Duplicates in the "index" variable

Hello,

We designed a form to collect data at the household level with a specific group-repeat section to gather information at the individual level from each household. I am able to link the parent-child relationship between household and individual through the "index" column in the form.

However, I have lately found with a strange error: we perform data cleaning every day at the end of data collection, meaning that each day we download the whole dataset, delete the old entries and clean only the new ones.

When trying to collate each individual cleaned dataset, I find duplicates under the "index" column (i.e two "1", two "2"). The tool went through some minor updated during data collection, is it possible that the index was restarted after each update?

Thank you!

Could you please provide some additional details...

"delete the old entries" - You delete the old rows from the downloaded data file? Or you delete the entries on the server?

"the tool went through some minor update" - You are using ODK Aggregate and updated the software version? Or something else?

No, the update does not affect on index sequence. if you change the 'names' you will lost only data for changed question not affects on index sequence. it could be due to some manipulation during data cleaning.