Attachments causing Field Maps to "refresh"

[WardMitchell2]

When creating a new point in Field Maps I choose the point type then take a picture (Select Ok) and then select the check(submit) and then the map appears to refresh and the point was never collected.

I have tried different maps, uninstalled/reinstalled field maps. Removed the tablet case, tried it indoors and outdoors. The tablet is a Samsung "Galaxy Tab Active Pro 5G". Android version 13, 64 GB memory (26 used) 4GB RAM. The Field Maps version is 23.2.0 Build 1440.

Field maps does work fine with both Samsung phones "Galaxy S20FE 5G" and iPhone 11.

I have no idea of what is happening, one difference between the Samsung phone and tab is the phone has 6GB Ram vs 4GB in the tablet.

I have a video of the issue attached below but had to zip it so it could attach. 

[WardMitchell2]

Update to previous post. This issue I described only occurs when taking a picture, when a new point is created without a picture being attached it works just fine. Its looking more like a tablet issue that conflicts with application and the camera, but still not sure. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[KathleenCSki]

Your issue may relate to a photo size too large to be inserted. The Field Maps app has a set size limit for photos. Try checking the size the photo is being captured at with the device. This document describes photo limit settings in the app.

Configure the mobile app—ArcGIS Field Maps | Documentation

[WardMitchell2]

Thanks Kathleen, I changed it to small and actual size but still get the same negative result.

[WardMitchell2]

So according to ESRI its the classic "Known Issue" answer.  

"BUG-000137313: The ArcGIS Field Maps app intermittently crashes when taking a photo or attaching a photo on Samsung Galaxy Tab A devices.

Unfortunately, this is a know limitation for Samsung Galaxy tablets. I will go ahead and close this case. Please be assured that you can re-open this case at any time by directly replying to this email, or by calling 888-377-4575 and referencing the case number."

Awesome we spent money an tablets that can't attach a picture to an a point, line, or polygon. Does anyone know if there is a known Issue page/link that we can take a look avoid these types of issues?

[WardMitchell2]

Additional response from ESRI answering a couple questions I had about the issue.

1. Is there any work around available? A potential work around to still be able to use the current Galaxy Tablet would be to collect the data in the Fields Maps app without any attachments. Then, proceed to take a photo with the camera app and include this attachment later on. 
2. Will this issue be addressed in the next update? The team in charge of deciding addressing current defects is our Development Team. Based on the public information which it's included in BUG-0001373 this is expected as a known limitation. As a reminder, you can check the information of the defect on the MyEsri website. Since I am aware that you are still interested on fixing this issue, you can contact the ArcGIS Field Maps team at ArcGISFieldMaps@esri.com to obtain more information about the decision making on not addressing the issue and expressing your desire to find a solution to this issue that's currently affecting your work.
3. Is there any documentation addressing the "Known Limitation"? The information available is the defect recorded in our system by other users who experienced the same behavior. Nonetheless, this information have not been made public in the documentation of Fields Maps to ensure users are aware of this limitation. I can go ahead and submit, a documentation defect to make users aware of the limitations of ArcGIS Field Maps in Galaxy Tablets.

[ColinLawrence]

Hi @WardMitchell2 , hopefully I can help clarify some things around this. The bug linked above BUG-000137313 is one that was logged some time back and was specific to Samsung Tab A (the first generation) devices as these devices had 2GB of memory. The Android system itself would consume about 1.4GB of memory alone with no other apps open, leaving about 500MB of memory to work with. When workflows with attachments are started the system can easily enter a low memory state and this would lead to crashes. This does not apply to your device. 

More recently we have been hearing reports (BUG-000159710) on a wider range of Samsung devices (mostly Tab Actives, like you have) that are experiencing these "resets" of the app when taking photos; these devices do have higher memory capacity as you noted. Recently we did fix a low level memory related issue that alleviate some of these issues but that does not seem to have addressed all of the cases. We continue to investigate this.

This issue has not been easy to reproduce on our end for some reason with Tab Active Pros so any additional information you can provide would be helpful, however trivial it may seem. If you reach out to the field maps email alias you posted above we can work with you more directly on this. I will work on getting a new BUG filed with Support so you and any others experiencing this can get attached to the correct and more relevant BUG. Thank you!

[WardMitchell2]

Thanks Colin, I definitely want to resolve this issue as we bought 2 of these tablets to be used with field maps and photo documentation is a key part of what we are doing, and also connecting to a Sokkia GPS receiver is the other goal, so we can collect data with precision based off the RTK network this also has become a challenging problem. The goal was to have a tablet ( since IPad don't connect to Sokkia, if I'm wrong on that please let me know) that would allow us to not have multiple devices to achieve our goal. The idea of taking pictures separate from Field maps works but becomes challenging when we have hundreds of picture that will be collected and certainly isn't an efficient way of collecting our data. 

So are you the contact to discuss this about or is there a particular person to talk to the ArcGISFieldMaps@esri.com link that I can work with. Also is there a recommendation of what tablets would be best to meet our needs as explained above? 

[ColinLawrence]

Can you please reach out to the email alias you posted? You will likely be interacting with me but this way I can also loop in others on the team. We can also chat more about the GPS receiver. Thanks!

[JosephGrossman]

I have been having this same/similar issues. I noticed this issue really start up in the last year or so with our Samsung Galaxy Active Tab 2 &3 tablets. I have seen crashing when photos are being taken, but also when just points were being collected. These might be two separate issues specific to these Samsung tablets. I have seen a couple of things that anecdotally might be helping. 

1) In the settings make sure scene optimizer and shot suggestions are off. I have turned off some other settings as well. My assumption here is that these settings are using more memory to process photos.

2) I wasn't sure if there were some changes that happened on the backend of ESRI's ArcGIS online and portal environments. I created some brand new feature classes using the online tools and collected data. Doing this the crashing didn't seem to happen. I noticed that there were some changes to the ESRI GNSS metadata and possible some restricted fields names (eg: type) that I had in my features.