Error: Generic Exception: Error Improperly formatted XML

saludcontigo · June 24, 2021, 4:31pm

Yes, today

Kal_Lam · June 24, 2021, 4:32pm

Which version of the KoBoCollect android app are you using? Could you also let us know the device name and OS it’s using?

saludcontigo · June 24, 2021, 4:35pm

KoBoCollect v 1.30.1
Phone: Xiaomi Mi A2
Android Version 10

Kal_Lam · June 24, 2021, 4:38pm

OK as a cross check, would you mind downloading your xlsform from your server and test them through this online validator to see if there are any syntax issues?

saludcontigo · June 24, 2021, 4:42pm

Don’t show any syntax error. I Upload the form, because don’t have any information important.aUy4NispBxbpn5mAfKt9wp.xml (4.0 KB) aUy4NispBxbpn5mAfKt9wp.xlsx (7.2 KB)

Kal_Lam · June 26, 2021, 5:17am

@saludcontigo, I made a quick check with the xlsform you shared. I slightly modified your xlsform to check. The modified xlsform is as follows:

survey tab of the xlsform:

choices tab of the xlsform:

Reference xlsform:

aUy4NispBxbpn5mAfKt9wp.xlsx (11.1 KB)

So when checking with the xlsform (shared above) I observed that the data when collected with Enketo I was able to submit the data to the server similarly while collecting data through Collect android app I got this error message:

So I again edited the xlsform and then removed the , and button from the expression used under the calculation column and then I could submit the same through the Collect android app too. So, here my preliminary guess is that the calculation column is not supporting the icons you are trying to use.

Maybe @Xiphware should be able to add more to my observations.

saludcontigo · June 26, 2021, 1:53pm

Thanks, I removed the emojis, and the form works good in the android app. And I think that it’s a option you can to fix.
Thanks again

rme_team · October 25, 2021, 2:06am

Hello. thanks for your support and I have the same problem with data submission. It shows an error- Improperly formatted XML. It works for near 1000 submissions but doesn’t work for 12 submissions with the same device. I’ve checked with the online validator and found an error. Please give me advice.

Kal_Lam · October 25, 2021, 5:47am

Welcome to the community, @rme_team! Would you mind sharing with the community a screenshot of the error message you are getting? This should help the community understand your issue pictorially.

rme_team · October 27, 2021, 3:49am

Thanks a lot for your prompt response and support. I’ve checked the answers which are failed to submit .Found out that in one question (free comment box , they entered emoji as answer. So, I’ve removed the emojis and can be submitted. Thanks again.

Kal_Lam · October 27, 2021, 5:15am

Thank you for sharing your solution with the entire community @rme_team! This is very helpful and should benefit the entire community having similar issues.

annika_richter · January 4, 2022, 1:20pm

Hi! We have the same error in the Kobo app and having read this thread I believe it is because emojis were used in a free text box. However, we cannot find a way to edit the forms now in order to remove the emojis. Are they lost or is there a way to retrieve them? Thanks a lot in advance!

Kal_Lam · January 4, 2022, 1:37pm

Welcome to the community, @annika_richter! Do you mean you wish to upload the data from the KoBoCollect android app forcefully to the server?

annika_richter · January 4, 2022, 1:56pm

@Kal_Lam Thank you for the quick reply! Ideally we would just like to edit the forms to remove the emojis and then resubmit them. But they do not appear in the menu “Edit Saved Form” and therefore we don’t know how to access them.

Kal_Lam · January 4, 2022, 3:22pm

Maybe it’s in the XLSForm (questions, options, calculations) which you will need to update at the form level.

annika_richter · January 4, 2022, 3:32pm

But that would mean that we should be unable to make any submissions with this form, right? However, it worked perfectly fine with all other submissions, only the ones with emojis are causing trouble.

Kal_Lam · January 4, 2022, 3:34pm

Yes. Maybe in this case you will need to upload the submissions manually by following the support article Manually Uploading Submissions.

Mightyz · May 8, 2022, 8:54am

Hello Annika… Tell me if you got a solution to this issue am in the same sutuation… Please Admin help me

Kal_Lam · May 12, 2022, 6:41am

Welcome to the community, @Mightyz! So do you also have issues submitting the data to the server? If yes, please check if the project is still there on the server for the data you are planning to submit.

krisknut · May 20, 2022, 9:33pm

I used an emoji in my form so received the Error: Generic Exception: Error: Improperly formatted XML.
However, when I tried to export data from KoboCollect manually via the following instructions:

Connect the device to your computer
Open the device’s internal storage on your computer. … On iOS you will need Android File Transfer from Google to access the device’s files.
On your device open the ‘odk’ folder.

However, there was no ‘odk’ folder on my Android phone.

In sum, I need to edit my form to remove the emoji, but I am unable to edit it. I get an error when I try to submit it from KoboCollect on my Android, and it won’t let me edit the form apparently because an attempt was made to submit it, even though that failed.