Back up photos taken in Field Maps to Device

[mattkramer]

Hello,

I have heard from some staff that they would like to save photos taken within Field Maps to their devices to keep a local record of photos after they have been submitted. Is it possible to have, for example, photos taken in the Field Maps app saved not only in the mobile geodatabase saved on device, but also in the Photos library of the device?

[erKay_nv5]

Some Android systems have an option in the Collection Settings of Field Maps to use the Camera app instead of Field Maps to take the picture. It might depend on both the version of Field Maps and the Android OS your device uses (I'm on Field Maps 24.1.3 and Android 8.1, and I don't have this option on my Juniper Cedar Tablet; it's probably my OS). If you have that choice, this might create a copy in the DCIM folder. The other option is to change your field protocol to step out of Field Maps, take the photo with the Camera app, then return to Field Maps and Attach the photo, rather than using Field Maps by itself.

[MichaelLohr]

We routinely accomplish this by taking the desired photos from the Camera app on the mobile device first. Then prior to submitting a point in Field Maps, you can sect an option to attach a photo from the device Library, OR to take a live photo at that point. The latter does NOT store a separate copy on the device, as you have found out. 

We have more familiarity with iOS, but I am pretty sure that Android has this capability as well. There are several reasons why storing on the device library can be beneficial. It is cumbersome to retrieve the photos stored online. 

Hope this helps.

[erKay_nv5]

Android does have this option. I've not been happy with the way Field Maps and AGOL integrate photos for curation purposes (a huge issue in cultural resource management), so I'm glad someone else acknowledges that it's "cumbersome" because it definitely is.

[MichaelLohr]

For data/photos stored on an internal ArcGIS Server/SQL database, you have to go get the database administrator to duplicate the submitted photos and place in a local network folder for other use. Not sure how you would do it for hosted data. That's why we encourage field staff to take photos with the device Camera app, but they don't always observe that.

Maybe a posting to the Field Maps Ideas Forum would allow others to chime in and support a future improvement? https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-field-maps-ideas/idb-p/arcgis-field-maps-ideas