Enable Collector document directory access via iOS Files App

MichaelDavis3 · ‎01-08-2019

With the introduction of the iOS Files app we've seen less of a need to install iTunes on desktop machines. Now we can stash TPKs or VTPKs in a OneDrive account and transfer them into our apps as needed. The same process works well for backing up collected data without the need to back up the entire device.

It doesn't look like the new Collector is currently configured to support the iOS files app. Can you please switch on this support? We are increasingly using the files app to manage the basemap data used in our enterprise Runtime apps and it would be great if we could do the same for projects using Collector.

MichaelDavis3 · ‎03-22-2019

I spoke with some of the developers at the Dev Summit about this issue and I'm really hoping this makes the list of enhancements.

Just to add a bit more fuel to this fire, I received the following email from a GIS Analyst in our company today:

I have a guy in the XXXXXXX , XX office who collected some data in the field to a hosted feature service in an AGOL webmap I set up for him. ...the points are stuck in limbo and he’s trying to sync back on office wifi and he’s getting the “Unable to Sync Edits” error.

At this point the only thing I can do for them is direct them to find a computer with iTunes, pull off the users entire user folder, with all offline data for all maps, and then dig through and find the geodatabase for this specific off-line map so we can convert to FGDB and manually add the stuck points.

If File app access was enable (one change in a .plist file) we would be able to be much more surgical about the whole thing. "Grab these three files and copy them into OneDrive" - boom - done.

That's a much better workflow for a field worker standing in the mud, or anxiously waiting for their data to sync before they can go home for the night.