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caitoedwina
Community Member

Help! My Specialized Profile Ate My General Profile!

Well, that wasn't fun! I had just finished uploading more content to my general profile and it was perfect. So, I decided to publish two specialty profiles. I followed the "simple" directions" to create my specialy profile from my general profile content. Easy Peasy.......then I tried to create my second speciality profile and realized all of the content from my general profile had been widdled down to JUST the items I placed in my first specialty profile.

 

In a frenzy, I went back to my general profile and POOF, all of my content, except for what I kept for my specialty profile was gone. Stupid question but is there any way to retrieve everything I had uploaded prior to my stupid move to create specialty profiles? Or do I just need to *gulp* start all over again and rebuild my portfolio?

 

Thnaks in advance...I will be over here banging my head against the wall.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Sorry about the frustration this has caused you, Edwina. Are you referring to the portfolio section? I just checked and your general profile has more items than your specialized profile. Do you same portfolio items on both? Could you please send us screenshots of what you see?

~ Bojan
Upwork

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25 REPLIES 25
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Sorry about the frustration this has caused you, Edwina. Are you referring to the portfolio section? I just checked and your general profile has more items than your specialized profile. Do you same portfolio items on both? Could you please send us screenshots of what you see?

~ Bojan
Upwork

I had readded everything back to my portfolio after posting this. The problem was that when I built my specialty profile with JUST jobs and portfolio items related to the specialty, the unrelated items from my main profile disappeared. So the "easy instructions" I followed after clicking "make specialty profile from main profile"....my main profile changed too.

 

I don't know if it's a glitch or the whole thing just wasn't well throught out but if I make another speciality profile, I think it's best to do it from scratch.

 

Thanks for your help.


Edwina C wrote:

I had readded everything back to my portfolio after posting this. The problem was that when I built my specialty profile with JUST jobs and portfolio items related to the specialty, the unrelated items from my main profile disappeared. So the "easy instructions" I followed after clicking "make specialty profile from main profile"....my main profile changed too.

 

I don't know if it's a glitch or the whole thing just wasn't well throught out but if I make another speciality profile, I think it's best to do it from scratch.

 

Thanks for your help.


You should do a forum search for "specialized profiles". You'll see the many issues others are having with it, which a moderator won't share with you. The consensus is that they're not worth the trouble.

Hi Edwina, 


The team has taken interest on your post and wanted to investigate it further. There are two ways for creating a Specialized Profile - "Create a Specialized Profile", and "Create from General Profile." I wanted to clarify on what options you chose when you created your first, and your second specialized profile. Identifying it helps the team know if you experienced loss of information through both, or just one of the options. 

 

Screen Shot 2019-04-18 at 9.09.33 AM.png

 

Could you also please clarify what exactly happened when you first created your specialized profile, and which of your jobs, or porfolio items where "lost" in the process. You can also send it to me through a private message if some information you'll be sharing will have some private information. 

I'll wait for your reply. 



~ Avery
Upwork

So... recently I noticed my profile went from 100% complete to 90% AND I lost my "Rising Talent" status. I asked about it and, of course, was sent a "form letter" about how to become a Rising Talent. Unhelpful considering I've been there, done that. It dawned on me that everything was fine until I tried out the new "Specialized Profiles!" My main profile hasn't changed but apparently, the addition of the two new ones has put a "glitch in the matrix." I'm awaiting a response to see if that could be what caused it. In the meantime, if your profile is at 100% and/or Rising Talent, I'd say don't do specialized profiles... it might mess you up! Has anyone else experienced this?

Hi Christie,

 

Adding a Specialized Profile shouldn't have any effect on your profile completeness. Could you please complete Upwork Readiness Test to complete your profile 100% and to qualify for Rising Talent?

~ Valeria
Upwork

Yes, I understand that's what you all are directing me to do. And I don't have a problem with doing it... except there are certain questions about Rising Talent (and my status in particular) Upwork staff has refused to answer. 

