Sync, upload and photo problems

A photo or a survey that says it’s still “pending” is never lost — it’s saved safely on the device — but the reason it’s stuck varies, and the fix is different for each one. This article is the troubleshooting angle on offline capture; see Working offline and syncing for how it works day to day.

What it is

Every photo is fingerprinted and saved to the device the instant it’s captured, before any attempt to upload it — an upload failure never loses the photo itself. A photo that hasn’t uploaded yet carries a pending-upload flag and, if it was captured fully offline and never even attempted an upload, a local-only reference until connectivity returns. Once an upload does fail, the app classifies why: a device security check blocked it, storage rules rejected it, cloud storage is at capacity, your sign-in has expired, you’re genuinely offline, or a cause it can’t otherwise identify — each gets its own explanation rather than one generic “try again.”

How to do it

1. Check the photo thumbnail’s own badge — a cloud icon means still uploading normally; a warning triangle means a blocked upload with a specific reason available on tap or hover.
2. For “your sign-in has expired,” sign out and back in, then retry.
3. For a device security check or a rules rejection, these are permanent for that attempt — retrying immediately won’t help; closing and reopening the app, or asking a coordinator to record completion from the portal instead, gets you moving again.
4. For genuinely offline or unclassified failures, keep capturing — the app queues these and finishes automatically the moment signal returns, even if you’ve closed the app in the meantime.

How it integrates

This queue feeds directly into the sealing step for both surveys and works-order completions: a finalise or complete action only succeeds once every required photo genuinely has a real uploaded copy, never a local-only placeholder standing in for one. If uploads are still pending when completing a works order specifically, a permanent failure is surfaced immediately rather than queued; a plausibly temporary one (offline, unknown) queues a deferred completion that finishes itself once the last photo lands — see Completing works.

Common problems

• A photo has been “uploading” for hours. Check the badge for a specific blocked reason rather than assuming it’s just slow — a permanent block (security check, rules, quota) won’t resolve by waiting, however long you leave it.
• The app reloaded itself and I lost my place. If this happened right after an update, that’s a one-time safety reload picking up the new version after a stale tab tried to load a file that no longer exists on the server — it only fires once per tab, not repeatedly.
• I’m not sure if my survey actually saved before I lost signal. Anything captured is saved to the device immediately regardless of connectivity — check the sync indicator once you’re back online to confirm it’s uploaded, rather than assuming loss.