ODK Collect storage migration

In our mother tongue literacy work flow we use one app to lead the user to install other apps if they wish to be a volunteer contributor of their mother tongue. This process leads them through the links to install ODK and RecForge2. At the same time we write the forms needed for entering their mother tongue or videoing their hand signs (if Deaf) to the ODK/Forms directory.

We have done it this way because we have found that uptake on new volunteers is hampered if it is too complicated to install many different apps. So yes, the www.HisHandsReader.org is depending on writing to the ODK/Forms directory.

With 1.5 Billion students out of school in developing countries and our trying to roll out curriculum and receive new language inputs to support these kid's needs this comes at a very bad time for changing how ODK stores data.

Since 99 percent of the 1.5 Billion children live in places that won't see Android 10+ devices for another 10 years wouldn't it be logical to break step with Google for the best interests of those in the developing world?

If it is not possible to have ODK write to the Downloads directory then shadow host a version of ODK on FDroid that continues to keep data in the same place.

Thanks so much for your help in this matter.
Bob Achgill

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I have not looked at the new builds of ODK in awhile. It used to be the case that we had to use RecForge2 to capture audio inputs from the enumerator. Is that still the case or does ODK now have onboard audio capture through the phone microphone?

If ODK still depends on RecForge2 then will this new development from Google also break the integration between ODK and RecForge2?

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It's great to hear that ODK has been helpful for literacy in this way!

The storage change is mandated by the Play Store so we have no control over the timing. We have tried to give as much advance notice as possible and are glad to see that you now have a couple of months to adapt. The banner to opt into the change has been in ODK Collect for two months. Did you learn about it from the community announcement? Do you follow the releases category and participate in the beta? I'm interested to know what we might do in the future to make sure everyone knows about these kinds of changes as early as possible.

Audio capture still relies on an external application in order to give users control over external microphones or audio quality enhancements they might need. However, we have sometimes heard interest in an embedded recorder. If this is something that would be useful to you, consider writing up a feature description. In the mean time, the integration with RecForge 2 or other applications continues to work.

It sounds like other features could help achieve what you need on install. For example, if all forms were downloaded as soon as a server were configured, that might do what you need. If you’d like more ideas for designing an install process for your volunteers, please write a new support post describing in detail what your scenario is (how do volunteers learn about the software needed? Where are the forms hosted? How is the appropriate language determined?) and how you’re addressing it now (what writes the form definitions to the sdcard?).

Hello hello

We have ODK distributed as an apk within an independent app (and then its hidden from the launcher) so any updates our clients get reach only when we update the apk we distribute (most clients who use the odk through our app have no idea its a completely independent app).

Odd question, if we simply do not update the apk that we distribute, are there any expected issues we should expect past 2020 if the users devices are not running Android 11 (minus the obvious drawbacks of running outdated apps)?

No you shouldn't run into any other inconveniences. The only thing I can think of is that once you decide to update your app in the future and keep the data stored on your devices you will need to perform the migration on that old version because once you install a version that uses only scoped storage that version won't have the migration option because it won't be able to do that either way (due to no access to sd card).

alright. cool, thank you very much.

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Hi,

Understanding the change from the internal side. However how will it effect the participants using ODK collect? What changes do the users need to be informed of? (From what I can understand is user must upload data before the latest update without any losses?)

We the organisation pull the data using briefcase from the android tablets in multiple sites. Some help in regards to this enquiry, would be great.

Thanks.

If users don't need to use external applications that integrate with ODK Collect, it should not change anything for them. We recommend submitting all data before the update but it's not strictly necessary.

We have updated the documentation at https://docs.getodk.org/briefcase-using/#collect-directory to describe this process. In particular, see https://docs.getodk.org/collect-adb/#collect-directory for the location of ODK data after the migration.

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Hi @LN

How launching collect from external app will be affected? https://docs.getodk.org/launch-collect-from-app/

Nothing that is officially documented is affected so if apps only use features from that documentation page, they will continue working without problem. It should also be quick to verify by running the migration on a test device and trying out the integration. What will stop working is attempts to read from or write to the odk folder directly.

Thank you for this info.

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Hi friends, i not very familiar to Odk. But i want to collect data for my study using ODK collect. I have already created my questionnaire. But on the main screen of odk collect i have encountered a message asking me to migrate collect forms to private storage. I dont real know how to go about it and Iam worried about my data loss. Can i get a brief detail about this. Does it mean the form i have created in kobotoolbox is going to lose? Do both sent and unsent collected form going to lose. How can i migrate? What happen if i go for data collection without migrating a form i have created?

Hi @Kingdavid
welcome to the forum! Please introduce yourself here!

the migration should be safe however we advise users to upload already filled forms to make sure that your data is safe. you can also use Briefcase to make a copy of your data. Once you start the migration your data should be just copied to private data folder and you shouldn't lose anything.

Thank you for this information. My issue is, with this new storage, will it still be possible to access forms and manually retrieved data from broken tablets?

Yes you will be able to access your files.
You can do that using file managers that gained approval to work with scoped storage like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.File.Manager.Filemanager&hl=en&gl=US and you can also access files using Android debug bridge.

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Buenas Tardes.

En la última actualización de ODK Collect v2021.2.4 la ruta "/sdcard/Android/data/org.odk.collect.android/files" no se encuentra, estoy usando Android 11. He realizado varias pruebas en móviles distintos pero no puedo encontrar la ruta a la carpeta files.


Hasta el momento la carpeta "data" aparece vacía, les agradezco la ayuda para poder encontrar la solución y hacer copia de respaldo de la carpeta "instance".

Gracias