The "My Finds Query" has a bug....

[+texasgrillchef]

I have noticed that the last few weeks of caching that when I download the "My Finds" Query GPX file that their are some errors. BUGS!

 

Example. Today I found 20 caches. When you go to those 20 cache pages, you will see my "Found" log with the correct date listed for the found log. (The correct date being Saturday July 24th, 2010). I found all 20 of these caches between the times of about 4pm to 8:30pm central time today.

 

Around 10:30pm to 11pm Central time on July 24th, 2010 I initiated the "My Finds" Query and downloaded the newly created GPX file.

 

In the file, it has listed 12 (Twelve) of my 20 finds today, as being "FOUND" on July 25th, 2010. Here is a sample that I cut n pasted directly from the GPX file.

 

<wpt lat="33.150317" lon="-96.863933">

<time>2007-03-10T08:00:00Z</time>

<name>GC11BXD</name>

<desc>Ophidiophobia by TJ and Blondie, Traditional Cache (1.5/1)</desc>

 

"The rest of the associated part of the "Waypoint" I have cut out to save space as its not really needed"

 

<Groundspeak:logs>

<Groundspeak:log id="118386589">

<Groundspeak:date>2010-07-25T00:18:35Z</Groundspeak:date>

<Groundspeak:type>Found it</Groundspeak:type>

<Groundspeak:finder id="2387602">texasgrillchef</Groundspeak:finder>

<Groundspeak:text encoded="False">Wife spotted this one after I found GZ. We left our signature personalized micropen. Tftgc</Groundspeak:text>

</Groundspeak:log>

</Groundspeak:logs>

<Groundspeak:travelbugs />

</Groundspeak:cache>

</wpt>

 

As you can see from the "BOLDFACE" above the time that the GPX file is reporting.

 

Now if you go to the web page for this assoicated geocache Link... http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...&Submit6=Go

 

You will see my log and it's correct date... TODAY (July 24th, 2010)

 

Yes, I know I can edit the GPX file and correct any errors. However this error ISN'T only for the caches I found today. It also shows INCORRECT dates for caches I have found the on PREVIOUS days caching this week.

 

Just wanted to inform everyone of this error.

 

TGC

[+Chrysalides]

Just curious - do you log using a mobile phone or using the iPhone app?

 

I'm trying to narrow down how it could have happened. This is clearly a bug at Groundspeak's end (and it has come up a few times before).

[+texasgrillchef]

Just curious - do you log using a mobile phone or using the iPhone app?

 

I'm trying to narrow down how it could have happened. This is clearly a bug at Groundspeak's end (and it has come up a few times before).

 

I am using my iPhone 3gs with the latest version of the iOS and the latest version of the PAID version of the geocaching app.

 

Interestingly enough. I have gone back through the entire GPX file. currently all 656 of my finds and there are inaccurate dates going back as far as 265 finds.

 

Whats interesting though is that its inconsistant.

 

Example today I found 20 finds. but only 12 had incorrect dates. On the 18th of July I had 30 finds, however the GPX file had 18 of those 30 with incorrect dates.

 

The other interesting fact is that when you check in your "FOUND" logs all of the finds have the CORRECT date on them. As well as as the log entry found on the actual cache page. All of those dates are correct.

 

Needles to say. Correcting the GPX file via editor and checking for the correct date on geocaching.com by comparing with the "Found" log list is a very very tedious PIA. Geocaching.com needs to fix this error. Otherwise all the statistics we are trying to figure out are POINTLESS!

 

TGC

 

P.S. I have only noticed this bug in the last 3 weeks, since I have downloaded the "my finds" query on Saturday night for the last 3 weeks. I have done this as this summer do to all of my traveling I have done some very heavy geocaching across the country and in texas as well.

Edited July 25, 2010 by texasgrillchef

[+Chrysalides]

The dates in the GPX file are UTC +0 dates. Assuming you're from Texas, your local time is 6 hours behind, or 5 hours behind during Daylight Saving.

 

geocaching.com converts all time to Pacific time before displaying on-site. AFAIK, no other software will do so.

