Bulk Editing Phenology

Having uploaded my images etc via the app whilst out walking, I can find no way to bulk edit things such as phenology eg flowering, in either the app or via my PC. Can bulk edits such as this be done? It’s very laborious going into every plant to have to do them separately.

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Annotations can’t be added by bulk, but you can add them fairly quickly using the Identify page. This is what I do after I upload a batch of observations. I’ve bookmarked this URL for my recently-uploaded observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?reviewed=true&quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&user_id=tiwane

Just change the user_id part of the URL to your username and it should work pretty well for you.

(Also, changed “phrenology” to “phenology” in your post. :slightly_smiling_face:)

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Far be it for me to correct a staff member, but there is a better way to do this, which is bulk adding.

You don’t say so but I am assuming you want to do it via the web tool not one of the mobile apps, and this assumes so.

Every annotation is automatically linked to one or more observation fields. When you add the observation field, the annotation is automatically populated. Observation fields can be bulk added

Under the drop down on your user icon in the top right, select edit observations. From there pick the batch edit button and select the records you want to update. When you have them all selected pick the edit selected button.

At the top of the page you go to is an expandable yellow section, expand that and then expand the more fields. Fill in the name of the field and relevant value then hit the apply fields button . Lastly remember the save all button at the bottom to actually save your work.

The only thing you have to know is the name of the observation field(s) that is linked to the relevant annotation.

You can find a few topics that cover this here, or if there is s specific annotation you want to populate, let us know what it is and someone can identify the relevant field for you.

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@cmcheatle I understood that the bulk edit feature that you describe works for Observation Fields but not for the built-in Annotations that come standard. For example, I could not find a way to bulk edit the standard “Plant Phenology” Annotation found directly under the Community Taxon on the right column using the bulk edit but I could bulk edit the different “Plant Phenology” Observation Field found under Tags on the right column. See, the “Plant Phenology” Observation Field I am referring to at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/73031517. I could not edit the “Plant Phenology” Annotation found directly under the Community Taxon in bulk edit. But like @stefandrewe, I would use the bulk edit Annotation if it is possible now or in the future. (Edit: I hope I am wrong and I am just missing something.)

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Feel free to correct me! I rarely use observation fields.

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You just have to find the appropriate observation field and when you update it,the annotation gets populated automatically.
‘’
For example if you use the plant flowering observation field and set to yes, it will automatically set the plant phonology annotation to flowering.

Try it by hand on a single record.

I’m sure there is a full list of all the field to annotation auto links, I just dont know it.

There is no guarantee the names are the same. If there is a ‘plant phenology’ observation field that may not be linked to the ‘plant phenology’ annotation

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for some of the connections it is several fields that it works for. Sex, for example, is linked to at least Sex and Gender fields, and I think includes fields named “male/female” and “M/F?” and so on. Likewise, I can’t remember all the different connections, and I’m not sure there is a list anywhere, but experimentation should quickly reveal what works and what doesn’t.

Thanks for changing the typo …predictive text :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

I can see how to now select, say, yesterday’s observations on one page, and that is useful. But presumably I still need to change each one manually to, say, flowering, and can’t bulk edit them. Or at least that is what I understand from what you are saying.

Is there perhaps a way to bulk add them all to one project, where the requirement is for flowering or other phenology?

“At the top of the page you go to is an expandable yellow section, expand that and then expand the more fields. Fill in the name of the field and relevant value then hit the apply fields button . Lastly remember the save all button at the bottom to actually save your work.” from cmcheatle

You need to open the “Batch operations” section as here:

I just wish this could be done for observations other than my own :)

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What a game-changer. I’ve been doing this manually for months and was about to give up.

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