topic Re: Choice list not updating after publishing in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Choice list not updating after publishing

Trippetoe — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:10:45 GMT

I have a published survey that has a typo in a filtered choice list for one of my questions. I corrected the typo in Survey123 Connect and successfully published the change. However, the update does not appear in the (re)published survey.

I have looked at the ArcGIS REST Admin Directory for the AGOL Hosted Feature Layer. It does not show a domain for the field of interest.

How do I change values in filtered choice lists so that those changes appear in the published survey?

Thank you.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:15:26 GMT

Hi Tom,

What you describe should be the way to update the typo. Just to be clear, you are not seeing the update in a app or web context?

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

Trippetoe — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:27:12 GMT

Hi James. Thank you for your SUPER fast response.

Partially correct - I am not seeing the update in the Survey123 field app (I am not sure what you mean by web context). I open survey123, go to the 'download surveys' page and see that the 'updated' date matches my last publish time. I then click the 'refresh cloud'. I see the downloading messages, then open the Survey. The old choice data are still present.

What i just did, however, was to use Survey123 app to delete the survey from my local machine, then re-download the survey. In that workflow, the new choice data are present. So it seems that the 'refresh' function isn't really updating the existing data. You need to remove the previous data first and then get the new survey.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:29:42 GMT

Thanks, I'll try to reproduce this. It might also be agitation where the application has cached the information in memory- if I can reproduce I'll also try quitting and reopening the app.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

ReneAubut — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 13:07:46 GMT

I have a similar bug. I have a choice of field tech names. When I add names to that list in Survey123Connect, I get a successful publish to AGOL, and I see the added names in on the app. However, when i go on the desktop Survey123 for ArcGIS, the list of names was not updated.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 22:44:46 GMT

Hi Rene,

This is a known issue with Survey123 Connect - it currently does not update a domain after initial publishing.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

AnuSawant — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 21:59:47 GMT

Hi James,

Just wondering whats the status of this issue? Has it been resolved with new version?

My query is slightly different I also want to update new addresses to the choices list to the published and in use Survey. Can I add it without losing any data?

Thanks,

Anu

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 23:05:15 GMT

Hi Anu,

As my post above indicates, currently domains are not updated on republishing. You can certainly add the values without losing data; the problem that occurs is that other applications may not show the values because it isn't part of the predefined list of acceptable values.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

ZoeGoodyear2 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 16:56:10 GMT

Hi James,

I was wondering if in the recent version if this issue has been rectified. The lists that our users need is dynamic and if they want to edit data in AGOL they are unable to view the 'full lists' that are available to them in the S123 app, only the initially published list.

Is there a way to add 'choices' to the dropdowns that match the S123 choices?

Thanks,

Zoë

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:39:01 GMT

Hi Zoe,

You can add choices to lists via the Item Details page - see Define attribute lists and ranges—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

ChrisRoberts2 — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 03:30:43 GMT

Hi James

I have just realised that we are experiencing the same issue. I have a Survey123 Form with a list of Observers that is continually being updated. I have noticed that the although a new code value is being displayed in the Web Map the label is not. So based on this post I assumed that it was because the list of values is not being updated on republish

However when I try to add the new value to the field through portal the Save button is greyed out and I cant save the new record. It only seems to be happening for this Observer field, I can add a new value to other fields that have domains.

Do you know any reasons as to why I cant save a new value using this method?

Cheers

Chris

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 20:59:22 GMT

Hi Chris,

That's unusual - I'm not sure why you would not be able to update the list. Perhaps you could submit a support ticket to troubleshoot what's going on with the Item Details page?

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

ChrisRoberts2 — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 21:49:08 GMT

Ok thanks James ... will do

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

SimonAllard2 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 19:29:20 GMT

Hi James, will future releases be addressing this or should I post it as an idea to vote up?

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JamesTedrick — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 17:42:29 GMT

Hi Simon,

Esri support has the enhancement ENH-000106608 that you could ask to join your account to. There is also Have an Option Where Survey123 Dropdown List and Domains are Synced

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

Anonymous User — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 06:14:52 GMT

Hi @Trippetoe @SimonAllard2 @ChrisRoberts2 @ZoeGoodyear2,

Just wanted to let you know with the upcoming 3.16 October Release of Survey123 we have made improvements to the Connect publishing workflow with regards to domains and choice lists. You can check out the latest announcement, documentation and test out the latest 3.16 beta builds via the Early Adopter Community to get early access to these builds and the new Connect publishing workflows. You feedback on these improvements would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

JessicaBurton — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 23:19:39 GMT

Hi, I am having this same issue. Updating a list in Connect and publishing. Update available in app, but the new choices don't appear until I delete and re-download the survey. Is there anything with the 10/2022 update that can help with this?

Re: Choice list not updating after publishing

mwartman_grey — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:03:45 GMT

June 2025 and I ran into this problem. My solution was to follow these steps exactly:

1. In a text editor like notepad, edit the .webform file in the project folder to manually update the list values (for some reason, these weren't being updated after saving/updating the XLSForm).

2. After saving the .webform file, "Update" in Survey123 Connect.

3. Publish.