Hi everyone,
We’ve identified a bug affecting data collection on iOS devices. Users attempting to submit forms that were previously saved as drafts are encountering a 500 error. In some cases, users are also being repeatedly prompted to log in before submitting. Unfortunately, logging in does not resolve the issue, and the data remains unsent.
This behavior is caused by a memory management process specific to iOS, and our team is actively working on a high-priority fix.
As a temporary workaround, please use the manual upload method described in the following support article for any unsent data:
We have recently started experiencing a serious issue with one of our Enketo web forms.
The form is configured to allow anonymous submissions (the “Allow submissions to this form without a username and password” option is enabled), but users are now getting a message saying they need to authenticate before submitting the form.
In addition, some users receive the following error:
Failed to execute ‘transaction’ on ‘IDBDatabase’: The database connection is closing.
When this happens, all the entered data is often lost, and beneficiaries have to complete the registration again.
We’ve already tried:
creating a clone of the form (the cloned form has exactly the same issue);
clearing the browser cache, which temporarily fixes the problem, but only for a short time.
We’ve also noticed that this happens mostly on iPhones (Safari).
Has anyone experienced something similar recently? Is this a known Enketo/Safari issue or something related to IndexedDB? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as this is becoming a major problem during data collection.
We’ve identified an issue with Enketo running on the latest patch releases of iOS 26.x, and are working urgently on a fix.
AFAIK you will only see this issue on iOS. But because all browsers on iOS are required to use Apple’s WebKit underneath, the specific browser - be it Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc - probably wont matter.
This looks like a Safari/IndexedDB issue rather than the form itself. Test the same form in another browser and check if any recent Enketo or server updates changed authentication behavior. If it’s mostly affecting iPhones, sharing the Enketo version and iOS version may help narrow it down.
Good morning, some of our iPhone users (~20 of 40) on our volunteer team are having issues submitting forms they have filled out. All forms are set to not require login. The message says data cannot be submitted without login and asks if you want to login now or later. Either response doesn’t work. To try to fix it, we deleted the forms off the phones, restarted phone, added form link again, restarted phone. However, the error still appears. We have photos in our questions, but not always. The error appears whether there are photos or not. This issue only started appearing around 10 July 2026 - we have been using the same forms with no issues since 1 January 2026. Any advice welcome on how to fix this as we are losing data daily now. Thank you!
It’s worth reviewing the project settings you’ve configured. Please make sure the option “Allow submissions to this form without a username and password” is enabled, as described in the documentation:
If that setting is already correct. Try opening the exact same form link in a fresh private/incognito tab on one of the affected phones to rule out local caching issues.
Finally, if you want to avoid losing any data, you can try manually uploading the submissions using this feature:
Hi. I’m also in a similar situation. I’ve received some reports over the last few days that users cannot submit data because they are required to login. Most people are able to submit without any problems, but I wouldn’t know about drop-offs for those who don’t reach out.
I confirm all our settings are for sharing, without needing logins (project settings, toggled no name for username or password). It’s been frustrating for people, but I don’t know how to support them. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!
Thanks for chiming in for this problem - that is exactly what is happening to just a few members of our volunteer team. Someone suggested it might be a local caching problem, but I’d love a step by step on how to deal with that (I’m a Kobo app user so not familiar with iPhone settings). Thank you!
An update. Looks like it is partially a local caching problem. However, when the user clears their cache, deletes the form, restarts their phone, reloads the form, it works ONCE. Then the browser directs them to login (not required), and so we are back in the loop. It is not feasible to do this for every form, we submit dozens of forms a day.
I’m experiencing the same issue on iPhone using Kobo web forms for offline field data collection.
Anonymous submissions are enabled (“Allow submissions without a username and password” is turned on).
The form works offline and allows data entry, but when I regain internet access and try to submit, I get a “login required” message. After entering my Kobo credentials, it just loops back to the same login prompt and never uploads the submission.
I’ve tested in both Safari and DuckDuckGo with the same result. The form submits normally from a desktop computer.
I was able to export the stranded submissions as ZIP files, and the ZIP contains submission.xml files and photo attachments, so the data isn’t lost.
Is anyone else seeing this on iOS with offline web forms? Has Kobo identified a fix or workaround? I’m collecting data in remote areas with no cell service, so reliable offline submission is critical. Thanks!!!
While our team continues troubleshooting this issue, one of our community members @agnieszkatracz has shared a workaround that seems to resolve the problem.
Thank you for continuing to work on this issue. We are still having the problem, even though the caches are cleared, and forms reloaded. Works once then fails. For the incognito tab, it worked once. The manual upload works with the zip file, HOWEVER, we don’t always know when people are having problems, they assume the form went, but it did not. We have 80 volunteers submitting data and it’s not really possible to check in with each of them every day to go back and forth for each volunteer and minimum 10 forms each! None of our forms require login, and I’ve checked the box that they are also public links. I am testing the password change and token change, although we don’t require passwords or login so not sure how/ if that will help. Will update..
I changed my Kobo password, regenerated my API token, cleared my iPhone browser cache, restarted the phone, and opened the form in a private browsing tab.
I then tested multiple offline/online submission cycles using airplane mode and all submissions uploaded successfully. So far, the login loop has not returned.
Since I changed several things at once, I can’t say which step fixed it, but the workaround appears to have resolved the issue for me. I’ll report back if the problem returns. Thanks again!
