Counties cannot be added to Project or selected in Identify

Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can.

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Website

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About): n/a

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Crome

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: n/a

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.): Certain counties are not showing up when you search for them to add them to a project. There has already been a place created for them

Step 1: I was looking at adding all of the counties in the general area of East Texas to a new project. Upon searching for them, all showed up say for Franklin Co, TX. (see photo 2)

Step 2: I looked to see if a place has been created for the location and it already exists (see photo 1). It has also been added to projects.

Step 3:

Welcome to the forum! I’m able to find it for a traditional project but it looks like you’re using a collection project. Did you try searching for “Franklin County, US, TX”? It looks like there’s lots of Franklin Counties and it might not be visible in that search.

Yes, I did, and nothing showed up. The options listed are all that are available. I also looked for “Franklin County, TX, US” and nothing showed up. Also sorry for not clarifying that!

How about now? I edited its actual name (“Franklin”), not its Display Name. It’s working for me:

2 Likes

That fixed it. Thanks!

We need to figure out a way to either improve the search functionality here (it’s not the first time it’s happened) or use a script to change US county place names (not the display name) and add the “US, [state]” to them.

3 Likes

I have created a project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/khs-2022-fall-field-trip).
Wanted it to be for a specific county in Kansas (Montgomery), but it was not available in the dropdown list. Have created many county-specific projects in the past.

Thanks, Travis

Platform Website

Browser, Chrome

1 Like

yup. i can’t figure out a set of terms that effectively returns that particular county to the selection list. this is the closest i got:

…

without iNat staff intervention, the only other way i can think of to add the county would be via an API request. let me know if you’re interested in going down that route and need help with that.

(we did something similar to work around a different problem: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-project-breaks-entirely-for-project-with-undefined-user/30070/13 .)

Welcome to the forum!
I merged your report with this existing report. Sorry the issue hasn’t been fixed!

It should now be available if you type in Montgomery County, US, KS. I’ll take a look into the broader issue as well this week.

3 Likes

Thank you all for your quick support and this wonderful tool. The project has been updated.

  • Travis
1 Like

Hi! I’m having a similar issue here. I’ve managed to add every county in the NC Coastal Plain to my project except for Washington County, which I can see in iNaturalist here: Washington County, US, NC · iNaturalist

However, when I type it in, no option for North Carolina comes up. This doesn’t change if I type Washington County, NC, US or Washington County, US, NC
washington county

Thank you for taking the time to adjust these little bugs @tiwane

OK, how about now?

1 Like

Fixed!!! :partying_face: Thank youu :smile:

2 Likes

Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can.

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): website

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About):

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Firefox

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?place_id=2579

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 identify observations I often go through them systematically by county. While identifying observations from Colorado I found myself unable to select Washington Co. in the Identify menu. There are many Washington Counties in the U.S. but the one from Colorado does not show up among the options, and I can’t input it manually. It can’t be accessed through More filters, either. The only way I can bring it up is by manually inserting the place code (which is 2579) into the URL. There is no problem accessing this county in Explore: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=2579. I can simply type the name and it will eventually show up in the choices. Any idea what causes this? Anyone else has had a problem accessing a particular place in Identify?

I remember running into the same issue about a year ago. So it’s not a temporary problem.

1 Like

I can reproduce on Safari on Mac. There seem to be many differences between the Place list in Identify and the Location list in Explore.

Possibly something staff could help with? Like this one?
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/counties-cannot-be-added-to-project/28594

Drop down shows maximum of 10, usually you can type it in, but not in this case.
Try contacting help@inaturalist.org

There is inconsistency how county names are displayed. They show up either as:
[county name], US, [state] or as [county name], [state], US. The screen shot above shows all the Washington counties that follow the first style. But there are at least three that follow the second style (namely PA, ME, MD):


That’s an odd fact but I don’t believe it creates this problem. Washington Co., CO, follows the first style when I edit the URL. But when I type “Washington Co., US, CO” in the Place box the selection goes blank. This is obviously a bug.

2 Likes

I second this as it can be frustrating sometimes because the identify location list is different than the normal explore locations.