Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):
Step 1: I post an observation and accidentally ID it incorrectly
Step 2: Someone correctly IDs my observation and I change my ID to match
Step 3: 1-5 days later, the app automatically adds a new (incorrect) ID by me, usually the original incorrect ID i made. Or sometimes it will add a more broad ID, like taking it from species to order. It seems to be random, and doesn’t happen on all of my observations. Sometimes it happens multiple times on the same observation. Even if the community comes to a consensus on an ID, it will seem like I disagree because it keeps adding incorrect IDs made by me.
Welcome to the forum! It almost sounds like you might be agreeing with your previous IDs somehow. I know that is possible on desktop but I can’t do it on Android.
Also, please do not agree with someone just because they disagree with you. It is better to withdraw your original ID instead. That might help avoid this problem.
Even if the user is using the app in an unintended way, that is still a serious bug that should be fixed. Lots of bugs are found when users use an app in a way the developers did not intend and it is their job to fix the bug rather than blame the user.
If this is a bug, it would be important to fix. But I also have Android and have never had this issue. I have 1.25.14 so updating may fix things. Then again, there are lots of “bugs” reported that do not turn out to be bugs so it is important to check our bases.
This is the observation, correct? And you’ve only ever interacted with it via the Android app?
The next time you notice this can you please email log files from the app to help@inaturalist.org? Please pick the date where you first added your agreeing ID. And we only save five days of log files, so you should have added that ID no more than 5 days piror.
It might be a syncing issue. I’ve run into something a bit similar by changing my ID on the website, but then I added a new image to an observation on my phone without syncing my observations first. So what it did was upload both the new image, and re-uploaded my initial ID, overwriting the more recent one. Not sure if this helps but both cases are similar in that the app re-uploads the initial ID because it was not synced properly.
Hello. I have experience in taxonomy. Sometimes I start with a best guess until I have time to sit down and figure out the correct ID. I am not just copying other people’s IDs. I was told to do this by another inaturalist user. Is this an incorrect way to use the app?
I think @thomaseverest misunderstood your statements. Blind agreement with any ID that gets added is a major problem, especially from new users, so it’s easy to assume you may have been doing it as well. If you aren’t, then there’s no problem. Making a best guess is also acceptable, although it can be better to add a coarser ID depending on the taxon.
