ArcGIS QuickCapture is Esri’s rapid data collection mobile app. With QuickCapture, you can quickly collect field observations to document issues, damage or important events. Not familiar with QuickCapture? Watch this 2 minute video:
What’s new in the June 2022 update
This update includes support for Bulgarian language, new device variables and improvements in the QuickCapture designer. The build number for the mobile app in the Apple, Android and Windows app stores is 1.14.
New device variables
ArcGIS QuickCapture collects a lot of information with the single tap of a button and that’s in part thanks to device variables. Use device variables to have GIS attributes automatically populate. There are more than 50:
- Location: Latitude, Longitude, Elevation, Horizontal Accuracy, USNG, DMS, DDS, MGRS, GNSS metadata…
- Travel: Direction of travel, speed
- User: username, full name, email
- Photo: Latitude, Longitude, camera heading, horizontal field of view…
- Device: operating system, app version, device model
- Lines: Start time, end time, distance…
In this release you will find four new device variables. Use them to better understand how field crews manage the battery life of their devices:
- Battery level: In %
- Battery state: Plugged in, not plugged in.
- Power mode: Balanced, battery saver
- Power source: USB, AC, wireless, battery

Upcoming layer requirements for enabling photo uploads
For compatibility with old (prior to 10.4) versions of ArcGIS Enterprise, QuickCapture supports adding photos to layers configured with supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIds = false. This property has an important effect on how data, and attachments, are added into a layer. Having this property set to true guarantees the most robust data upload behavior when working in poor network conditions.
Starting with this update, QuickCapture designer will warn you if your project includes a layer with this property set to false. Read this help topic to learn more about supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIds.
In early 2023 we will end support for working with layers where supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIds = false. Check the ArcGIS QuickCapture deprecation notices in the Esri Tech Support site for more details.
QuickCapture designer enhancements
Some of you requested that we make the QR code of a project accessible even before the project is shared. The QR code is now always available. Check it out below.

A new set of new icons has also been added to the gallery.

Other enhancements
- Bulgarian language
- Optimizations in network traffic when working with ArcGIS location tracking
- For a complete list of what’s new in this and previous releases, check out his help topic.
What’s coming next
Our next update will ship in late August 2022. As usual, find the Beta builds in the QuickCapture Early Adopter site. Features in the works include:
These approach might be working for the recovery scenario.
But what is the official way to duplicate an environment side by side? A common scenario is to “downgrade” a production system to a testsystem to later approve the update procedure or to simulate other updates e.g. of third party tools.
What’s your recommendation?
This would be an approach you can take to set up a duplicate environment. By creating the environment where etc\hosts entries are in place, you’re isolating the traffic to the standby environment to machines that have the entries. Read-only mode discussed in the blog is a way that you don’t need to downgrade the production environment. Set up your new environment, put the production environment to read-only so no updates can be performed, then you can test your patches/updates/upgrades on the new environment without impacting production or dealing with data differences.
It looks like this method is not possible when migrating to a machine in Microsoft Azure using ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder 10.8. This is because AE Cloud Builder does not provide an option to update the etc\hosts file between creating the machine and installing the software. The AE Cloud Builder does the creation of the Azure server machine and installing of ArcGIS Enterprise, in one step, without a configuration to edit the etc\hosts file.
Let me know if there’s a step I could be missing.
Right, standing up a duplicate environment is challenging when you don’t have the ability to modify the etc\hosts files in between when the machines are provisioned and the software installed and configured. In this case, you’ll need to either update the public DNS entry to resolve to the standby while it’s getting configured, or investigate whether the standby can be in a separate subnet that resolves the public DNS differently, (doesn’t resolve to the production environment), so the standby can be created. We’re updating the blog to indicate other ways to achieve hostname resolution outside of the etc\hosts file.
Can this approach be used if I am moving my enterprise to a newer windows server operating system? Also, can I use this approach if I want to use and newer version of enterprise?
Did Lisa’s question get an answer? I’m moving to a new OS and want to upgrade the Enterprise Server software version as well. Or do I need to upgrade Enterprise Server on the existing machine BEFORE I try movingto the new machine?
I had the same question, and according to support, the following strategy is recommended:
I still seek this information.
I’m trying to restore a webgisdr backup (11.1) to a new CloudBuilder deployment (11.1), then switch my DNS/AWS load balancer, etc to point to the new environment. Having trouble with the hosts file entry. I’m not exactly sure what to use there. Do you have any more specific examples you could give?