Freezer in this model ffa52 is icing up and is not defrosting as it should do as the food in it is always soft.

You have a defrost condensate drain blockage where all the water from defrost remains inside the freezer compartment and causes the symptons you are having. I cannot tell you how to remove every model numbers freezer rear panel but I think that if you study over my link here=> Leaking Refrigerators and this link HERE you will get an idea of what to do. I am here to answer any questions, Sea Breeze

What is the model number of your unit?

It sounds like your defrost assembly has ceased to function and you have ice build up on the thermostat telling the freezer it is cold enough. Pull power. Take the food out of the freezer, remove shelves and bins, remove inside back cover. IF there is a lot of ice build up behind it then you can either leave the door open so that it will defrost or use a hair dryer to speed the process up.
Once the ice is cleared out, you can plug it up and see if things start working again. At least the freezing and getting cold part. If this worked then you will need to order the defrost assembly using the information from the information plate inside your refrigerator, then install it.

Thanks for choosing FixYa and welcome to the site. Gary, I have seen this a lot myself and I have asked many people about this occurrence. The ice cream usually goes soft when the freezer goes into defrost mode. I would say this is what happened here. It always puzzled me and I finally asked around. I was confused because sometimes it was froze and sometimes it was soft. I hope this helps you out.

Repair the defrost system, defrost timer,defrost thermostat and defrost heater.

If freezer is icing up, you might have a defrost problem. Frost free models have a heating element that is controlled by a timer to automatically defrost ice, defrost timer turns on defrost heating element every 12 hours to melt ice in freezer and allow good air flow.
You can test defrost element with an ohm meter(located inside freezer coils-will have two wires going to a plug connection), if OK replace defrost timer (located in various places depending on make and model

thumbs up

You have a loss of freon.

Hi, Are you seeing ice or frost? Is frost building up on the freezer back wall? I can help you, just need to be clear.
Thanks
Vic

Check to see if you have frost on the back panel of your freezer in your fridge. If you do your coil is frozen over and you'll have to defrost your freezer. I just did mine cause mine wasn't cooling properly on my fridge side.

Your sensor is packed in ice and giving false reading (always frozen)

You NEED to defrost. Will take 2hr

Turn off or Pull plug on freezer
Take everything out and put in cooler, brown bags, large bin or boxes to stay cold
Defrost by setting large pail of boiling water in each side bottom of freezer and closing door(s) for 1/2hr
Open freezer, empty pails in sink and use pails to hold large chunks of ice from freezer that will come out easily
Toss out ice chunks
Check sensor to be sure it is no longer packed in ice
Wipe down interior dry
close doors
plug in
wait 1/2hr
reload with stuff you want to keep
Done!