There has been a fair amount of confusion when it comes to the difference between Force Sync, Reload on Sync, Refresh Screen, and Reload on Return user interactions for an Action field in a form screen.

We hope the following brings clarity and successful use for the intended results.

Force Sync

Force Sync simply force syncs the app and won’t automatically reload fields in your form. This means the new data source data will not be loaded into the form, and it will just be downloaded to the device disk.

When does the app synchronize and check for updates?

In some cases, use the ‘Always Trigger on Button Press’ option on the action field to trigger a reload of all fields that reference the action field in their dynamic value or data source filter formulae.

Reload on Sync

Useful for refreshing fields linked to Data Sources that may have been updated.
e.g., Reloading a Choices field to reflect new/edited rows that were downloaded.

Any field that is reloaded in this way will lose all prior edits made by the user in your Form. Similarly, formulae that depend on a reload field’s value – e.g., Visibility or Dynamic Values – will also be refreshed in turn.

Refresh Screen

Refresh interactions reload the form, which means it will reload the data sources again and at that point, any new rows will get loaded if they are present on the device. 

Refresh alone will work if you want new data source rows to reflect in a Choices field dropdown if the data source was updated from the same device because the data is already on that device. 

(a Force Sync isn’t required as the data is already on the device, no download is needed.)

If the data source data was updated by a different device and it still requires downloading, then a Force Sync is also required.

Reload on Return

Reload on Return works if the data source was updated from the same device, meaning a Force Sync is not required because the new row or row updates are already on the device that it originated from. A specific form field simply needs reloading to reflect new data source values. 

Reload on Return will also trigger the dependent formula to update, such as fields linked to the field being reloaded. The Refresh interaction does not perform any of these actions.

Reload on Return is more suitable for data source value CHANGES/UPDATES rather than new row inserts, where you want an updated data source value to reflect. Still, you then also want dependent formulae to re-evaluate with this updated data source value.

Refresh, on the other hand, is suitable for NEW row inserts as it doesn’t require you to specify fields to reload & trigger the formulas for the new row will become available for selection in the dropdown.