Survey response back-up while offline. Possible?

[Chris_Anderson]

I have some field staff who want to use Survey123 in the field where they will be offline for a week or more. Is there any way for them to back-up their survey responses from time to time should their survey device fail (e.g. surveys completed on a tablet and back-up to a laptop)?

[MitchellProctor]

Can you define 'fail', exactly? Survey123 has an outbox where surveys are kept when the user can't send the survey due to being offline, and they'll stay there until they're sent. I think you want more than that, though.

[BekirYüzer1]

If you do not have internet connectivity or are unable to connect to ArcGIS, you can copy your tile package directly to your device, or use it from an external storage card.

Prepare basemaps for offline use—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS

and your device survey123 advanced settings tabs view.

[Chris_Anderson]

I am referring to the surveys that are collected on the device, not the basemap.

[Chris_Anderson]

Correct. I use the term fail to mean anytime something bad happens to the device: falls in the water, drops onto a rock, OS fails, etc. and you are unable to access the surveys that are on the device. I see that the results saved as an SQLITE file. Could this be copied/moved and accessed later?

[JamesTedrick]

Hi Chris,

Yes the survey database can be copied from the phone to another device.  We are working on documenting the steps involved, but the file locations are the same as mentioned in the 'Copy your tile package directly to your device' section of Preparing your base maps for offline use- the simplest thing in terms of backup is to copy the ArcGIS folder

[WillLentz]

James,

Any luck documenting this process? I would like to give it a try, simulate a device failure and recovery. Our firm is based and works in Alaska and many of our crews are off-grid for days or weeks at a time. Knowing that our data are safe is a primary concern before we adopt a new workflow. 

Thanks

Will Lentz

ABR, Inc.

[JamesTedrick]

Hi Will,

The steps are documented here: Troubleshoot—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS .  In the documentation, this is depicted as a one time snapshot; this can be repeated at intervals to create backups.

[WillLentz]

Perfect! Great solution. I will test this before my users go into the field but it looks easy and solid. 

Thanks!

[DanFranklin]

James, what do you about the attachments associated with a survey? How do you re-instate them too?