Field Service Assistant






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FAQ - Please review the following questions *BEFORE* contacting support. If you still need help, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com. There is only one person providing support for close to 700,000 downloads.

Known issues with v5.0.5 (latest version):
  • Issues with selecting some calls for mapping
  • The "Recover Deleted Contacts" isn't working with iOS 14, it will be fixed shortly


Frequently asked Questions


- Hourglass stopped working, what's happening?
- All of my data is GONE!!! How do I get it back?
- All of the sudden I all of my daily entries moved to yearly entires with a date of 20-21 or 21-22
- All of the return visit notes are gone after updating to iOS 14, what do I do?
- I have extra month entries in my service year, can I delete them?
- Can I change the report to show "placements" instead of tracts, magazines, books, and booklets?
- The program won't let me enter in my time, what do I do?
- Will this program work on other platforms?
- Do you plan on writing a version of FieldService for any other mobile platforms?
- Will you write a custom program just for me?
- You have a problem with simple addition, the report screen doesn't add the time properly!
- Will this program work on the iPad?
- How do I make the program work in Spanish, or another language?
- How do I delete the contact group "Return Visits ..." after I deleted Field Service Assistant?
- Do you support iCloud?
- How do I change a study back to a return visit?
- Field Service just crashes, what can I do?
- How to I migrate my data to a new phone?
- I don't want to see my return visits in the Contacts app, how do I hide them?
- I closed out a month or year before reporting my time, how do I send a report for a previous month?
- How do I edit the totals of a previous month?
- I'm upgrading to a new device, how to I transfer all of my data?
- How do I add a previous month or previous year to my service report?
All of my data is GONE!!! How do I get it back?

Your data most likely isn't gone, sometimes apple resets some settings during an update.

Overview:
Your Return Visit data is stored in the Contacts app and a backup is also stored locally within the app as a .vcf file
Your Time entries are stored in a database, but they are also stored as individual reports for redundancy.


Things to try:
First and foremost, do NOT delete the app and reinstall it. This will not solve any problems and you will lose all of your data
To start, go to the "users" tab and select another user. Continue to cycle through all of the users until you find your return visits and your time.

If that doesn't work, please go to the "Users" tab and press the "Recover Lost Time" button if it exists.
"Recover Lost Time" should make another user that you can select. Select the newly created user and see if your data is there.
If you lost only your time, select a user and tap the "Send Report" button. At the bottom of the view that appears will be a list of past reports to select from. If they exist, tap on them to view and/or send the report. If you still don't see any contacts, repeat the process of cycling through users but look for a "Recover Deleted Contacts" button at the bottom of the "Return Visits" tab but don't press it yet.
If the "Recover Deleted Contacts" "button exists, this is a user that had contacts.
First try to recover them by tapping the "+" button in the upper right corner of the Return Visits tab.
Next, select "Add Existing Contact".
If your return visit is there, choose it and repeat the process until all of your contacts are back.
If your return visits are not visible, press the "Recover Deleted Contacts" button to recover your contacts.
Did you delete an email account recently? Your email account might have been configured to store your contacts. Deleting the account could have erased your return visits.
Tapping the "Recover Deleted Contacts" button in the "Return Visits" tab can recreate them. If this doesn't help, try restoring your data from an iCloud backup if you backed it up via iCloud and possibly repeat the process.
https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/restore-or-set-up-your-ios-or-ipados-device-mm7e756df7fd/icloud
If you had emailed yourself a backup earlier, open that backup email and tap on the links to resotre from an emailed backup. You can also restore the files directly if they were previously backed up by using the Files app on your iOS device: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206481
The files app will expose backup copies of your return visits, miscelaneous notes, the time database, and past service reports. Service reports are stored redundantly via html and in the database.
If you backed up your data on a computer you can use these instructions to restore your data: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

If you're still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com.
Thanks!

The program won't let me enter in my time, what do I do?

The hours column isn't defined properly.  Go to the "Settings" tab.  Scroll down the column labeled "Hours", which is most likely column 5.  Change the column format to be "Time Entry". Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom of the view and tap the "Reset To Defaults" button which will reset all of the column definitions.

I closed out a month or year before reporting my time, how do I send a report for a previous month?

Go to the "Report Tab", and tap the send report button.  You can choose the report you wish to send at the very bottom of the view that appears.  For August, 2020, you would choose 2020.08.  Tap the message/email/WhatsApp button. Alternatively, previous month totals for the current service year also appear in the second section of the report view.  Previous year totals appeaer in the third section of the report view.

