Pocket Query Problem

[+two bison]

It's been quite awhile since we had a problem with pocket queries running slowly, if at all. I noticed that someone mentioned it on the site update forum but I'm guessing this is where we really should mention it.

 

Submitted pocket query at 8:56:18 PM PDT.

 

It is now 9:21 PM PDT and it has not arrived.

It is now 10:06 PM PDT and it still hasn't run.

It is now 10:34 PM PDT and it still hasn't run.

It finally ran at 11:49 PM PDT. Is this the result of a problem or was there just a slow-down in the system? I can only hope that it was a one-time glitch since I often run pocket queries for spur of the moment cache runs with an exit the house deadline of 15 minutes or so.

Edited May 28, 2012 by two bison

[+two bison]

Am I right in now assuming that I was the only one who had to wait 3 hours for a pocket query? And, if there were others, am I the only one who finds this to be a problem?

[+JesandTodd]

I just ran a new query and it took 2 mins to show up in my email, and about 1.5 mins to show up on my iPhone.

 

Also, my regularly scheduled PQs have been coming in a 0:21, every morning like clockwork.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Nothing new that PQ's have not ran well during (busier) weekends for a while now..... you pick the approach to Memorial Weekend (U.S.).....

 

What more is there to say?

 

JesandTodd waited until that weekend is over.... what happens?

 

This comment/complaint happens occasionally -- springtime weekends, holidays, etc...

Edited May 30, 2012 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+Survey Bob & The Princess]

I too am having problems with pocket queries running slowly. Whats up with this? They use to run within minutes. Still waiting for mine.

[+on4bam]

I too am having problems with pocket queries running slowly. Whats up with this? They use to run within minutes. Still waiting for mine.

 

A new PQ runs within minutes nut an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

Under normal circumstances I've never had to wait for new PQs longer than 15 minutes.

[+Mineral2]

I too am having problems with pocket queries running slowly. Whats up with this? They use to run within minutes. Still waiting for mine.

 

A new PQ runs within minutes nut an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

Under normal circumstances I've never had to wait for new PQs longer than 15 minutes.

 

That's a little misleading. You can run a PQ file two days in a row if you want... Run it Monday, then run it again on Tuesday. But Tuesday's request won't be prioritized as high in the queue as a new request or a subsequent request with over a week between. But it will run on Tuesday, you just might wait a while for it.

[+on4bam]

A new PQ runs within minutes but an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

Under normal circumstances I've never had to wait for new PQs longer than 15 minutes.

 

That's a little misleading. You can run a PQ file two days in a row if you want... Run it Monday, then run it again on Tuesday. But Tuesday's request won't be prioritized as high in the queue as a new request or a subsequent request with over a week between. But it will run on Tuesday, you just might wait a while for it.

 

That's exactly what I wrote isn't it. If you run it on Monday at 8am, Tuesday's request will always be AFTER 8am. If you wait until Tuesday a week later you can run it before 8am.

[+lerneraliza]

Hi

I'll be grateful for some help - I'm new to here. I submitted a pocket query and can preview it but it is not available for download nor have I received an email. The name of the query appears with a line through it

What did I do wrong?

[+on4bam]

Hi

I'll be grateful for some help - I'm new to here. I submitted a pocket query and can preview it but it is not available for download nor have I received an email. The name of the query appears with a line through it

What did I do wrong?

 

Ive never seen a PQ with a line through it but if you didn't get an email and it's not in the list of PQs you can download I suspect you haven't set a day to run the PQ.

When making a PQ you can set all options and click submit to check the results, once you're happy with that you set the day to run the PQ and click submit again.

[+MartyBartfast]

... an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

That's not quite true. A PQ can only run once in 24hours, so if it runs at 8PM Monday, and you tick it to run Tuesday as well then it won't run until 24 hours after the first run, so it will be 8PM on Tuesday, and that will carry on for the week if you run it every day. However if you run it at 8PM Monday, don't run it on Tuesday but run it on Wednesday it becomes eligible to run immediately on Wednesday (as it's more than 24 hours since the last run) and will almost certainly run before 8PM.

[+MartyBartfast]

Hi

I'll be grateful for some help - I'm new to here. I submitted a pocket query and can preview it but it is not available for download nor have I received an email. The name of the query appears with a line through it

What did I do wrong?

 

Ive never seen a PQ with a line through it but if you didn't get an email and it's not in the list of PQs you can download I suspect you haven't set a day to run the PQ.

When making a PQ you can set all options and click submit to check the results, once you're happy with that you set the day to run the PQ and click submit again.

