Offline submissions no longer automatically sent once connected to Wifi

Hi,

As background info: We have very “stripped down” form settings for ursers due to security reasons (sensitive data): Users (data collectors) cannot see the completed forms once sent, or save them as drafts. So from the user’s perspective, they collect and finalize a form at once, and off it goes into the abyss of cyberspace. Of course if they are connected to Wi-fi, they will get the notification that the sending was successful or failed. But if they are collecting offline, the forms will remain “pending” until Wifi connection is established.

Now a lot of our data collection is done offline. Before, we had no issue with Kobo sending the data automatically once it was connected to Wifi. However, recently, it no longer does it automatically: Users have to open the app once connected to Wifi and send one more form while connected to Wifi to give Kobo a “nudge” and then all the forms collected offline show-up on the server at once. This is obviously making it a bit burdensome, and these kind of changing practices are frustrating to communicate to a large number of users.

This has unfortunately already caused us to lose multiple datasets (forms were “pending” too long without Wifi connection and receiving a “nudge”, I guess???).

We don’t know what happened, as we did not change any setting. Now we’re considering to change the setting to allow Kobo to use both Wi-fi and mobile network, but we don’t know how much mobile data sending the forms requires (so it is hard to estimate if it is worth it). Secondly we have also run into the issue that if the Wifi connection is weak, sending the form fails, and then the filled-in form is gone forever (?).

So to summarize, I have a few questions/options I need advice on:

a) Why is Kobo no longer automatically sending the forms once the phone is connected to Wifi? Why does it require the user to send another form with the app to give “nudge” to the forms collected offline. Is there something that can be done about this?

b) Would allowing mobile network use mean that we’d have staff constantly running out of data on their phones? Any estimate on how heavily it uses mobile data?

c) We have considered changing the contents of the forms so that the data would be in a less sensitive form (excluding names or other characteristics that could expose someone’s identity from the forms) which would make it possible for us to allow users to save completed forms on the app, and thus minimize the risk of losing data due to a bad wifi connection. I am starting to think that for the Wifi only -option, allowing users to see the saved sent forms, or saving drafts and sending the forms only once connected to Wifi, would be the better option. Am I correct to assume this is the only or better option?

Thanks!

Welcome to the community, @leabi_kobo! Could you let us know which medium have you been using to collect your data? I mean have you been using the Collect Android App or are you using Enketo?

The Collect Android App!

@Kal_Lam Hi! Any update regarding this?