waiting for my pocket uery

[+imfishinohio]

I was trying to do a cache along a route. I submitted a PQ over an hour ago but am still waiting so I thought I'd post it on the forum even tough I know it's been brought up many time before. I wanted it for tomorow but it looks like I won't be getting it done since I have plans tonight. I make mistakes so I resubmit but I guess the servers are to busy with "Where I go" and "Waymarking." I sure hope all the people that haven't supported GC.com by becoming a premiium member appreciate my money going to fund these projects instead of it going to fixing the problem with what is important to me.

[+StarBrand]

Over an hour is a very long time for a brand new Pocket Query. Almost all of my new ones run and are delivered inside of 5 minutes no matter what day of the week I try.

 

Check your SPAM folders and remember that your computer, your network, your employer and/or your ISP may have some filtering along the line.

 

Some of the large email providers like Yahoo and AOL (and others) sometimes block or throttle the rate at which the will accept email from Groundspeak. Many have reported that using a free gmail account seems very reliable.

 

Did you return to your PQ screen - it will show the last day/time it was run - what does it say?? If it ran but you didn't get it - it is probably stuck in the email sytem and likely won't get to you - try the above suggestions. If the PQ has not run yet - be patient - it will later.

 

Blaming new projects is hardly warrented at this point in time.

[Keystone]

Pocket queries run on a different server than those "Other Things." And the pocket query server is running just fine. I received three route queries this morning in preparation for an upcoming trip.

 

If you put your invective down for a moment and link to your query and/or to your route (if public), perhaps we could help see where the problem lies.

[+tozainamboku]

I make mistakes so I resubmit ....

Did you edit and resubmit the same pocket query? If so it won't run till next week (or tomorrow, if you checked that day as well) since it already ran on Saturday this week. You need to make a copy of your pocket query and submit that. The system will see this as a new pocket query and it should run in just a few minutes.

[+UncleJimbo]

I was trying to do a cache along a route. I submitted a PQ over an hour ago but am still waiting so I thought I'd post it on the forum even tough I know it's been brought up many time before. I wanted it for tomorow but it looks like I won't be getting it done since I have plans tonight. I make mistakes so I resubmit but I guess the servers are to busy with "Where I go" and "Waymarking." I sure hope all the people that haven't supported GC.com by becoming a premiium member appreciate my money going to fund these projects instead of it going to fixing the problem with what is important to me.

Preview your queries before you set them to run. The more queries you have in a day, the slower each one is processed. Once you are sure the query is going to give you what you want, then check a day (today) and set it in motion.

[+StarBrand]

I was trying to do a cache along a route. I submitted a PQ over an hour ago but am still waiting so I thought I'd post it on the forum even tough I know it's been brought up many time before. I wanted it for tomorow but it looks like I won't be getting it done since I have plans tonight. I make mistakes so I resubmit but I guess the servers are to busy with "Where I go" and "Waymarking." I sure hope all the people that haven't supported GC.com by becoming a premiium member appreciate my money going to fund these projects instead of it going to fixing the problem with what is important to me.

Preview your queries before you set them to run. The more queries you have in a day, the slower each one is processed. Once you are sure the query is going to give you what you want, then check a day (today) and set it in motion.

Its actually got nothing to do with how many you have run in a given day - it all has to do with how long it has been since that particular query was run. New ones are pushed to the top of the queue and then they are processed by the most days since it last ran.

[+Markwell]

Did you select a day to run, and did it run?

[+BuckyD]

FWIW: at 7:30pm PDT tonight I ran two queries, one to one email address and another to a different place, and neither has shown up (yes, they are bolded as having run). I copied one of the queries as new, ran that, and at 15 minutes post-"bold" I still haven't received it. My husband ran his at about 6:30pm PDT and got it.

 

I'm fairly comfortable with my ability to use the GC.com site and its pocket query functions, so I'm pretty sure there's an issue somewhere with the mail server that started this evening (or his query was shuttled out of GC.com through a different mail server than mine).

[+webscouter.]

If you resubmitted the same query it won't run for 24 hours. You will need to create a new query with the correct settings and run it.

 

Pocket queries run on a different machine so Waymarking and Wherigo don't have anything to do with them not being received at all.

 

I just created two pocket queries and received them in less than 2 minutes so the machine isn't down.

[+Cardinal Red]

I just created a brand new Query at 12:43:45 AM. Came through in 99 seconds.

