'Failed to Send Updates' and data loss

[AngelaSmith1]

My team is using this app on an iPad mini paired with an SXBlue II GPS receiver for environmental field collection. It has worked properly the majority of the time, but our team has lost confidence in it because it has caused us to flat out lose data several times; however, the instances seem random, and I have not found much support on this issue elsewhere, so I am at a loss for fixing this.  It always involves the "Failed to Send Updates" error. This error even occurs when there is sufficient service in the city. Some times they will receive this error for every other feature in the same general location, so sometimes it works perfectly, and other times it does not.  The data seems to sit in limbo in the map until it is able to send updates, so they continue to try to send these with no avail.  More than once, the feature has 'disappeared' (literally, poof) from the map while in this limbo state, even though the map was left open.  Has anyone else experienced this?  Everytime we click Submit, we have to cross our fingers.

[MichaelDavis3]

Are you using offline data collection or collecting data directly to the feature service?

Is the data hosted in AGOL or in ArcGIS Server?

[AngelaSmith1]

The data is hosted in AGOL and we are collecting data directly to the feature service.

[MiaogengZhang]

What is the network available in the device? What network service do you use?  Usually update failed is due to unstable network condition. When they see Update Failed, do they click "Retry"? If they click "Cancel", the feature won't be submitted. 

[AngelaSmith1]

We have AT&T service.  Yes, it was also my understanding that if updates are not able to be sent, there is an issue with service; however, in some instances, our field techs have had several bars of service on their AT&T phone.  Another time, a field tech even successfully used the Collector app on her phone in the same location.  This makes me wonder if it is a problem with iPad or that Collector is just buggy.

We repeatedly retry to submit updates and then eventually have to cancel to move on; however, our features are still in the map on the iPad, but not able to be viewed in our organization's ArcGIS Onilne because they have not been checked in. If we can't submit updates in the field, our field techs will also try to submit the feature the entire way back to the office, especially when back in the city.  Updates would still not send even when back in the office.  There have been several instances where they finally do successfully submit, but several times when they have not and we have lost the data.

[MichaelDavis3]

You might consider moving to an offline collection workflow.  This way you can submit all the collected data at once at the end of the day, preferably on WiFi.

We pretty much exclusively use offline collection - even in areas with decent LTE coverage.

[AngelaSmith1]

Thanks. I have been researching this and thinking that we need to migrate in this direction; however, I've received a "failed to download map" error.  I am also a bit unclear based on research so far if the basemaps can also be downloaded offline.  Would you mind sharing an overview of your offline workflow process?

[MichaelDavis3]

Yep, basemaps can be downloaded as a part of the data check-out process in Collector.  You are given an opportunity to define a work area and the app checks out the data for that area as well as downloading the basemap.

We avoid that step for the most part however.  We generally make our own tile caches (tpk files) in ArcMap using project data or a public web service and then side-load them onto the mobile devices (through iTunes for iOS).  We primarily do this because we typically deal with large survey areas and hefty tile cache sizes (2-17GB in size) and that just wouldn't be practical to do on a device over WiFi.  Also it doesn't consume AGOL credits.

Collector recognizes any tile cache files you side load and makes them available for use in the maps you take offline.

[AngelaSmith1]

Ah, so service credits are required to download the map to the device?

So it seems that I need to research how to create a tile cache with 1) our project dataand 2) the online basemap.  How do the tile packages tie back into ArcGIS Online?