The original version of this document is located at https://docs.qfield.org/how-to/general/settings

QField General Settings

The general settings screen allows you to control the basic appearance and behavior of QField.
You can access the general settings in two ways.

The following sections describe available configuration options.

Map Canvas

• Show scale bar”: Displays the scale bar on the map canvas.
• Show zoom controls”: Displays zoom buttons (+ / -) on the map canvas.
• Show bookmarks”: Displays locally created bookmarks and project-embedded bookmarks on the map canvas.
• Enable map rotation”: Allows you to rotate the map canvas.
• Map canvas rendering quality”: Controls rendering resolution to balance memory usage and performance.
  Lowering quality reduces memory usage and speeds up rendering at the cost of rendering precision.

Digitizing & Editing

• Show digitizing information”: Displays coordinate details (such as latitude and longitude) beneath the crosshair while digitizing features or using the measuring tool.
• Fast editing mode”: Automatically saves feature edits immediately upon modification.
• Use volume keys to digitize”: Uses device volume buttons during digitizing sessions.
  Pressing Volume Up adds a vertex, while pressing Volume Down removes the last entered vertex.
• Allow finger tap on canvas to add vertices”: Moves the coordinate cursor directly to the tapped location on the map canvas.
  This option is useful when mapping features at a larger scale.
• Consider mouse as a touchscreen device”: Allows adding new vertices anywhere on the map using mouse clicks.
  When disabled, the crosshair remains fixed to the map center while mouse movement shifts the map canvas.

User Interface

• Customize search bar”: Opens search filter settings when tapping the three-dotted menu (⋮).

  • Features from active layer”: Queries the currently active layer highlighted in the legend.
    Refine active layer queries by prefixing searches with @ to search a specific attribute field.
    When disabled, access this filter by typing f in the search bar.
  • Features in all layers”: Searches features across all project vector layers.
    When Features from active layer is enabled, search all layers by prefixing queries with af.
  • Go to coordinate”: Navigates to coordinates by pasting longitude and latitude values.
    When disabled, access coordinate navigation by typing go at the beginning of a query.

  Tip

  Long-press a point of interest on the map canvas to copy its coordinates to the clipboard, then paste the coordinates into the search bar.
  If Go to coordinate is disabled, type go before the coordinates and remove coordinate reference system text.

  • Spatial bookmarks”: Searches pre-configured spatial bookmarks when using the search bar.
    When disabled, access spatial bookmarks by typing b before a query.
  • Calculator”: Evaluates simple arithmetic expressions directly in the search bar and allows copying results to the clipboard.
    When disabled, access the calculator by typing = before an expression.
  • QField Documentation”: Searches QField documentation pages matching search terms.
    When disabled, search documentation by typing ? before a query.
  • Manage plugins”: Opens the plugin management screen when tapping the three-dotted menu (⋮) to add, enable, or disable custom plugins.
    Refer to the Plugins Page to add new plugins.
  • Maximized attribute form”: Expands attribute forms to cover the full screen.
  • Fixed scale navigation”:
  • Active fixed scale navigation”: Pans and highlights selected search results while maintaining the current map scale.
  • Disabled fixed scale navigation”: Pans, highlights, and zooms to selected search results.
  • Automatically open form for single feature identification”: Automatically opens attribute forms when tapping an individual feature in browse mode.
  • Dim screening when idling”: Sets the inactivity timer before the device screen dims to preserve battery power.
    Set the value to 0 to disable screen dimming completely.
  • Appearance”: Toggles the QField interface theme between Light and Dark mode.
  • User interface font size”: Adjusts interface text sizes using the following options:
  • Tiny
  • Normal
  • Large
  • Extra-large
  • User interface language”: Uses the default language configured on your device when a translation is available.
    Help translate QField into your native language on the Transifex Translation Platform.

Advanced

• Use native camera”: Toggles between device native camera applications and the integrated QField camera.
  The QField internal camera provides the following integrated capabilities:
  • Geotagging and EXIF Metadata
  • Real-time image stamping
  • Aspect ratio and resolution adjustments
  • Camera selection (front and rear lenses)

• Send anonymized metrics”: Collects and transmits anonymized usage metrics to help improve QField.
  QField never transmits personal account details or project data.