Old App Version - Have you had data issues caused by users NOT updating their apps?

[WillowMobileSys]

We have asked for a while now (4 years and counting) for a way  to either automatically update users with new app versions BEFORE they start entering data against an old version OR at least prevent a user from entering any data when a new version is detected.  

For whatever reason, this feature has not been prioritized and I have to wonder if maybe AppSheet is not aware of what issues it causes us when these events occur.

I would like to hear from others who have had data update issues due to a user using an old version of the app.  What pain did you have to go through to try to get the app back whole again?

[Jordan_Davis1]

This is the single biggest issue I have with app sheet.  It's almost impossible to manage.  Even if you alert users that you will be making an update, there's no way to confirm that they've synced their changes and, as such, no safe way to upgrade your app.  Please see my post about this. 

[WillowMobileSys]

Here is my recent issue that is prompting this conversation.

About 3 weeks ago I made some column changes and app changes over the weekend to avoid conflict with most users.  We sent out broadcast notifications.  But not everyone sees them.  Our big issue is that users use the app 24/7.  It is hard to catch everyone. 

Some users began using the app without a Sync and, even though they were receiving errors, they were able to still enter in data.  It just wasn't being submitted to the server.  Several were using the app in this state for over a week before we realized the problem and had gathered nearly 40 - 100 unsubmitted edits each.  While that doesn't seem like a lot for a week of app usage, it was a HUGE amount of potential lost revenue for this business.

While we can strongly encourage users to Sync each and every day and send out numerous communications via several channels to refresh the app, we cannot control what the user actually does in the end.   This created an enormous headache for this client, taking 3 weeks to resolve and we are not even 100% certain all users are completely up to date.

The BEST way to address this problem is prevention at the source.  Ideally, push updates automatically to the users as soon as they are ready OR prevent the user from making any further updates into the app until the app version is corrected.  (By the way the error signifying a column mis-match needs to made more user friendly.  Users are not reading it and even if they do, they are not understanding that they need to Sync to correct the error)

*********************************************

There is also a secondary problem.

In our case, due the the number of edits missing, there is no way we could expect users to re-enter all that data.  So the client went through the process of capturing the edits (with the AppSheet Recovery process) and manually entering them since there is no automated way to re-submit them.   There needs to be some sort of "replay" process created that reads the Recovery files and re-processes them.  And I do understand the challenges of such a feature but they are NOT unsurmountable.

[WillowMobileSys]

Anyone else have a story to share about issues with unsubmitted data changes due to errors?  

[dpavlov]

There must be a way to prevent users from adds/updates in case of sync failure. Otherwise they are able to make changes that will disappear once an issue is resolved. 

[WillVerkaik]

Agreed this is a significant headache that I believe I have experienced the same with some releases, but have not traced it to this problem yet.  However, would a short term kudge to force the synch of a use is to have a temp table, that you add ( or deduct)  a column each time.  A none syched user will fail completely.   I have not tried this but noticed this behaviour already when adding columns. 

[Jurian]

Yes exactly same issue for me. I have my client asking me why it is not possible to stop users from entering data in old versions.. I don't have an answer to it, I look like an idiot.