How to prepare a QField project for offline work in Colombia

An offline QField project is prepared on the desktop before departure: data, basemaps, forms, identifiers and synchronisation rules must work without a signal. Installing the application on a phone does not resolve conflicts, quality or data recovery.

The official QField documentation explains that QGIS projects can be used online or offline and must be packaged for the device. The local-transfer workflow with QFieldSync creates a working copy, tracks changes and synchronises them afterwards. The documentation also warns that its cable workflow does not provide automatic conflict handling; that responsibility belongs in the operational design.

Draw the field day before the form

Describe what a team receives, what it can observe, which decisions it makes offline and who reviews the return. Turn that journey into simple states such as assigned, started, incomplete, submitted, queried and approved, according to actual needs. Require each field because it supports a decision; a long form does not equal a complete database.

Configure value maps, ranges, dependencies and defaults in QGIS. Make critical instructions visible and test error messages on the device. Photographs, signatures and audio increase storage and personal-data risk, so they need a purpose, size limit, naming scheme and access rules.

Prepare data and cartography for the device

Assign UUIDs to objects that different teams can create or relate. Do not rely on local sequences that can collide. Define CRS, editable layers, reference layers and a basemap limited to the work area. Test size, opening time, battery use and behaviour at the expected scale.

Package only what the operation needs. An oversized basemap can make the project unusable; one that is too general can lead to incorrect capture. Preserve the phone's reported location accuracy as metadata rather than describing it as a topographic survey.

Rehearse departure, return and reconciliation

Before fieldwork, copy or download the package, enable flight mode and run valid and invalid cases. Then simulate device loss, duplicate records, simultaneous edits and a damaged attachment. Define who backs up, who synchronises and who decides a conflict. Avoid changing the schema while field edits are pending unless the impact has been assessed.

For asset inventories, this workflow can feed the utility network cadastre with traceable observations without treating mobile GPS as engineering geometry.

Measure a representative pilot

Test one area with straightforward logistics and one with difficult conditions. Measure complete records, conflicts, review time and recovery from backup. GeoSAT's offline field capture with QField can cover configuration and operations. It cannot guarantee that every record is correct: acceptance depends on protocol, training, equipment and agreed quality controls.