[+BuckyD]

I just created two pocket queries and received them in less than 2 minutes so the machine isn't down.

 

Well, that information just frustrates me to no end...

 

Edit to add: a 4th attempt just got through to a 3rd email address.

[+dflye]

I've never had problems with PQ delivery for new PQs, especially when they are listed as having been generated! But for some reason, two queries I created early today for an upcoming trip have not been delivered, even though they were generated around 8:30 AM PST.

 

I know the tricks of making sure to submit the query initially with no selected generation date, and once happy with the preview, select the desired generation date(s).

 

Not sure if it is a problem with my mail server (which I can't recall happening in the last year) or with GS, but another data point would be that I haven't received a single log notice from track-enabled bookmark lists since last night, which is extremely unusual given the number of caches I've bookmarked to track...

 

If other folks are receiving log notices, I'll side in favor of my mail server taking a nap, otherwise I'll side in favor of GS taking a nap.

[+PhxChem]

I make mistakes so I resubmit but I guess the servers are to busy with "Where I go" and "Waymarking."

 

Keystone already addressed it, so I won't pile on....except to say that was pretty poor form.

 

So, what are the details? Are you sure it ran? Did you check the correct day?

[+StarBrand]

Might be helpful to list who your email provider is. The part s past the @ - see if there is a pattern.

[+Sushibomber]

i got the same problem. i am still waitin for "my pocket query"... i was requesting it last sunday and for the whole week i didn't receive any email... i thought it could be a server problem... so i tried it again today after 7days but until now (7h later) i didn't recieve anything. i checked my email account *@hotmail.com but there is nothin even in the junk folder.. are there problems with the server ?

[+Markwell]

Again - are you sure the PQ ran? When it runs, it turns bold and is marked with "date created". My experience has been that if it was created and not received, 99% of the time after that it's the fault of the receiving e-mail provider for any non-receipt.

[+Miragee]

When my ISP suddenly decided to block ALL Groundspeak domains, I did not receive anything. The messages were not in the Quarantine folder on their web site . . . the were just blocked, and were trapped in limbo on Groundspeak's servers.

 

Getting a Gmail account solved that probem . . . And I just forward the mail to the email client on my computer so I can read the email offline.

[+Sushibomber]

Again - are you sure the PQ ran? When it runs, it turns bold and is marked with "date created". My experience has been that if it was created and not received, 99% of the time after that it's the fault of the receiving e-mail provider for any non-receipt.

 

yeah, i'm sure ! it's bold and it says under "Last generated (PST)" : 3/16/2008 6:48:57 AM*

well til now i didn't recieve anything... it worked fine til the last time i used it in january (with my hotmail.com account) and now when i wanted to update my profil i didn't recieve nothin.

[+BuckyD]

Just a little update on my issue:

 

I ran two different PQs this evening, both were sent to the same email address (mac.com) that was having the trouble last night. Both showed up within minutes tonight. However, my two PQs from last night that were sent to this email address (~7:30pm PDT) never showed up. I had a third query that was run last night and this evening as well -- this one is sent to a webserver that provides coordinate correction services (boulter.com). This third query did not show up last night (or, rather since last night), and a re-run this evening has not shown up yet. I'm less concerned about this last query, as Boulter may need to kick his machine or something...

 

I've had good luck using gmail.com when these things happen, but I thought I'd document the current vagaries in case mac.com had throttled GC.com or something.

 

The plot thickens -- or at least gets more muddled.

[+imfishinohio]

If you put your invective down for a moment and link to your query and/or to your route (if public), perhaps we could help see where the problem lies.

THey never did show up in my Gmail so I just downloaded 5 pages of loc files off the search pages they generated. I did generate a PQ and it came in the mail. On the next zip code I wanted to look up I didn't navigate back to the main PQ page because I thought as long as I changed the name of the PQ and some of the settings it would be a new PQ that would be sent to my mailbox.

Both the ones that never made it to my mailbox still generated the search pages so I had the settings right.

I guess my question is... After generating a PQ do I have to navigate back to the main PQ page and hit the "Create a new query" in order to get it to my mailbox?

[+imfishinohio]

I make mistakes so I resubmit ....

Did you edit and resubmit the same pocket query? If so it won't run till next week (or tomorrow, if you checked that day as well) since it already ran on Saturday this week. You need to make a copy of your pocket query and submit that. The system will see this as a new pocket query and it should run in just a few minutes.

I edited the name and location thinking it would be a new query.

