Troubleshooting
If you are having trouble contacting the server – either to download blank forms or to upload finalized forms – double-check your settings. From the main SurveyCTO Collect menu, open the three-dot menu in the upper-right, then press General Settings. Verify that your server name, username, and password are all correct. If they are, use your device's Internet browser to confirm that your Internet connection is working well.
If your form takes a long time to load, you may need a more powerful device (i.e., a device with a faster CPU and maybe more memory). Bear in mind that Collect will typically take much less time to re-load a form after it has been loaded once. Also, you can always consider splitting a very long form into multiple pieces linked with a unique ID or even a scanned barcode. (See Maximum form length for more on this subject.)
If your device is acting funny, you should first try restarting it to see if that fixes the problem. (Very occasionally, devices just need to be restarted.)
There are two primary reasons why Collect itself might crash:
- An error in the form. If Collect always crashes at the same point in your form, it is likely caused by some kind of error that was not caught when the form was uploaded to the server. The timing of the crash is your best clue as to where you might find the error. If the crash always happens moving forward from a certain question, scrutinize your form's workbook for the last working question (e.g., there may be an error in its constraint expression), for any subsequent questions that may be skipped (e.g., there may be errors in their relevance expressions), and for the next question that may be displayed. See Debugging form errors for additional troubleshooting tips.
- Insufficient memory. If your form is long and Collect crashes while loading the form or intermittently while you are filling it out, you may be bumping up against your device's memory limits. In order to confirm that this is the problem, try testing the form on a more powerful device that has more memory. If this is the problem, you can either upgrade your devices or shorten your form. One way to shorten your form is to split it into multiple pieces linked with a unique ID or even a scanned barcode. See Maximum form length for more.
When you fill out a survey form with Collect, it saves your data as you go along. If you run out of battery or Collect crashes in the middle of a survey, don't worry: you won't lose any data. In the event of an abnormal termination, Collect offers to resume where it left off the next time you select the same form to fill out (or revise); if for any reason Collect does not auto-resume, you can go to the main Collect menu, open the three-dot menu, and select Resume Crashed Form.
If you experience a failure of your device or SD card, see Finding and safeguarding local device data.
Finally, if you have contacted SurveyCTO support and have been asked to submit a crash report: open the three-dot menu from the top-right of the main Collect menu, select Admin Settings, then open the three-dot menu again and select Submit Crash Report. A report will be sent directly to SurveyCTO support staff. (But keep in mind that you will need a working Internet connection to send the crash report.)
