this may already be answered in some FaQ or thread I can’t find but there’s a lot of observations but I’ve been going through the unknowns and have found quite a few completely empty observations like this and want to know the appropriate course of action.
I don’t think these are breaking any rules, so I don’t think they should be flagged. Some of these might be placeholder obs to save a location and time, with a picture/ID to come later (some people do something like this when they have a poor connection in the field, or just can’t/don’t want to transfer photos from their camera to their phone).
By default the Explore page only shows verifiable observations so should exclude any without media, did you intentionally set it to include casual observations? If not, you can delete the part of the URL that says “&verifiable=any” from the URL (or check “Verifiable” in the filters menu). If you want to to view all observations (including casual ones) with photos you can add &photos=true to the end of the URL (or alternatively check the box for “Has Photos” under the filters menu). If you want ones with sounds you can add &sounds=true (or alternatively check the box for “Has Sounds” under the filters menu). I don’t know of a way to filter to only those observations with either photos or sounds but it’s possible there’s some URL filter out there that does this.
sometimes accidentally creating a blank obs happens to me when im trying to upload from the app (android) due to the app crashing or me leaving it before i finish making my observation. i usually notice once i open the app again and see the blank obs, and i can either delete it or finish it. if i come across these when im IDing, if the account seems active i will leave a comment “blank obs” just so the OP gets a notification and can fix it. if the account is not active, i will just mark “reviewed” so it clears from my ID queue
I either ignore them or leave a comment asking for the rest of the info.
I use a copypasta – for the observer who may be long gone !
And for future identifiers who do ID Casual as I do. If you do want to ID Captive / Cultivated, that is a choice we make. And we can revel in all the broken obs missing media / date / location.
Missing date and location makes your observation Casual, and most identifiers will not see it.
sorry – this text
No picture.
Please sync to upload your photos.
Or if this is an error, then please delete it.
Some people use iNaturalist as a journal of what they’ve seen where and when. If they didn’t get a photo of the organism, they may still post their observation without a photo. Such an observation is useful for no one but them, but it is useful to them. Just ignore it or mark “reviewed” so you won’t see it again. Or if it’s recent and might be a mistake, comment to ask.
This has been happening to me quite often lately, especially since I switched from an Android device to an iPhone.
My usual workflow is to take the photos in the field, create the observation on site, and normally identify it at least to genus level. Later, when I’m back home and have more time, I go through the observations again, check taxonomic keys, and try to refine the ID to species level.
The problem is that, quite often, the iPhone app does not seem to upload the photo properly. I only realise later, when I check from my computer, that the observation appears blank or without media. Then I have to go back into the app on my phone, refresh/update the observation, and leave the phone with the screen on for a while until it finally syncs.
It is a pretty frustrating situation, but it does seem to happen regularly. I’m not sure whether it’s a bug, a sync issue, or something specific to the iPhone app, but it may explain why some apparently empty observations appear.
I have slightly edited the title to make it clear it is a question.
I did intentionally allow for casual obs since ill occasionally tell the uploader they’ve missed a detail like date or location, only reason I made this thread was because I was surprised how many true blanks there are.