 

geocaching.com usually uses a fixed time for "Found It", "DNF" and "Note" log types. Currently they seem to be using whatever UTC time that converts to 12 noon Pacific time (for now, during DST, that is 1900Z). However, it seems that with the iPhone app, time gets messed up. There might be other instances where time gets messed up too.

 

Just explaining the situation to you. This one is a real mess and requires Groundspeak to fix.

[+texasgrillchef]

The dates in the GPX file are UTC +0 dates. Assuming you're from Texas, your local time is 6 hours behind, or 5 hours behind during Daylight Saving.

 

geocaching.com converts all time to Pacific time before displaying on-site. AFAIK, no other software will do so.

 

geocaching.com usually uses a fixed time for "Found It", "DNF" and "Note" log types. Currently they seem to be using whatever UTC time that converts to 12 noon Pacific time (for now, during DST, that is 1900Z). However, it seems that with the iPhone app, time gets messed up. There might be other instances where time gets messed up too.

 

Just explaining the situation to you. This one is a real mess and requires Groundspeak to fix.

 

I think that is one of the many reasons but not the only reason. I say that because:

 

1. While the last 3 weeks or so why I have been traveling I have used only my iPhone for log entries. Found or DNF

However prior to that I have used BOTH for log entries. By both I mean going to my computer and using my iPhone.

 

2. I only started using my iPhone for Log entries since March 2010. After spending some etensive time on my GPX file I noticed that this BUG started on Jan 1st, 2010. That day I had 8 finds, however according the GPX file I had 7 finds on Jan 1st, 2010 and ONE find that was found on Jan 1st, 2010 reporting to be found on Jan 2nd, 2010.

 

3. All of my finds in 2009 are being reported on the CORRECT date in the GPX file.

 

So the errors that the GPX file is reporting from Jan 1st, 2010 to sometime in March 2010 (when I began using the iPhone) aren't do to the iPhone geocaching app.

 

Any other ideas?

 

TGC

 

P.S.

 

One other note in Just found and checked in both the GPX file as well as on the cache sites web page.

From my iPhone I logged a found log, then because you can't edit from your iPhone app I ADDED a "Write Note" log from the iPhone as well. Both logs (Found & Write note) were logged at about 2pm Central time in the afternoon and within 15 min of each other. Yet the FOUND log in the GPX file has the incorrect date, the "Write Note" log has the correct date.

Edited July 25, 2010 by texasgrillchef

[+AF Bmet]

The last 2 times I have requested my finds query I have never recieved it. Normal pocket queries I get without a problem but the my finds never makes it to my inbox.

[+JPatton]

The My Finds query is no longer emailed to you. You have to go to the pocket query download tab and get it from there.

[+texasgrillchef]

The last 2 times I have requested my finds query I have never recieved it. Normal pocket queries I get without a problem but the my finds never makes it to my inbox.

 

You can download it directly from the web page after its created. You don't have to wait for it to be sent to your email.

 

TGC

[+AF Bmet]

The last 2 times I have requested my finds query I have never recieved it. Normal pocket queries I get without a problem but the my finds never makes it to my inbox.

 

You can download it directly from the web page after its created. You don't have to wait for it to be sent to your email.

 

TGC

Thanks that would explain alot. I will look for it so I can download it.

[+Chrysalides]

2. I only started using my iPhone for Log entries since March 2010. After spending some etensive time on my GPX file I noticed that this BUG started on Jan 1st, 2010. That day I had 8 finds, however according the GPX file I had 7 finds on Jan 1st, 2010 and ONE find that was found on Jan 1st, 2010 reporting to be found on Jan 2nd, 2010.

That's even more disturbing. What were you using between Jan and March 2010? Field notes uploaded and then edited on computer? Textmark?

[+dfx]

is that a magor bug or a miner bug?

[+Chrysalides]

is that a magor bug or a miner bug?

What happened to the sponge? Anyway, even though this doesn't stop anyone from geocaching, I'd definitely classify it as magor.

[+dfx]

What happened to the sponge?

not sure tbh, but it looks like he got ordered a "vacation" from the forums.

