Survey123 Connect 3.17 update causes error publishing existing survey

[MeganMuellerRMW]

I recently updated Survey123 Connect to version 3.17.54.  I have an existing survey that has been in use for several years that was published with Survey123 Connect version 3.5.  I thought that updating Survey123 Connect might allow me to make an improvement to the survey not possible in version 3.5. 

After I updated Survey123 Connect, I opened the form for my existing survey in Survey123 Connect and clicked on publish (without making any changes to the form), to see if publishing the form would work with the new version of Survey123 Connect.  I get the error message in the screenshot below.  Given that I made no changes to the XLS form, and I didn't receive any error messages when publishing the form with the old version of Survey123 Connect, it seems like it must be an issue with the new version of Survey123 Connect.  

I am on a short timeline to make some updates to the form before our field season.  While I would eventually like to use the new version of Survey123 Connect, I wonder if a short-term fix would be to download the old version of Survey123 Connect that I used to create the survey. 

Thanks in advance for any help with this issue. 

[MobiusSnake]

This looks like an issue with your XLSX.  Your systSurv_bearing_1 field has a data type of double (found in the column named bind::esri:fieldType), but it's clearly using a string-based choice list (cardinal direction).  I'm guessing the field in your published service also uses a string type, that's why you're getting a type mismatch.

I would guess something has happened to your XLSX since it was initially published, perhaps it was inadvertently modified at some point?  It looks like some of your other bearing fields use double types as well, but that data type makes no sense given your list.

[MeganMuellerRMW]

The data type in the published service is double, but none of my existing records have values in those fields, and the bearing fields don't have domains associated with them, so it looks like it is an issue with the bearing fields my XLSX that has been there since I originally published the survey.  

Does it make sense for me to fix this XLS problem by changing the question type to a string in both the form and the field in my published service and then republish my existing survey?  Am I correct in thinking that I can change the question type for the bearing fields and republish the survey without losing data in other fields that do contain data?

[MobiusSnake · Accepted solution]

Your approach should work, except there's no way (that I'm aware of) to change a field's type in situ.  You'll need to delete the existing fields - which shouldn't be a problem since they have no values - then re-create them with the correct types.  Once those have been re-created, changing their data type in your survey and republishing should work.

[MeganMuellerRMW]

Thank you - that worked!