 

Oh and Specialized Profiles DID mess up my main profile! When you use your main as a template for the specialized, whatever you change gets changed on the main! I just noticed that some information I deleted because I didn't need it for the specialized was also deleted on my main. I had to add it all back in! Plus I decided to delete one of my two specialized profiles. And in doing so my profile completeness jumped back up! Imagine that! 

Christie,

 

Could you please tell us more about what information or profile section you were editing in your Specialized Profile when you noticed that it was also removed from your main profile?

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork

Sure!  When I started to create a specialized profile, it asks if I want to use the information in my main to start it. So I did because it would save me some time adding things. I'm under the impression it's functioning as a template... meaning it just copied my main information to the new profile and I can edit at will. And I did. I deleted part of my description and a couple of the previous employment entries as they weren't relevant to my new "voice talent" profile. I saved and went about my merry way. This all took place last week (I believe). 

This week is when I noticed my profile completeness went down and Rising Talent was gone (I kept getting a pop up saying I am "eligible). Yesterday is when I made the connection about it possibly having to do with the specialized profiles. Sure enough, I saw things on my main profile for writing/editing were missing... crucial things for that skill set that I deleted on the voice talent profile. I had to re-add all and I deleted the voice talent profile. As soon as I did that, my profile completeness percentage went up to 95%. 

It's just frustrating because I've had a profile at 100%/Rising Talent for a very long time without having to jump through any of the hoops I'm supposed to jump through now to get it back. In fact, I was Rising Talent when I was barely using Upwork. Now I'm on it every single day, constantly submitting proposals, etc. and it gets revoked and I need a "readiness test." It's a bit insulting. Maybe you should call it something else because if we've been on the platform and working, we're obviously "ready!"  

I think the specialized profile feature should not be used for anything serious for at least three to six months from now. We'll see if they somehow manage to fix the bugs that are spoiling this otherwise interesting feature...

 

...without introducing new ones, a thing they love to do.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Thanks for sharing more information about what happened, Christie.

 

To clarify, freelancers can customize overview, hourly rate, Upwork Work History and Feedback, portfolio and skills for Specialized Profiles. However, Employment History section, as well as Education and Other Experiences stay the same on the general profile and on the Specialized Profile. So removing items from those sections, will remove them from all profiles.

We do appreciate you sharing your experience and feedback and will work on making this clearer on the site.

~ Valeria
Upwork


Valeria K wrote:

Thanks for sharing more information about what happened, Christie.

 

To clarify, freelancers can customize overview, hourly rate, Upwork Work History and Feedback, portfolio and skills for Specialized Profiles. However, Employment History section, as well as Education and Other Experiences stay the same on the general profile and on the Specialized Profile. So removing items from those sections, will remove them from all profiles.

We do appreciate you sharing your experience and feedback and will work on making this clearer on the site.


When I created my 1st specialised profile, I selected several portfolio items to feature my respective skills. After completing the SP, I decided to delete 2 of those work samples because they didn't really belong there. "Removing" them from the portfolio section of my SP permanently deleted them from my main profile. 

I can't even be bothered to try to add new jobs to my SPs for fear of what that might trigger...

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Ela, 

The Customer Support Team will reach out to you through a ticket so that our Engineers can investigate this further. 


~ Avery
Upwork

Hi Ela,

 

I believe this is happening because you and other freelancers click the delete button on a portfolio item instead of unassigning it. On the screenshot below the upper image shows the button that would delete the portfolio item completely while the bottom image shows the way to unassign it from a Specialized Profile. 

 

Screenshot_6.png

 

 

Screenshot_5.png

 

We understand that this current experience is confusing and our product team is already working on making it clearer to avoid situations like this.

 

*Edited to add updated information

~ Valeria
Upwork

Rene's right in my opinion.  Create specialized profiles but save them in draft. Do not take them live yet.  If it takes 6 months to work out the kinks - so be it.

 

I love the concept and think it will def. add positive dimensions for FLers and buyers alike. When it works.

