topic Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast! in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

TI — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 23:55:33 GMT

When Survey123 (version 3.3.26) on iOS asks permission to use Location Services, I select the 'while using the app' option.

If I check iOS' location services settings, it shows that Survey123 is configured to use location services while using the app and not 'always' or 'never'.

Nevertheless, any time after launching Survey123, it uses location services continuously, whether Survey123 is running on screen or even when it is in the background (and even if the device is idle - I think) and drains the battery very fast. This is occurring for a number of our users and is causing serious problems here.

Is this a known problem? Are there any known fixes or work arounds other than killing Survey123 when not in use (or disabling location services when not in use)?

We do not have this problem on our older iOS devices which can only run version 2.8.2 of Survey123, and we only started having this problem on our newer devices recently. I think it may be related to the recent update of Survey123.

Even if this was working properly, it should not drain the battery this fast. Does Survey123 allow deferred location updates? This dramatically increases battery life in the location-aware apps that I've written. (see: allowDeferredLocationUpdatesUntilTraveled:timeout: - CLLocationManager | Apple Developer Documentation )

(also see: locationManager:didUpdateLocations: - CLLocationManagerDelegate | Apple Developer Documentation - the old way doesn't work with deferred location updates).

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

WilliamNatividad — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 06:20:28 GMT

I have also just run into this issue, on both android and iphone. If you open survey123, even if you don't open any surveys or have any surveys, location services immediately start running. The only way to stop this is to remove survey123's location permissions each and every time, or to restart the phone.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

BrettStokes — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:53:01 GMT

Hi William,
You can stop Survey123 using location services by properly closing the app, you don't need to restart your phone or remove location permissions. In Android this means tapping the overview button (which brings up a list of currently open apps), then tapping X or swiping the apps you want to close away. In iOS double-tap the home button to get the multitasking view, then swipe the apps you want to close off the edge of the screen. iPhone X does this differently, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause about halfway up the screen to get the multitasking view.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

BrettStokes — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:10:25 GMT

By design, Survey123 is configured to utilise your device's location when the app is open (background or foreground) to ensure the location is captured as quickly and accurately as possible. This is the same approach as other ESRI apps like Collector and Navigator. Extensive testing was carried out across a multitude of mobile devices, operating systems, internal location sensors and external Bluetooth GNSS receivers, to monitor battery consumption and performance.

This testing included changing Survey123 settings to use the location as needed, when the survey is open and when the app is open. We found that other factors such as device usage, screen time and brightness had a much greater impact on battery consumption.

Can you please provide us some details of your experiences to help us gather more information? For example: What specific devices and operating system versions are you running? Do your surveys take seconds / minutes / hours to complete? What sort of battery consumption are you seeing over what time period. How does Survey123 battery consumption compare to other mapping apps that always using your location (eg Collector, Google Maps etc.)? Are you running other apps and services while using Survey123? Are you operating in areas with wifi and/or mobile data coverage or in remote offline environments?

Thanks,
Brett

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

TI — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:21:50 GMT

Hi Brett,

Thanks for looking into this for us. Detailing your testing plans doesn't really reassure us much in this case where multiple people are experiencing a serious issue. 🙂

We are using a variety of iPhones and iPads here. After my users informed me of the problem, I have replicated it on an iPhone XR running iOS 12.1.4. As stated earlier, I'm using Survey123 version 3.3.64.

The problem occurs irrespective of whatever survey may be used. As William stated, you don't actually need to run any survey at all to experience the problem. All that is required is to open Survey123, and then close it again (ie, return to the 'Springboard' app launcher view.

You will then see the blue bar at the top of the screen in whatever app you are using, to indicate that location services are being actively used.

As I stated earlier, the Settings app shows that Survey123 is configured to use location services only when app is in use. However, it is somehow bypassing this setting.

What sort of battery consumption are you seeing over what time period. How does Survey123 battery consumption compare to other mapping apps that always using your location (eg Collector, Google Maps etc.)? Are you running other apps and services while using Survey123? Are you operating in areas with wifi and/or mobile data coverage or in remote offline environments?

I haven't left it running long enough to drain my battery before killing the app, but users tell me that it goes from 80% battery to dead flat in a few hours. This did not happen with the previous version of Survey123.

Other apps do not drain the battery like this. Other apps tested include Collector, Apple's 'Maps', and my own mapping/navigation app which uses Location Services heavily (and which can use the location services in the background for a number of days without draining the battery - in airplane mode).

I'm testing just in my office with WiFi and mobile data coverage. Colleagues have experienced the problem where there is no network in remote offline environments.

Yes, I always have a random series of other apps and services running while running Survey123. However, I have just now restarted my iPhone XR (power off, power on) and then run Survey123, done nothing within Survey123 (not even opened a Survey), then closed Survey123 and it is now flat out draining my battery (blue bar at top of screen indicating location services is running). I will now kill Survey123 to prevent my battery dying.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

DougBrowning — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:38:06 GMT

With v3 I have noticed that newer versions of Android keep complaining that Survey123 is running in the background using location and eating battery.

From Google"

Robert Love, Software Engineer at Google

Answered Jul 30, 2013 · Featured on Forbes · Author has 514 answers and 8.2m answer views

GPS is expensive because it is a very slow communication channel—you need to communicate with three or four satellites for an extended duration at 50 bits per second. There is no time division as in other communication mechanisms, necessitating powering the antenna for the duration of any communication. Worse, while the GPS is on, the system cannot enter a sleep state. Mobile devices such as Android and the iPhone achieve their battery life largely because they can aggressively and quickly enter into and exit from sleep states. GPS prevents this.

