Redownloading surveys for anonymous users of Survey123 App

[StefanieWenker]

We have a survey published to the public and our users are filling them out in the Suvey123 app on their phone/tablet or desktop. They are not signed in when filling out the survey and they get access to it (are able to download it) from a QR code.

The trouble we are having is that it seems you can't "redownload" the survey once it has been downloaded in the app if you aren't signed in.

When you do sign in and you click on your profile symbol there is the option to "Download Survey", but this doesn't exist in the menu when you are not signed in. The only way I found at the moment is to delete the survey for the anonymous user and then re-add it from the QR code, but that is a big hassle when a lot of people use it. 

Does anyone know of a way to refresh downloaded surveys i the app without having to delete it for anonymous users

We aren't making schema changes, only changes to the file used to create pick lists that users can use to select options.

[ChristopherCounsell]

Your best bet is to create a web form instead of using the application. Just generally better when working with the public. 

If you have to use the app, Survey123 Connect has an option to 'require update to the latest version of the survey'. If you republish the form, users have to update to open the survey. HOWEVER:

• Enabling this setting won't force users who have already downloaded the form when it didn't have the setting on
• There is a BUG where external choice lists (the CSV file you are updating) won't update via a custom URL, even with the above setting. It only updates when they open the survey directly. Meaning you'll need to update the CSV file AND republish the survey so that it triggers a form (and CSV) update.

[StefanieWenker]

Thanks for the quick reply. I checked and we do have it set to require update to the latest version, it just seems that that doesn't work. I do think it is related to the bug you mentioned.

We found that after I republished the survey with the new updated .csv the only way to get the changes was to delete the survey (open the survey so you see the collect and overview buttons and then open the hamburger menu in the top-right) and redownload it from the QR code. It is unfortunate, but we are going to let our end users know that they should do this. 

[StefanieWenker · Accepted solution]

We worked with Esri on this one. 

It turns out there are 2 ways to use a .csv linked to a survey and we were using both. Additionally the .csv linked on AGOL were not shared with the public, but the survey was. Once I shared the .csv with the public it started updating when the user was notified that there was a survey update (after republishing from Survey123Connect). 

Here are the resources I got from Esri, and a link to the documentation (including an excerpt as to what happens when you use both media and linked content....).

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/work-with-csv-data-in-arcgis-survey123/ba-p/1157...

Or from:XLSForm essentials—ArcGIS Survey123 | Documentation

From the above page:

If you manually place the .csv file in the survey's media folder, and at a later time upload a .csv file of the same name to ArcGIS and link it to the survey, the .csv file in the survey is updated from the linked content (if newer).