I'm writing to add more info to my original question. I believe what happened with those features I mentioned showing up in the offline map for download was due to the setting for automatic updates that occur on a weekly basis in the offline map areas. For the feature layers in the web map we have filters set on the data such as "CreationDate in the last 4 hours" and I think at the time there was features showing in the map and when the update occurred. I also had the offline advanced setting (see attached) set to the first option "Device will download and get updates to features and attachments".
It was recommended by ESRI tech rep Chris Marsh to change the advanced offline web map option to "Device will never download or get updates for features". This would allow us to collect survey features but when the data is synced back in the office the data isn't downloaded to the iPads. Well I did update this setting and we proceeded to get an "Sync Failed" General Errors: Illegal State. I've searched online and I'm not finding much on this error. Luckily the data still synced.
After getting the error I changed back that setting to our initial one the first option "Device will download and get updates to features and attachments" thinking the error was the result of this setting change. HOWEVER yesterday we seen some strange behavior in the Collector app. When you collect features and submit (offline), the features would highlight and then as you close out of that feature layer they would disappear from the map? The edits were there in pending status but you can't see them on the map???? Why would this happen? The only other change that I can think of that might be related is I've created a web app for viewing the data and time was enabled on the feature layers included in the Collector web map. I've now changed this to only have time enabled on the feature layer views (used in the display web app). I'm not sure if the map got corrupted or what but the features disappearing on that web map in Collector is behavior I couldn't get to resolve.
My workaround was to create a new web map using the same feature layers and configure again for the survey. My initial testing showed the features collected remaining on the map during the survey prior to syncing. I would so appreciate if someone has seen similar behavior or what might cause the issue.
Thanks!,
Kathy