Was this helpful?
Was this helpful?
In this Article
  • Created

Article Checklist Responses Missing from Completed Work Order

Hi there! Happy to help you troubleshoot this frustrating issue where checklist responses seem to disappear after your technician marks a work order complete. Let me walk you through what's happening and how to recover that data.

Summary

Checklist responses submitted on the mobile app sometimes fail to persist to the web dashboard, appearing lost even though the technician saw a successful submission.

Symptoms

  • Technician completes checklist and taps Submit on the mobile app
  • Work order status changes to Completed as expected
  • Opening the work order on web shows "No checklist responses" or an empty checklist section
  • PDF export of the work order excludes checklist data
  • Issue occurs more frequently when the technician has poor connectivity during submission

Affected Versions

FieldPulse Mobile 3.1.4 – 3.1.6 (iOS and Android)
Web dashboard: all versions

Cause

A race condition between checklist submission and work order status update. When connectivity is interrupted, the checklist responses queue locally but the sync acknowledgment from the server is missed. The mobile app incorrectly marks the sync as complete, while the server never received the full payload.

Resolution

For technicians (immediate recovery):

  1. Keep the FieldPulse app open do not force-close it
  2. Navigate to More → Sync Queue
  3. Look for entries labeled "Checklist: [Work Order #]" with a red error indicator
  4. Tap the entry, then tap Retry Sync
  5. Wait for the checkmark confirmation before navigating away

For administrators (verify and backfill):

  1. Open the work order in the web dashboard
  2. Check the Activity Log tab — look for "Checklist sync initiated" without a corresponding "Checklist sync completed"
  3. If the technician's mobile still has the data (Sync Queue shows pending), coordinate with them to retry
  4. If the mobile data is gone, you'll need to manually re-enter responses or have the technician return to the site

Prevention

Update to FieldPulse Mobile 3.1.7 or later, which includes improved sync retry logic and better handling of interrupted connections. We've also added a more prominent sync status indicator on checklist submission so technicians know when it's safe to navigate away.

Let me know if you need help checking your team's app versions or if you're seeing something different from what's described above!

  • in reply to Sylvia Chen

    Thanks for confirming, Sylvia! And good call on that SOP update — force-closing is definitely the most common reason we see unrecoverable data in these cases. For that third work order, if you need the checklist data for compliance reasons, our team can check server logs to see if anything partial was captured. Feel free to open a ticket with the work order numbers and we can take a look.

  • Confirmed this just happened to us yesterday — three work orders from one technician. Sync Queue showed the red errors exactly as described. Retry worked for 2 of them, but the third had already been cleared from queue (tech thought it was stuck and force-closed the app). Adding a note to our SOP to never force-close during sync.

  • Pro tip: if your techs are in spotty coverage areas, have them wait for the little green cloud icon to stop spinning before they hit Complete on the work order. We learned that one the hard way after losing a whole day's safety checklists. Also worth checking if they've got "Wi-Fi only sync" turned on in settings — that'll bite you on cellular-only sites.