• About
• How to find out of there's been a delay
• Why is this form stuck the outbox?
• App in Background
• No Network Connection

About

Normally, when your field users finish collecting data in the mobile app and hit Send, the submission arrives in the web portal within moments. However, you may notice that there is an occasional delay. This article will discuss reasons why there can be a delay between a user completing a submission and the submitted form reaching the web portal.

How to find out if there's been a delay

Time and date stamps are collected whenever a form submission moves through the next step in processing. These timestamps can be used to track when your field user hit Send and when the web portal received the form. This is where you'll notice the rare delay between sending the form from the mobile device and receiving it in the web portal.

The Sent on Device time and the Date Received on Server times can be seen in the Data tab in the web portal. Sent on Device means the time that the mobile user hits Send.  Date Received on Server means the time that the form submission reaches the web portal and begins processing.

For more information on how to view form submissions in the web portal, please read: View Form Submissions in the Web Portal.

Why did this form take so long to get to the web portal?

If a form that your field user has filled out and sent hasn't arrived in the web portal yet, it's because it's in the mobile user's Outbox or Sent tab. There are two main reasons that this happens:

The Mobile App is Minimized

When a user completes a form and selects Send, the app tries to reconcile itself with the server. This means that it tries to submit the form and get it into the Processing state. If the user selects Send and then switches to another app before the reconcile happens, the reconcile will fail and the filled form will stay in the Outbox until a connection is available and the user triggers a reconcile. 

This can cause a delay between completing the form and it showing up in the web portal. If your field users have continued trouble with this, please direct them to: A form is "stuck" in my Outbox. What do I do?

Things that can cause the app to be minimized or put into the background:

• hitting the power button on your device
• tapping the home button
• launching another app
• checking your email or instant messages

No Network Connection

When your users are working offline -- i.e. they have no wireless connection of any kind to transfer data -- then they may hit Send and the form will be queued to be sent when they next have a data connection. This can also cause a delay between form completion and receipt on the server.