Bulk update for geoprivacy?

#1

Hello everyone,

Any ideas how can existing observations be bulk updated for geoprivacy.
I have tried to use Butch Edit but it appears too slow and even does not work for 50 obs.

I want to revisit my 4k+ observations.

Regards,
Ani

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#2

Which error message did you get? Have you checked to see if the changes went through? I’ve noticed in the few times I’ve bulk edited observations that the changes actually did go through despite getting an error message.

You might also try this method: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/unable-to-batch-edit-over-50-pages/5530/2?u=bouteloua

(That Batch Edit tool is pretty old, so there are definitely some issues with it.)

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#3

@scoops it is my experience that anything more than about 50 will produce an error message, but that the work is actually done. That being said, there is no other too on the site to bulk change data, so that is your only option, which still means doing it 20+ times to account for the 4000+ records.

The only other option is to email the site directly at help@inaturalist.org and ask if they can do it directly for you (no promises on their willingness to do so).

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#4

@bouteloua basically in the link I see different issue, when not the page is with 50 obsrvation , but the pages are more than 50.
Maybe I will face that issue too if I go with @cmcheatle suggestion: updateing 50 by 50.
BTW those will be not 20+ but 80+ :(
I will give it another try and post the exact error here.

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#5

Just to be clear, in my experience if you do 200 (mine were updating something other than geoprivacy, but still a bulk update), it will successfully make the changes, but at the end result in an error message. I think the error is due to timing out trying to refresh the page, not anything related to the updates.

I can’t promise that it will work for geoprovacy changes, but that is my experience.

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#6

yeah, i agree with @cmcheatle that if you are trying to [un]obscure thousands of observations it may at least be worth a try to email help@inaturalist.org. It’s really hard to edit things on that scale due to the issues you all mentioned, and they may be able to do it a lot quicker.

#7

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the inputs.
I went through another try with 200 in a page.
As @cmcheatle noted it works, but kind of…
Some times it will update all , but usually not all in the page (but there is a progress at least for >50% with my experience).
In both cases it ends up with an error “504; gateway timed out” (or some sich).

Fortunatelly there is an option for geoprivacy in the filters, so I can filter out the “done” before next iteration.

So having in average ~ 150 observations updated per iteration. I will pass the routine of 25-30 pages and come up with the job.
Thansk to all again.