Briefcase crash during pull from Aggregate server

1. What is the problem? Be very detailed.
We conduct population health research in the Galapagos islands of Ecuador. We have successfully been using ODK Collect on Android tablets, finalizing/sending survey instances to our server once the tablets are on wifi, and pulling survey instances from the Aggregate server using ODK Briefcase on desktop computers at the laboratory. Recently, the pull from Aggregate server crashes (ODK Briefcase on desktop crashes during pull). We successfully link to aggregate server but during pull, ~3-5 surveys will successfully pull before Briefcase crashes.

2. What app or server are you using and on what device and operating system? Include version numbers.
ODK Briefcase 1.11 (or 1.11.2 I will double check Desktop shortly). I'm not an IT person but our aggregate server was set up by the university and again has been successfully working well prior. Desktops are PCs. Tablets are androids.

3. What you have you tried to fix the problem?
After Briefcase crashes, we have re-opened it, re-entered our server credentials, and tried the pull process again. It crashes after eking out a few more instances. This is highly time consuming and not sustainable but if we keep doing this, eventually all instances are pulled. We have also successfully plugged in each tablet, dragged the collect directory to the PC, and connected to the Collect directory in Briefcase and initiated the pull. This works successfully for each tablet. It is also not sustainable as multiple tablets + multiple pulls + multiple persons working with non-overlapping data sets corresponding to the same survey form is a recipe for lost/muddled data.

4. What steps can we take to reproduce the problem?
We cannot unfortunately send any data files due to privacy agreements. We do have the briefcase log if this is helpful. Not sure about reproducing the problem since, once again, this process was working seamlessly until very recently and there have been no firmware or software changes on our end.

5. Anything else we should know or have? If you have a test form or screenshots or logs, attach below.

Log attached in .doc formbriefcaselog_KN.docx (158.6 KB) . Also, we cannot download new Briefcase versions because satellite internet in Galapagos is quite slow and virtually impossible to do substantive data downloads or uploads. Thanks in advance for any insight!

Hi @knicholas! It sounds like you have a really cool project. When you get a chance, please introduce yourself here. I'd also encourage you to add a real picture as your avatar because it helps build community.

The only problems I can see in your logs are timeouts from connecting to the server. That shouldn't cause a crash though. Maybe your computer is running out of RAM? Try a reboot or another computer to see if that works better.

If you can, try the latest version of Briefcase (currently v1.15) and see if that works better. It's 9 MB but I'm hoping that's doable on your connection.

Thanks @yanokwa! I'll be sure to introduce myself on that thread.

I've tried several desktop computers here in the GIS lab to no avail, same result. Would there be something server-wise that might cause this? The tablets are passing instances to the server perfectly so I'm not sure if it's the server but it seems to be the last thing.

I will also try the latest Briefcase and see if that works.

Thanks again.

@yanokwa update, Briefcase 1.15 did not fix this issue. This would seem to strengthen argument that server is giving trouble, yes?

It's weird that a problem with the server would cause a crash with Briefcase. Can you attach the Briefcase log? Also, can you ask the person who set up the server to see if the logs have any errors that would provide hints.

The log is attached in the bottom of the original posting. Strange indeed, can't seem to pinpoint the issue.

@knicholas I wanted to see a new log from Briefcase 1.15, not the old log from Briefcase 1.11.