Data being overwritten in SYNC

Question

When using offline areas, when 2 user's edit a feature and one use makes an attribute change and another user makes no attribute change. Depending on sync order, data is being overwritten. For example, in a comment attribute field, I made a comment of "x3 pipes". Another user made no comment in the attribute field and left it as NULL. After syncing my data first, the "x3 pipes" was put into the data. After syncing the other users device with NULL in the field, NULL overwrote the comment. Maybe I just did not notice over the past year over use with Field Maps but I do not remember NULL values overwriting attributes that were put in when synced. Other than not using offline area maps. Is there a way to prevent attributes from being overwritten by NULL values?

CarsonG · Answer

Hi @HaleySiebert , Our work is done in offline mode, so auto-sync is not an option. Here is the scenario. User 1 selects an existing feature. They populate the following attribute; “Type of Feature” (Pipe), “Collection Status” (Verified) , and the “Comment Field” (x3 pipes for example) User 2 selects the same existing feature. They populate populate the following; “Type of Feature” (Pipe), “Collection Status” (Verified), and leaves the “Comment Field” as . So the only difference between the two users is User 1 populated the “Comment Field” and User 2 did nothing in the field. User 1 synced first and the data then contains the attribute x3 pipes in the "Comment Field". User 2 is then synced and removes the comment that was put in and is replaced by even though user 2 made no edit in the "Comment Field". I don't think user 2's non-edit in the "Comment Field" should be overwriting and edit made by user 1 unless user 2 actually made an edit in the Comment Field.

HaleySiebert · Answer

This page has a few different suggestions at the bottom for how to approach this problem, depending on how your data is being managed. If versioning isn't an option, the most recent edit will be regarded as the source of truth in conflicts like this. However, enabling automatic sync in the Profile settings will help to ensure that you're looking at the most recent version of the features you are editing, which should help reduce occasions of unintentionally overwritten data.