consists mostly of UK testers.
LDNA also has a fair number of Irish Gael test takers. My mother’s parents were born in Ireland (Ulster Scot with some true Irish admixture) and Scotland, and I have lots of good matches for her there. The platform is not very elegant, though, in terms of functions that make it easy to sort matches into groups, so I use my local GDAT database for that.
When livingdna started you are correct that most were from UK. But each of the dna websites have changed over time. With livingdna the largest number of matches for me are from USA. I do have more from UK, Australia and New Zealand compared to MH. But interesting it is similar to myheritage that they have matches throughout Europe including France and Germany.
I have been considering get a subscription so that I can have access to more matches. 5000 instead of 1500.
there are some chrome extensions, data scrapers that might be helpful
Yes, there are but I’m very hesitant to name them because the new terms and conditions are 23andMe specifically prohibit them. It’s really too bad since it’s our own data and they won’t help us.
also my reason for not mentioning. I think all the websites have antiscrapping policies. I do not know though if a company would easily know and then go after an individual user. These apps change too. So when something was working a year or two later it does not or there is something better. I am talking about all apps not just scrapping. I think there is some desperation with some users so they will do anything they can to get the data they want. You know ancestry has antiscrapping policy and they really do not help us get the data easily. ftdna, mh and gedmatch did shut down some features and slowly bringing them back but not all. it would be nice if we could use a wayback machine to get our data before the hacking incident occurred.
Yes, they do serve companies with cease and desist orders. That’s why I never mention them.
23andme is good for raw data. I belong to A-PR2921 (Genetic Adam) and L0 (Genetic Eve). So when hit a DNA website I know, and the researchers I deal with, know that I should match everyone, no ifs, and, or buts about it. So when they upgraded their chip to V5 and did historical matches we were thrilled, because we knew it was going to be awesome. And low and behold, according to them I don’t match anyone, that’s a huge red flag. We even brought up my matches by segment, that I Indeed do match, but 23andme still says I don’t, which is scientifically impossible. But I’m also the only person on the planet that can do this because of my unique DNA combination. The algorithms they are running are pretty bad, and I can prove it. But yet, in their system, on my raw data, you can easily see the A-PR2921 and L0, and no one there caught it, and I’m not telling them. But, like I said, the raw DNA is awesome, but I definitely would not do a subscription, get your raw data and hit more reliable sites, they are out there. Use your own judgement ).
I’m using the DNAged.com client version 4 to gather my matches at 23andme and it includes a CVS file of your matches and my ICW matches also. I did need to subscribe at the gold level -$10 per month but saves me time I don’t have right now. It’s a web based login so works with the 2 step verification at 23andme. There is a windows and a mac version. Hope this helps!
I know someone that is using this. It took less than 5 minutes to download a match list. for match list and icw it takes maybe a day and a half. but v4 is in beta. this is working which was a big hurdle but some of the fields are not being populated with data so they need to review and fix that.
do you remember when ancestry decided to purge our matches below 8cm. we were unhappy about it but they gave us warning and a work around to save. it looks like 23andme did the same thing. They do have a notice on the matches about reevaluation. I see a family member kit lost a few hundred matches. not sure how many. but the lowest match used to be 6cm and now is 9cm. I do not remember reading anything about them making this change.
Yes, I believe you’re right. Some of mine are gone too but it could be the 1500 limit.
Roberts, who now has the best Ethnicity Analysis? Ancestry? Many thanks!
Both FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe, plus they both provide ethnicity segment date.
I tested a number of years ago and have NEVER had a decent match on 23andMe. The very best I’ve had is 4th-cousin-match (0.30% DNA shared, 1 segments). So; while the DNA datafile, Ethnicity Results & Segments, Haplogroup Info and Traits Reports are valuable, I’m not sure that it’s worth bothering to create a spreadsheet and save the matches. Being almost 100% European, I’ve gotten FAR better matches on MyHeritage and I do save those matches. Is there any overriding reason (in my case) that I should still take the time to save the 23andMe ones?
One thing that your article did not seem to address is whether 23andMe saves your DNA sample and whether you need to request any samples be destroyed before closing your account.
Yes, you do need your request that your sample be destroyed.
FYI, even if you decide not to dowload all your data, save your haplogroup. Last time I checked, myheritage does not test for the haplogroup and you can’t save it to myheritage. I don’t know about the other sites as I don’t use them
FamilyTreeDNA gives you your haplogroup and you can upload there for free.
According to this recent article at MIT Technology Review,
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/14/1105488/how-to-delete-your-23andme-data/
deleting your account does not remove EVERYTHING.
“Deleting your data from 23andMe is permanent and cannot be reversed. But some of that data will be retained to comply with the company’s legal obligations, according to its privacy statement.
That means 23andMe and its third-party genotyping laboratory will hang onto some of your genetic information, plus your date of birth and sex—alongside data linked to your account deletion request, including your email address and deletion request identifier. ”
This is very disconcerting. I have not opted in to the research aspect of 23andMe. If the company gets sold to a third party they now have my DNA to use however they like. That’s unacceptable. Deleting my account should removed ALL traces of me at 23andMe.
I decided to delete everything about 5 weeks ago. Note that there is a separate section for asking them to destroy the sample. Just to be as certain as possible, I went first to the section that asks to delete the sample and submitted it. It also warned me it could take about a month to destroy the sample. I have not heard back that it was done. I went through this with Ancestry, and it took about 2 years to hear back from them that they had finally destroyed the sample. So, fingers crossed that 23nMe will carry through my request.
A day or two later, I went to the section that says it will destroy everything and that my account will disappear. I submitted that. So it is done for me. But whether or not it is truly done, who knows.
I read this article while on vacation in Germany and I came home and made a plan. I had just got my results a few months before so using your spreadsheet example I created my own and got to work. I “only” have 1500 matches so if I did 4 people (and our in common matches) per day it will take a year. Well needless to say, I am about 2 months in now and I am doing on average about 8 per day. I am obsessed with this project and I have learned there are so many of my 4th cousin matches who have tested their immediate family, which will be helpful for my future research. Thank you for suggesting this, it is a lot of work but it is very insightful.
Question – in regards to saving before deleting 23&Me DNA — what “confidence level” of raw DNA Data to you/I download (50-90%)??
It depends. 90% is the most restrictive. 50% is the least. Why not do both?
Is it possible to request that your sample be deleted but still retain your account and matches?
Not that I know of. But you can ask.