Help! Geocaching V4.2 iPhone app mega-fail!

[+actualsize]

What is going on with the Geocaching app V4.2? Note: something else is going on with Apple iOS 4.2. I have two distinct problems going on. Problem 2 may be a toxic interaction.

 

Here's what happened: Two days ago, an app update, geocaching V4.2, was offered when I went to the app store. I always update, so I did. I immediately regretted it. I have an iPhone 3GS, and the update is supposed to make things look sharper on the iPhone 4. That may be true, but it ruined my iPhone 3GS - slow jerky maps, keyboard typing that lags way behind my slow typing. Did I say slow maps? Almost unusable. I wanted to go back to V 4.1x almost at once.

 

Then it got worse.

 

Today, I was offered an upgrade at the iTunes store for my iPhone operating system software, from iOS4.1x to iOS 4.2. (The coincidence is amazing, I know) Not thinking, I went ahead and did it.

 

Now the geocaching app is 100% worse. Now it is totally unusable. I still have the slow, jerky maps and the laggy keyboard, but now my compass and navigation map reference N 0.0 W 0.0 as a starting point - somewhere off the west coast of Africa. My local caches are now 7,782 miles from me, even when I'm standing 10 feet from the GZ.

 

Here's the weird part. The distance is fine in the geocaching list screen, where 15 or 20 are displayed. It is when I select "Navigate to geocache" that the trouble starts. My location and the cache location are correct based on the map icons, the green pin and the blue dot are fine, but the red arrow bearing line goes to Africa 7,782 miles away and along with that, that distance is what is displayed as the target distance. It's even worse with the compaas screen, where everything is east, waaaay east. There is no way to use the app to find anything. It's merely a phone now. The geocaching app is dead to me.

 

I have resynched, rebooted and cycled the power on an off. I need some more suggestions.

 

To sum up my experience:

1. Geocaching V4.2 SUCKS on an iPhone 3GS, even without the Africa problem. Do not make the switch if you don't have an iPhone 4. If you know how I can go back to GC V4.1x, please tell me. If not, this is just a phone now.

 

2. Something between GC v4.2 and iOS 4.2 isn't playing nice. Something is making it reference N 0.0 W 0.0 on any of the cahce navigation screens.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated, short of telling me to go get an iPhone 4, that is. Not gonna do that. Shouldn't have to.

 

Thanks!

 

Dan

Edited November 23, 2010 by actualsize

[+user13371]

Not unique to your 3GS, happens on my iPhone 4 also. I've already backtracked to the older GC app off from my TimeMachine backup.

 

Reported here also, please add a comment/feedback in: Groundspeak's iPhone Feedback Forum.

Edited November 23, 2010 by lee_rimar

[Skippermark]

Relocating to the GPS & Technology section.

[+Avernar]

but now my compass and navigation map reference N 0.0 W 0.0 as a starting point - somewhere off the west coast of Africa.

Odd. I had N 0.0 W 0.0 as the destination, not the starting point.

 

Friend said to switch from Bing to Google for the map and it fixed it.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Avernar

[+user13371]

Friend said to switch from Bing to Google for the map and it fixed it.

Nope; observed problem with each map type. Will try flipping a few more map settings though...

[+user13371]

Still a bug, but workaround was posted by Torossi in feedback section:

http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/7527...estions/1244289

zoom in on the cache location on the map, then tap it, it suddenly figures out where to go...

Edited November 23, 2010 by lee_rimar

[+northernpenguin]

Interesting. If I use Navigate to Geocache from the list of caches, yup I get 9,000km to target but map shows properly if I use Google. To fix the distance to target, I pick the cache on the map screen and use Set As Target.

 

Example (Google Maps) (Sorry about the image sizes, that's retina display for ya)

 

Listing:

 

 

but on the Map Screen .... (Google)

 

 

Now, I'm getting vibes this isn't a Groundspeak issue at the root cause - but they'll need to fix something in the app nonetheless.

 

--

 

In other GPS on iPhone news (for me)

 

Navigon now starts often complaining about GPS accuracy and when I'm driving the phone will fade out like it's going to sleep mode then suddenly snap back to full brightness again.

 

Waze has been a fair bit flaky on iOS 4.2.1 as well for me since the update with respect to GPS performance.

 

I seem to recall the author of Latitudie mentioning there was a bugfix for apps which ran the GPS in the background in the upcoming 4.2 (this was about a month ago I saw that).

[+martlakes]

I'd echo the same problem:

 

I upgraded to iOS 4.2 this afternoon and this causes a major problem with the Geo App. When you try to navigate to the cache, instead of using the cache's co-ords it tries to navigate to N00 00.000 W000 00.000, ie. the equator. The map is zoomed all the way out to show this.

 

You can work around this by zooming in until you can tap on the cache icon and navigate to it as you would a waypoint. But it's not handy!

 

Geo App was fine before upgrading to iOS 4.2 on my iPhone 4.

 

M

[+Mountaineerfan12000]

Interesting! I am not noticing any of these issues on my 3G after upgrading both the app and the iOS. Although it is still slow to load the app....

[kmarsh]

I have the same issue on my iPhone 4 as well. I can sometimes fix it by staying on the map but closing the Geocaching app. When I re-start it, it will be OK again... sometimes. It does show the cache location in the correct spot and my location as well.... but the distance and bearing point to 0 lat/0 long. off the coast of Africa.

[+actualsize]

I also reported this through geocaching.com's app feedback site. I got word back a day later that a fix is in the works and a new GC software release that will solve the problem is imminent!