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Users unable to download offline map areas

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08-11-2021 07:04 AM
PeterMcDonnell
Emerging Contributor

Hi all, 

Offline map areas were defined in the Field Maps desktop app.  I the owner of the data can successfully download the offline these.  No other group members can.  We tried defining the offline areas in AGOL - same result.  The map works fine when no offline areas are created.  If enabled for offline users can create their own offline areas no problem.  It works perfectly when not enabled for offline use too.

There are three layers in the web map.  A point layer  -  421 points with 5 attributes.  This is non editable layer, it is a reference layer for location information.Two empty feature classes created in Pro with a number of attributes and coded value domains exported as web layers.  Configured in AGOL.  Smart form configured in Field Maps app.

I can't think of anything else to try really.  Perhaps the solution is to let field workers create their own offline areas.  It is however quite a big coastal survey some of the monitoring sites are 28km apart.  It just adds to the workload of the field workers if they have to create the offline map areas too so my preference would be to fix the issue.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great!

Thanks million.

Peter

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8 Replies
David_Brooks
MVP Regular Contributor

Hi Peter,

We had the same issue a few months back, and had to revert to asking users to download their own areas. I believe there's something going wrong with the field maps offline area workflow in the desktop app, possibly the way it builds the runtime geodatabase structure and hosts it.

How did you create the tile cache? Was it an uploaded TPK or TPKX? or did you cache a tile service locally during sharing? Or cache in AGOL? And did you set the option to allow users to download tiles? If you did, what was the tile size limit?

Also, have you potimised the vector data in the item settings in AGOL?


David
..Maps with no limits..
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PeterMcDonnell
Emerging Contributor

Hi,thanks for the response.  The survey is a national survey for which we don't have base mapping in the required co-ordinate system.  As we have done for Survey123 forms we used ESRI World Imagery base mapping.  This imagery is configured for offline use.  

There is one non editable point layer - for a visual reference that contains legacy data where field observation have been made before.  Two empty feature classes for the collection of point data and to collect other observations.The map was configured in AGOL for four regions.  The map areas for each region were based on legacy data collection points.  These offline maps areas were created in the ESRI field maps app.

Using the same feature classes one Regional map with defined map areas would be available and function.  Creating another Regional map the system would stop working for all maps.  Users could sometimes download the offline map area but it would not sync.  Lastly, some maps configured for offline use with offline map areas created in the field maps desktop app appeared to users as if they were not conifigured for offline use. On the mobile device it didn't appear that the maps had offline areas or was available for offline use.

Creating offline map areas on the mobile device seems to work however it is too late for me to deploy this now as there is no chance to train the users who are not really  familiar with the application.

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IandeNeeve1
Occasional Contributor

Peter,

Is the map authored as a Map Viewer Classic, or with the "New-No-Longer-Beta" Map Viewer? Also, are your users handling the web maps with Collector, FieldMaps, or both?

We have users going through both apps (well, some can use FieldMaps, while others can use only Collector). Because of this, I had to turn on both share to Collector and share to FieldMaps, which appears to confound the way to create and use offline maps. I had to recreate them all after adjusting this setting.

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PeterMcDonnell
Emerging Contributor

Hi thanks for getting back to me.  The map was authored in Map viewer Classic.  The web maps are only being viewed/used in Field maps - the thought behind this was to move away from Collector as it is being retired soon.

I found when I switched off share to Collector that the maps wouldn't share to Field Maps, so sharing to both applications was  left on.

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IandeNeeve1
Occasional Contributor

Try recreating the maps with the new map viewer. Field Maps seems to be more friendly with maps made with it.

PeterMcDonnell
Emerging Contributor

HI there,

I recreated all the maps in Map viewer this seemed to iron out some of the issues.  In the end I just went with field workers creating their own offline map areas as I just din't have time to keep changing things at my end.  Thanks for your help.

 

 

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DCooke
by
New Contributor

We are seeing something similar. We can create offline areas either via the Field Maps web application or through the Settings tab for the item in AGOL, but only the owner of the webmap gets the 'Offline areas' notice beneath the title of the webmap on the mobile FM app and can then download the pre-created area.   We've tried various sharing levels but no luck.  Nor did creating the webmap in the new map viewer rather than classic help.    We'd greatly prefer it if the field users didn't have to create their own offline areas.  It seems a curious limitation and it's not clear to me from the previous discussion whether this is by design or whether it's a transient issue.  Anybody else succeed in downloading offline areas in webmaps that are owned by somebody else besides the user?

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Marie-AngeFournier-Beck
Regular Contributor

Hi - I am seeing the same problem. Did you ever get this sorted? What is strange though, is it isn't consistent. My field workers were able to download the offline areas earlier this summer with a different map, but now they are unable to download. Simply getting the "failed to download" message. 

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