Guidance on using Cybertracker for business purposes

General
1

Hello CyberTracker team,

We use CyberTracker Classic to collect oil-palm pollination data in the field. I’m the systems assistant supporting the operation and I’d appreciate your recommendation on the best way forward.

Our current setup:

  • A single Windows 11 Pro desktop (“tower”) running CyberTracker Classic (desktop v3.530, trying to move to v3.537).

  • The application/database is a single .mdb file of about 1.5 GB that holds both the form design and several years of accumulated pollination sightings.

  • A fleet of 40+ Android phones across several plantations (mixed models: Ulefone Armor X13, Motorola G04s, Samsung A04e/A05s, and some older Samsung J2 Core on Android 8.1).

The problems we’re facing:

  1. When we install the newer desktop version (v3.537), it will not open the 1.5 GB .mdb — we assume the database upgrade/migration fails because the file is so large and close to the 2 GB Access/Jet limit.

  2. Syncing data is done one phone at a time over USB, which is very tedious for a fleet this size.

  3. We have version-compatibility conflicts between the desktop and the mobile app, made worse because the newer mobile app no longer supports our older pre-Android 9 devices.

My questions:

  1. What is the recommended way to reduce/archive the historical data so the working .mdb stays small enough to upgrade — without losing the history? Is there an official archive/export-and-purge procedure?

  2. Can you confirm the best way to set up cable-free synchronization (e.g. the “File share” protocol over our office WiFi, or Remote Synchronization to a central database) so we stop syncing phone by phone over USB?

  3. Given the mixed Android fleet (including pre-Android 9 devices) and the version conflicts, what upgrade path do you recommend?

  4. Would you recommend we migrate to a cloud backend (e.g. KoBoToolbox/ODK) with the CyberTracker app as the collector, instead of the Classic desktop + .mdb model? If so, what is the recommended migration path to preserve our historical data?

We have no budget for new phones, so any solution should ideally work on our existing devices.

Thank you very much for your guidance.

2

Hi Julian,

  1. We recommend using new database each year. You can export the whole database and a date range of data as a CTX and import it into a new database. Then just name the databases as 2020, 2021, etc.
  2. Use the Publish feature
  3. To support older devices, you will have to install an APK that works on them. Build 571 is available here: Download | CyberTracker Wiki
  4. Preserving historical data is about picking a format and exporting to it. If you use something like CSV, then this is widely readable and will be in perpetuity. Cloud backends make management easier and typically have automatic backups, but it’s always going to be necessary to have your own data retention policy.

Cheers,
-Justin