Issue with External Choice List in ArcGIS Survey123 - Choices Not Persisting

Question

I'm facing an issue with ArcGIS Survey123 involving an external choice list and seeking insights into its root cause. Our setup has multiple surveys in ArcGIS Survey123 that utilize an external choice list. This choice list is in the form of a CSV file that we've uploaded to ArcGIS Online. The CSV file comprises three columns: 'id', 'name', and 'label'. This list contains approximately 10,000 choices.

Initially, everything worked smoothly, and participants could select choices from the external list while responding to the survey. However, a peculiar problem has emerged. The link between the external choice list and some specific surveys seems to have broken. Users can view the choice list correctly when providing responses, but upon saving a response as a draft or submitting it, the chosen value transforms into 'name' instead of retaining the actual value. Notably, this anomaly is occurring only for certain surveys. Other surveys using the same external choice list remain unaffected.

This issue had occurred before, and I was able to resolve it by re-establishing the link between the external choice list and the survey through Survey123 Connect. If anyone has encountered a similar issue or possesses insights into what might be causing this behaviour, your input would be highly appreciated.

DavidPike · Answer

Did you find the root cause?  I've experienced this in the past also.

akhilsam · Answer

Unfortunately, I cannot share the forms and CVs. But I can add more info. This is from the XLSForm (type, name, and label)

select_one_from_file  project_names_test.csvproject_nameProject

This is how the CSV is set up:

IDnamelabel1testtest

Survey123 Connect version is 3.16

Yes, users are opening survey directly and promoting the csv refresh.

ChristopherCounsell · Answer

can you share the xlsforms and csvs?

Are you on the latest version of the Survey123 Connect and field app? Which versions?

Are the users opening the survey directly (prompting the csv refresh)?

Could be tied to a lot of things but we'd best start with the XLSForm and design. Something similar to what you said, where 'label' was the only value to choose from, has been tied to csvs with wrong formatting.