 

Anyway, even though this doesn't stop anyone from geocaching, I'd definitely classify it as magor.

seems to be a general logical error somewhere.

 

people enter their online logs with their local dates. so one part of the world may enter a log created at 23:00 UTC as july 24, while another part of the world would enter logs created at 23:00 UTC as july 25.

 

the website always displays the log dates as whatever the user selected, i.e. their local dates.

 

the iphone app (?) seems to take the actual UTC timestamp of when the log was created. while this is technically correct, there is no timezone information stored - the website doesn't know which day the "local" day will be, and so the shown date may be wrong.

 

or, the website adjusts the UTC timestamp so that the date shown on the website will be correct. but in that case, the UTC timestamp (visible in the GPX) will be wrong, because it still doesn't have any timezone information attached (well, it does, it says UTC, but that's incorrect) and so it will show a different time than it was really created at.

 

the whole system would be better off by just discarding the time-of-day information in all submitted logs, normalize it to a standard time for all logs and just be accurate to a certain day.

[+texasgrillchef]

2. I only started using my iPhone for Log entries since March 2010. After spending some etensive time on my GPX file I noticed that this BUG started on Jan 1st, 2010. That day I had 8 finds, however according the GPX file I had 7 finds on Jan 1st, 2010 and ONE find that was found on Jan 1st, 2010 reporting to be found on Jan 2nd, 2010.

That's even more disturbing. What were you using between Jan and March 2010? Field notes uploaded and then edited on computer? Textmark?

 

Im not for sure what your asking? I simply use Notepad + to edit the GPX file that I download.

 

TGC

[+texasgrillchef]

What happened to the sponge?

not sure tbh, but it looks like he got ordered a "vacation" from the forums.

 

Anyway, even though this doesn't stop anyone from geocaching, I'd definitely classify it as magor.

seems to be a general logical error somewhere.

 

people enter their online logs with their local dates. so one part of the world may enter a log created at 23:00 UTC as july 24, while another part of the world would enter logs created at 23:00 UTC as july 25.

 

the website always displays the log dates as whatever the user selected, i.e. their local dates.

 

the iphone app (?) seems to take the actual UTC timestamp of when the log was created. while this is technically correct, there is no timezone information stored - the website doesn't know which day the "local" day will be, and so the shown date may be wrong.

 

or, the website adjusts the UTC timestamp so that the date shown on the website will be correct. but in that case, the UTC timestamp (visible in the GPX) will be wrong, because it still doesn't have any timezone information attached (well, it does, it says UTC, but that's incorrect) and so it will show a different time than it was really created at.

 

the whole system would be better off by just discarding the time-of-day information in all submitted logs, normalize it to a standard time for all logs and just be accurate to a certain day.

 

Well the time stamp is needed so that one can figure out which cache was found first. Ie... if you found 20 caches in one day. You need a way to KNOW which cache you found first, second, third. So that when you want to know WHICH cache you found as your 550th cache, or maybe your 600th cache you would know. Thus time stamps are still needed information.

 

Now I understand the how the UTC time code of that reported by the iPhone app and the website can in fact be different.

 

However, I DID NOT use my iPhone to enter "Found" logs, OR even "Write Note" logs BEFORE March 2010. The ERRORS in the GPX file go back to JAN 1st 2010!

 

Therefore WHAT is causing the errors BETWEEN Jan 1st, 2010 and March 2010????? NOT the iPhone app as I did NOT start using the iPhone and the iPhone geocaching app till March 2010.

 

TGC

[+Chrysalides]

2. I only started using my iPhone for Log entries since March 2010. After spending some etensive time on my GPX file I noticed that this BUG started on Jan 1st, 2010. That day I had 8 finds, however according the GPX file I had 7 finds on Jan 1st, 2010 and ONE find that was found on Jan 1st, 2010 reporting to be found on Jan 2nd, 2010.

That's even more disturbing. What were you using between Jan and March 2010? Field notes uploaded and then edited on computer? Textmark?

 

Im not for sure what your asking? I simply use Notepad + to edit the GPX file that I download.

Sorry.. I meant, how did you log those caches, if not with the iPhone?

