High data consumption with new Collector

[AlinaTaus]

I am trying to determine what's causing my spike in cellular data consumption within the last couple of months. I have two heavy users (ie. they are using the App about 6-8 hours/day)  who are each using between 1-2GBs per day. Their workflow includes using the new Collector on an iPad to identify catch basins that need to be inspected, then a link sends them to Survey123 to fill out an inspection form. Editing is done live, we are not using a disconnected environment. All the data is hosted in ArcGIS Online. The only other thing that's different than in my past workflow is I am using a new imagery layer for my basemap, a service hosted by our State GIS office. Are there any tools available that I could use to figure out why I'm seeing such a high data consumption? Would anyone be able to offer some advice for how to bring data usage down? 

Thank you!

[ThomasJones1]

Hello Alina,

My suspicion for the higher data usage would be would the new basemap. Were you using Esri basemaps previously? When you open a web map in Collector a export tile request is sent to download the tiled imagery to your mobile device. If the new imagery layer is higher resolution the basemap tile file size could be larger.

If possible I would recommend testing with using Esri basemaps and monitor data usage. Utilizing offline workflows with Collector may also help lower data usage. Collector also allows you to side load basemaps directly to the mobile device. 

Collector for ArcGIS - Prepare offline data collection

Hope this helps!

Thank you,

Thomas.

[AlinaTaus]

Hi Thomas,

Which ESRI basemap would you recommend? I switched to the World Imagery yesterday and checked the data usage after a day's worth of work and it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I am looking into the offline workflows now, thank your for the link. 

Alina

[AlinaTaus]

We continued our testing and found out that the basemap did seem to be the culprit. We were able to bring data usage down by switching to a an older basemap (2013 orthoimagery)  that is hosted and cached on our server. The daily data usage went down from 4GBs to 176MBs. The other  thing that's different about this hosted ortho is that it was projected to our local state plane coordinate system and matches the rest of our data. The two basemaps that I tried using before switching to the 2013 ortho were both in a different coordinate system. Could that have an impact on data usage? Is Collector having to do projection on the fly?   

[ThomasJones1]

Hello Alina,

Projections can have an impact on web map performance but it shouldn't affect data usage. The data usage will mainly come from the operational layers and basemaps used in the web map. Great! I'm glad you found an alternative basemap. 

In regards to Esri basemaps World Imagery may use more data than World Topo for example. It not something I've tested but logically I would think the file size for the world imagery tiles would be larger.

I've provided a link below for the Esri 'Tiled Basemap' group. This group contains tiled basemaps that used in offline workflow with Collector. 

ArcGIS Online - Tiled Basemaps Group

Thanks,

Thomas.