stantastic

Hi, JL_HSTRE -- yes, I did ask on the GSAK forums, and surprisingly my entire post/question seems to be "missing"??? I've asked "general" question on the GSAK forums before and if it's not something SPECIFIC to GSAK itself (menus, API, UI, linking to GPS, etc.), the admins seem to think it's "irrelevant" (which is frustrating, since where else can we get answers?). Since my issue is not a specific question about GSAK itself (more of how it seems to be interfacing with Parallels), I think they removed it -- although I haven't received any notice that it was. Wrote too soon -- went back to look again and the admin moved it to a "Related to GSAK" forum, but not a specific GSAK question. Either way, still no answer :-(

Wondering if anyone had a fix (or even a confirmation of this) -- have been running GSAK on a MacBook Pro using Windows 11 under Parallels v17 (and even earlier versions) without a problem in speed. Ever since I updated Parallels to v18 (with all else being the same) GSAK is the ONLY app that has slowed significantly. Database listings are slow to display, typing letters in the search box for GC code or cache name accepts one letter at a time with a slow wait between keystrokes. Using the app is frustrating waiting for it to do things. I only use Windows to run a few apps that aren't in the Mac universe, and they are all running as before under Parallels 15, 16, 17 -- smooth and consistently fast (considering this is all an emulation). But GSAK is the ONLY app that seems to have been affected. Anybody have any clues or insights? Is anybody else experiencing the same thing? There's gotta be a lot of Mac users that have the same configuration as I do (or somewhat close to it). Any HELPFUL suggestions appreciated. Thanx.

I've had this same problem for months (maybe years, it's been so long, I've lost track!). My day to day browser has always been Safari, and I don't want to have to switch back and forth between it and Chrome (or Firefox) just to view geocache map pages. What a pain. Invariably wanting to choose a satellite view the screen displays the same errors as Max and 99 posted, and the "Safari cannot open the page" error as well. Wish they would nail down the solution and fix it -- there's got to be thousands of (PAYING!) users that have the same issues. Same goes for Messages -- sometimes have to reload the page multiple times before it displays correctly. Come on guys...

As a paying Premium Member of the Geocaching community (and Groundspeak) since March of 2001, I've seen GC change so many times over the years, from bad to good, and from good to bad. Since Adventure Labs were added to the mix, there was no easy way to handle them in relation to keeping a database of finds (specifically GSAK), without manually entering the data one AdLab location at a time. When the "ImportAdventureLabs" macro was introduced (and then modified for the better), it made things easy to keep track of one's AdLab finds, their coordinates, and offered an incredibly useful tool of being able to pre-plan trips by loading and viewing the locations that needed to be visited (sometimes more than one AdLab's locations overlapping another). It was bothersome to work on an AL and complete it, only to find there was another one that had you possibly in the same place -- now forcing you to go back to where you where before. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE bring back the ability for the ImportAdventureLabs macro (along with other macros that have been written to access AL data) to make calls to the API and let us cachers enjoy the hobby that we have gotten to love over all these years.

I've been having the same issue as described above FOR MONTHS now. I'm currently running Mac OS Big Sure 11.5.1 and Safari 14.1.2. Almost every single time when I click on "View Larger Map" from a cache page I'm presented with a "Safari Can't Open Page" error. Clicking on the Refresh button usually solves the issue and the map is displayed. But that's just a PITA to do every time. And like others, I don't want to have to switch from Safari to Chrome to Firefox just to get the Geocaching website to work correctly. These are all the latest browsers and any decent website that conforms to the current HTML standards should open and display correctly, but gc.com seems to have been failing consistently for a long time now. Frustrating to say the least.

Thanks, noncentric -- I think you answered my question. Seems like it's come down to semantics, definition, and interpretation -- a "Watchlist" on "Your Watchlist" page versus a "Bookmark" list in a "My Lists" page. Basically, they're all just LISTS of caches (but with subtle differences as to how they are treated). I don't really NEED to move caches from my "Watchlist" to a Bookmark list (again, unless there's a need to separate them out into categories), and assuming, as you stated, that IF they dispose of the so-called "Watchlist" that they automatically move them over as a Bookmark list. Okay, I'm good (for now)...

