422 error code when uploading observations

Hello,
I keep getting this error messages
On the apple app every time I try to upload a observation, when I go to delete what I was trying to upload the observation is still showing up and I have to go in and delete it a second time before it clears out
I’ve unloaded the app and reloaded it and it still does the same thing
This issue seems to be getting a little more worse as in the past I encountered it here and there
Now it seems to be maybe every 10th observation the 422 error code comes up
Any idea what the issue maybe ???
Below are screen shots of what is going on

image

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Playing with the observation just now
Something odd is happening
If I change the date of the observation
It wants to upload with no 422 error code
That’s crazy

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I have experienced a similar issue; googled the error message and found a conversation about an api issue where the dev was getting a confirmation that the observation was created but received the error when the photo file was sent to be added. The discussion between the dev and the iNat support person centred on whether the observation really had been added - as the failure message implied that the observation could not be located - the inference taken at the time that the observation had not been created.

I have received the error several times over the past few days using the iphone mobile app. Once an observation in the queue has the error, it cannot be synced and every subsequent observation added while the failed observation is in the queue throws the error.

When I get the error, I proceed to delete the observation from the mobile app. I refresh the app and the observation re-appears in the mobile queue without the photo. I can then add the photo back into the mobile app and then sync the observation and everything appears normal.

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i experienced this too, and emailed Alex Shephard, but i didn’t really understand what was going on so sadly i didn’t give a very good bug report. What i did determine was that the app apparently somehow was erroneously telling the website that the observation was taken in the future, so it was throwing errors when it tried to upload. Hopefully with your more detailed notes they can figure this out

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A buddy of mine said the same-thing
he calls it (head space and timing)
in fact it’s been bad going from
Even to odd number days the most
Such as 30h to the 1st
The last time was 20th to the 21st
And so on it sounds crazy
But I have had no issues uploading the observations via the full site
Just the app
I don’t feel crazy anymore Lol…

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Exactly ^^^^^

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I’ve seen this a few times myself, mostly at random. It does typically seem to fix itself after a while (i.e. closing the app, opening it up in an hour or 2, and then trying to re-synch). I hadn’t noticed any patterns as to when it would versus wouldn’t trigger. My only suggestion is making sure you’re using the right timezone in association with your account as apparently I’d somehow gotten switched to Hawai’ian time around then, or was at least noticed to have been that way (and sadly, my account didn’t take me with it!).

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I think this has to do with the fix we’ve attempted that makes it impossible to upload or edit an observation with an observed-on date that is after it’s upload date, and like @jonathan142 says it would be good to change your account’s time zone (which you can do in Account Settings on the website) to reflect your local time zone. I’d be curious to to know if that helps you out here.

Hawaii is kind of a default time zone we set for new users if they don’t set it themselves. We’re looking into use one’s location for that in the future.

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my time zone was set to Quito, but that’s the same as eastern standard time. I went ahead and changed it to eastern standard though i doubt it matters.

So it’s definitely a head space and (timing)
Issue :grinning:
I’ve been in 3 different time zone in the last month I could see that definitely being a issue
In November I’m going to be in Costa Rica
Then Argentina and a island in the pacific
That’s going to be a blast for the timing
Issues Lol…

It probably doesn’t help either
That my iPhone XR is on a 702 area code
We haven’t lived there for 5 years
But my better half doesn’t want to change numbers because all of our family and friends live on the west coast and Arizona

One thing I try to do is change my default time zone when I’m on a trip, but I’m only successful at that like 50% of the time. The mobile apps should use your current time zone when you make observaitons, however.

This won’t affect the app at all.

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my timezone was set to the hawaii default. rather than my actual central time zone

no issue fixing that for the future - perhaps a nice to have would alert the user that there is a problem with a future time setting for the observation - and the existence of the opportunity to set the account default time zone.

not sure why mine was not set up as I had customized other account setting at some point in the past

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Even to odd number days the most
Such as 30h to the 1st
The last time was 20th to the 21st

this may have less to do with even to odd and more to do with crossing midnight or month end; it is easy enough to get snarled up with date comparisons especially with time comparisons and global time zones in the mix.

wishing you happy bug hunting!

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