How to Use QFieldCloud to Manage QField Data

Introduction

QField is open-source mobile GIS software that lets you use projects created in QGIS on smartphones and other devices.

This article explains the basic steps for using QFieldCloud to sync a QGIS project to QField smoothly and run it efficiently as a team.

For an overview of QField and examples of how it is used, see the following article.

QFieldCloud overview

QFieldCloud is a service that manages the data edited at your work sites in one place. Once a project is uploaded to the cloud from QField, other users can download the latest data from the cloud and use it.

Normally, to exchange data between QGIS and QField, you have to transfer a package file manually: a QGIS project converted to the QField format. With QFieldCloud, you can store the project in the cloud, which makes syncing and managing data easier.

QFieldCloud has several plans. With the free Community plan, you can create projects for personal use and use up to 100 MB of data.

Create a QFieldCloud account

You need an account to use QFieldCloud. If you have not registered yet, follow these steps.

On the QFieldCloud home page, click Register.

When the registration page appears, enter your basic information. After you register, click the link in the confirmation email you receive.

Create a QFieldCloud project from QGIS

First, prepare the project in QGIS. Then use the QFieldSync plugin to create a QFieldCloud project (that is, transfer the data to QFieldCloud).

For how to install the QFieldSync plugin, see the following article.

Start by clicking the cloud-shaped QFieldCloud Projects Overview button on the QFieldSync toolbar.

If you are not signed in to QFieldCloud, the QFieldCloud Sign In dialog opens. Enter your login information here.

After you sign in, the dialog lists the QFieldCloud projects linked to your account. To create a new project, click the Create New Project button at the bottom left.

The dialog asks how you want to create the project. This example converts a project you prepared in advance to a QFieldCloud project, so select Convert currently open project to cloud project (recommended) and click the Next button.

The settings for the new QFieldCloud project appear. Enter the following.

1. Name: the name of the QFieldCloud project
2. Description: a description of the QFieldCloud project
3. Local Directory: click the ... button and choose where to save the project
4. When you have filled in the fields above, click the Create button

A QFieldCloud project is a new, cloud-sync-ready project generated from an existing QGIS project. It is created in a directory separate from the original project, and the plugin manages syncing between the local copy and the cloud.

When the QFieldCloud project is created, the message “The locally stored cloud project is already synchronized with QFieldCloud, no action is required.” appears. Click the OK button to close the dialog.

Back in the QFieldCloud Projects Overview dialog, the project you created now appears in the list. To check the QFieldCloud project saved in the local directory, double-click the project.

The project properties appear. Click the folder button next to Local Directory.

File Explorer opens, and you can see that the QFieldCloud project is stored in the directory you specified earlier.

This project is a converted version of the original QGIS project and its data. In the folder, you can see that the conversion automatically created dedicated management files, such as xxx_attachments.zip and the .qfieldsync folder, and converted the vector data to GeoPackage format.

The QFieldCloud project is now created.

Open and edit the cloud project in the QField app

Next, the steps below cover the whole flow: open the QFieldCloud project you created in QField, edit the data, and apply those changes to QFieldCloud.

Open the QFieldCloud project in QField

Open the QFieldCloud project you created in the QField app. On the QField home screen, tap QFieldCloud projects.

If you are not signed in to QFieldCloud, the sign-in screen appears. Enter your QFieldCloud account information to sign in.

The list of QFieldCloud projects appears. Tap the project you prepared earlier.

The details of the selected project appear. Tap the Download project button to download the project from the cloud.

When the download finishes, tap the Open project button.

The project opens.

Save data edited in the field to QFieldCloud

Next, edit the data in QField and sync it to the QFieldCloud project. This example adds a feature to an existing line layer.

After you add the feature, open the menu and tap the cloud button. If there are changes, a number showing the count of changes appears next to the icon.

You can sync with the cloud in two ways. Choose the one that suits you.

Tap the Synchronize button to sync the whole project. This downloads the project to your device with all updates from the cloud.

Tap the Push changes button to upload only your local changes, without updating the whole project.

Check and edit cloud data in QGIS

After using QField in a field survey, you may want to check the data in QGIS, or edit a layer of a project already synced to QFieldCloud and update the data on QFieldCloud.

The following sections explain how.

Open a QFieldCloud project in QGIS

This section shows how to open a QFieldCloud project in QGIS.

Start QGIS and open the QFieldCloud project stored in the local directory the same way you open a regular QGIS project.

Unless you chose a different location when you created the QFieldCloud project, its default path is C:\Users\user_name\QField\cloud\ on Windows and /Users/user_name/QField/cloud/ on macOS.

As you can see, when you open a QFieldCloud project, you do not open the project file in the cloud. You open the project file stored in the local directory that is synced with QFieldCloud.

Sync data edited in QField to QGIS

Check the data you added in QField in QGIS. At this point QGIS has not synced with QFieldCloud yet, so the features you added to the line layer in QField do not appear.

To sync, click the Synchronize Current Cloud Project button on the QFieldSync toolbar.

The Synchronizing project dialog opens. The list in the middle shows the files that changed (in this example, the line layer file). Check that the Action column shows “Download,” then click Perform Actions.

If the column does not show “Download,” click the Prefer Cloud button. The data in the cloud takes priority, and the action for every file changes to “Download.”

Pay close attention to the action type. If you upload data to the cloud by mistake, it overwrites the data in the cloud.

When the sync finishes, the features you added in QField appear on the QGIS map canvas.

Save changes made in QGIS to QFieldCloud

The previous section showed how to bring data edited in QField into QGIS. This section covers the reverse: changing the project in QGIS and syncing those changes to the cloud.

First, open the QFieldCloud project stored in the local directory, edit the data as needed, and save. In this example, the geometry of a line feature is edited.

Then click the Synchronize Current Cloud Project button on the QFieldSync toolbar to upload the project to the cloud.

In the Synchronizing project dialog, check that the Action column shows “Upload,” then click Perform Actions.

If the column does not show “Upload,” click the Prefer Local button. The action for every file changes to “Upload.”

When the upload finishes, the following screen appears. Click OK to close the window.

When you tap the cloud button in the QField app to sync, you can see that the edits you made in QGIS are reflected in QField.

Conclusion

This article showed how to use QFieldCloud to sync data efficiently between QGIS and QField. Without manual data transfer, managing field survey data becomes smoother, and sharing information within the team gets easier.

You can expect QFieldCloud to make fieldwork more efficient and improve data quality.