Problems when downloading the data collected with ODK

Support
1

Hello,
we are using odk collect mobile app in some developing countries. Overther the internet connection often is an issue. For this reason we have decided to not use ODK aggregate to download the data collected on the ground. We applied a method which doesn't require any internet collection.
1)First of all we copy the ODK folder (which is on the mobile phone) on the computer
2)then we run the ODK Briefcase and we select the option "Custom path to ODK Directory".
3) we select the path of the ODK folder copied at point 1)
4)we pull the data
5) we export the data
Up to now we had never had any type of problem with this procedures, but something happened last week.
Last week we have installed the ODK Collect app on 15 mobile phones (all Androids) of our students and then we ahve collected the data on the field. When we were back to the office many of them couldn't copy the odk folder (of their mobile phones) on their computers. Some of them got an error "unspecified error" and some others could copy the odk folder, but when we opened it the odk folder was not copying the xml file stored in the "instances" folder and so it was not possibile to doqload the data. Do you know which is the problem?
Is there any option we should set/check on before copying the data from the mobile phone to the computer? Why some mobile phones allow to copy everything without any problems and others don't do it?
Please advice...many thanks for your assistance!!
Michela

2

Hi,

You may try Aggregate VM instead.

Thanks,
Imran

3

Hi Imran,
what do you mean?
I shoudl use ODK Aggregate? As I mentioned this option is not always possible, as it requires an internet connection, is it correct? Do you know how can I avoid this problem?
thanks
Michela

4

Hi @Michela_Marinelli!

There are numerous bugs in the "media device" drivers for both Mac and Windows. These bugs can cause files not to appear and therefore not be copied to your computer. If you power off, then power on your device, than, at least for a short period of time, the media device driver seems to behave itself.

If you suspect that not all of your files are being copied, you can use the Android app, OI File Manager, to zip up the odk directory, then copy that one file over.

I found this hint at ODK Briefcase -- no files show up? - #2 by Mitch_S I'll update the docs so it's more visible to users.

Looks like this warning in the docs already! https://docs.opendatakit.org/briefcase-using/#pulling-forms-from-collect