How to Troubleshoot Data Saving Issues in PsychoPy Online Experiments?

Online experiments
1

Hey guys! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I am new to PsychoPy here, and I’m running online experiments with Pavlovia. Got my test thingy going, but data saving is acting wonky. Some folks’ data seems to just disappear, and others have files with missing bits. Not ideal, as you can imagine, since it messes with my whole study thing.

Here’s the breakdown:

My Experiment: It’s a brain teaser kind of deal, with reaction time stuff and questionnaires. Built it with PsychoPy’s Builder and added some custom code bits.
The Data Woes: Most data seems fine, but like 10-15% of it is either missing chunks or just straight-up vanishes. Seems to happen more on Safari or when internet connections are shaky.
Troubleshooting Attempts: I’ve tried adding code bits to save data at different points and making it save more often, but it’s not a total fix.
Server Woes (Maybe?): Could there be issues on Pavlovia’s end messing with data saving? Any known problems or tricks for keeping data safe when running online experiments there?
I also check this: https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/data-no-longer-saving-in-online-experimentservicenow But I have not found any solution. Could anyone guide me about this?
Basically, any tips or solutions folks have for this would be a lifesaver! Are there specific code bits or PsychoPy settings I should be using to make sure data saves properly? Any ideas on how to handle different browsers or bad internet connections better?

Thanks a bunch!

2

Hi there,

We are starting to build some docs on this here (but I admit it is limited at the moment).

In short online there are a few reasons for missing data usually it is caused by participants closing their browser prematurely.

“I’ve tried adding code bits to save data at different points and making it save more often, but it’s not a total fix” - could you possibly explain this a bit more? At the moment I don’t think there is a code approach to save data more regularly on pavlovia, however if you are using a 2024 release of PsychoPy then you can turn on “periodic data saving” on your pavlovia dashboard for the project - which will save data to the server at more regular intervals (note that at the moment we bottle neck this to every 5 minutes, because we are being careful not to overload the server, we hope to reduce this interval soon once we see how users interact with the feature since it is new).

Becca