[+Chrysalides]

Well the time stamp is needed so that one can figure out which cache was found first. Ie... if you found 20 caches in one day. You need a way to KNOW which cache you found first, second, third. So that when you want to know WHICH cache you found as your 550th cache, or maybe your 600th cache you would know. Thus time stamps are still needed information.

Time stamp is only present in the field notes. Every log entered should have a time stamp of 1900Z (7 pm) or 2000Z (8 pm) depending on whether DST is in effect for Pacific time zone.

 

Order of find is determined by the log ID. Lower log ID is found before higher log ID.

[+dfx]

Time stamp is only present in the field notes. Every log entered should have a time stamp of 1900Z (7 pm) or 2000Z (8 pm) depending on whether DST is in effect for Pacific time zone.

while this is true for logs submitted through the regular website, according to the OP this isn't true for logs submitted through certain other means, such as the iphone app. i'm not surprised really, as the iphone backend/API on GS's side obviously interfaces with the DB directly and doesn't go through the regular website codebase, and therefore is able to create log entries with different timestamps than the website would create. since the GPX downloads and PQs are just interfaces into the DB, you get to see those timestamps there.

 

Order of find is determined by the log ID. Lower log ID is found before higher log ID.

true for logs having the same timestamp. but the timestamp in the DB appears to be a proper timestamp and not just a "day", meaning the timestamps can have different time-of-days, in which case the order is determined by that.

 

it will be worse if you mix logs submitted through the website (all having a timestamp of 19:00) with logs submitted through the iphone (which will have a somewhat "real" timestamp). that will make it impossible to keep the right order.

Edited July 27, 2010 by dfx

[+Chrysalides]

Time stamp is only present in the field notes. Every log entered should have a time stamp of 1900Z (7 pm) or 2000Z (8 pm) depending on whether DST is in effect for Pacific time zone.

while this is true for logs submitted through the regular website, according to the OP this isn't true for logs submitted through certain other means, such as the iphone app.

True, except OP says that he wasn't using the iPhone app for some of the entries. That's why I'm curious about how those were entered.

 

Edit to add : that's why I added "should" - it should be that way, but in some cases it obviously isn't true.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Chrysalides

[+texasgrillchef]

2. I only started using my iPhone for Log entries since March 2010. After spending some etensive time on my GPX file I noticed that this BUG started on Jan 1st, 2010. That day I had 8 finds, however according the GPX file I had 7 finds on Jan 1st, 2010 and ONE find that was found on Jan 1st, 2010 reporting to be found on Jan 2nd, 2010.

That's even more disturbing. What were you using between Jan and March 2010? Field notes uploaded and then edited on computer? Textmark?

 

Im not for sure what your asking? I simply use Notepad + to edit the GPX file that I download.

Sorry.. I meant, how did you log those caches, if not with the iPhone?

 

Using a computer. Sometimes my laptop back at the hotel, or later with my laptop & a AT&T cell modem.

 

TGC

[+dfx]

Using a computer. Sometimes my laptop back at the hotel, or later with my laptop & a AT&T cell modem.

and are you logging them manually on the website (go to the cache listing and "log your visit"), or do you upload the field notes to the website and log through those? if so, in what format are those field notes (garmin format, geocache_visits.txt or ...)?

[+texasgrillchef]

Well the time stamp is needed so that one can figure out which cache was found first. Ie... if you found 20 caches in one day. You need a way to KNOW which cache you found first, second, third. So that when you want to know WHICH cache you found as your 550th cache, or maybe your 600th cache you would know. Thus time stamps are still needed information.

Time stamp is only present in the field notes. Every log entered should have a time stamp of 1900Z (7 pm) or 2000Z (8 pm) depending on whether DST is in effect for Pacific time zone.

 

Order of find is determined by the log ID. Lower log ID is found before higher log ID.

 

In the GPX file, right after the date is the UTC time stamp. The date & Time stamp are present both for a "WRite Note" log and a "Found" log.

 

I do see the Log ID and how they change, so that makes good sense that one could easily use that for "Found" order.