 

A PQ with a line through it is one which has run within the last week and has then been deleted, it will be removed from the list a week after it last ran. That does suggest that this PQ has run, there should be a date opposite it on the "Active Pocket Queries" tab stating when it ran, and if it generated any results then there should be something under the "ready for download" tab. Note that the PQ pages don't refresh themselves when you flip between the tabs so you need to refresh the page (either hit F5, or hit the reload button on your browser). Also try hitting the preview button (magnifying glass beside the query) to see what it is going to return (I think you can still do that with one that has been deleted). I just realised you already did this.

Edited September 24, 2015 by MartyBartfast

[+on4bam]

... an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

That's not quite true. A PQ can only run once in 24hours, so if it runs at 8PM Monday, and you tick it to run Tuesday as well then it won't run until 24 hours after the first run, so it will be 8PM on Tuesday, and that will carry on for the week if you run it every day. However if you run it at 8PM Monday, don't run it on Tuesday but run it on Wednesday it becomes eligible to run immediately on Wednesday (as it's more than 24 hours since the last run) and will almost certainly run before 8PM.

 

I very much doubt that. My PQs run once a week and they NEVER run at an earlier time than the week before. There's only one trick to run them earlier and that's making a copy so it's a new PQ and then run that at the earliest (9am local= start of the day in the center of the universe )

All my PQ's run between 1:50 - 2:15am and it's been like that ever since I've set them up.

[+MartyBartfast]

... an existing one will NEVER run earlier than the previous time IF it was run a week or less ago.

So, an existing PQ that ran on Monday at 8PM will not run before 8PM until after the next Monday.

 

That's not quite true. A PQ can only run once in 24hours, so if it runs at 8PM Monday, and you tick it to run Tuesday as well then it won't run until 24 hours after the first run, so it will be 8PM on Tuesday, and that will carry on for the week if you run it every day. However if you run it at 8PM Monday, don't run it on Tuesday but run it on Wednesday it becomes eligible to run immediately on Wednesday (as it's more than 24 hours since the last run) and will almost certainly run before 8PM.

 

I very much doubt that. My PQs run once a week and they NEVER run at an earlier time than the week before. There's only one trick to run them earlier and that's making a copy so it's a new PQ and then run that at the earliest (9am local= start of the day in the center of the universe )

All my PQ's run between 1:50 - 2:15am and it's been like that ever since I've set them up.

 

Doubt it all you want, I just verified it with a PQ which ran on Monday at 12:24, I scheduled it to run today and it ran at 03:41 (all times=server time). I have ~30 PQs scheduled to run once a week and they all run around 02:00 too, but that's almost certainly due to the load/throughput on the servers being pretty stable.

[+Mineral2]

All my PQ's run between 1:50 - 2:15am and it's been like that ever since I've set them up.

 

Do you happen to live in the Central Time Zone? My weekly queries tend to run very shortly after midnight, but I live on Pacific Time along with the server.

[+on4bam]

I very much doubt that. My PQs run once a week and they NEVER run at an earlier time than the week before. There's only one trick to run them earlier and that's making a copy so it's a new PQ and then run that at the earliest (9am local= start of the day in the center of the universe )

All my PQ's run between 1:50 - 2:15am and it's been like that ever since I've set them up.

 

Doubt it all you want, I just verified it with a PQ which ran on Monday at 12:24, I scheduled it to run today and it ran at 03:41 (all times=server time). I have ~30 PQs scheduled to run once a week and they all run around 02:00 too, but that's almost certainly due to the load/throughput on the servers being pretty stable.

 

OK, but again "I" 've never seen a PQ run earlier than the previous time it ran. Unless it more than one week since it last ran, that is. I have a few I run occasionally and they run almost instantly each time.

 

All my PQ's run between 1:50 - 2:15am and it's been like that ever since I've set them up.

 

Do you happen to live in the Central Time Zone? My weekly queries tend to run very shortly after midnight, but I live on Pacific Time along with the server.

 

Read my post again and you'll know my timezone

It's UTC +1/+2 (winter/summer)

[+dprovan]

That's not quite true. A PQ can only run once in 24hours, so if it runs at 8PM Monday, and you tick it to run Tuesday as well then it won't run until 24 hours after the first run, so it will be 8PM on Tuesday, and that will carry on for the week if you run it every day.

Is this documented? Sometimes I run a preliminary PQ the night before I'm going somewhere to make sure I get a copy in case the system fouls up, then run another fresh PQ the next morning to get the very latest information before I set out. Once in a while the morning PQ is delayed so long that I can't wait for it, and that could be explained by your 24 hour rule, but I could swear that normally it runs right away with perhaps enough delay for me to believe it was queued behind other people's PQs that haven't run as recently.

 

(I'm on the west coast, so my days align with the servers' days.)

[+Mineral2]

As per the PQ page:

 

You can run up to 10 pocket queries every 24 hour period, but each individual search can run only once per day.

 

So, I think the server resets at midnight, and that's based on Pacific Time.

