topic Back up the autosave.json file on an iPad? in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Back up the autosave.json file on an iPad?

Strahanjen — Fri, 13 May 2022 16:15:48 GMT

When Survey123 crashes, the user is presented with a recovery dialog with options to Discard or Continue the survey. Because there is no confirmation when the user clicks the discard button, we're worried about accidental data loss. Clicking the discard button deletes the autosave.json file which contains all of the data. Thus, I'm wondering if I can automatically create a copy of autosave.json in a new location on the iPad every few minutes? Has anyone done something like this?

For our users, Survey123 restarts every time the iPad sleeps, which results in getting the recovery many times per day (they are doing vegetation surveys that last for hours). It is inevitable that someone will accidentally hit discard at some point. We're trying to do as much as we can to prevent data loss.

Ideally, ESRI should add a confirmation that the user truly wants to discard the survey. In the meantime, I'd like to make sure I have a copy of the autosave.json in a safe location.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

Jennifer

Re: Back up the autosave.json file on an iPad?

Anonymous User — Mon, 30 May 2022 03:20:31 GMT

Hi @Strahanjen,

It is not possible to automatically create a copy of the autosave.json file from the apps storage to another location. Only Survey123 and the Files app can read this location, due to restrictions that iOS impose on application storage. You can manually back it up by connecting to a Mac or PC and navigating to the folder and copying the file, or using the Files app on the iPad.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Back up the autosave.json file on an iPad?

Strahanjen — Tue, 31 May 2022 14:49:49 GMT

@Anonymous User Thanks for the information. Do you know if ESRI plans to add a confirmation that the user really wants to discard the recovered survey?

Re: Back up the autosave.json file on an iPad?

Anonymous User — Tue, 31 May 2022 23:05:06 GMT

Hi @Strahanjen,

We have an issue in our backlog for this enhancement, ENH-000141012. It is currently no planned for a near future release, but something we hope to address in the future in a later release.

I would suggest raising this with Esri Support and attaching your account to the above enhancement, this will help prioritize the development backlog for such enhancements.

Regards,

Phil.