Battery draining like crazy after Field Maps 25.2.0 update

[IngridHogle]

Staff are commenting that battery is draining like CRAZY on iPad after last night's Field Maps update. Any tips on how to adjust this?

How do we go back to FM 25.1.0 on our iPads while this gets resolved??

[IngridHogle]

Thanks for testing this as you were able during an office day, @ColinLawrence ! By foregrounded and backgrounded, do you mean actually using and viewing Field Maps, as opposed to having the app actively running in the background (not as the visible app on top) on your device? When we use Field Maps we are doing nothing but mapping, for 4-6 hours, so it is always foregrounded (if I understand the terms). We are using the map the entire time to navigate, look at pop-ups of features collected in the past, and create new features when relevant.

Field Maps is the only app we have running in the field.

For context and details, in case this is helpful: We're doing fine scale invasive plant monitoring in tricky terrain, so tracks, imagery, and past population locations + the attribute information in their pop-ups are essential for us while in the field. All of our data are necessarily vector data. We are using primarily referenced feature layers from our Enterprise geodatabase (11.3, PostgreSQL flex server), plus some Enterprise hosted feature layers. We use either Esri's default Imagery layer or, to enable offline work (which we have yet to do this season), the offline imagery service hosted by Esri (World Imagery for Export) with saved credentials. We use Arrow 100 external GPS and new iPads running the latest iOS which are managed by our IT folks via Apple Business Manager and InTune.

[WendyBroom]

My field staff is having the same problem.  They said the batteries are draining quickly since the updates. 

[m3]

Chiming in here to say my users are experiencing the issue.  Typical usage, open Field Maps, tap on point, tap on link in popup to go to S123, fill out survey, put phone in pocket.  Phone is dying very quickly doing something they've been doing daily for almost 6 years

[ColinLawrence]

Thanks for responding. I have a few questions:

What device and OS version are you using? About how long to do you stay in Survery123 before returning to Field Maps? Roughly how many times a day would you perform this workflow (Field Maps to Survey123)? Are there any other workflows you are performing in Field Maps?

Also please reach out to Support if you have not already. 

[m3]

It's a field worker. Android.  Probably an Samsung S23.  They used the Field Maps/S123 workflow 11 times between 11:38 and 1:20 and their battery died

I'm not interested in doing ESRI's bug fixing, beta testing, or field testing, this is on you to identify and fix the issue.

[JoshuaWyatt]

We are also having battery drain issues. We have a field team, a few of them turn off location services and just move the map manually. This worked on 25.1.0. now it gets stuck in an "aquiring position" loop and destroys the battery

[IngridHogle]

I think this "aquiring position" loop @JoshuaWyatt reported is potentially a good lead on what is draining battery for us, too. We had to toggle GPS Averaging off for our maps in Field Maps Designer b/c point averaging was taking almost 1 minute per GPS hit...so averaging 5 GPS points per point feature made it take ~3 minutes to record a single point feature. In 25.1.0, this took just seconds per hit, with the point location being averaged easily within under 20 seconds, I'd estimate.

I have to wonder if there is something different in how GPS is working in 25.2.0 that is draining battery.

[ColinLawrence]

I thought @JoshuaWyatt s comment was interesting as well, but the message "acquiring location" is a bit misleading as the app does not continue to try to acquire locations on its on if it initially fails. When you first open a map with Location services off, the app should tell you to turn them on, and if you dont it should not attempt again until this is resolved. In this scenario, the GPS icon/tool should be disabled.

For what you mention about averaging, that is very strange especially given you are using an external GPS. Can you confirm if you are getting regular locations outside of Field Maps? Are you connecting directly or using as a mock provider? We should easily be able to get a location every second with that device. We may have exchanged emails in the past so feel free to reach out to me directly or DM me and we can discuss more.  

I am running further tests around the scenarios mentioned in this thread to see if I can reproduce what everyone is seeing. 

[IngridHogle]

Thank you, Colin. Battery drain was still abysmal today for folks. One iPad went down from 100 to 50% after 1.5 hours of work. Another went from 100 to 9% after 3 hours of work at the same location, same map, same workflow. So, we're still seeing the ~40% drain per hour. Our drain was 12% per hour with 25.1.0.

We are always using external GPS and we are always recording My Tracks. 

The GPS Averaging slowness issue is not occurring for me today. I just emailed you about that. It sounds like this was not consistent among staff and could have just been a coincidence due to GPS issues that my coworker and I experienced yesterday. (His I-am-here blue dot in Field Maps was grey most of the day. I was testing indoors. I just got confirmation from 1 user that he did not have issues with GPS averaging yesterday. I haven't had a chance to ask anyone else yet.)

I did experience the Acquiring Location spin when I first started trying to do my testing outside the office. It may have just been my external GPS taking its time to acquire satellites and a position, since I'm in an area with buildings and such. I switched to internal and back to external a couple of times before I finally got a position with external. I'm not sure if this is normal or not since I don't normally do testing in an urban environment, and there is usually a bit of lag time between when I connect my iPad to external GPS and when I start mapping when I'm actually in the field.

[IngridHogle]

A tip for others suffering: A coworker found that working on our iPads with Low Power Mode turned on greatly reduces battery drain in Field Maps 25.2.0. (Keep Field Maps in the foreground for this workflow to prevent the problems noted elsewhere re. Low Power Mode.) My coworker found that turning on Guided Access mode AFTER turning on Low Power Mode allowed him to work without the screen turning black every 15 seconds (a feature of Low Power Mode). Here are the steps he shared for our iPad Pro tablets:

1. Go to Settings
2. Look up "Guided Access" and turn it on. In that same settings tab, turn on "Accessibility Shortcut"
3. Look up "Low Power Mode" and turn that on.
4. Go back to Field Maps and triple tap your home/sleep button.
5. When prompted, draw a 4-sided shape on your iPad that will hopefully turn into a rectangle.
   1. If it doesn't turn into a rectangle, delete this shape by tapping the "x" on the top left of whatever shape was generated. Try it again until you get a rectangle.
   2. This rectangle is originally intended to disable the touch functionality for that particular region of the screen. Instead, make this rectangle/other shape very small, then move it to a part of your screen that you won't use very often (I have mine perched at the very top center of my screen, not blocking any buttons we use in a field day.
6. Tap start, then use whatever passcode you want, and voila!
7. To turn off Guided Access, triple tap your home/sleep button and enter in your passcode
   1. Whenever you turn on or turn off Guided Access, you will need to reenter this password, so make sure you don't forget it!
   2. Note: while in Guided Access, you can't turn on Low Power Mode, so you must have it turned on first.