topic Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map in ArcGIS Collector Questions

Labels not showing in Collector Map

RichardAbram — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:35:15 GMT

I have a published map on ArcGIS Online with labeling turned on for 1 feature class. I can see the labels in the map in ArcGIS Online but the labels do not display when viewing the map in Collector. Is this a limitation of labeling?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

RussRoberts — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:31:40 GMT

The Collector app currently does not have support for AGOL labeling.

Russ

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

DagmarParnell — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 05:09:21 GMT

Hi Richard,

A work around you can use for labels in Collector is to convert the labels to graphics or annotation....

Once you have your labels designed appropriately, right click the layer in the Table of Contents and select Convert Labels to Annotation.

Next use the Feature Outline Masks tool to convert the geometry of the label outlines to polygons in a new polygon feature class (Set the Mask to zero and the Mask Kind to EXACT).

Then you can publish as a service or export the data as a shapefile to add to ArcGIS Online to use in Collector.

I hope this helps.

Dee

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

peterNOTMEknoop — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:15:19 GMT

Richard, if you're starting with your data in ArcMap, and publishing from there, then you can go through basically the same process that Dagmar describes, but using ArcMap. (It is similar to the way you had to do labeling before support got added to ArcGIS Online.) ESRI provided a couple nice blog posts back in the day describing in detail how to do this:

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

Anonymous User — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:27:39 GMT

ArcGIS Online has a feature now for labeling features. However Collector still does not.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

DaleKersten1 — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 01:45:04 GMT

Dagmar,

I have tried the approach as outlined and was able to create an annotation layer that I want to import into a map in AGOL. When I open the map in ArcMap 10.2.2 the layer is visable in the table of contents and will show up in the database file having 0 kb and a LOCK designation. When viewed using windows explorer after closing out of ArcMap the annotation layer disappears from the database file. It seems the annotation layer I created is some sort of ghost file and cannnot be imported into a map in AGOL. Once I isolated the annotation layer in the table of contents after following the above instructions I was able to publish the service and see my labels in collector. This worked for me!

Sincerely,

Dale

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

MattsonCompton — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 12:48:56 GMT

Are there any plans to support AGOL labeling for the Collector and/or Explorer apps in the near future?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

NilsRatnaweera — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 22:22:15 GMT

this feature still seems to be unavailable.. any plans to implement it?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

RussRoberts — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 14:58:33 GMT

This is something we would like to add but it is currently not slated in an upcoming update.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

BrianBaldwin — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 21:29:08 GMT

Any status of when support for labels in Collector could get added to the roadmap? There are a number of use cases where this is really important.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

PeteCrosier — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 13:06:39 GMT

They would be very, very useful. We have some ugly replications happening to translate all our annotation in to polygons which Collector can display.

If you publish a layer that has labels enabled from Desktop in to an AGOL hosted feature layer, add this to a web map, take the web map offline in Collector, then open the web map you'll see labels. Obviously not something to rely on, but a handy bug that shows Collector 'supports' labels.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

PaulCone — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 22:21:40 GMT

I'm guessing that once Collector supports the upcoming vector tiles, that that will be how you get labels on the map. It's probably too much overhead to drive the standard ArcMap label engine (especially Maplex) on a portlable device. Remember ArcPad?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

NiekGoorman1 — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 13:05:35 GMT

Has there been any progress on this issue? Being able to label highway mile markers is very important to my organization, and it's getting to the point where I'm recommending tablet users to use ArcGIS Online in their browser, instead of using Collector.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

RaviSingh2 — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 20:09:14 GMT

label now appears in offline data in collector if webmap is prepared with labels.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

RochelleAdministrator — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:18:01 GMT

This is a known bug/limit for Collector. Feature services (hosted or otherwise) do not show labels in Collector, UNLESS the map is taken offline. Then they show up, which is weird. Labels are added to the feature service in ArcGIS online, they look great in the webmap and webapp but NOT Collector. Esri's Flagship app for field data collection. Here's the annoying Rub: There's no plans to fix this. See for yourself. NIM103494: The Collector for ArcGIS application for Android doe.. and NIM103495: Add label support to Collector for ArcGIS ap.. same Bug for different mobile platforms. Scroll down and you can see that any fix is "Not in Current Product Plan" this bug is two years old it's not going to get fixed. I'm pretty sure there's a new app in development that will combine Collector and Explorer. But that's pure speculation on my part.

Hack Workaround; Use a map service of your Same Exact data with pretty ArcMap labels and NO symbology. Result is that you have two layers in your web map pointing to the same data on your ArcGIS Server one is for editing (I always add a "EDIT" to the name) and one if for labels. ("TEXT") This is how we have to work around the negligence.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

DaleKersten1 — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:48:24 GMT

I found that converting the labels to annotation and converting labels to polygon feature class may be great for fixed data; but, too burdensome for data that needs constant updating. Not sure I understand the above workaround but will give it a try. My solution was to use a GPS receiver that allows editing of the labels. Not an online system in this case; but, having data point labels and being able to edit data point labels in the field is a necessity.

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

MohamedNabil1 — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:24:44 GMT

Dear Russell,

Are there any plans to support the labels in the collector app?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

MariusKokko — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 13:42:57 GMT

As we are running the Standard license the Feature Outline Masks tool is not available to us. Is there any other workaround for this issue? Can I somehow convert labels or annotations to raster symbols or something like that?

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

KenBuja — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 22:14:06 GMT

We've run into a bug when using multiple layers pointing to the same data in offline use:

The Collector for ArcGIS app incorrectly applies a filter created in the web map to all copies of a feature service when downloaded for offline use.

1. BUG-000093841 (iOS)

2. BUG-000096568 (Android)

3. BUG-000096569 (Windows)

Re: Labels not showing in Collector Map

TiffanyTuro — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:10:41 GMT

I found this while trying to work around this problem. It seemed reasonable, and the other solutions weren't working for me, so I tried to publish this- then it told me I would be exceeding my credits available by 1114%. I have around 850 credits now, so this is clearly a big draw of credits- beware. Seems tacky of esri to have the only workaround to a problem be a costly one. Obviously we would all like to label things in our maps- that's what we do. Sheesh.

Problem: Unable to view labels enabled for hosted feature services in the Collector for ArcGIS application for Android and iOS

Description

Labels enabled for a hosted feature service using the Create Labels option in ArcGIS Online do not display when the same hosted feature service is accessed in the Collector for ArcGIS application for Android and iOS.

Cause

This is a known limit.

Solution or Workaround

To view labels in the Collector for ArcGIS application, label the map in ArcMap instead of ArcGIS Online.

In ArcMap, add labels to the map and publish the map as a tiling service by following the instructions in the ArcGIS Online Help: Publish tiles document.
In ArcGIS Online, add the entire map service with the URL ending in </MapServer> to a blank web map.
Add the feature service in addition to the map service. Do not configure the labels in ArcGIS Online.
Save the web map and open it in the Collector for ArcGIS application.