Discrepancy in KoboToolbox Data Collection


I have attached two screenshots showing an issue while collecting data through the KoboToolbox form. In the main form, there is no “YES” option available for selection. However, in the collected response sheet, the “YES” option appears as a submitted response, which is incorrect.

I need an explanation or reason for how this is possible.


Here is the response sheet

@subrata_1, a quick question. Did you bulk edit your submissions?

No, no bulk submissions had been done at that time.

Can you please post your XLSForm definition, just to check the exact nature of originating question.


Here the XLSForm details of that question

Can you please post the entire form, including the choices sheet especially (redacting any Personally Identifiable Information as appropriate).

ajJbvRPM2zB8cXDLNN7KQS.xlsx (24.1 KB)

@Xiphware, Here is the entireform (XLSform), including choices sheet

Thanks. I just wanted to confirm that your ft9pn54 choice list for the select question was correct (eg you hadn’t inadvertently put ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for the choice names…). But it looks correct :+1:

I’ve tried to reproduce what you are seeing, submitting from both Enketo and KoboCollect, but in both cases the selected values are coming thru OK and are also correct in the exported data.

In Kobo:

In exported XLS:

[they also appear correctly in a exported XLS (legacy) ]

Could these perhaps be older submissions, and you have subsequently updated your form and perhaps reused the 'ft9pn54 choice name elsewhere? That could possibly confuse the export. [@Kal_Lam ?]

BTW a couple comments on your form worth noting, although these probably dont affect the immediate issue:

  • You have a couple survey question names that end with an underscore character ‘_’. I’d recommend not doing this, as they are very likely to be missed when perhaps referencing these question identifiers elsewhere [aside: Is_there_any isn’t really a very descriptive identifier either…].

  • You have multiple (8) different choice lists that are all basically the same Yes/No options. There is no need to do this; if multiple questions have the same options - ie yes/no type questions - they do not need separate choice lists. I’d suggest using your same yn choice list for all of them. It will simplify your form definition and make it a lot easier to understand.