Survey123 Inbox Refresh not responding

SamanthaGriffore · ‎05-05-2021

I'm working with Survey123 version 3.12.277 and receiving complaints from field users that the Refresh button in the Inbox has started not functioning as expected. User says that they hit refresh and all their data disappeared. With testing, I noticed the same issue on my device, except if I kept hitting Refresh (up to 6-7 times) it would eventually refresh. I could not replicate this every time, and in some cases could not get the Inbox to Refresh at all. This issue is happening on multiple surveys.

Is this a known bug/version issue? Any advice to help me troubleshoot?

Thank you.

Anonymous User · ‎05-27-2021

Hi @KrisOlsson,

This sounds like a different issue. The one mentioned above is related to the Refresh button not activating when pressed, wheras from your description it sounds like the button activates straight away, but gets stuck on gettnig service information. This is usually related to issues with accessing the feature service or permissions/sharing changes.

Can you delete the application and re-install on those devices, and also install the latest 3.12 version from app store, as well as download the survey from the org again.

Phil.

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Anonymous User · ‎05-10-2021

Hi @SamanthaGriffore,

This is not a known bug or has not been reported by other customers to date. Can you provide more details about the specifics of the issue:

Are you using AGO or Enterprise? If Enterprise, what version of Portal and what authentiucation type?

Does this occur on all OS's and devices (ie Windows, iOS, Android etc)?

When you say "all their data disappeared" do you mean only from the Inbox, but then once the refresh occurs successfully, it appears again?

Could it be related to network speed or issues with connectivitiy? Could it be that the query is taking a long time to run, and during that time the Inbox is cleared until all the new records are loaded again?

How many records are you querying in the Inbox with each refresh, is it only a handful, 100s, 1,000s, 10,000s? Are you using an Inbox where clause query and do yo use repeats also with a query?

Regards,

Phil.

SamanthaGriffore · ‎05-11-2021

Hi Phil,

Are you using AGO or Enterprise? If Enterprise, what version of Portal and what authentiucation type? AGOL, not enterprise.

Does this occur on all OS's and devices (ie Windows, iOS, Android etc)? I've tested on Android v10 Galaxy S9, iPhone 7

When you say "all their data disappeared" do you mean only from the Inbox, but then once the refresh occurs successfully, it appears again? Correct, from the inbox.

Could it be related to network speed or issues with connectivitiy? Could it be that the query is taking a long time to run, and during that time the Inbox is cleared until all the new records are loaded again? Not network issue, I am testing in my home with good connectivity.

How many records are you querying in the Inbox with each refresh, is it only a handful, 100s, 1,000s, 10,000s? Are you using an Inbox where clause query and do you use repeats also with a query? Over 1000 records, the inbox has a query to return only records collected by current user, which is a proxy account with 20+ users collecting data daily.

Once the Refresh button is "activated", the refresh only takes a few seconds (with the "searching for records" dialog box). But it appears like I have to hit the refresh button many times before it registers. If I hit it once and wait, the refresh button stays grey for an undetermined length of time (I haven't waited long enough, but clocked over 10mins already). I notice it's working fine on another survey that has less records, but the same current user query. Perhaps it's an issue with max # of records? What is the maximum number I can have refreshing in the inbox?

Anonymous User · ‎05-12-2021

Hi @SamanthaGriffore,

Thanks for your responses, this behaviour is very strange that the button is not selectable. Are you able to take a screen recording or video of it occuring?

I am unable to reproduce in the Inbox with Inbox queries that return a small number of features or many thousands of features. Actually the Inbox can even load 100,000s of features, although there will be some performance issues the more you load. There is no limit for the Inbox, but the max record count set on the feature service will be the limit, by default this is 2,000 records, if you require more in Inbox you need to increase this limit in the feature service.

Regards,

Phil.

FMBAdmin · ‎05-18-2021

Hi @Anonymous User,

I was going to make a similar post then found this one, but we are having pretty much the same exact issue with a survey of ours. We're in Enterprise (not portal) and the refresh takes several times to initiate querying the service and then usually crashes Survey 123, sometimes grabbing some inbox surveys, sometimes erasing the existing data. This is occurring on iPhones and iPads.

The service is a fairly complex dataset of forest stands and includes around 30,000 records. I've upped the max record count to 12,000 so I could publish regionally based surveys, but the most I can get the inbox to refresh is about 3,400. It's usually stalling out and crashing before I get that far. What's interesting is that we have an inbox link hooked to the stand in Collector that will open the specified stand in S123 and Collector has no problem downloading a regional area of the same feature service. S123 is choking on the refresh no matter what I do with the record count. I was under the impression it could handle 100,000s of features like you say so I'm hoping it's a glitch. The other option for us to increase refresh performance is to publish about 18 separate feature services for the inbox which require constant updating, so I don't particularly want to head that way.

Any suggestions? Attached is a zipped video of the inbox taking a bit to refresh and eventually crashing with no downloads.

Thanks for your time,

Morgan

Anonymous User · ‎05-18-2021

Hi @FMBAdmin,

Thanks for providing the video. Does this occur on Android and Windows also, or just iOS (iPhones and iPads)? Can you confirm the model and iOS versions of the iPhones and iPads?

Regards,

Phil.

FMBAdmin · ‎05-19-2021

Hi @Anonymous User ,

It occurs in a Windows desktop environment as well. Not sure about Android as I don't have one to test on. The iPad is a mini 5 on iOS 14.5.1 and the iPhone is an 11 also on iOS 14.5.1.

Thanks!

Morgan

SamanthaGriffore · ‎05-26-2021

Hi, I've captured a recording of the issue. It is sporadic and is happening for me on my Galaxy S9 on multiple surveys. I am switching phones soon to S21 and will see if it has anything to do with the phone.

In the video, I am clicking on the Refresh button 9 times. On the 9th tap is when the refresh screen appears and starts loading. Notice how it grays out on the first tap, but nothing occurs until the 9th. Half a second between each tap, and switching between thumb and index.

Update: staff has reported that they deleted Survey123 and redownloaded on their device and Inbox Refresh is now working as expected. I've done this several times as well, but the issue persists for me.

Anonymous User · ‎05-27-2021

Hi @SamanthaGriffore,

Thanks for the video. We are currently looking into this issue and have been able to reproduce on our test devices with our developers. Will get back to you once we have any updates.

Regards,

Phil.

FMBAdmin · ‎12-22-2021

@Anonymous User has there been any traction on the issue? I am in the middle of redeveloping a form for next field season and the same issue is still occurring even on a feature service with just 8,000 records (this is a subset, the actual service is closer to 30,000).

The interesting thing is it had no problem retrieving the inbox for the 2,000 standard record count, but as soon I changed the max records to 10,000 in the JSON, it started bombing every time in S123 for desktop.

Is there a timeline on when a fix might be implemented?

Thanks for your time!