Occasionally, enumerators report to their survey supervisors, data managers, or system administrators that they have photos or surveys in the mWater Surveyor that are not syncing with the mWater Portal. This is a guide for troubleshooting and resolving this problem. It progresses through two stages, addressing the most common causes and resolutions before advancing to more complicated or unusual situations.
"My data won't sync" or
"My data/photo is stuck on my phone/tablet
Background
First, understanding some background information about syncing is helpful. The mWater Surveyor is functional on and offline, which means users can continue to map sites and conduct their surveys while in areas with spotty internet or even without a data package. The app then syncs their device when they are again connected to the mobile data network or wifi. Syncing a device means all the data collected on it is uploaded through "the cloud" of mobile data or wifi internet to the mWater Portal, where it can be viewed from anywhere with a laptop computer. We recommend designing the workflow so that users have data packages and can sync throughout the day when service allows. This protects against data loss in the rare case of a lost, stolen, or dropped device. In our experience, the most successful and error-free enumerations are those which provide mobile data for real-time syncing, as opposed to those who plan on occasional syncing to avoid the cost of mobile data packages. If this is not possible, set up a schedule for enumerators to sync at the end of each day at a location with good internet coverage, such as an internet cafe, office, or hotel. Never allow enumerators to go more than one week without syncing.
The app is designed to prioritize syncing data before syncing photos. Data is much lighter and can often sync on bad internet. Photos are bigger and take stronger connections or wifi. There are three sync messages on the app homescreen that turn green for each of three types of sync. The first, and most important for most users, is the data sync. This shows a checkmark symbol if the surveys submitted on the app have all been uploaded from the device to the mWater Portal. The second is the photo sync that transfers photos on each device to mWater servers. These two syncs should be checked at the completion of every work day. The third is for syncing new or updated survey designs from the Portal to the app. It is most important that users check this sync before leaving the office to do their work for the day. All three buttons will be green and have a checkmark symbol on them if the status of each sync is complete.
Sync status is displayed on the Home tab of the mWater app.
The mWater Surveyor only syncs when it is open. This is designed to conserve battery by not constantly running in the background. If you are syncing a device with a lot of photos, especially, change the sleep settings to not sleep until you have finished the sync. If several users are using the same device, each user must be logged in with the app open to sync their data and photos. Occasionally, users may start a survey on one device and finish it on another, such as their laptop. In that case, be careful to check that both devices are showing the syncs as complete.
Troubleshooting Stage 1:
Common ways to resolve any problem in Surveyor, but especially data syncing
Follow these steps if any of the three sync types on the home screen are not green, checking for the homescreen syncs to turn green and reveal a checkmark between each step so that you can see if it was successful:
Check that the device is on a good mobile network of wifi. Verify that other apps can download data, such as receiving an email or refreshing Facebook updates.
Restart the app. On the Android home screen, click the mutliple pages button to list all open apps. Swipe the Surveyor app sideways.
Open the Surveyor app, go to the Settings page (the Settings icon looks like a gear, bottom right), and press Check for Updates. Verify that this has been completed by looking at the very top of the settings page. You should see a message that is green and says latest sync was just now.
Use 'Check for Updates' in the setting tab to get the latest mWater version.
Restart the phone. Let it stay off for 10 seconds before starting again.
Turn your phone off, take out the battery, wait 30 seconds, return the battery and turn the phone on again.
Open the Chrome app on your phone or tablet. Go to surveyor.mwater.co (note, there is no .com). Login to the mWater Surveyor with your regular user name and password. See if all three syncs are showing green there. Logout when you finish this step so as to not cause data location confusion in the future.
Go to Android settings/Apps/mWater Surveyor and check for permissions. Some newer versions of Android require that each app be given permission to share data. Please see this article for more information about changing app permissions.
Check that the date on the Android device is set correctly Note that the app will only show surveys submitted within the last 6 months, and mWater gets this date from the device date settings.
Troubleshooting Stage 2:
Reducing image size
Go to the Advanced tab of Settings and click on Storage Settings.
Under "Maximum Image Size," click on the dropdown.
Choose one of the settings below "Full Resolution."
Keep in mind that smaller images will have lower resolution and there is no way to go back to full resolution once the photo is taken.
Reducing the size of images waiting to upload
If you choose a reduced image size but still have a large number of images that need to be uploaded, you can compress the images already on the phone before uploading them. This will reduce the time and data required to upload your images
Choose a reduced setting for the Maximum Image Size (see previous section).
Click on Compress images awaiting upload (this button appears if you have images that have not been uploaded).
Wait until you see the "Compressing images complete" message. Remember: do not leave this page or let the phone go to sleep while compression is taking place.
Turning off the device's screen sleep function during sync
In order for mWater Surveyor to synchronize data the app must be open and the screen must be on. The app doesn't have to be the active app displayed on the screen in order to sync, it can do this in the background. Many devices have a function which automatically turns off the screen in order to save battery charge after a certain amount of time.
In order to turn off the screen sleep function:
Click Settings
Click Display
Click Sleep
Choose Never or 30 Minutes
Each Android device has a slightly different interface so this process may vary slightly depending on the device.
Note: Turning off the sleep function will consume the battery's charge faster so it's recommended that the user turn this back on after syncing their data.
Troubleshooting Stage 3:
More intensive steps to resolve a data sync problem
Prepare a report of your investigation to email to mWater (info@mwater.co). You need to answer each of these questions in the report. In the case that more than one device is affected, it is very important to be systematic about your investigation. Make a spreadsheet of devices and steps taken to investigate and resolve the issue. Be sure you are on good wifi for this activity. Check the quality of your wifi by using another app on the device, such as downloading a news article. Before sending the report, verify that these steps have not resolved the issue by checking for the three green syncs on the device homescreen.
Make a list of all devices that have unsynced data. Include the following information about each one.
What type of device is this? Phone or tablet model.
Which user is logged in currently?
What is the number of responses shown in the Recently Completed Surveys area of the Surveys tab?
Sync status from home page: do all three syncs show up as ‘complete’ (green)?
If not all three, which ones?
If any of the syncs are not green, when does it say was the last sync?
Go to the Settings tab. Which version number is shown for at the top of page?
Press the ‘Check for Updates’ button. Does it complete an update?
Do other apps like Facebook or web browser work on the device?
Has a ‘Report a problem’ been done from this device? If not, try to do this now. In the text box for your problem report, say: "This is a problem report that is part of the sync investigation by [Organization name].
Once the mWater team has received your report, we will follow-up in email and skype to help resolve the data sync problem.