 

When I went back and looked at all 600+ finds. Even those prior to Jan 1st 2010, They all had a time stamp for the found log.

 

You are right though. On closer inspection of the time stamp on those caches that it pushed forward by 1 day. (Example a cache I found on Jan 1st, 2010 being reported as found on Jan 2nd, 2010) I did notice that if you took the UTC Time code into effect and then made the time adjustment for Central time, it did push the date to the next day. So I believe the error on groundspeaks/geocaching.com's programming of creating the "My Finds" query is a logical error in figuring Time Codes/Dates incorrectly.

 

As far as the iPhone app goes. Maybe their is a problem with how it reports the Date/Time on a found log. But like I said, this problem according to my last "My Finds Query" GPX file dated July 24th, 2010. The problem started on Jan 1st, 2010. Like I said I didn't start using the iPhone app until March 2010.

 

TGC

[+texasgrillchef]

Using a computer. Sometimes my laptop back at the hotel, or later with my laptop & a AT&T cell modem.

and are you logging them manually on the website (go to the cache listing and "log your visit"), or do you upload the field notes to the website and log through those? if so, in what format are those field notes (garmin format, geocache_visits.txt or ...)?

 

The ones that I wasn't using the iPhone app for, were all entered manually using the geocaching.com website.

 

I will admit that my memory could be a little off on when I started using my iPhone entirely for entering/logging my finds. It could have been earlier than March 2010.

 

However, one fact I do know. On Jan 1st, 2010 I was camping and was in an area of Texas that has very very limited cell phone coverage. (Left on the camping trip the day after Christmas Dec 26th & didn't return home till the 2nd of Jan 2010.) I entered the entire weeks of caches manually on the website on the 2nd of Jan.

 

On the morning. Later that day we left on another trip for PA. As you can see from our geocaching logs we logged our first cache from that trip on Jan 3rd 2010. The first one being in VA. Again I know I didn't use my iPhone for any log entries on that trip either because of limited coverage in the areas that we were on that trip as well. We didn't return from that trip till Jan 6th 2010.

 

After that is IS possible that all further log entries could have been done from the iPhone. I honestly don't remember when I first downloaded it and started using the iPhone app for log entries. I got my iPhone for Christmas and didn't think it was that soon before I downloaded it. I know I went about 2 weeks on the free version before I bought the paid version of the app as well.

 

I am using the iPhone app entirely now for log entries. I do go back to my computer and "Edit" those log entries sometimes though as well. But I no longer enter "Found" or "DNF" logs from the computer.

 

Either way though. Its a real PIA of a bug. Especially if your wanting to keep acurate statistics.

 

TGC

[+dfx]

well... i just took a look at my own "my finds" PQ. out of the 1989 returned log entries, 58 don't have either 19:00 or 20:00 as log time. 21 have 07:00 as time, and the remaining 37 have the timestamps all over the place. some of those logs go back as far as summer 2008. i definitely made all logs the usual manual way on the website.

 

on closer look, it seems like the "needs maintenance" and "needs archive" logs are affected by that.

[+texasgrillchef]

I sent this bug report into geocaching.com....

 

NEW update to BUG!

 

iPHONE app bug. JUST STARTED today (July31st, 2010)

 

Today I "found" 20 geocaches all I logged from my iPhone app (4.01). All were logged between 3pm & 9pm Central Standard Time.

 

It is now 10:32pm CST on July 31st, 2010.

 

When I look at my last 20 "Found" log entries for today. 8 (eight) of them are listed as being fond on AUGUST 1st, 2010. When I go to my iPhone app, all the dates are CORRECT for when the log entries were sent.

 

Umm how can I find these in the FUTURE???? Did you all like create & invent a time machine & forget to tell us?

 

This is like a MAJOR issue as it SCREWS up all the STATISTICS LOGS!

 

It is a good thing I didn't get 100 caches today. Fixing eight (8) caches is BAD ENOUGH!

 

This bug issue has been going on for quite some time but only has showed up in the "My Finds" Query that you download. Online log entries all showed the correct date.

 

Please check the forums, as I have posted information regarding this bug there.

 

Thank you

 

TGC