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Layer fails to load ("The field already exists.") in new Collector

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05-27-2020 03:23 PM
AaronWipf
Occasional Contributor

I have a feature service published through ArcGIS Server that I'm testing in Collector Classic and the new Collector on Android. It includes a point layer with attachments and user-defined editor tracking fields as well as a related table with identical editor tracking fields. I've made a very simple web map with just these items as well as the National Geographic basemap to use in Collector. I've tested it out on two different Android tablets (Samsung Galaxy Tab A running Android 8.1.0 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 running Android 7.0) and had a co-worker test it on a 3rd Android tablet and an iOS device.

In Collector Classic, the service performs as expected; no issues.

In the new Collector, the basemap loads but none of the points do. Going to the "Layers" tab I see an orange triangle with an exclamation point and the text "The field already exists" under the layer name. Additionally, the iOS device included the error code 3018. Looking through questions others have posted, I found some similar issues which all seemed to be related to the editor tracking fields, especially the ones tracking users:

Collector for ArcGIS layer error Code:3018

Map Downloads with Collector Classic but not the New Collector 

Layer failed to load- red triangle 

I confirmed that the editor tracking fields had something to do with it, as disabling the "Keep track of who created and last updated features." setting on some identical test hosted feature services I published (I don't have access to edit the ArcGIS Server service) allowed the layer to load. The most likely-sounding solution from the above posts was to adjust nullability and defaults on my custom editor tracking fields.

However, testing a number of combinations of editor tracking field settings (allow nulls, don't allow nulls, no defaults, different defaults for each) did not solve the issue. I also tried removing the related table that had identical editor tracking fields with no success.

Another complicating factor is that when I tried enabling developer options in Collector (triple-tapping my user name) to access log files, a brief pop-up says "Developer options enabled" but when I clicked on "Developer Options" in the menu, all I see is "Placeholder". I don't think my organization/device is limiting this as I can enable Android developer options on the tablet; should this function be operational on the Android app or is it not there yet (ver 20.2.0)?

Hoping for a solution that lets me use this data in the new Collector, any guidance would be appreciated!

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AaronWipf
Occasional Contributor

Hi Mykola, I was able to solve this issue one of two ways; either using Esri standard editor tracking fields or adjusting settings of my custom editor tracking fields to match the settings of ESRI's editor tracking fields (i.e. allow nulls, no defaults, and changed the length of the text fields to 255; might not need all these changes but I did them all just to be safe). During testing, I was forgetting to adjust settings on both the date and editor fields, and all editor tracking fields need to be adjusted in order for your data to be compatible with the new Collector.

The best info I've been able to find on this issue is in Map Downloads with Collector Classic but not the New Collector, assuming it is the editor tracking that is causing your problem. Sounds like ESRI has this marked as a bug but doesn't know exactly how/when they're going to resolve it yet (see above article).

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MykolaAlexandersson
Emerging Contributor

I have the same issue with Collector Aurora in our arcgis Enterprise verion. I am using iOS and once I open the map, I see an error on the editable layer saying that the layer is failed to load. In the description of the error (3018) it says "The field already exists". An interesting thing is that I do not experience this issue in Collector Classic. 

Hoping for anyone to point out the solution to this problem. 

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AaronWipf
Occasional Contributor

Hi Mykola, I was able to solve this issue one of two ways; either using Esri standard editor tracking fields or adjusting settings of my custom editor tracking fields to match the settings of ESRI's editor tracking fields (i.e. allow nulls, no defaults, and changed the length of the text fields to 255; might not need all these changes but I did them all just to be safe). During testing, I was forgetting to adjust settings on both the date and editor fields, and all editor tracking fields need to be adjusted in order for your data to be compatible with the new Collector.

The best info I've been able to find on this issue is in Map Downloads with Collector Classic but not the New Collector, assuming it is the editor tracking that is causing your problem. Sounds like ESRI has this marked as a bug but doesn't know exactly how/when they're going to resolve it yet (see above article).

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MykolaAlexandersson
Emerging Contributor

Hi Aaron,

Thanks a lot for suggestions. We used to have our own fields for editor tracking but now we have created default editor tracking fields and the edit layer is now visible on the map. It seems that the new Collector only displays default editor tracking fields. Anyway, so far everything works OK.