Hi All- I am using the new app and just made a few dozen observations. They take an agonizingly long time to upload, with many failures and freezes. Am I doing something wrong?
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Are you in the field at a location with strong cell phone coverage? If not, the uploads can take forever or fail. The unfortunate solution in such a setting is to just “Save” the observations and wait until you have a strong cell signal or wifi access to upload.
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I have the same problem for a long time. Good connection, but fails a lot to upload and have to refresh many times. Sometimes the buttons of the app are not responsible, too.
I use iPhone 11 iOS26. But happened just the same on the iOS18.
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It has been very glitchy for me too.
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The other issue I faced in the past year (twice) was apparently a cache problem which was manifested in the delays and freezes you’ve described. Turning my phone off and on and relaunching iNaturalist did not solve this, but deleting and reloading the app did. This is certainly not an ideal solution and it points to some deeper issue than just local storage on my iPhone.
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I haven’t used it much (new iPhone version) but I’ve found that the buttons often don’t work when I do try to use it. This applies to both the buttons to make observations and the buttons to search for observations in the area. Sometimes it works fine. Sometimes it will work if I wait awhile (maybe it is downloading a bunch of data?). Sometimes it doesn’t work at all. I generally just make observations with a separate camera but being able to explore on the map when at a site is a cool feature when it works.
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Interesting remark about the buttons not working. On my iPhone version (on iPhone14), the “activity” buttons frequently don’t work. I have to close (not sign off, just close) and open the app again and then they work. They may just be very picky in the way they’re hit, but I don’t run across this in other apps.
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I still use the old app not just because I like it so much better but also because the new app has been so so so unreliable. I have an iPhone 11 and am operating on ios18.6.2. It also didn’t work for me when I was on ios 16.
The buttons almost never work in the app, and half the time I can’t even scroll. Every now and then I can completely close the app and relaunch it and it will work, but usually it just never works. It also doesn’t matter if I’m at home connected to wifi or if I’m out in the field.
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I have the same issue. Sometimes it takes a few open-and-closings plus a bit of waiting for the buttons to respond at all.
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It happens to me, and what gcwarbler said mirrored my experience. It’s something about the cache not being able to clear. If I completely delete the iNat app, and reinstall, it works fast/good again. But after having gone a few weeks or 1-2 months of uploading, it gets bogged down, eventually to the point where it doesn’t work. Hopefully they fixed this, but the short-term solution is to completely remove the app, and re-install.
(I’m working off the iPhone app)
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I’m the same way; I gave the new inat app a college try and it was so frustrating. Have almost no issues with Classic so I’ll be using that until I’m forced to upgrade!
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Same for me - new app glitching, freezing, intermittent responsiveness and erratic behaviour of buttons. I normally use the classic app, which still works pretty fast on my ageing iPhone
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The issue has been noticeable wherever I’ve been. The difference seems not to be location or signal but the new app. I can’t remember ever having the issue with the old app. It’s cool that the AI identifies the organism even before you’ve taken the picture. But it seems like that feature comes at the cost of upload speed. I wouldn’t be surprised if that combination prompts people simply to aim their camera at a plant or whatever to get the AI ID and not uploading the pic at all.
This is constantly an issue for my partner (@izafarr) and myself on both of our (relatively new) phones. It becomes totally unusable at times. A few things that I have found that help, YMMV:
- Force quit the app - swipe up part way from the bottom on an iPhone until you see the carousel of active apps, scroll through the list (horizontally) until you find the iNat app, then swipe up again on the iNat app until it is deleted from the list. You can then re-launch the app and see if it helps. Sometimes it does.
- If you have the old iNat app, open it and let it refresh your data. Then open the new app (ideally after making sure it is unloaded by following the steps above. This is something that I only recently found by accident and may or may not make a difference for you.
- Delete the app from the phone and reinstall it. This is a real pain as you have to go back to the app store, re-download it, install it, put it where you want it on your home screen, re-login, redo your settings, etc. This generally will work but in my experience it will still become nearly unusable again after a period of time.
The good news is that the app has gotten better over time, but this issue is a constant source of frustration and would surely drive more casual users away (assuming that they also would experience the issue).
Echoing what others have said above, this is not about a poor connection, it happens while on strong wi-fi, strong cellular, poor wi-fi, poor cellular, and everything in between. It seems to me that is a problem with a background task (refreshing data, uploading data, …) running amok.
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I have this issue too. (iphone 16)
It is often frozen to the touch. Sometimes I have to restart the app several times to go anywhere, but I might only get a few taps in before it freezes again.
Uploads only really upload when connected to a strong WiFi signal. The old app would work even on non-wifi cell service, which I truly miss. I basically have to even forget about uploading any observations if I’m working off a hostel’s wifi.
Thanks for all the feedback, folks, this is an issue we’re still investigating. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it’s been difficult to track down because none of us on staff have been able to replicate it. We’re investigating a list of potential causes and going through those.
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If you haven’t yet, try uploading a large number of observations via the website, then open the app in an area with poor internet service and try to make an observation or search for a taxon to explore on the map right after opening the app. That’s the situation where I usually have the issue. Alternately, be hooked into wifi when you open the app but be in an area where it barely works. That may only test for part of the problem but, at least for me, it seems to be related to the app trying to do a bunch of stuff over the internet with a poor connection before it will let me do anything else. When I’ve tested it at home with solid wifi, it seems to work fine. I haven’t done a huge amount of testing though.
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Oh wow I thought it was just me! Yes the new app is constantly freezing. I have to force quit and reopen it several times to be able to check any notifications or projects.
I’m on iPhone 16 pro. As an aside, the Seek app also errors out every time I try to take a picture. I even installed the test app to try to get around that but alas.
It’s super frustrating to have both apps not working.
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I have always used my laptop to load Observations, but since the “upgrade” , have had long, frustrating waits for “Suggestions” to load!!!…then, they are frequently not even creatures on my Continent! NOT and Improvement in my experience!
Are you referring to the iNaturalist web site? This discussion is about the iNaturalist iOS app, not the website.