# Allow projects to add observation fields offline **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Requests\ **Tags:** under-review\ **Created:** [June 23, 2023, 11:35pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801 "2023-06-23T23:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tonyrebelo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tonyrebelo/32/317_2.png) [@tonyrebelo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tonyrebelo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 11:35pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/1 "2023-06-23T23:35:38Z")
**Platform(s)**, Android **Description of need** : Traditional Projects do not allow data entry in observation fields offline - this is needed. **Feature request details** : Currently, one cannot add a project to an observation offline on the Android (one can on the iPhone). However, fieldwork is often in areas without signal - at least this is true over much of Africa. This means that data for projects cannot be captured on iNaturalist, but has to be noted elsewhere and then uploaded later when one has a signal. This is impractical for case where say aliens are being documented (including their abundance) or red list species are being monitored and population numbers and threats are required for each observation, over large areas away from good phone reception. Is it possible to get this upgraded? It is sorely needed. ---
**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/2 "2023-06-23T23:36:07Z")
> [@tonyrebelo](#): > > Is it possible to get this upgraded? Not in the current apps. In the future? Potentially but I can’t say for sure. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/3 "2023-06-23T23:43:37Z")
seems complicated. you would need some sort of mechanism to effectively download everything you would need for observation field input. if all your observation fields were just text input fields, that might not be so bad, but some observation fields are taxon-based. so you would need to download an entire taxonomy in those cases. i’m not developing the app, of course, but it just seems like too much complexity for a limited use case. in the meantime, you could just record everything in the observation nates and then translate those to observation fields later, right? ---
**Author:** ![tonyrebelo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tonyrebelo/32/317_2.png) [@tonyrebelo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tonyrebelo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:24am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/4 "2023-06-26T09:24:09Z")
No: recording in notes wont help. That will be OK for people who are experienced with the relative projects but wont work with beginners and causal contributors. It works on iPhone - so why not Android. I did not know that one could use species for observation fields: can you point me where and how that is done. For instance I could do this on iPhone for Western Leopard Toad. [[https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/wlt-monitoring](https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/wlt-monitoring)] The issue here is that people are collecting data at night, in streets, in rain, often in heavy traffic: dangerous conditions: we want them to photo, add sex/age (male, female, juvenile, amplexis pair, unknown), add state (Dead, Live, Injured) , direction moving (to or from breeding ponds, unknown), female state (with eggs, without eggs, unknown) - and it needs to be done in seconds. The iPhone works well: just make sure projects are showing before one switches to airplane mode, and one can use it in the field (IDs are not done - too slow and dangerous, and it slows down the app). The Android does not allow this at all. If the iPhone can do it, why not Android? ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/5 "2023-06-26T13:51:36Z")
> [@tonyrebelo](#): > > I did not know that one could use species for observation fields: can you point me where and how that is done. there are plenty of [observation fields](https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields) set up with the taxon data type. when you set up your observation field, just set it up with the taxon datatype. here’s an [example](https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields/9273) of that: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/e/3/e3a0b2fe8adbe247fbcdaa02914980ecb814e00f.png) > [@tonyrebelo](#): > > The iPhone works well: just make sure projects are showing before one switches to airplane mode, and one can use it in the field (IDs are not done - too slow and dangerous, and it slows down the app). > The Android does not allow this at all. If the iPhone can do it, why not Android? as far as i can tell, if you start a new observation on the Android app and click the button to attach it to a project (without even necessarily attaching it to a project), then even if you go offline, as long as you don’t close the app, you can still finish off the observation and / or start new observations where you can attach projects and their observation fields. one of the big problems as described earlier is that taxon-based observation fields can’t be populated properly. because you can’t look up taxa offline, you end up with taxon\_id=0, which is is an invalid value. ---
**Author:** ![tonyrebelo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tonyrebelo/32/317_2.png) [@tonyrebelo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tonyrebelo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 8:06pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/6 "2023-07-10T20:06:17Z")
Thanks: was not aware of that option. Much appreciated. I ---
**Author:** ![tonyrebelo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tonyrebelo/32/317_2.png) [@tonyrebelo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tonyrebelo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/7 "2023-07-10T20:44:03Z")
> [@pisum](#): > > new observation on the Android app and click the button to attach it to a project … then even if you go offline, as long as you don’t close the app, you can still finish off the observation and / or start new… Thanks that should work, as far as I could test. Except I have gone over some limit: with almost 600 projects admin, and about 1300 projects joined, the projects I want to use (Habitats & WLT Monitoring) does not make the list on the android app (which stops somewhere in the letter “C”, but inexplicably includes (separately) projects that are collection/umbrella and therefore that I cannot add). I did not have that problem on the iPhone. It just means that I cannot demonstrate this to other people on courses and talks. I will have to get someone else to demonstrate it, or use their account/phone to do it. ta T ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/8 "2023-07-10T21:54:52Z")
> [@tonyrebelo](#): > > the projects I want to use (Habitats & WLT Monitoring) does not make the list on the android app (which stops somewhere in the letter “C” there is a search box at the top of the list that should allow you to filter for projects. but i don’t have as many projects as you do to test to see if that’s actually filtering from all your projects or only from the projects that already show up in the list (in your case, up to the letter “C”). ---
**Author:** ![mreith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/mreith/32/1650_2.png) [@mreith](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/mreith)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-projects-to-add-observation-fields-offline/42801/9 "2024-07-26T15:13:22Z")
Having basically the same feature request here and want to add: The taxon based observation fields are NOT essential / should be excluded. I don’t think taxon based observstion fields are usefull for fieldwork anyway, as the search process for taxon based fields in the app usually takes much to long (at least when online, with typical local / non-starlink internet connection) All i would request is a switch that allows to keep a choosen project and its observation fields (not taxon based) in the cache of the app, so that the app can be used reliably for data entry in the field (Without having to keep an observation open, or other weird tricks). I have set up a project to help a botanical garden with data collection for new aquisitions (plants/seeds). So you say we need an iphone for it to work right now @tonyrebelo ? ![Screenshot_20240726-103626_iNaturalist](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/c/6/c6c871f28a81a0a432bfe3940a80573e14caa82a.jpeg)