Recording and journal
Fieldwork Recorder is designed around a simple idea: record the moment while it is happening, then add the detail that gives the audio meaning.
Audio recording
On the Record tab, select a quality before you start. The preset is saved with the entry so you can understand how it was captured later.
| Choice | Purpose | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| High | Prioritizes recording detail. | Important interviews, ambient sound, and short critical observations. |
| Medium | Balances size and clarity. | Everyday field notes. |
| Low | Uses less storage. | Long spoken notes where small files matter most. |
| Custom | Uses your bitrate and sample-rate settings. | Projects with a specific audio or storage requirement. |
You can pause and resume one recording session. This is useful when a single observation spans a short interruption but should remain a single diary entry.
Journal details and rich notes
After stopping a recording, give it a title, an entry date and time, and tags. These are not cosmetic fields: the Diary uses them to organize, filter, and find your material later.
Title and date
Use a title that describes the observation, and correct the entry time if it differs from when you are writing it up.
Tags
Tags are short, repeatable labels. Use them for site names, project codes, species, people, or recurring themes.
Notes
Notes are stored as Markdown so they remain portable and readable outside the app.
Preview
Switch between Edit and Preview to review the formatted note without leaving the entry.
The note toolbar can apply bold, italic, underline, headings, bulleted and numbered lists, checklists, block quotes, code, and links. Select text first, then choose a formatting action; Markdown shortcuts also work when typed directly.
Use rich notes for details that are hard to recover from the recording alone: conditions, observations, measurements, decisions, questions, and a short summary of what to listen for.
Photos and drawings
Each entry can hold up to 50 attachments, mixing photos and drawings. Attachments are copied into Fieldwork Recorder’s pictures area when the entry is saved, so they remain associated with that entry rather than with a temporary picker selection.
Photos
Choose Take Photo to use the camera or Choose Photos to select from the library. Use photos for labels, field conditions, objects, screens, or any detail that is faster to see than describe.
Drawings
Choose Draw Note to create a sketch with a finger or stylus. The drawing pad includes Undo, Clear, and a full-screen option for more working room. Drawings are useful for rough layouts, spatial relationships, routes, sampling locations, and annotations that do not need a polished diagram.
Mapped attachment moments
When you add a photo or drawing during an active GPS Track recording, Fieldwork Recorder remembers approximately when it was added and where the route was at that moment. The attachment remains part of the diary entry and can also appear on the playback map.
- The attachment gets a marker near its recording moment.
- The marker can highlight as playback reaches that point in the recording.
- Tap the marker to open the photo or drawing in a full-screen preview.
When available, a photo's capture time and own location data can help place it; otherwise Fieldwork Recorder uses the active recording's time and route context. The result is an approximate field reference, so check the marker when exact placement matters.
GPS in the recording file
In supported builds, Fieldwork Recorder can write the accepted start/end points or timed Track data into the recording itself. This makes a copied audio file more useful as a standalone field artifact: a compatible Fieldwork Recorder reader can rebuild its route and recording identity even if the diary companion file is missing. Choose Separate GPS file in Settings when you want location kept alongside the audio instead. Learn how embedded GPS works and what to check before sharing.
Background and long recordings
When Background recording is enabled, Fieldwork Recorder can keep recording after the app is minimized. Android shows an ongoing notification while a recording and GPS tracking continue in the background.
For longer Android sessions, turn on Safe long recording. The app saves recoverable audio parts while you record—roughly half-hour-sized segments rather than one fragile file—and finalizes them in the background after you stop. The parts are recovery material, not separate diary entries. This reduces the amount of audio that can be lost if the app or phone is interrupted. See Settings and reliability for recovery steps.
On Apple devices, background audio behavior depends on the native build and system permissions. Continuous background location is not identical to Android’s foreground recording service, so check the in-app permission prompts and platform settings before relying on a long unattended session.
Interrupted sessions and recovery
Android keeps protected parts in Settings > Unrecovered recordings when a safe long recording is interrupted before the normal diary entry is complete. Choose Scan unrecovered, review the session and its part count, then choose Recover. Fieldwork Recorder joins the available parts into a normal entry and restores the saved recording time and GPS context.
Fieldwork Recorder also checks for finalized temporary recordings when it starts. If recovery is incomplete, leave the saved session in place and try again. Deleting an unrecovered session permanently removes its saved parts.