Back up photos taken in Field Maps to Device

Question

Hello,

I have heard from some staff that they would like to save photos taken within Field Maps to their devices to keep a local record of photos after they have been submitted. Is it possible to have, for example, photos taken in the Field Maps app saved not only in the mobile geodatabase saved on device, but also in the Photos library of the device?

MichaelLohr · Answer

For data/photos stored on an internal ArcGIS Server/SQL database, you have to go get the database administrator to duplicate the submitted photos and place in a local network folder for other use. Not sure how you would do it for hosted data. That's why we encourage field staff to take photos with the device Camera app, but they don't always observe that.

Maybe a posting to the Field Maps Ideas Forum would allow others to chime in and support a future improvement? https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-field-maps-ideas/idb-p/arcgis-field-maps-ideas

erKay_nv5 · Answer

Android does have this option. I've not been happy with the way Field Maps and AGOL integrate photos for curation purposes (a huge issue in cultural resource management), so I'm glad someone else acknowledges that it's "cumbersome" because it definitely is.

MichaelLohr · Answer

We routinely accomplish this by taking the desired photos from the Camera app on the mobile device first. Then prior to submitting a point in Field Maps, you can sect an option to attach a photo from the device Library, OR to take a live photo at that point. The latter does NOT store a separate copy on the device, as you have found out.

We have more familiarity with iOS, but I am pretty sure that Android has this capability as well. There are several reasons why storing on the device library can be beneficial. It is cumbersome to retrieve the photos stored online.

Hope this helps.