idea Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB in ArcGIS Collector Ideas

Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

ThomasColson — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 15:51:56 GMT

Currently, the only way to sync Collector for ArcGIS offline data is via wireless. For those organization with no, limited, or restricted wireless capacity, Collector is a non-solution. Users should be able to connect Collector devices to a computer with the devices USB cable and sync to Portal or AGOL via some sort of Arc Tool Box script or other desktop tool. In addition, when collecting features with attachements not even the best wireless connection allows sync when many dozens or hundreds of photo attachments have been collected.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

AnthonyGiles — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:32:50 GMT

I raised this exact question with Esri UK as wireless in my working environment is a non starter

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

KevinMorris — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:08:06 GMT

The use of collector is getting more severly restricted in government use due to increased restrictions in wireless ability and two mode authentication. The ability to provide USB connectivity to access and synchronize "mass storage" databases on Android and perhaps IOS devices is necessary to facilitate wider acceptance and compliance.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

JessicaThompson — Fri, 20 May 2016 17:56:43 GMT

We work in rural Midwest counties with limited access to wi-fi or even decent internet connections and this would be awesome!

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

JacobBoyle — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 15:04:30 GMT

You can setup and ad-hoc connection over USB to your device to achieve this now.

Windows: iPhone Connecting to Internet Using Windows PC's Network through USB Cable - SysTutorials

Mac: Reverse Tether over Bluetooth PAN.

On a Mac, creating a Bluetooth PAN is a useful way to share a Wi-Fi Internet connection your Mac is connected to. This is useful when you can’t get your iPhone or iPad online via Wi-Fi — perhaps you only have a single login to the network and you can only have one device online at a time. This often happens on hotel Wi-Fi networks.

To do this, open the Sharing panel in the System Preferences window, tell your Mac you want to share its Wi-Fi connection, and select Bluetooth. Pair your iPhone or iPad with the computer via Bluetooth and it’ll gain access to the Internet through the Bluetooth connection. (How to Reverse Tether an iPhone or iPad to Your PC or Mac )

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

CollinGrove — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 19:50:01 GMT

I would be happy with the ability to have some option that packages the current map updates into a single file that can be uploaded to AGOL to sync.

However, what would be very helpful from an urban search and rescue standpoint is to be able to extract at the minimum, feature attributes and coordinates, from some sort of file that can be transferred to a computer via USB or Bluetooth.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

HugoGotze — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 13:12:41 GMT

I would absolutely love something like this! We regularly have connectivity issues over wireless, as well as issues with our devices refusing to sync for no apparent reason. If I could just be able to extract the file and upload it via my computer, life would be so much simpler. If there was some way to extract the file and import it via the browser application it would be wonderful.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

ThomasColson — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:09:34 GMT

Just updated to the latest version of Collector, very disappointing to see this feature still missing. Still holding on to my old Trimble hand-helds, at least ArcPad isn't dependent on flaky Wifi connections!

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

OlwynBruce2 — Mon, 07 May 2018 20:15:16 GMT

THIS. EXACTLY THIS!!

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

ThomasColson — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 19:11:40 GMT

Well it looks like the answer to USB capability is a "No". 2-factor authentication on mobile devices is on our horizon, which will essentially "brick" any application requiring wifi to get data. As suggests, taking the open source code to another vendor just might be the solution here.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

TimAnderson1 — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 15:43:21 GMT

There is a work-around that I have had to do because we found a bug in our maps and we couldn't sync them via wireless.

We have tested this using ipad, iphones and a couple different android devices.

We first installed itunes on our computer

We plugged the usb device into the computer and itunes opened up. Select the device at top of itunes screen, select file sharing on the left menu, from there you need to select the collector app, select the map file that contains the edits you want and save them to a folder on your computer. From there you can bring that file into your ArcGIS Platform

It would be nice to add this functionality to connect straight way into the ArcGIS platform as opposed to having to go through itunes though

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

PatrickFilyer — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 13:19:00 GMT

We have the same issue in New Brunswick. Limited Cell Service + Limited access to wifi. This leads to a number of syncing errors due to syncing with poor connectivity. This would be great!

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

StephanieLeusink — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:26:42 GMT

Because of the volume of data collected offline with Collector, including photo and video attachments, we have had to resort to extracting the runtime geodatabases using iTunes and running the Copy Runtime Geodatabase to File Geodatabase tool to access offline edits that refuse to sync over wifi. https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000012460

We often have people in the field for a few weeks collecting data and the wifi connection is not necessary strong enough at the remote sites to sync daily, and once data from too many days builds up, the sync becomes impossible.

While the Copy Runtime tool works, it is not a good solution for remote field workers as they do not have access to ArcGIS and are not generally tech-savvy GIS users. Plus, this process doesn't actually sync the data to AGOL so if they are adding to or modifying data that already exists in AGOL, it becomes a nightmare to merge the dataset that has been extracted from the tablet with the data that already exists in AGOL, plus the edits are not marked as synced on the tablet.

Re: Sync Collector for ArcGIS via USB

ThomasColson — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:45:48 GMT

What was wrong with ArcPAD where they had to disable this feature?