In this article
The following information is intended to help CAPI administrators manage the full interview and respondent lifecycle for CAPI projects, covering status types, reassignment, upload behavior, syncing, and archival rules.
1: Interview Statuses
Each interview can have one of the following statuses:
Completed
Screened
Error
Canceled
Postponed
Quotafull
2: Redoing Interviews
You can redo interviews based on their status:
Redo allowed: Canceled, Error, Postponed, Screened, and Quotafull interviews.
Redo conditionally allowed: Completed and uploaded interviews can be redone if the Allow respondents to re-enter a completed interview and change their answers setting is enabled in Web Options.
Note: Any changes made will not be uploaded to the server, as completed interviews on the server cannot be overwritten.
3: Uploading Interviews
Canceled interviews are:
Not uploaded if they were never postponed.
Uploaded if they were previously postponed.
4: Reassigning Interviews
Reassignment allows an incomplete interview to be transferred between interviewers.
Can be reassigned: New, Postponed and Canceled interviews.
Can be reassigned with warning: Error and Incomplete interviews. Warning: Any unsynced data won't be transferred.
Cannot be reassigned: Completed, Screened, and Quotafull interviews.
4.1: Reassignment Scenarios
4.1.1: Correct practice:
New or Postponed respondent is assigned to User 1.
User 1 syncs and downloads respondent on Device 1.
Respondent is reassigned to User 2.
User 1 syncs and respondents is removed from Device 1.
User 2 syncs and respondent is downloaded to Device 2, and life cycle continues.
4.1.2: Incorrect practice 1:
A new or postponed respondent is assigned to User 1.
User 1 syncs and downloads the respondent on Device 1.
The respondent is reassigned to User 2.
User 1 does not sync and the respondent remains on Device 1. However the respondent will be removed from the device with the next sync. Even if the user then completes the assignment or partially completes it and syncs, the server would reject the assignment as it is unassigned from this user.
User 2 syncs and the respondent is downloaded to Device 2, and life cycle continues.
4.1.3: Incorrect practice 2:
A New or Postponed respondent is assigned to User 1.
User 1 syncs and downloads the respondent on Device 1.
The respondent is reassigned to User 2.
User 1 does not sync and the respondent remains on Device 1, User 1 makes some changes but does not sync.
User 2 syncs and the respondent is downloaded to Device 2, User 2 makes some changes and syncs.
The respondent is reassigned back to User 1.
Now User 1 syncs but as the record is already on Device 1, it won't be overwritten, so changes made by User 2 won't be downloaded to Device 1. User 1 completes and syncs and overwrites the server record, so any changes made by User 2 are permanently deleted.
5: Archiving Interviews
Completed, Screened and Quotafull interviews are archived and removed from the device after a successful upload:
After a period of 30 days if “Allow respondent to re-enter a completed interview” is enabled under survey Settings > General
Or, if not enabled, on the next sync following a successful upload
Cancelled interviews are archived and removed from the device after a period of 30 days.
Errored interviews are not removed
6: Overwriting Interviews
Completed Interviews on Server: Once an interview is completed and uploaded to the server, it will not be overwritten by the app, even when "Allow respondents to re-enter a completed interview and change their answers" under Web Options is enabled for the survey.
Postponed Interviews on Device: Once an interview is postponed in the app, it will not be overwritten by the server, even when server copy of the interview is different from and perhaps newer than app copy of the interview.
7: Device Storage and Postponed Interviews
When a postponed interview that has already been uploaded to the server is unassigned or reassigned, and the user syncs, the interview record is removed from the app interface but remains stored locally on the device.
If the same interview is later reassigned to the same user, the app will use the locally stored version on the device instead of downloading the copy from the server.
This happens because, as explained above, the server does not replace postponed interviews that already exist on the device, even if the server version is newer or has different data than the one stored in the app.
To avoid this issue, you can use scripting to instruct the app to delete the local copy of the postponed interview when it is unassigned.
As is described in the Scripting documentation, to postpone an interview via scripting you can use the PostponeInterview (“description”) script. To postpone an interview and instruct the app to remove the local storage copy of the postponed interview when unassigned, you can use PostponeInterview (“description”, true).
8: Shared Devices Between Interviewers
As a copy of a postponed interview stays in local storage when unassigned, and the server doesn’t overwrite postponed interviews on the device, interviewers sharing the same device must take extra steps.
Before switching users, the current interviewer must sync to upload all completed or postponed interviews, then either delete all data (on Android) or uninstall and reinstall the app (on iOS).
9: Interviewers using Multiple Devices
If an interviewer signs in on multiple devices, the same set of respondents will be downloaded to each one. This can create a race condition when syncing from different devices. In these cases:
Completed interviews: The earliest sync is retained.
Postponed, Screened, and Quotafull interviews: The most recent sync takes precedence.
10: Cancel Behavior for New/Postponed Interviews
10.1: Status Behavior
When you cancel a Postponed interview from the survey menu, its status changes to Canceled.
- Note: Canceling a Completed, Quotafull, Screened, or Error interview does not change its status. However, canceling a New interview will change its status to Canceled.
10.2: Upload Rules
If the interview was previously postponed, the app will upload it after cancellation. The status will display as Canceled in the app, but the server will keep it as Incomplete.
If the interview was never postponed, the app will not upload it after cancellation.
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10.3: Archiving
Canceled interviews (whether initially postponed or not) are archived and removed from the device after 30 days if not touched and unassigned.
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10.4: Cancel Modal
The Cancel dialog has been updated to show that:
Canceled interviews will be removed from the device after 30 days.
Interviews that were never postponed will not be uploaded.
11: Syncing Behavior
11.1: Manual Sync
To upload interview results and download new respondents, the interviewer must manually initiate sync by tapping the app's Sync button. Manual sync also checks for survey updates and uploads the app event logs.
11.2: Background Sync
Background sync checks for survey updates but does not upload or download respondents, and it does not upload app event logs.
On Android: Background sync runs every 30 minutes.
On iOS: Timing depends on the operating system. If the app is considered active in the background, a sync may occur within 30 minutes. If not, it could take longer.
Additionally, when the app is brought to the foreground, it automatically checks for survey updates only
11.3: WiFi / Cellular Data
The app uses WiFi when available, or Cellular Data if WiFi is not, to:
Upload and download respondents
Check for survey updates
Manually send diagnostics from the app settings