All of the sudden I all of my daily entries moved to yearly entires with a date of 20-21 or 21-22

A date 1-year in the future was accidently entered to cause this issue.
Look at the screenshot below. Note #1 in the screenshot, the program thinks the program is 1 year in the future.
Day to day entries for the current month moved to become previous years because the program thinks it is 1 year in the future.
Do not edit daily entries that moved to previous years, this will cause more problems
Do not remove day to day entries that moved to previous years, this will cause more problems
There are two scenarios:
  • You accidently entered a date 1 year into the future when you made your first entry in a new month. You will have only a carryover residule and the time entry you made
    • In this scenario, tap on each entry (#2 and/or #3 in the screenshot) and then tap on the delete button to remove it.
    • After you removed both entries, reboot your iOS device. Do not skip this step.
    • You should see everything back to normal, but you need to re-enter the first entry of the month again.
    • If you are still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com
      Thanks!
  • You accidently entered a date 1 year into the future when there were already existng entries for the current month.
    • Tap once on the most recent daily entry which is probably the last one of the daily entry section to edit it (#2 and/or #3 in the screenshot).
    • Correct the date, it is likely 1 year in the future. For instance, a date that should be Dec. 20, 2020 will be Dec. 20, 2021, or what should be Jan 10, 2021 is Jan 10, 2022.
    • After doing this, reboot your iOS device. Do not skip this step.
    • Everything should be fixed.
    • If you are still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com
      Thanks!
Original, detailed directions:
Tap once on your daily entry(s) to edit them (#2 and/or #3 in the screenshot).
Change the year of the problematic date to the year that you intended to record, such as December 2020, or January 2021.
Next, swipe up to exit the application. If you do not understand how to terminate the app this way, reboot your iOS device instead.
You must do the reboot for the program to recalculate the correct month and service year.
Everything should be fixed when you start the program again if this problem was not the first entry you made for a new month
If you ented the wrong date when you recorded your first entry in a new month, please do the following.
In this scenario, tap on the first entry of the new month and delete it. Do the same if there is a residual carryover entry from the previous month.
For example, Delete a January 1 entry if you have December entries showing as previous years.
Next, reboot the iOS device or terminate the application by the "swipe-up" method. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201330). Do not skip this step
Run the program again and all of your daily entries from the previous month will be restored to the correct place.
Send your report for the previous month.
Next, re-enter your time entry for the new month.
For example, re-enter that January 1 entry from the previous example and make sure you do not accidently enter a date one year in the future.
Everything should be back to normal again.
If you are still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com
Thanks!




Hourglass stopped working, what's happening?

According to Jon at Hourglass:
There was a period of time when the Hourglass universal link site association wasn't being served correctly.
This is now resolved.
Users may need to wait for an undetermined period of time to wait for iOS to "fetch the file again".
If you do not want to wait, please reinstall Hourglass and get a new invitation from your secretary.
You may contact Hourglass support by sending an email to info@hourglass-app.com.



I'm upgrading to a new device, how to I transfer all of my data?

There are a number of methods, but this link is the easiest and most complete: iOS Quick Start information transfer
If you are still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com
Thanks!



How do I add a previous month or previous year to my service report?

If you want to add a previous month total, such as November, 2020, go to the "Record Time" tab and enter your totals with the 1st day of the month such as Nov. 1, 2020. You can only enter previous months for the current service year starting in September.
If you want to add a previous year, such as the 2018-2019 service year, go to the "Record Time" tab and enter a date of Sept 1 of that service year. For the 2018-2019 service year, enter your totals with a date of Sept. 1 2018. A date of Jan 1, 2019 will also work.
If you are still having troubles, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com
Thanks!

How do I edit the totals of a previous month?

Tap once on a previous month to view the report including daily entires.
Tap twice on a previous month to edit the total.

Will this program work on other platforms?

Field Service Assistant only works on iOS (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad).

Do you plan on writing a version of FieldService for any other phones (Android, Windows mobile, Blackberry, etc.)?

The first version of FieldService took a year to write during nights and weekends, this includes learning a new operating system (Cocoa Touch) and a new language (Objective C).
It would be great to have a version of FieldService for all of the different phone platforms, but there are simply no resources available to do the work.

Here are some alternatives you can try:

For Windows Mobile: My Ministry
For Android: Service Time
For Blackberry: FieldBerry
For Linux, Windows, Nokia N9/950, N900
 FieldService
Other Devices: No Information





Will you write a program just for me?

