iPhone Geocaching App Woes

[+joefrog]

Okay guys,

 

At the beginning of April, I bought the iPhone 4. And while cruising the app store, I found the Geocaching app. Well, I seldom have my GPS with me these days (unfortunately), but I almost always have my phone. So $9.99 later, I have the app!

 

Now, I have only used it a dozen times or so. Mostly to see what is around me, and I actually cached with it three or four times so far. Now the problem...

 

For the last two weeks, every time I launch the app and ask it to "Find Nearby Geocaches," it hits me with an error -- every. single. time.

 

The error is, "Communication Issue. There was an issue connecting to Geocaching.com. Please try again."

 

This is getting OLD -- this is my most expensive app and quite possibly my most entertaining. How do I fix this?

 

Thanks,

Joefrog

[+mpilchfamily]

First question, are you getting a good 3G signal?

 

Second Question, Have you checked your login settings? Go to menu and select settings. Make sure your user name and login are correct.

 

One option is to not rely on have internet access. You can create a PQ and upload it to the iPhone. They will be listed in the saved tab. Sort them by distance and it will show you the nearest cache.

[+joefrog]

Yep, shows 3G.

 

Yep, signed in as Joefrog.

 

Not that I won't use a PQ, but I travel a lot -- I want to know what is near me without using one.

[+mpilchfamily]

I only have an iTouch so i don't get to use that side of the app unless i'm at home or in a Wi-Fi area. So i'm not sure if its a setting issue or a site issue. Maybe the issue will be fixed when they update the site this week.

[+CacheFreakTim]

Grouldspeak has had some server issues over the last couple week which may explain some of it. I will say it is odd that it does it every time for you. Do other apps do the same thing? I would make sure the iphone is up to date with updates and if that isnt it, uninstall the app, then reinstall it and try again. That usually fixes issues I have had with other apps.

[+Lieblweb]

Check to make sure your PUSH (Location Services in General settings) notications are ON. I've noticed with my iphone 4 that if I turn off the PUSH notifications in an attempt to save the battery, it (for some reason) it doesn't communicate well with Groundspeak and/or gets really really slow and non-responsive.

Good Luck!

<Jandy>

Edited May 2, 2011 by Lieblweb

[+joefrog]

Check to make sure your PUSH (Location Services in General settings) notications are ON. I've noticed with my iphone 4 that if I turn off the PUSH notifications in an attempt to save the battery, it (for some reason) it doesn't communicate well with Groundspeak and/or gets really really slow and non-responsive.

Good Luck!

<Jandy>

 

Yep. That's on also. I'm stumped!

[+CacheFreakTim]

Funny you should bring this up. I have never had this issue until today! I was using my backup iPhone (3GS) and it did the same thing! I uninstalled the app. from my iPhone and reinstalled via iTunes and it worked just fine after. It could have been a fluke but its working ok now.

[+TXHooligans]

if you are in east texas with verizon, there is a problem.. but i thought it was only with droids.. i've been waiting on google to update some databases for a few weeks.. supposidly all they lack is finishing up.

[+TL&MinBHIL]

I was having quite a bit of trouble with it for the past couple of weeks. It was non-responsive & kept freezing up. I thought it was strange because it wasn't an app update that caused the trouble, it just started acting up out of nowhere. But I just messed with it and it seems to be doing a lot better. Maybe it had something to do with the work on the website and has been fixed with today's updates.

[+CacheFreakTim]

Yes it will be interesting to see this weekend if response for both the site and the app has been improved.

[+TL&MinBHIL]

Went out caching today and the Geocaching app for iPhone was giving me all kinds of problems, as I mentioned above. Very slow to respond to my touch, lagging & freezing. Once in a while when I tried to "Find Nearby Geocaches," I'd get a pop-up that said none were available when I knew there was. I had to click OK, but it wouldn't let me. Then the nearby caches would pop in, but I couldn't click OK to get rid of the pop-up. It's never been this bad (until 2-3 weeks ago). Going to try uninstall/reinstall.

[+CacheFreakTim]

Ya, mine was still sluggish this weekend too. Seems the upgrade didn't do too much to help those on the iPhone.

[+conspirator2958]

I have been having problems with mine also with being sluggish and freezing. I was out yesterday and today with both days experiencing the same problems as many of you have been having. It is somewhat frustrating.

[+Lieblweb]

It comes and goes. We were out over the weekend and didn't have any problems. How's your cell service?

<J>

Edited May 9, 2011 by Lieblweb

[+Farmer's]

Anytime my geocaching app is sluggish or has connection problems I do a hard reset on my iphone (I have the iphone 4) and it fixes it everytime. Sorry if this is a repeat, I didn't read everyone's responses. HTH!!

 

Lori

lojoend

[+TL&MinBHIL]

It comes and goes. We were out over the weekend and didn't have any problems. How's your cell service?

<J>

Mine has been acting up in areas with full bars & 3G service. AND even while on my home WiFi, so I know it's not the service. I uninstalled/reinstalled last night, but haven't been caching so I don't know if that helped. It was doing it well before the iOS 4.3.3 update, but maybe after the 4.3.2 update. I know it wasn't an update to the actual Geocaching app that did this. Whatever it is, it's annoying.

[+Lieblweb]

I grabbed the newest firmware before the weekend and I haven't noticed anything different

 

The site itself (after the upgrade) seems to have it's ups & downs too. So I'm guessing it's on this end.

 

All the more reason why we bought a dedicated gps and pocket queries- you can still go out and have fun when the site is acting up

[+geodarts]

The app has been slow for me -- sluggish and nonresponsive. This happened very recently. I tried reinstalling it. Yesterday when it finally did return search results (after taking a long time to respond to any button), I got search results relating to where I had been the previous day, but not where I was at the time. I wondered if it might be a gps problem, but geosphere worked fine for me. Today, when a button finally worked, it returned search results relating to where I was yesterday. In both cases, I tried repeating the search several times without luck.

 

My 3gs firmware is up to date. It has been happening on both 3g and wi-fi. I am not sure if there were any updates that triggered the problem, but I did notice it more after the recent site changes.

 

Although others have complained about the app's slowness at various times, I have not had this kind of problem until recently. So I started a new feedback topic since that seemed like a better place to let the developers know about the problems I have been having.

Edited May 9, 2011 by mulvaney

[robertlipe]

Complaints/questions about the Groundspeak app for geocaching should go tot he forum that's pinned at the top of this forum that, unlike this one, is monitored by Groundspeak staff. Closing.