Survey123 stuck on "unpacking" when opening from Field Maps via Custom URL

[Claw-Hammer]

Hi,

Recently, my Surveys that use a custom URL from a Field Maps pop-up stopped working. The hyperlink will successfully open Survey123, but then the Survey gets stuck on "Unpacking" and "Downloading Thumbnail". It's similar to an issue described a few years ago, in this thread, but the cause seems to be different:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/updating-public-survey-causes-unpacking-fai...

Some other interesting behavior that might help is:
1. It works using the web browser version, even if I pass values using the standard ?field:name=value format.
2. It works in the app as long as I don't pass a value.
3. I realize, that complicated surveys can cause issues, but this problem is persisting even with a test survey I just made that only has 2 text fields and 1 date field.
4. I AM using a moderately old iPhone. I'm hoping to test it on a coworkers Android device and a newer phone to help determine if this is an ESRI/Survey123 issues or a device issue. I'll report back when I have results.

I noticed @bbarnard commented that they were having issues as of last week. I'm curious if anybody else is experiencing this.

[DougBrowning]

Oh I have seen this and I am trying to remember what it was.  I think it may have been a mismatch of field type or passing in a field value that is too long.  Also maybe special char. Could that be it?

Did you download the form first before launching?

Post the entire URL for us to really help.

[Claw-Hammer]

Thanks for your feedback. I did download the form first and also tried running Survey123 in the background. Here are some URLs that I tried:

1. Works to open the Survey in  a web browser and successfully passes the value of PlotID into my survey field named fullcode.  I think this confirms it's not a field type mismatch. Also, both PlotID and fullcode are text fields. So this URL works, but my users are all using tablets in the field so it's less helpful.
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/50e5ff35cc0244b484115d4e9953fb9e?field:fullcode={PlotID}

2. Successfully opens the Survey in both iPhone (ranging from a pretty old SE to a 15) and Androids. Note that I am not passing any fields. I was just trying to make sure I at least had my URL to open the survey in the app working correctly.

https://survey123.arcgis.app?itemID=50e5ff35cc0244b484115d4e9953fb9e

3. Here is where it starts to bug out. This is the same URL as above with the addition of the passed fields.

https://survey123.arcgis.app?itemID=50e5ff35cc0244b484115d4e9953fb9e?field:fullcode={PlotID}

4. Here is a URL to a different survey that only has 1 text question, and it also bugs out. I created this survey as a test since the original Survey was fairly complex and my understanding is that passed fields used in calculations can sometimes cause errors.

https://survey123.arcgis.app?itemID=981b52fe333c44788525142be1aa77f5?field:incoming_value=it_worked

There are underscores in PlotID, and I thought maybe those were causing an issue, but then I think my final test survey would work. I'll keep digging into this. I appreciate your help.

[bbarnard · Accepted solution]

I've had some varying success with troubleshooting this. ESRI's lack of error codes made this much more frustrating, as well as some issues that were purely random.  

Long story short, we wanted to edit an existing feature via Survey123, whether that was web, mobile app, or desktop app. All 3 had issues: Web said GlobalId wasn't passed even though it was, Mobile and Desktop both had Unpacking -> Downloading Thumbnail repeating.  

Web Form:

Proper syntax: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/{surveyID}?mode=edit&globalId={globalID} 

When "mode=view" I could see everything, but it all went wrong when changing to "mode=edit". What happened was, since "&globalId=" is case sensitive, even if I fed it the proper casing (the "i" in GlobalId needs to be capitalized), when you hit enter, regardless of browser, this would turn "globalId" into "globalid". I made the exact same survey again, but this time it didn't revert the proper case.

Okay. All in all a weird sort of bug I got around by making a THIRD survey. No different than the first 2 simple surveys I tested with but for some reason the third one functioned properly on the web.

Mobile and Desktop App

This issue is made worse as there is not error message it gives you. I found that I was passing incorrect parameters for the desktop URL. 

Proper Syntax: arcgis-survey123://?itemID={surveyID}&action=edit&update=true&q:globalId={globalID} 

Incorrect syntax throwing loop error: arcgis-survey123://?itemID={surveyID}?mode=view&globalId={globalId}

This issue was a mix of missing one or more of the following: "action=edit" , "update=true" , and/or the "&q:globalId" . Why there isn't an error message or anything makes this significantly harder to troubleshoot, because in Survey123 you have many working parts so its hard to narrow down what exactly is wrong. 

Just wanted to add some insight into what I've found and can narrow down this happening. 

[Claw-Hammer]

Thanks! My web app syntax is way different. This might be it! I'll try it and report back soon.

[Claw-Hammer]

Thanks! This is the URL that was working. No question mark, but an ampersand instead. Also, no .app after Survey123, even though that does open the Survey successfully. Thanks for your help @bbarnard  and @DougBrowning !

arcgis-survey123://?itemID=50e5ff35cc0244b484115d4e9953fb9e&field:fullcode={PlotID}