It takes considerable effort to write a program for the iPhone, there are no resources available to do this.  I spend roughly 50 hours per month in the ministry, I have a full time job, and I work on this program and provide support in the evening after work.  Every minute of every day is scheduled.  Lots of people ask for me to write them a program so they can make money.  Is that fair?  Would you ask a secular iPhone developer to give you thousands of hours of development time for free so you can make money?  Please do not ask me this question, there are NO exceptions.


If you want to learn how to write a program on your own, the development tools, documentation, along with tutorials are freely available.


Here is a link to the developer website:

http://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

Registration is free, but a Macintosh is required for development.


What it takes to write a release an iPhone app:

01.  Understanding of computer programming concepts, algorithms, memory management, etc.
02.  Knowledge of C, Objective-C, XCode, Interface builder, international localization, etc.
03.  Understanding of iOS libraries and APIs
04.  Understanding of Apple's user interface guidelines
05.  Web page server and support website, knowledge of html
06.  Some means of customer support
07.  Setup of a company such as an LLC for liability protection is recommended.
08.  Photoshop/GIMP experience for icon design
09.  Developer fees from Apple, web hosting fees, and legal fees.
10.  Marketing to build visibility and create demand.
11.  Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of time!

You have a problem with simple addition, the report screen doesn't add the time properly!

The math is correct!
Time recorded in the report screen is shown in hours, not hours and minutes. There are no colons to separate hours and minutes, there is a decimal point to show time in hours.
The "Record Time" screen explains that you can "Enter time with a . (Ex. 2.5), or a : (Ex. 2:30). Take the example of 2 and 1/2 hours. 2 and 1/2 hours is 2.5 hours, it is also 2 hours and 30 minutes which is denoted as 2:30.
If you enter your time with a colon, it will be converted to hours in the "Report" screen. If you enter 2:30, this will appear as 2.5 in the "Report" screen.

Since all of the time is displayed in hours in the "Report" screen, the numbers are easy to add because there is only one unit (hours) instead of two (hours and minutes).
If you don't like this, you can change the time to display in hours and minutes with a colon. Go to Settings > FieldService, and then set the "Hours and Minutes" to "ON".





Will this program work on the iPad?

It works beginning with version 2.7.7. Basic support for the iPad started with version 3.2.2.

How do I make the program work in Spanish, or another language?

If your language is supported by field service, Launch the settings application.
Settings > General > International
Set your keyboard to one you like, Spanish or English, or the language of your choice. Set the region format to the country of your choice, this is how you will see dates and numbers.
Next, set your language to Spanish, or to the the language you prefer.





I deleted Field Service Assistant, and I can't delete the contacts group starting with "Return Visits ..."
The program was designed to handle this...

• First, you need to re-install Field Service Assistant if you previously deleted it.
• Launch the settings application, and go to the settings for Field Service Assistant.
• Turn on the setting, "Enable Multiple Users".
• Next, launch Field Service Assistant.
• After that, go to the "Users" tab that appears at the bottom when Multiple Users is enabled.
• Delete the *all* of the users in the users tab.
• After doing that, immediately quit field service assistant.
• The groups in the contacts application should be gone from your iPhone/iPod/iPad.



Does Field Service assistant support iCloud?
Yes and no.  A lot of work was made so that contacts work over the cloud, just make sure iCloud is turned on with the contacts enabled.

The time entry does not sync over the cloud though.  It is a lot of work to implement this and support it.  It is on the list of features to implement.

However, the program allows you to email a backup to yourself or another device by pressing "Email Backup" in the RV List view.  Just touch the links in the email to restore from the backup or sync between devices.



How do I change a study back to a return visit?

This is easy to do.  Just view the study you wish to change back to a return visit.  Swipe to delete the date with the label, "Last Study"



Field Service just crashes, what can I do?
I'm very sorry you are having troubles. I would like to do all I can to prevent this, but it might happen now and again.

First, please update to the latest version of the Field Service Assistant app (version 3.5.6) as of 9/21/12.

WARNING: Do *not* delete the app and try to reinstall it. This will only make the problem worse by deleting all of your notes and time records.
 
Also, make sure that you grant access to contacts starting with iOS 6.

  • Go to the device's Settings app
  • Tap on "Privacy"

Then tap "Contacts" to allow the Field Service Assistant app to access your calls

If that doesn't work, try turning off your device and then turn it back on.

If all else fails, your calls are still available in the Contacts app — they are stored in a group that begins with "ReturnVisits".

If, by this point, the app still crashes, please send an email to support

- Version of FieldService:
You can find this by launching the settings application on your iPhone/iPod/iPad.
Go to Settings > FieldService. The version is at the end of the settings.