GPS's battery draining behavior is most noticeable during the initial acquisition of the satellite's navigation message: the satellite's state, ephemeris, and almanac. Acquiring each satellite takes 12 to 30 seconds, but if the full almanac is needed, this can take up to 12 minutes. During all of this, your phone is unable to enter a deep sleep. A-GPS (Assisted GPS) partially solves this, by sending the navigational message to your mobile device over your cellular data network or even Wi-Fi. As the bandwidth of either of these greatly dwarves the 50bps of the GPS satellites, the time spent powering the GPS antenna or avoiding deep sleep is greatly reduced.

Nonetheless, even with A-GPS, using your GPS is a noticeable battery hog. This is again due not to powering the GPS itself, but by preventing the phone from going to sleep. Compounding the cost, most mapping software is processor-intense. A well-designed app can make a significant difference here; Google Maps boasts several optimizations to reduce battery consumption from GPS usage.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

TI — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 05:27:37 GMT

Bit of a side-track, but recent versions of iOS can keep the GPS functioning while the device is idle/asleep. The GPS/location hardware module caches all location updates internally, and when the device wakes (or the location cache gets full), only then is the app called with the series of all location updates since the last time it received them (for many apps, the app would ignore all but the last location in the series). The app can save a HUGE amount of battery power by doing this (amongst other location/battery saving optimisations). Apple calls it 'deferred location updates'.

I would guess that Android has something similar.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

TI — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 05:33:19 GMT

Collector doesn't even give me the option to have it using location services 'Always' only 'While Using the App'.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

WilliamNatividad — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 17:11:05 GMT

It seems the problem may have been resolved. I'm no longer getting an immediate location services alert for Survey123 on my android, though it will take me awhile to find out what my users are experiencing. Have things changed for you as well?

Thanks for carrying the flag forward on this issue.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

TI — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 21:03:10 GMT

No, I am still experiencing the issue here when testing just now. 😞 iOS for us though. No Android here.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

MichelleWilliams1 — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:39:50 GMT

Our Apple devices are also having this issue.

~ Following

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

DougBrowning — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 19:24:57 GMT

Bump. We are having lots of users asking us why the GPS is on the entire time the app is open. Even with no form open. Our forms are long and can be open for hours. With continuous GPS access the battery is going fast. They are asking to open, then turn off the location but I do not love this idea.

Also we are seeing android is constantly complaining the 123 leaves the GPS on even when it is in the background and it asks to close it. Which caused some users to lose data. Collector does not see to have this issue.

It is really hurting the number of hours the battery will last.

thanks

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

KingstadVictor — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 13:48:07 GMT

We are experiencing the same problem. Is there any news about this issue?

thanks

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

DougBrowning — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 20:58:05 GMT

Still seeing warning messages from Android that the GPS is always on, even when the app is in the background. iOS gives no warning but it is draining also.

Not seeing this on Collector so there must be some way to fix this. I even set the app to Only use Location while using the App and it still gives this warning.

In addition We have forms that take hours to complete. This means the GPS is running all day long, which drains the battery fast.

Could we maybe have a button to turn the GPS on/off at least? Like make the button that is there now a toggle or something, then a long press for options. We could save hours of use that way.

Thanks for looking

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

CrystalCornejo — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 05:20:45 GMT

We are having the same issue. Our users don’t want to use the Survey123 app because it’s draining their phone/tablet batteries. We don’t have to fully close Collector for location services to stop, so why do we for Survey123?

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

DougBrowning — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:12:28 GMT

Trying a bump again since it has been 2 years now. We have forms that take hours to complete and this is draining a lot of battery.

Maybe a quick way to turn off the GPS for the rest of the form? Like just tap the icon and it shuts off for the rest of the form.

This is getting asked for Field Maps also now https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-field-maps-ideas/ability-to-turn-gps-off/idc-p/1040409

Please consider. Hate to bug you by tagging you but we keep running out of battery on site and its hard for us to carry chargers and such since a lot of it is hiking.

Thank you!

@JamesTedrick @IsmaelChivite @Anonymous User

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

NickPannu — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 21:51:17 GMT

Using IPhone SE, iOS v15.1, Survey123 v3.13.234.

I have also noticed this issue, and am just about to roll out a survey which will require people to use it multiple times a day. If they don't kill Survey123 between uses, I expect most of them to have flat batteries by the end of the day. It uses about 60% of my battery in a day, when I don't touch the phone at all after opening Survey123.

This could be a potential safety hazard as the devices can be used used for communicating location and status.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

BenBlowers2 — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 09:57:36 GMT

We are also seeing this issue with android phones, android tablets, and iPhones. Battery is being destroyed far too quickly.

Re: Survey123 uses location services in background - drains battery fast!

Anonymous User — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 07:36:24 GMT

I am experiencing the same problem and the users of our organization complains and does not want to use Survey123 because it drains the battery.

When you give the app permissions to use locations services when in use, you expect it to quit using the GPS when in background. But Survey123 does not do that.

Why not add a feature to let the user turn off the GPS- when in background? Or when giving permissions choose between: Always / When in use and let when in use be when the app is active?

We are using iOS.