 

I know that PQ's used to be prioritized in the queue based on how recently they were last run. I don't see that documentation anywhere, so with faster servers with higher capacity, it's possible that the queue is now just a simple first-come, first-served basis. Though I do notice new and old queries run faster than those I've run more recently, so maybe the old priority system still stands. If that's true, that would explain why running your query the night before your trip is instant, and then running it the next morning before you leave will sometimes delay your file until after you have left.

[+MartyBartfast]

I'm going somewhere to make sure I get a copy in case the system fouls up, then run another fresh PQ the next morning to get the very latest information before I set out.

 

In situations like that I would run the original query like you do at the moment, then make a copy of that query and run the copy the next morning.

[+Mineral2]

Of course, that's being OCD. In the less than 12 hours between runs, do you really expect significant changes to occur, especially overnight?

[+GeoTrekker26]

Of course, that's being OCD. In the less than 12 hours between runs, do you really expect significant changes to occur, especially overnight?

 

Around here many times the new caches are published at night.

[+dprovan]

Of course, that's being OCD. In the less than 12 hours between runs, do you really expect significant changes to occur, especially overnight?

The effort is insignificant, so I try to get any changes such as new listings or caches being disabled or archived, just in case. Normally I just run my PQs in the morning, so the real OCD action here is doing the insurance PQ the night before to make sure I have a PQ. And I only do that when I'm going somewhere I don't normally go. In my normal haunts, I know that if I have trouble getting the PQ in the morning, it just means I'll be using a week old PQ, so it's no big deal.

[+Mineral2]

Of course, that's being OCD. In the less than 12 hours between runs, do you really expect significant changes to occur, especially overnight?

The effort is insignificant, so I try to get any changes such as new listings or caches being disabled or archived, just in case. Normally I just run my PQs in the morning, so the real OCD action here is doing the insurance PQ the night before to make sure I have a PQ. And I only do that when I'm going somewhere I don't normally go. In my normal haunts, I know that if I have trouble getting the PQ in the morning, it just means I'll be using a week old PQ, so it's no big deal.

 

I've gone up to a month on the same PQ for my local area, but the rate of new cache listings has gone down quite a bit in recent years. When I travel, I know that there's no way I'll clear out an entire city or region, so having the latest (up-to-the-minute) data isn't important either. When I have a few thousand to choose from in a city for a couple of days, that's enough for me. If I need the latest logs, I'll get on my phone, and if I'm out of service, then I just deal with what I have. Granted I'll run the PQs as close to my trip as possible, which might be the night before an early morning flight instead of the evening of arrival. But that's more because even though I know I'll have an internet connection at my hotel, I like to come with the caches pre-loaded. Sometimes I'll update the files mid-week if it's a particularly active place.

[+on4bam]

I've gone up to a month on the same PQ for my local area, but the rate of new cache listings has gone down quite a bit in recent years.

 

If you do that around here, you're in trouble. 100-200 new caches every week and 50-100 archived every week and then there's a fair amount of NM (cache/WPs gone). My PQs run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (26 of them) and on Monday I run a status check for archived caches. The archived caches get refreshed a last time and moved to the archived database. Thursday/Friday we plan our weekend cachedays (userflag in GSAK) and on Friday evening the selection gets refreshed, images are grabbed and all is exported to the Oregon600.

After logging the Saturday founds/DNFs.. I refresh the selected caches again and check for problems on the ones planned on Sunday but I don't upload the refreshed caches to the GPS.

Since I carry my tablet with me I can always refresh a cache "in the field" should we run into problems.

While on holiday I will have all caches in my GPS (I had 27000+ with me to Denmark) but only refresh on the tablet.

 

A lot can happen in a week so up-to-date data is a must (at least here).

[+Corvus-Corieltauvi]

I don't know about waiting minutes or hours for PQs to run.

 

I have never managed to get a PQ to run AT ALL.

 

Whatever I do it just sits there in the 'active' tab with 'last generated' set at 'never'.

 

I have never received an e-mail for a PQ I created, nor has one ever moved into the 'ready for download' tab.

 

I can run the 'my finds' PQ just fine and get a result within minutes (I usually only run it once a week so I can't comment on times between successful runs) but any PQ I create, be it from setting the filters or from a bookmark list just does not run, ever. I have left one sitting there for weeks just to see if it is really slow or something, but nothing ever happens.

[+Corvus-Corieltauvi]

You would not believe it!

 

Literally seconds after I wrote that post, I popped back to the PQ page and the l011atest PQ I created ran!

 

Maybe you have to complain about PQs for them to work!

[+dprovan]

Whatever I do it just sits there in the 'active' tab with 'last generated' set at 'never'.

That sounds like you're creating it, but then not taking the second step of telling the system to run it by selecting a day of the week.