If location data is important for you and you want to ensure high percentage of interviews with that information it is important to validate it is working properly.

If you are not familiar with how SurveyToGo: is utilizing location information (for quality control purposes and other needs)

Simple method to determine location information is captured

To validate the location information is captured you will need to refer to the below 2 indicators on the Android App:

• Indicator that the location data is available i.e. the App receives location data from the OS. This is available all the time on the App regardless if you are conducting an interview or not. An empty circle means no valid location data is available. Full circle means that the App has valid location information. 
• An indication that is added during an interview (on the top of the screen) that the interview has available GPS data (data was captured during start or was entered during the interview by a location question etc). A white GPS writing means no location information was captured for that interview. Green GPS writing means that a valid location info was captured for it.

 

Instruct your surveyors to verify that the ‘circle’ is ‘full’ before they start a new interview (empty means no location data is received by the SurveyToGo: App). 

 

Advanced method to determine location information

For more technical stuff SurveyToGo: allows additional information on the location data. Clicking on the application's Settings->Options you will find the GPS Status button.

If the GPS is available & capturing you would see a lot of valuable information such as the location itself, time captured, settings on the device etc:

If not, it would write that the information is not available.

If in any of the above methods the location information is not available then troubleshoot determine if this is device or App related:

• Verify location services are open and are properly configured
• Verify the SurveyToGo: App has been given permissions to capture location information
• Verify the SurveyToGo: GPS related App configurations are set properly
• If allowing only GPS Hardware generated location information make sure you are not inside a building.
• If allowing WIFI/3G verify that you can view an updated location on Google Maps for example.