The app uploads your surveys and downloads updates from our servers automatically whenever it's open and online. This page explains how to tell what it's doing and what to do if something gets stuck.
The Status Line#
Every screen has a line of text just under the title bar that tells you what the app is doing. A moving bar underneath means it's busy.
| What it says | What it means |
| Online | Connected, and nothing to do right now |
| Uploading survey… / Uploading photo… | Sending your work to our servers. The moving bar is orange for uploads and blue for downloads |
| Waiting to upload… | There's something to upload and the app is about to try, or is pausing between attempts |
| Downloading surveys…, Downloading map features…, etc. | Fetching updates from our servers |
| Updating map features… | Preparing downloaded map data on your device |
| Working offline | Work Offline is switched on. Nothing is uploaded or downloaded |
| No connection | Your device has no mobile signal or wifi. The app carries on when it comes back |
There's no "sync" button. The app checks for work to do every few minutes while it's open, when you switch off Work Offline, and when you pull down on a list to refresh it. It does nothing while it's closed or in the background, so keep it open until uploads finish.
Seeing What's Waiting to Upload#
When anything is waiting, a line appears just above the Work Offline switch, for example 2 surveys and 5 photos to upload. In the survey list, surveys that haven't been uploaded yet are shown in bold, and a survey that's being sent shows a spinner in place of its arrow.
Tap the line (or go to Settings → Uploads) to open the Uploads screen. It has three sections:
- Waiting — surveys and photos still to go.
- Failed — items our servers rejected. These need your attention (see below).
- Uploaded — everything sent in the last seven days. Each photo is listed separately from its survey, so a survey with photos appears more than once.
Here is the same survey in Waiting while Work Offline is on, and in Uploaded once it has been sent:
When everything is done, Settings → Uploads says Everything is uploaded. It's then safe to sign out, remove the project or uninstall the app.
When an Upload Fails#
If you lose mobile signal partway through an upload, the app simply tries again later. You don't need to do anything.
If our servers reject an upload, it moves to Failed and the line above the Work Offline switch says … failed — tap to retry or discard. To deal with it:
- Open the Uploads screen and tap the failed item to see the error.
- Tap Retry to try again. Many failures are temporary.
- If it fails again, tap Open Survey to check the survey, or contact us (see What to do if you see a bug?).
You can also Discard an upload. The survey stays on your device, but that version won't be sent to our servers. Only discard an upload if you're sure you don't need it, or our support team asks you to.
See A Survey or Photo Failed to Upload for more help.
"Data May Be Out Of Date"#
If a project's data hasn't been updated for more than a day, you may see a yellow banner titled Data May Be Out Of Date on the project screen and survey list. It tells you why:
- Working offline — tap Go Online to switch off Work Offline.
- No connection — move somewhere with mobile signal.
- Couldn't update — tap Retry. If it keeps happening, contact us.
You can carry on recording surveys while the banner is showing. It just means recent changes made by other people may not be on your device yet.