 

Upwork, please don't use us as Beta testers ...  just sayin' ...

I just tried using your second example of the + in the top R corner instead of the delete icon on the jpeg.  It took me nowhere and gave me no options that you said it would.  I need a ticket for direct support please.

Thanks for pointing this out, Kathy. This process has been updated recently with introduction of Portfolio Templates and I'll update my post here to reflect it. Now, you can click the edit button Screenshot_4.png on a portfolio item in a Specialized Profile, in order to move it. The trash bin button will still remove an item from all profiles. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

Sorry but your response is not related to my specific question at all. There is no edit icon for me to click in the instance I’m dealing with. Is there no real time help on this site? You have my phone number! Use it and give me a call so I can walk you through the problem in stead of you just shooting blanks into the unknown.
rbird01
Community Member

It's almost one year later, since the original post on this topic and the error persists.

 

Just recently I created a Specialized Profile, starting with a copy of my General Profile. Then started deleting the "copies" of images that I did not want in the SP. Just like Edwina, my General Profile portfolio was now EMPTY!

 

Even worse, now I can NOT add ANY portfolio images to my General Profile, I can only add images to a Specialized Profile, which then shows up AGAIN in my General Profile.

 

So, if you add an image to your Specialized Profile, it ALSO gets added to the GP. AND if you DELETE an item from your SP or GP, it gets deleted from ALL profiles. This is insanity.

 

Right now, it looks like I will have to create a Specialized Profile with ALL the portfolio items I want in my General Profile. In other words, the so-called Specialized Profile is not really special at all.

Hi Richard,

 

There is a way to unassign a portfolio item from a Specialized profile without deleting it from all profiles. On the screenshot below the upper image shows the button that would delete the portfolio item completely while the bottom image shows the way to unassign it from a Specialized Profile. The pencil icon will show in the upper right corner of the portfolio section. 

 

Screenshot_6.png

 

 

Screenshot_5.png

~ Valeria
Upwork

I am ONLY able to add portfolio images to a Specialized profile.

 

There is no way for me to add any images to my General profile.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Richard, you won't be able to upload a new portfolio item without selecting a Related Specialized Profile. Specialized profiles allow freelancers to better showcase their portfolio items in a format that helps clients find the best freelancers for their specific projects. However, if you don't want a portfolio item to show on a Specialized profile, you can go to that profile's portfolio section, click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner of that section and then un-select that item from the list. Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
rbird01
Community Member

This is extremely confusing.

 

I had no issues until after I tried creating my first Specialized portfolio. Now, I am unable to independently edit the General portfolio.

 

It seems that the General portfolio is now the sum of the projects in the two Specialized portfolios. It is not possible to add a project to the General portfolio that does not belong to one of the two Specialized portfolio categories.

 

Put another way:

 

Let's say I have two Specialized profiles:

* Photography

* 3D Rendering

 

But, in my General profile, I want to include projects that would belong to these categories:

* Graphic Design

* Editorial Design

 

I'm not able to do that, because every portfolio element in the General profile must belong to one of the two Specialized profile categories.

 

This was not true before I created my first Specialized profile.

Hi Richard,

 

Sorry about the confusion this has caused. Our product team is working on improving Specialized Profiles feature and we appreciate you sharing your experience and feedback.

Currently, it is by design that a Specialized Profile has to be selected when uploading a new portfolio item. That item is then displayed in that Specialized profile and in the General profile. Deleting a portfolio item will delete it from all profiles, General and Specialized. Un-assigning a portfolio item (using the pencil button from Bojan's screenshot) will only remove it from that Specialized profile. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

That is UNACCEPTABLE!

So, it is no longer possible to actually create what is truly a "General"
Profile.

This was not true before the appearance of the Specialized Profiles.

PLEASE - You must make this absolutely clear to anyone who is considering
adding a Specialized Profile and has not done so before, because it will
surely "damage" or destroy their General Profile in the process without
recourse, which is what has happened to me.

NOT GOOD.
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