More often than not, I am keying out plants using external references, and manually typing in a genus and species when I make an observation. Mostly I am using iNaturalist in the field in places where there is usually low cell service, but the app is spinning and spinning trying to match my ID to its own list of genus/species. Annoyingly, when my phone is in airplane mode, it jumps right to a match.
The slowdown that iNaturalist is creating on each observation—when I am already confident of the ID—is wasting a lot of my time in the field. Is there a way around this, or to specifically disenshittefy this “feature”? Is there a solution other than airplane mode? I assume iNaturalist doesn’t want to lose the precise location data for these observations.
I would very much appreciate any ideas or insight. Thank you!
A lot of iNat users wait until they get back from the field to upload the day’s photos. That way you can select and crop photos from the comfort of your armchair, and avoid slowing down your hike/survey by trying to upload while viewing the plant.
Is there an aspect to what you’re doing that makes it important to add create the observations while you’re in the field?
Also, the Android app (maybe iPhone, too) allows you to turn off Auto Sync. iNat will still try to do CV matches and look up names over your data connection, but this avoids taking up the bandwidth and battery power needed to upload the full observation data.
Learning this was a life saver. I often work in places with little-to-no reception, so I was taking the photographs and then using a separate GPS app to get accurate location data (the camera app often makes a real mess of it, and I want it as accurate as possible in my job), copy+pasting the coordinates from the GPS app into a notepad app, then uploading everything when I got home via the mobile app, then exporting the notepad file as a .txt file, bluetoothing the .txt file to my desktop, and then manually copy+pasting each coordinate from the .txt file to the observation in my desktop browser. Truly a gargantuan task, especially when one has 120+ observations.
It is far superior to be able to create the observation in the field and obtain the GPS coordinates via the app, and then once I’m home sort out ID and upload. Big time saver.
android has the option for “Location Accuracy”, which in my view is misleading and possibly false advertising. It gets a faster location based on WiFi and phone signals, so if you are in a building it might be ok. If you are out in the field, like I do, you might have a weak signal to one tower and no WiFi nearby and I have had the location out by more than 10km (yes, 10,000m). The trick is to turn off the so-called “Location Accuracy” and rely on just the satellite navigation system. [An annoyance is that some apps like google maps regularly bug you to turn that feature on again.]
I use a tracking app that allows me to save a gpx trail (thus ensuring the satellites are regularly checked) - I think my app also does some error corrections when it gets a bad reading (it asks for the type of journey I am making). I forgot to turn the “Location Accuracy” off on my new phone the past few days but luckily had still had the track so I could reposition the location in the photo meta data.
I just keep my phone in my pocket most of the time and this causes issues when satellite signals aren’t great (such as dense tree coverage) - if really accurate positioning is important you probably need your phone on top of your head - not sure if hat phone pockets exist. :) [I have seen tree inspectors in a forest walk around with backpacks and what appears to be a GPS received poking up on a stalk.]
I didn’t quite get what you meant by this part. Your phone’s GPS receiver doesn’t transmit anything; it’s just a passive receiver (like a basic TV or radio). So it shouldn’t be getting disabled in Airplane Mode.
I think the OP was saying the taxa names come up instantly when disconnected, so presumably cached somewhere.
I no longer use the app in the field as it is too slow (also it used to always crash after a while) - it’s just easier for me to take a photo or two and move on then dump the pictures onto a web browser at home. That method doesn’t sound as practical for the OP due to the research they are doing in the field to determine an ID.
There are several iNaturalist apps, and you didn’t share which one you’re using. They can differ greatly Looking at your obsevations, you’re using the new iPhone app.
Yes, it knows that it can’t contact the server to use the online model so it uses the slightly simplified onboard model in the app.
Personally I like just taking photos in the field and importing them into the app later when I’m home, as others have said they like to do. The batch import functionality works well for this.
Another option would be to turn on advanced mode and choose “Edit observation” for the “After capturing or importing photos, show:” section. The app won’t try to add an ID at all. You’ll then have the option to using AI to add an ID or search directly for a taxon.
The new app does not have auto sync at all. In standard mode you can only save a new observation and must manually to upload it or a batch of observations later. In advanced mode you always have the option to save the observation for upload later or upload it now.
Interesting! Thank you very much for this info. I knew it was the attempt to geo-locate by cell-towers that was screwing things up, as I often get my location recorded as being in the middle of the harbour, in a direct line from my actual location to the local cell-tower….
I’ll try using my camera app with location accuracy turned off and see if it’s improved!