Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Android
App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About): 1.23.4 (493) (Just updated to newest version, problem unaffected by update)
Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/):
Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):
When I record new observations (i.e. I take a few new pictures when out, save them to a few new observations, and then come home to sync them when I am connected to WiFi so I don’t use my mobile data), they are painfully slow to sync, and they do so in a “jerky” or “blocky” fashion. Often, the app just sits there saying “Syncing” and doesn’t show any sign of progress bars uploading anything, nor does it give any explanation of what is going on. When it does show progress bars, instead of showing smooth progress of an upload, it just has the circular progress bar appear, and often it jumps 1/3rd of the way or 1/2 way and then just hangs there, sitting there sometimes for minutes. There is no “smooth” display of progress, even when I have the app open and am looking at it.
I have background data use disabled for all apps, including iNaturalist, because I don’t want to walk out of wireless range and have the app start eating up my data trying to upload these huge pictures. So this may be a factor. But I want to be able for it to sync normally when the app is open. This problem still exists even when I have the app open and am looking at it the whole time.
It’s frustrating to me because I have to sit here with my app open waiting for 5 or 10 minutes and often then it doesn’t even sync. Often, the sync just halts or interrupts but without giving me any sort of error message or indication of what is going on. I sometimes have to repeat the sync process 3 or more times in order to get it completed.
Sometimes, the app makes me re-sync already synced observations, with no clear explanation of why.
And throughout this whole thing there is no actual sign of progress or no communication with me, the user, about what is going on. Instead of a smooth progress bar, the bar just goes from 0 to like 50% and then just sits there. I understand that there are all sorts of constraints you are working with, but from my perspective, I’m not being given the information to help troubleshoot the problem:
- If the sync is hanging because there is a server problem and the solution is for me to try again later, I want to be told that.
- If the sync is actually progressing, I want the progress bar to show that instead of it just sitting still for minutes and then jumping to 100 or jumping to the next observation. I especially want it to display smooth progress updates when I have the app open and active and am looking at the screen.
- If my internet connectivity has temporarily cut out (perhaps from walking too far away from my WiFi transmitter, or some other reason, which I can troubleshoot independently of the iNat app) then I want to be told this.
- I never get any notice of errors or explanations of why a particular record failed to sync, or even that it failed to sync. Instead, it just syncs again or displays as needing sync.
My internet connection is really fast, I’ve tested my upload speed. I’m able to upload these large image files in seconds to places like Google Drive, with no issue, so I suspect it’s not my connection unless I happen to have had intermittent connectivity problems that did not coincide with when I tested uploads to Google Drive.
As a side-note, the progress bar for uploads on this forum work beautifully. If you could get the app to behave like the forum’s upload system, that would be fantastic, as it’s super smooth and I can see the progress progress gradually as the file uploads.