[+Miragee]

To have it be a "new" query in the eyes of the PQ server, you have to make a Copy of the PQ by clicking on this icon -- .

 

Then, after creating the copy, you have to open it and change any parameters necessary, then choose the day for it to run. Usually, if I have made a Copy of a PQ, I have it run once after which it is deleted.

 

I have about thirty different PQs in my list to cover different locations around this cache-rich area, and areas where I travel, but the PQs I depend on each week are the seven "Date Placed" PQs with which I keep my GSAK database up-to-date.

[+imfishinohio]

but the PQs I depend on each week are the seven "Date Placed" PQs with which I keep my GSAK database up-to-date.

Miragee,

Could you explain what you mean by "Date Placed" PQ's. I have an idea but this looks like a chance for me to learn something. I am in the process of setting up a bunch of PQ's for my GSAK database to cover most of the area I might normally cache in. A link to a discussion on this would be fine since I see you probably know this forum well.

Edited March 19, 2008 by imfishinohio

[+Miragee]

Date Placed PQs are determined by the date the cache was origninally placed. For each of the PQs, I used coordinates from a "Centerpoint" about 50 miles inland from the ocean. Then, I used these dates for the "Date Placed" PQs.

 

1 -- 05/01/00 - 11/30/04

2 -- 12/01/04 - 04/07/06

3 -- 04/08/06 - 11/20/06

4 -- 11/21/06 - 04/22/07

5 -- 04/23/07 - 09/20/07

6 -- 09/21/07 - 01/22/08

7 -- 01/23/08 - 04/30/08

 

I requested a maximum of 500 cache in each PQ, but had to play with the dates using the Preview to keep the actual number of caches being returned under about 490 caches.

 

To get started, just set up the first one starting at the "birth" of Geocaching and picking an ending date in 2004. Preview it, adjust the ending date, until the PQ returns about 490 caches. Then, set up PQ number '2' with a starting date the next day after the ending date of the previous PQ. Depending on how "cache rich" your area is, and how wide you want your "Search Circle," you might only need a few PQs, or you might need even more than the number I use.

 

After I refresh my GSAK database with the new PQs, I use the "Last .gpx update" filter to get rid of all the "Disabled" and "Archived" caches. This last step keeps me from ever searching for a cache that isn't there anymore since my data shouldn't ever be very "stale."

[+StarBrand]

but the PQs I depend on each week are the seven "Date Placed" PQs with which I keep my GSAK database up-to-date.

Miragee,

Could you explain what you mean by "Date Placed" PQ's. I have an idea but this looks like a chance for me to learn something. I am in the process of setting up a bunch of PQ's for my GSAK database to cover most of the area I might normally cache in. A link to a discussion on this would be fine since I see you probably know this forum well.

Instead of query for an area by a radius alone you can be more effcient by doing a PQ by the placed date. Play with it to get right below 500 caches placed before some date (say 5/2/2002 for example) then play with it to get about 500 for the next date range (say 5/3/2002 to 6/1/2003) - keep following that technique to get as large an area as you can. This method totally avoids any overlap in your radius and doesn't waste any PQ space.

 

Make sense??

[+imfishinohio]

Wow, that is some out of the box thinking. I wasn't so worried about overlapping areas since GSAK would take care of that for me. I did have a concern about missing some since radius's are round and won't overlap everywhere. Miragee, the way you do it will keep my PQ's to a minimum. Date place PQ's sound much easier then experimenting with zips codes. Thanks so much for explaining it to me. I think I will try it. I'm sure as tme goes on you need to adjust the dates but that sound easier then shifing around zips. Thnaks again.

[+beejay&esskay]

There is a macro available for GSAK that does the calculation of the dates to get the "right" number of caches in the various placed by dates PQs.

 

It takes all the tedium out of it.

Edited March 20, 2008 by beejay&esskay

[+Markwell]

Yep - it's been around for quite some time. Well documented in my FAQ.

[+BuckyD]

Update on my issue: My Mar 15 and Mar 16 runs of the same pocket query just showed up (its Mar 20) at boulter.com's basecamp service. Only two queries from Mar 15 to my main (mac.com) email address are as-of-yet unaccounted for. Of course, I've had three additional queries run and show up to that address this week, so I'm a little baffled about what happened last Saturday.

[+beejay&esskay]

My Mar 15 and Mar 16 runs of the same pocket query just showed up (its Mar 20) at boulter.com's basecamp service.

The e-mail headers will show you were it was delayed.