Yeah, I understand that -- I see "My Lists" and "Watchlists" on the right on my profile page. I'm an old-timer, and the only thing that existed "back then" was a single list called "Your Watchlist" -- click on the top right "Watch" link and it was added to "Your Watchlist" and bam, you're done. There was no way to organize those caches into different categories, it was/is just one big list. And, YES, I still have that. But, what's there now is not only "Watch" but "Add to list" -- which adds the cache to a "new" list (now on the new "My Lists" page). And yes, I see that/have that as well -- although I don't have any caches in any list on THAT page that I've created (YET!). I guess by adding the "My List" page they now allow you to organize caches that your are watching, or want to group and download, or WHATEVER, into multiple lists -- and you can "watch" any cache on that list just like in the old days. The purpose is almost the same, I guess -- BUT -- what I was asking is: is there a way to get ALL of the caches from my old "Your Watchlist" page and move them over to a "new" watchlist in the "My Lists" page without moving them one at a time. Or, maybe there's just no need to do that at all anyway (depends on your personal needs, I suppose). Groundspeak changes software so willy-nilly sometimes -- at the top of the old "List Management" page it says "A new version of this page is now available. Try the new page" And at the top of the new page it says "Welcome to the new Lists page. If you don't like it, you can go back to the old page. Let us know what you think." It kinda makes me think that "eventually" they will toss out the old "Watchlist" page and just keep the new "My Lists" page, where all the caches you are watching are in one list or another that exist in THAT location. I was thinking of MOVING all my watched caches over there to a new list (called "Watchlist") -- but I can't see a way to do it in bulk. Is that sorta clear? Newbies don't need to worry about it as much since they're starting out with whatever they have NOW -- but us oldies had other options back then (albeit LESS than exist now).

This may have been asked and answered, and I tried doing a search, but (well, you know how that goes!)... Is there a way to move ALL caches on my "old" watchlist page (in the old format) to a NEW watchlist on the "new" watchlist page with a couple of clicks? Or do I have to go to EACH cache's webpage and click on the "Add to Watchlist" link on the top right to move them over one at a time? For a large number of caches, that's a PITA Any solutions or insights appreciated -- thnx...

I was the OP on this thread, and I appreciate all the feedback -- especially ALL of the ones that got posted today. I can only guess I was having some link creation problems once Dropbox changed their policy on the PUBLIC folder on March 15. Turns out on one of my puzzle caches that linked to TWO separate .mp4 files in my Dropbox folder, even though I created NEW "shared" links, ONE of them was working and the other was not. I only found out when a friend of mine informed me that one link was actually connecting him to his OWN Dropbox account, and not mine! Sheesh!! I handled both the same, but one worked, the other didn't. It worked for me at home when I first did it, but it was sending me to my OWN folder, and of course as far as I could tell, it "looked" like it was working. In any case, although I don't know how that happened in the beginning, I re-worked the links and NOW things seem to be fine. As for static images, I decided to upload them to the gc.com servers using the Admin Tools function for cache owners. They seemed to work. The puzzles are NOT dependent on EXIF data, nor necessarily on physical size on the cache page, but they DID turn out looking like they were supposed to. I'm still (or was) having a problem with a .mov file. Since gc.com won't accept those, I left it in my Dropbox folder. When I first created the puzzle, it was both "viewable" directly from within my Dropbox folder (using QuickTime) AND also downloadable -- both using the same link. When viewed, it showed up on screen, by itself, in a QT window, and played as expected. BUT -- NOW that the DB Public folder has changed, the movie cannot be viewed without distortion during playback, ruining the entire effect. Instead of the movie showing in its own QT window, it shows up as an object in the center of a Dropbox folder screen, with all kinds of DB stuff along the top (path names, pull down menus, etc). The movie is enlarged and plays with a stuttering and flattening effect. So, I had to change the cache page to specifically say "YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THIS MOVIE TO YOUR HARD DRIVE IN ORDER TO VIEW IT CORRECTLY" -- which kinda spoiled my intended goal. It now works, assuming the puzzle solver downloads the file -- otherwise, they're going to get confused. It was suggested to load movies and such to YouTube instead, but I haven't tried that yet (and now that I have it working, I'm in no hurry to try). With so many clever types of puzzles out there that gc.com allows, it would seem to make sense that they allow NOT ONLY static .jpg images, but also .mov, .mpg, and even .wav files (basically, the most common types of media files).

