We’ve been using SMART Connect and recently recalled the phones to review them. We found 4 had patrol data that were stuck on board. The data appeared to have uploaded because the Export Data button was greyed out. But in the patrol package Settings the option to Recover Data was available. Using this option created a folder of patrol data in the usual Android file location that we could access by cable.
Under what circumstances will data appear to have been exported (which I imagined meant “uploaded”!) but not actually depart from the phone? Is this network related? I thought the data would be uploaded whenever the phone was in network coverage. Is there some point after which it decides to not try uploading and just park the data somewhere until the user checks the Recover option?
Where are the data stored when they are in this state of limbo - i.e. not uploaded, and not in the usual Android file location? I guess I don’t actually need to know this, but slightly baffled that export appeared to have happened but the data didn’t go either to the usual folder on board, or to the cloud.
If a phone has data stuck on board like this, does it prevent subsequent patrols on that phone from being uploaded when the Export Data button is pressed, even if network coverage is good?
If this is network related then we need a strong protocol not to press Export Data until the user knows they have solid network coverage to complete the whole upload? Or can bits of the patrol be uploaded and it can cope with a break in network midway?
Many thanks
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
I believe this is network related, but I think it is related to when the upload is happening and the connection is very poor. This is why the recovery option was included. To my knowledge there’s no period of time dictating when to store the data locally, no.
The data is stored in a recovery directory (not the normal internal storage as the online packages are not configured to put data here) but we’ll have to check with the developer as I’m not entirely sure.
Stuck data should not interfere with subsequent uploads. If you’re getting a backlog of them we should look into it.
I don’t believe we have any guidance on the level of connectivity needed. Usually the patrol is exported in a number of small data packages so it’s entirely likely that some of the data is sent to the server, whereas the rest is not uploaded (this may result in some processing errors, have you noticed this at all?).
Thanks,
Alex
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Thanks for the explanation Alex. Certainly have had processing errors! Lots in fact. And assumed it was this sort of issue.
J
Hi Jeremy,
The Export button is disabled if all the data has been exported or uploaded to the server. Whether there are processing errors is a separate issue.
The Recover Data option is available if there is data that has not been cleared. We clear the prior patrol when starting a new patrol. This option is a fail-safe in case something happened to the server. If the server is healthy, then you should not need it. Some of this depends on the options you have configured, so if you would like to share a bug report from one of these devices, I will take a look.
Cheers,
-Justin