- Crash reports
Field Service generated a crash report when it crashed. You can retrieve it and send it for analysis.
First, connect your iPhone/iPod/iPad to your computer, and sync your device via iTunes. After you have done this, your crash report has been moved to your computer. You can find your crash report in the following locations:

Mac:
[your home folder]/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[device_name]

Windows XP:
\Documents and Settings\[your_username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\Crash Reporter\Mobile Device\[device_name]

Windows Vista and 7:
\Users\[your_username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\Mobile Device\[device_name]

If you are having trouble finding a crash report, this website explains how to find the crash reports:

http://aplus.rs/apple/how-to-find-crash-logs-for-iphone-applications-on-mac-vista-and-xp/

I don't want to see my return visits in the Contacts app, how do I hide them?

Launch the "Contacts" app on your iOS device.
Tap the “Groups” button in the upper left hand corner.
You will see a list of groups — work, friends, etc. with a check mark next to it.
Uncheck all groups that begin with “Return Visits” and all groups labeled, “All iCloud”, “All gmail”, etc..
After that, you should not see any return visits while looking at your contact address book and you won't be able to directly create a return visit from the contacts app.


How do I migrate my information from an old phone to a new phone?

An easiest way to do this is by emailing a backup to yourself. Go to the "Return Visits" tab, scroll to the bottom and tap the "Email backup" button. Send the email to your new device. Open the email on the new device and tap on the links. You may need to restart the app after tapping the links.

Alternatively, you can backup your device via iCloud or a computer and restore your data from that device: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

Another way to do it is by going to the Files app on your iOS device and copy the files from Field Service Assistant to another device: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206481
I have extra month entries in my service year, can I delete them?

Tapping on an extra month entry will show the report for that month.
Tapping twice on an extra month entry will allow you to edit the entry. 
You can delete entries when you edit them.
Can I change the report to show "placements" instead of tracts, magazines, books, and booklets?) ?

The program does both formats. 
Hold the iOS device in portrait mode. 
Go to the "Report" tab. 
Tap on the header in the report tab. 
It will switch between detailed (Magazines, Books, Tracts, etc.) to Simplified (placements) and Vice-Versa.


All of the return visit notes are gone after updating to iOS 14, what do I do?

Please update to version 4.9.7 or later. If you want the details of what happened, please continue reading:

If you are having trouble with the NOTES FIELD for your return visits or are missing info or can't add info to a return visit after updating to the new iOS (iOS 14?), please read the following:

Apple revoked access to the address book notes fields for all iOS apps, this means, temporarily, you can't see all of your return visit notes.

I received special permission to have an entitlement for access to the notes field on Sept. 17, 2020.

It will take at least a week for the entitlement to activate.
The entitlement will give permission to the app to be able to access notes in the future. I might need to release a new version of the app which includes the entitlement.

I have been working on a new version that will work without the contact address book, using only the file system.
This may take a few more weeks to get ready, test, and release.

As a temporary workaround, you can still access the notes field in the contacts app.



Field service assistant has been downloaded more than 676,000 times in roughly 150 countries. I can't respond to all of the emails, there is only one person writing the app, supporting the app, holding a full time job, family responsibilities, etc... I will provide updates on this website. I appreciate your patience.

If you would like to test a pre-release version, please send an email to support@fieldserviceassistant.com and put "Beta tester" in the title/subject field. When a test version is available, I will go through the emails marked as beta tester and send out invitations to test.

Thanks!


Sarka Tyri Support

9/24/20 Update: The com.apple.developer.contacts.notes was finally issued. It doesn't work with the ABAddress framework, so I can't re-release the existing app. I've spent 6 months porting to the CNContact framework, that is what will be released next. Preliminarily, the new version will work, both with the address book, and it will have an option to work without the contact address book altogether. I'm in the process of doing some internal testing, I couldn't install it on my own device without the entitlement. The plan is to relase it to beta testers in a few days. Thanks for your patience!

9/28/20 Update: Finished internal testing, fixed a few bugs. I submitted the app for review to start beta testing. And yes, Apple reviews the app even for beta testing and it usually takes a day to get approval. This version will be limited to using the contact manger, the file system only option will come in a release soon to follow. This let's me get a fix out quicker. Thanks!

10/1/20 Update: 3 versions of the app were released for testing, a number of bugs were fixed. Waiting on feedback from a few more testers. If all goes well, v4.9.7 will be released tomorow. Thanks!

10/2/20 Update: A *very* small group of beta testers didn't find any show stopping issues, and 4.9.7 was released to the public today. There were significant changes to this build, please let me know if you experience any serious issues. There are more updates to follow. Thanks!

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