Thanks -- yeah, I follow. If I remember correctly, many moons ago the only image you could upload to the cache page was the background image and nothing else. You could use images on the page, but you had to link them from within the HTML code -- there was no where on gc.com to save them. And my caches are old. Somewhere along the line they allowed the uploading of images to THEIR servers, which is where we are now. To fix my missing images, I did exactly that -- uploaded them thru the Admin Tools > Upload Image... option, created the link from that, and they work. My moves and music files though are NOT accepted in that format, so I've reworked the Dropbox link and now they show up as well, except for the user to see what used to be JUST the file in question, now there's the Dropbox site showing up along with my files. I guess I can live with that...

Thanks for that -- I read it, and that was exactly what I was doing (or at least TRYING to do!)

Yep, neither link works for me. It just says "File not found". One thing I noticed is that your URLs look different than the ones I get. For example, yours start with the following and then have the file name after that: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43917939/ ...whereas mine look like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5kbu0zzjwm2spq/ The question then is, why are you getting seemingly-incorrect URLs? Thanks for the point out of the "...//dl" versus the "...//www." difference. I don't know WHY it did that. Instead of accessing my Dropbox files from my Mac's drop-down menu, I went directly to my Dropbox.com website and tried it from there. It worked on one file. Yeah. Then I went BACK to my dropdown menu and tried it again on the same file, and THIS TIME I got the "www" link. Pasted THAT into the cache page, and it worked. What I'm now upset with is that when the files are accessed via the cache page, it takes people INTO my "Public" folder first (and displays everything in it), and THEN calls up the file in question. Unfortunately, it's got all that "dropbox-y" stuff in the window rather than JUST the file in question -- which is how it worked on March 14, but not on March 15. But, hey, it's working. Guess I could create a SEPARATE folder specific to each puzzle cache I have media for, since now ALL folders in Dropbox are treated the same.

Thanks, I'll look into that as a last resort -- not exactly what I was hoping for as a work-around. And it still doesn't answer the question as to HOW to get external links to Dropbox files (n particular) to work within cache page descriptions.

Can you define what you mean by "still broken"? I just tried it myself by right-clicking on a file in my Dropbox folder in Windows and selecting "Copy Dropbox link", and this is the resulting URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/56a9leop1dzgyvs/test.txt?dl=0 When I try to access this address from my work computer, I can access it just fine. I just went to the Dropbox website to see how you would do things there, and I just had to click "Share" and then "Copy link", and it gave me the same URL. Can you give an example of a URL you're trying to use and how you're getting that URL? By "still broken" I mean on the cache page there is a rectangle with a question mark in the middle of it -- so that's what I'm referring to as a broken link. I did EXACTLY what you described as well -- right-clicked on a file, selected "Copy Link", and then tried pasting the resulting URL into the cache page description. After saving the page, the image would not display. Even tried to remove the "dl=0" at the end of the URL. That didn't work either. What I DID discover within the last hour was going to Admin Tools > Upload Image, which uploaded the image to gc.com, then opening THAT upload, copying the URL, and pasting it into the description. That DID WORK!! So, images are solved, although now not being called from MY Dropbox folder. But I'm still having problems with music and movie links to my Dropbox. Tried doing the same thing -- select the file, copy the link, go to the cache description, then paste the link. It comes up with a "File Not Found" error. Check out my cache "Black is Black" (GC48G09) https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC48G09_black-is-black?guid=d0478f7b-cadb-4a37-a7ed-8f10df2b042a. Try clicking on either of the two links in the description.

I've got a few cache descriptions that have links to MY personal Public Dropbox folder, including .jpg (images), .mp4 (music), and .mov (movie files). As of March 15, public Dropbox links are no longer public and must be "shared." I've solved the images problem -- used Admin Tools > Upload Images... to upload them to gc.com and create new links to those .jpegs. But how do I link to the two other formats in my Dropbox folder? I tried doing a "copy link" and pasting it into the HTML code, but that didn't solve anything. They're still broken. Can anybody suggest the correct HTML code or how to get it to work now that Dropbox requires "shared links" to outside sources? Or do I have to find another place to store those files for public access? Thanks...

