Context: We are conducting bird point count surveys and at each of our point count locations we complete a rapid habitat assessment; we have a Survey123 form to collect those data. That form includes recording the species name and % coverage of the top three dominant tree and shrub species.
After our field season concluded, I exported those data off of Survey123 and found that several data points from those assessments were “missing”… Either % coverage values or species names were not on the table; I personally checked forms in the field and noted that technicians were entering these data so I don’t expect this to be human error/forgetfulness in the field.
It appears that this happens at random, impacting different technicians (and therefore devices) on different dates, and at different sites. To see if I could manually retrieve those data points, I viewed the Survey123 forms on the devices that originally submitted them and saw that some forms reflected that missing data (i.e., either species name and/or % coverage was missing) while I could retrieve the data from others. I also noticed that, in some cases, the opposite piece of information was on the form while its reciprocal name or % coverage was on the exported data table.
NB: I did update the form at one point during the field season but found that only one day of data was impacted by this change, and this issue of data points being “lost” includes dates before I made that change to the form, so I don’t expect the two to be related but I figured I would mention it.
Has anyone come across this issue and have you found a solution to retrieve those data points?
