Survey123 3.10 crashes when taking photos with iPhone 6S

[AlainChouinard]

Hi all,

Since the latest release of Survey123 3.10, our users with iPhone 6S are unable to take pictures (camera or file) within our surveys. The application just crashes when the camera opens or file browser opens. It seems that the ones using iPhone 7 dont't have this issue. 

These surveys were developped with previous versions of Survey123 Connect.

Someone have an idea ?

Thanks a lot in advance !

[Anonymous User]

No problem, I understand. I have sent you a private message with my email details. 

Regards,

Phil.

[VincentMattes]

We are having a similar issue with a field worker whom inadvertently upgraded their Survey123 app to v3.10.323 on an iPad Air using iOS 12.4.5.  His app crashes every time upon capturing a barcode and/or taking a photo.  The rest of our workforce is using Survey123 v3.7.57 on identical iPads and iOS without any issues.

In the near term, is there anyway to download this previous version 'til the bugginess of 3.10 is shaken out?  Please advise.

[Anonymous User]

Hi Vincent,

Unfortunately due to Apple restrictions, it is not possible to install a previous version of an application. There is no way for us to provide an older version, and you can not side load apps on iOS devices. Therefore the only way to install the app is via the App Store. If you were using Android or Windows, it is possible for us to provide older versions of the installers that you can install manually.

As for the issue you are encountering with 3.10, can you please log a bug with Esri Support, so we can gather all the details, and track and prioritize this issue accordingly.

Regards,

Phil.

[Anonymous User]

Hi Vincent/Alain,

We have recently shared the 3.11 beta builds we are working on via the Early Adopter Community. These builds address some other crash issues we have seen recently with 3.10 release.

I would be interested to know if you are still seeing the camera/browse crash on iOS for those devices above with the 3.11 beta builds. These are now shared via Apple Testflight and you can find the direct link here.

The current build to test is 3.11.122 and in next few days you will also see 3.11.124.

Please let me know any feedback with 3.11 beta builds.

Regards,

Phil.

[AlainChouinard]

Hi Philip,

I just tried the version 3.1.124 from Early Adopter Community and it still crashes when  I take a photo with the Survey123 camera... 

Thanks !

[AlainChouinard]

Hi all,

After several tests and investigations by the ESRI Canada team and the Philip Wilson team (thank you all for your great work), the problem was reported as a bug :

BUG-000133776: Survey123 app crashes when working with a complex survey with older iOS devices

On our side we have decided to replace our iPhone 6 with more recent devices. This problem does not occur with our iPhones 7, 8 and SE 2020.

Thanks

[VincentMattes]

Hello. Our similar issues were resolved when we did a hardware refresh. We too isolated the problem to the newest version of S123 on older iPads operating iOS 12.4.8 (pre 12.4.8 versions of iOS + v3.7.57 of S123, no problems whatsoever). I hope this helps.

[Anonymous User]

Hi Alain/Vincent,

We have done some further work on this issue and narrowed done the cause. It is generally related to older iOS devices that only have 1gb memory (iPhone 6, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2 etc) with iOS 12. There are some other iOS 13 devices that also have 1gb/2gb memory and lower specs, and these may also crash compared to newer 4gb/8gb memory devices.

With 3.10, we use Standard map types as the default map rendering engine to display map questions and the Inbox map. This is using the ArcGIS Runtime which allows you to display custom basemaps, web maps and other types of offline packages (mmpk, vtpk etc). Unfortunately the Runtime uses more memory to be able to render these more advanced maps compared to simple raster basemaps, and causes an "out of memory" error on these low end devices that do not have enough memory.

If you switch the map setting back to Basic you will likely find the app does not crash as often with your survey on these older devices. This was our finding during further investigation. Keep in mind that if you are using Basic map types you can not use custom basemaps, web maps, mmpk, vtpk etc, and will only have access to the 6 pre-defined raster basemaps as per 3.9 when Basic was the default map rendering engine.

We have made a change for the 3.11 release on low end iOS devices with iOS 12, that the default map rendering engine will now be set as Basic map types, and if the device has iOS 13 and higher end specs, then Standard will be set as default. The user can still switch between the types settings using the field app menu options. This will help resolve some of the crashes, but more complex forms may still crash on older devices with low memory. The 3.11 release will be available in early October, and the 3.11 RC builds will be available on the Early Adopter Community in next few days.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Phil.