It's always nice to know that YOU aren't the only one suffering from some computer problem and that your misery is shared by others So far I haven't seen any new Garmin Communicator updates nor any Safari updates. Since GC does work with Firefox, it's easy to assume that it's NOT the plug-in that's the problem, but something new (buggy?) with the latest Safari. Meanwhile, for single cache downloads, I just save each .gpx file to my desktop and then drag them to my O650. It IS a pain. For larger grabs, I resort to GSAK's "Get geocaches..." ability and the Garmin Export macro, which is still working just fine.

Looks like the latest Garmin Communicator Plugin 4.2.0 and the NEW Safari 10.0 are incompatible on the Mac. I'm having the same problem -- and now running OS X Sierra. I DID notice that somebody had tried it with Firefox, so I tried it as well -- and it worked. I did not try Chrome. I have also not tried sending caches to my O650 from GSAK running under Windows 10 in Parallels, but I would imagine that it would still work there (still have not tested it though). There IS obviously a problem as it stands, but I can see Garmin pointing fingers at Apple (& Safari) and Apple pointing fingers at Garmin. I'm sure it will get worked out -- we'll just have to wait. If you DO want to send caches to your unit one at a time, you'll have to find another way. Or as suggested as a workaround, create a PQ and just drag the .gpx file to your unit...

I've got the SAME PROBLEM. I just tried to upload a cache using "Send to my GPS" and got a message that the Garmin Communicator Plug-in was not detected, but the latest version IS installed and it recognizes my device. This is the first time I tried since upgrading to OS X Sierra and the latest version of Safari. It was working fine before the update. Dang :-(

Emphasis marks "*" and "**" will only be interpreted if they surround the word. S*W*A*G will render exactly as written. *S*W*A*G* will render as S*W*A*G (or **S*W*A*G** as S*W*A*G) Am I missing something, then? Because when I'm in the latest version of GSAK (851B64) and enter S*W*A*G into a log and do a preview, I see SWA*G as a result. The "W" is italic, the rest are not, and only one asterisk appears between the A and G. Is it GSAK that's having problems rendering the text? I know Clyde just started adopting the Markdown language into GSAK, but am I doing something wrong? It took me a while in the beginning (years ago) to figure out how to insert HTML code into my logs to get bold, italic, colored text, and make links work correctly. Now I see Markdown doesn't support colors -- and GS isn't supporting HTML. And text isn't appearing as I would expect it to. I'm confused...

Probably been asked and answered here, so sorry if it's being asked again. I just attended the Mega Event in Yuma, Arizona, put on by the "S*W*A*G" group. If the "*" (asterisk) symbol is being used in the Markdown language to distinguish bold, italic, etc. -- what do I type in my logs (or in GSAK) to get an asterisk to look like an asterisk, without it being interpreted as Markdown code?? How do I get S*W*A*G to look like S*W*A*G? Thanks to whomever replies...

Nothing's showing up for me, either -- avatars, photos, everything's missing...

Whoop-di-doo!! They added a scale!! Now I have something to look at while I wait five minutes for the aerial image tiles to load -- agonizingly S-L-O-W!!! And don't scroll or zoom that map or you'll have to wait AGAIN!! Once more back out of Safari and back into Firefox with the Greasemonkey fix. Sigh :-(

It would have been better if they had spent their precious resources in fixing the current map fiasco than worrying about a Leap Day souvenir coin -- but that's just MY opinion

As far as I can tell, on my Mac running Safari, EVERYTHING has disappeared since the "maintenance" this afternoon. Since they stopped using Google Maps, everything was S-L-O-W and totally unusable. Watching tiles show up in aerial images was like watching grass grow. Now, I just see a white screen. No maps -- no caches -- no topos -- no aerials -- no NOTHIN'!! Not even an icon in the top right corner to click on. It seems to be working under Firefox -- at least to some degree -- with the greasemonkey fix installed. But under Safari -- zilch! Geeez -- are we going to suffer with this inferiority for more than another day??? Arrrrghhh...

I know that writing anything else about the "new" map page is like beating a dead horse, but here goes: The current incarnation of the map pages SUCK. I can watch a snail cross my 70'-yard faster than I can see an aerial map show up on screen. And Groundspeak wants us to have a pleasant experience? For my yearly dues I expect better than this. The experience has become extremely painful -- worse than getting a root canal. Somebody (or somebodies) at GS better get their heads out from where the sun don't shine and FIX THIS MESS!! Google Maps or NO Google Maps!! Arrrrrrghhhhhhhh...