topic Re: Photo issues in Collector in ArcGIS Collector Questions

Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Wed, 04 May 2016 15:20:57 GMT

I noticed with the latest release of Collector (10.3.7 Build 1018) that I cannot attach photos taken with my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S4, Android 5.0.1). If I select an image from my gallery, it works OK. If I try to take a photo with the camera it lets me, but as soon as I hit the 'Save' button for the attachment, it goes back to the main screen with an empty map list and pops up an error:

"Unable to load the map. Please try again"

I cannot do anything until I close the app and re-start it. Obviously the new feature with the photo is lost.

I have an attachment enabled feature service in AGOL, also enabled for editing (as I said I can add images from the gallery and then sync without problems). I have created a number of other services (published from ArcMap 10.3.1) to see if that's the issue but the error still occurs. Phone has been rebooted, checked for free space on phone (1.3 GB should be enough). Tried to change the camera resolution - no effect at all.

Same feature services work OK in the ArcGIS (aka green) app, I can take photos with my camera, save and sync without problems. Hence I don't think it's caused by the feature service or the phone...

Has anyone experienced this issue or am I doing something wrong (doubt it since the same service work ok in the green app)? Is there a way to resolve this? Thanks in advance.

Zoltan

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Mon, 09 May 2016 11:35:49 GMT

I tested it on a Nexus 5 (with Android 6) and had no problems with saving the taken photos as an attachment. It's still a bit strange that the same function works in the green app, but not in collector on my S4...

Re: Photo issues in Collector

AdamCrateau1 — Tue, 17 May 2016 19:41:21 GMT

Zoltan, I am having the same issue with my S4, with Android 5.0.1. I can attach photos from my Gallery, but when I try to capture and save a photo, it goes back to the home screen: "Unable to load the map. Please try again.", then the app crashes and I have to restart. I can also add a new point without an attachment fine. I tried adjusting my camera settings...no avail.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Wed, 18 May 2016 08:27:25 GMT

Hi Adam,

Glad to hear that others have the same problem as I do, so it's not my settings/phone only. I suspect it must have something to do with how the app interacts with the camera API, since Survey123 or the green app has no problems with taking photos.

Maybe Ismael Chivite or Marika Vertzonis can shed some lights on it?

Re: Photo issues in Collector

MarikaVertzonis — Wed, 18 May 2016 23:59:14 GMT

I'm not sure if I'm adding light or dark to this conversation...

I tried Collector on our 5.0.1 device (its a Lenovo Tab) and I can successfully take a photo and attach it to a feature. My experience with testing various esri apps on many devices is that issues can be dependent on

- OS version number (most common)

- hardware brand

- hardware version / model number

So from our sample of size of three (zoltan, adam and me) we cant pin it on android 5.0.1.

The fact that it you can use Survey123 and the green app on the same device is interesting. As is the fact that browsing to a photo on your device works. Sorry i don't have an answer.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Thu, 19 May 2016 18:22:56 GMT

No problem, I appreciate your input. 🙂

Re: Photo issues in Collector

AdamCrateau1 — Fri, 20 May 2016 03:05:06 GMT

Zoltan, is your provider StraightTalk?

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Fri, 20 May 2016 07:56:11 GMT

Hi Adam

No, I bought a SIM free S4 so no service provider trickery in the software (well, apart from Samsung's touchwiz...). I'm on giffgaff/O2 at the moment by the way.

Hope that helps.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

AdamCrateau1 — Fri, 20 May 2016 16:34:24 GMT

Thanks Zoltan, good to know. Starting to look like an issue particular to this phone.. My model number is GT-19500

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 10:22:44 GMT

GT-I9505 here. I tend to say that it seems to be specific to the Galaxy S4 alongside with some other issues I experienced. Time to upgrade I guess.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

GISSupport3 — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 06:51:07 GMT

Same sort of issue on Galaxy Note 8.0 with Android 4.1.2

Took and uploaded a photo once and then never again ... with Attachment failed to upload message.

Same for all our Android devices.

Works fine with iOS devices.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

GISSupport3 — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 05:16:48 GMT

From our local ESRI Support, perhaps this bug:

BUG-000094266: In Collector for ArcGIS on Android, the request to a..

Re: Photo issues in Collector

GrahamScott5 — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 11:19:29 GMT

Hi all

Do you know if this was ever fully fixed or if there was a reason for why it is doing it?

I have just started using a Sony Xperia with collector app and this is happening.

Thanks

Re: Photo issues in Collector

zkovacs — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 14:10:39 GMT

I have since upgraded to a Galaxy S7 (Android 7) and no longer have the problem.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

DebMcIlwrath — Fri, 31 May 2019 20:08:08 GMT

Has any one else run into this issue recently?

We have been using photo attachments successfully on a variety of Android devices, but new devices running Android 9 are encountering the exact same issue Zoltan described 3 years ago - allows users to take the photo but when they try to save the photo it bounces them back to the main screen and both the photo and any geometry or attribute edits they made are lost.

Have tested with numerous data layers

Have tested when the attachment is connected to the feature class and the when the photo is attached to a related table

All work fine on devices with Android 6 & 7 but none will work on Android 9 devices.

All running the same version of Collector

Re: Photo issues in Collector

RobertReed — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 13:49:36 GMT

Hi Deb.

Just last week we were having that same problem where I work. The device was a Samsung Galaxy S4 tablet with Android 9 and Collector version 18.0.3. We had someone here figure a work around, and then we found what was causing the problem for us. The problem we had was that a camera app that had been downloaded (in this case a time stamp photo app) was set as the default camera app and caused Collector to give the "Unable to load the map. Please try again" message. Once we went into the Settings and reset the default camera app to the camera app that came loaded on the tablet, it worked fine. The work around was that a picture could be taken in the stand alone time stamp app, and in Collector when adding an attachment instead of selecting Camera we selected Gallery and added the photo that way.

I hope this helps in some way.

Robert

Re: Photo issues in Collector

MindyCochran — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 22:25:22 GMT

Hi guys, I just wanted to let you know that I was having this problem too and so I installed a different camera app and used it instead and it is working for me. It's bizarre.

Re: Photo issues in Collector

MariaGiarrusso — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 20:38:39 GMT

Had a similar issue. It took trying several different camera apps to find one that worked and remained stable. It is called Camera MX (Android)