Project displays an older version of a form in ODK collect

Support
1

Hi everyone,

I am concerned by an odd behavior I have just seen on one of our Android devices.

We are using a form called "MTP - Adults" (version 1.2.19.3 uploaded on 2025/06/03).

On one Android device with ODK Collect v2025.1.5 and Android version 7.1.1, an "update" occured this morning in ODK collect and displayed a former version of the form called "Formulaire Adulte" (version 1.2.6 uploaded on 2025/03/17). It was easy to detect as the name has changed between the two versions + the user reported missing features and displaced questions.

I have forced an update of the project and it keeps displaying the older form. Another form (from the same project) is also affected (displaying version 1.0.5 uploaded on 2025/04/02 instead of current version 1.0.10 uploaded on 2025/04/30). Other forms are not affected, on that device.

I have checked other devices (one with Android version 8.1.0 + one with Android version 10 + one Android version 15), and they do not show that odd behavior: they all have the last versions of all the forms from that project. They all use ODK collect v2025.1.5.

Oddly enough, if I add a new project to the device with the odd behavior, it behaves normally and displays the last versions of all the forms.

Last information you may need: the ODK Central version we use is v2025.2 updated on 2025/6/17

Has this been reported before and is there any explanation to that behavior?

I am concerned as the slight changes from one form to the other lead to different issues:

  • It truely puzzled the user who reported the problem. Questions were not displayed as usual (which is part of the changes between the two versions), some features were missing.
  • It could have led to data loss, if I had not checked and edited it online.

I hope this is clear,
Thanks for your help,
Amélie

2

Been there once, and I would suggest double-checking that you're in the correct project within ODK Collect app.

What happened in my case:
In my case, I had two different projects set up in the ODK Collect app - one for testing/trial purposes (with older versions of the same forms) and another project for actual/real-time data collection (with the updated versions of the same forms). Mistakenly, I had given these both projects the very similar looking names, which made it hard for anyone to tell which was which just by looking at them. I ended up working within the wrong project, kept trying to get the updated version of forms there, nothing worked, and it took me an entire day to realize there wasn't any bug - the forms were just coming from the test project setup (the older versions) as I was in the wrong project.

Just sharing my experience in case it's something similar on your end, though of course, it could be a different issue entirely.

Hope this helps - have a great day!

1 Like
3

Hi,
Thanks for sharing your experience!
That was my first guess but unfortunately, there was only one project set up in the app. I rescan the QR code to force an update, and it stayed as it was, with these two weird outdated forms among updated forms. I could only solve the problem by creating a new project.
Have a great day!