Taking Photos in Survey123 vs Uploading photos from camera roll into Survey123

[EuropaxEarth]

Hello!

I'm attempting to design a survey that allows the user to input a max of 50 photos - all with their lat/lon/Alt values extracted via EXIF tags and populated in Map Viewer. The goal is to create one, efficient repository for all site visit photos that our design engineers can easily reference. 

I used the "begin_repeat" and "end_repeat" type with a "repeat_count" of 50, to allow the pulldata() function to extract the EXIF data from each of the photos and populate the map viewer in the form of a geopoint.

After publishing the survey, I noticed that images taken in the field app have their EXIF info pulled (lat,lon, altitude, image direction, etc). And the correct coordinates are represented in the map viewer. HOWEVER, when users (both iPhone and android users) attempt to UPLOAD a photo from their camera roll, the latitude and longitude points are NOT visible, and not populated in the survey.  When the survey is submitted the photo goes to 0 latitude and 0 longitude. 

I wonder if this a security reaction that "scrambles" the EXIF tag making it illegible to the survey.

I've attached my XLS form below in hopes this will elucidate any additional points - though I must admit, it is very preliminary. Nevertheless, any guidance/ tips and tricks will be helpful.

Thank you,

Europa

[DougBrowning · Accepted solution]

I have seen this issue with iPads but not Android.  On iPads the fix was to change the photo type from High Efficiency to Most Compatible.  I talked to the 123 team about this and they said is was an iOS issue.

Android not sure why.  Unless location settings are off?

My other idea is this is caused by repeat count.  Repeat count loads all 50 repeats right away.  I have seen that cause issues with calculation fields since they all fire before any data is added.  In your other post I suggested using count() on a constraint instead.  That way the repeat grows one at a time instead.  I would test that. 

You could also test setting the calculation move to always on the pulldata lines to see of that would do it.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/survey123-tricks-of-the-trade-calculation-modes/... 

Did you look to see if the images have GPS in them and it is not just 123 not pulling them?

Hope that helps

[EuropaxEarth]

I spoke with an Esri analyst who tested it out on their end:

Android devices: They confirmed pictures taken in-app and uploaded photos have their EXIF data successfully extracted. 

iPhone: when capturing a new picture the location tag is successfully retrieved. But when uploading an already existing photo from the camera roll, no coordinates are extracted.  

I'm beginning to think that the EXIF tags are blocked/scrubbed in iPhone's camera roll because I don't see the lat/lon points when I check the photo's properties. What interesting is that the uploaded photos from the engineers were taken on iPhones AND Androids. I'll reach out to see if they configured their phones in any special way.

I failed to mention the varying results when using Desktop Survey123 vs iPhone Survey123:

Desktop Survey123
Taking a picture in app: no coords. pulled
Engineering's uploaded photos sent to desktop: coords. pulled!
Uploading personal photos sent to desktop: no coords. pulled

Iphone Survey123
Taking a picture in-app: coords. pulled!
Engineering's uploaded photo's sent to desktop: Unable to test for security reasons.
personal photos from camera roll: no coords pulled.

Takeways:
Users who take photos in app at the site visit need to have their locations turned on.
Will try including a file attachment that gives the user the option to take pictures in app OR upload already existing photos.

[DougBrowning]

Have you tried this it worked for us.

On iPads the fix was to change the photo type from High Efficiency to Most Compatible.  

[EuropaxEarth]

Making the switch on my iPhone works. Now uploaded photos and those taken in-app have their latitude and longitude points plotted.

Photos taken before I switched from High Efficiency to Most Compatible do not have their lat/lon points extracted, which is understandable.

I'm going to test it out on other ios devices to be certain.