Location Services not honoring selection

Question

Is there a known bug where the Survey123 mobile application uses location services all the time - even though the location services is set to only run when the app is in use?  This is draining the battery for our users and causing the need to continuously turn the location services on and off every day for the short duration they need to use the app for completing inspections.

Our user has the option selected in location services to only track location when the app is in use.  When he closes Survey123, however, the blue bar saying the location is being used continues to appear at the top of his phone.  This is when the app is completely closed and will persist until he turns permissions off for location services.  His battery is drained quickly unless he turns the permissions off.  He is using an iPhone 7, 14.3 version with Survey123 version 3.11.164.

We first experienced this problem several months ago and we could not find a resolution for it.  We uninstalled and reinstalled the app, played with location service settings and other settings, and never found a fix.  After several weeks / months, the problem went away on its own.  It has recently started happening again and we need a solution.

I've seen several threads on this issue although a resolution is never given and for some users, the issue will disappear on its own / reappear at a later date.  Is the occurrence of this phenomena associated with iOS or Esri updates?  Why is the setting selected in location services not honored on his device?

Related posts:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/survey123-uses-location-services-in-background-drains-battery/td-p/805514/page/2

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/battery-drain-when-using-field-app/m-p/836457#M19743

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/survey123-field-app-drains-battery/td-p/849682

Shwu-jingJeng · Answer

Hi,

I was not able to reproduce this using iPhone8 iOS 14.3 and the field app 3.11.164.

Could you confirm that if the bluebar still existed when the user double click the Home button and swipe the Survey123 to clear the background running app?

When I swipe the app to completly closed Survey123 app, the bluebar will disappear and indicated that the location service is not utilized anymore.

Was the bluebar still appeared when your user swiped the app on the iPhone7 iOS 14.3?

Is this issue only occurred with a specific moble device or among other device running the same version of Survey123 and iOS version?

Thanks,

KYTCGIS · Answer

Thank you for your quick response Shwu-jingJeng.  Unfortunately - and as I mentioned in the post - the users location continues to be tracked when the app is closed completely - in both the foreground and background.  This is why we are wondering if it is a bug between survey version and iOS version. The app should stop tracking his location when it is closed completely but it is not honoring the selected option for only tracking the location when the app is in use.  Is there something else we should try?

Shwu-jingJeng · Answer

Hi,

It is by designed that Survey123 is configured to utilize your device's location when the app is open (background or foreground) to ensure the location is captured as quickly and accurately as possible. You will need to close the app by the following method on iOS and android phone described below:

You can stop Survey123 using location services by properly closing the app, you don't need to restart your phone or remove location permissions. In Android this means tapping the overview button (which brings up a list of currently open apps), then tapping X or swiping the apps you want to close away. In iOS double-tap the home button to get the multitasking view, then swipe the apps you want to close off the edge of the screen. iPhone X does this differently, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause about halfway up the screen to get the multitasking view.

When you properly close the Survey123 app, the utilization of location service should stop.

Thanks,

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