Why do new EO and Source Feature IDs sometimes jump by 33 (or another large number)?

You may notice that when you create a new Element Occurrence (EO) or Source Feature, its internal ID isn’t one higher than the last record. Often it’s about 33 higher. This is expected, and it doesn’t mean any records were lost, deleted, or skipped.

Why it happens

Biotics 6 runs on a cloud database (Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL). To work efficiently, the database reserves ID numbers in small batches rather than one at a time. When the database is quiet for a while, it frees up memory, and any unused numbers in the reserved batch are set aside. The next record you create picks up at the start of a new batch, which leaves a gap in the sequence.

Because this happens most often when the database hasn’t been busy, you’re more likely to see it if your program creates records occasionally rather than in a steady stream.

Does this affect my data?

No. The EO ID and Source Feature ID are internal system identifiers that Biotics uses behind the scenes to link records together. They have no meaning beyond that, and a gap in the numbers has no effect on your data or how Biotics works.

Your EO numbers are not affected. They’re generated separately and still increase by 1 as expected.

Can this happen with other records?

Yes. Any record type with a system-generated ID can show gaps, including Managed Areas and Conservation Sites. You may just not have noticed it there yet.

Will this be fixed?

This is standard database behavior, not a bug, so there’s nothing to fix. If you have a specific need for gap-free internal IDs, please contact the Help Desk so we can understand your use case.