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New app issues


Zargonians

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We got the notices about the new app months ago like everyone else and tried it right away, but couldn't even navigate to a cache. Every cache, no matter how far, said it was 1.2 miles away. Decided at that point not to use it and went back to the almost perfect Geocaching Classic app and never looked back. Until a few days ago that is, when we started getting an annoying message that the Classic app would be retiring on March 27th of this year. This annoying problem occurred right in the middle of a geocaching trip to southwestern Georgia where cell service was almost nil. Had created an offline map in Classic to use, but decided to try to use the new app to get acclimated in areas where we had service. Many unrepeatable expletives later, we were ready to throw the Android out the window! We overshot many caches as the navigational compass hung repeatedly and gets stuck on a certain number and won't budge no matter how far you travel! Get out of the car and the compass says its 102 feet to the cache...walk 75 feet and the compass still reads 102 feet to the cache! Fortunately, I still had my offline list on Classic and we were able to find the caches using the "old" app.

 

Here are a few of the problems (in no particular order) that we experienced over the last several days trying our best to learn the new app and trying to love it, but failing miserably:

 

1. No way to calibrate the compass in the new app. The classic app had the ability to calibrate the compass when the arrow refuses to point in the right direction.

 

2. While navigating to a cache, the phone constantly blacks out and have to unlock the screen again to continue navigating. The Classic app stayed on as long as you were navigating without blacking out the screen.

 

3. Having to click "Start" to navigate to a cache seems counter-intuitive. On the Classic app, after clicking on the cache from the map, you could just select Navigate from that screen. In the new app, you click to open the cache, then have to click start, and then click on the compass icon to navigate. That's an additional step.

 

4. The very loud and obnoxious message that comes up when you get near each geocache is annoying and so unnecessary. Why isn't there a setting that we can use to turn that off?

 

5. Difficult to log or visit travel bugs in caches. The classic app wasn't perfect in that aspect, but at least all the travel bugs in your inventory appeared all together on one screen and you could choose to drop off or visit all or any of them. Also, noticed that travel bugs we have dropped off weeks ago and logged into caches still appear in our inventory on the new app, even though Classic and geocaching.com show they are gone from our inventory.

 

6. No way to log a Needs Maintenance or Needs Archived log in the new app. We had this choice in Classic, why isn't it in the new app?

 

The items above are what we observed over a couple of days of trying our best to use this app. There are other things that bug us about it, but we will probably get used to over time. We want to love it and hope that the developers listen to us and tweak it so that it is at least as functional as Classic. If not, why the change just for the sake of change?

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1. No way to calibrate the compass in the new app. The classic app had the ability to calibrate the compass when the arrow refuses to point in the right direction.

 

 

Don't expect to see this in a modern app. Unlike previous phones or GPS receivers, modern cell phones have alternate ways of calibrating the on-board compass. If an app developer puts this function into his or her app, the app is bigger, and they run the risk of finding phones where the procedure is different.

 

Think of it like Windows programs. When you click "Save", the "Save" dialog box isn't part of the program you're running. Your program asks Windows for the current "Save" dialog box - that's why they all look the same.

 

Android has no such API call for compass calibration, so you have to do it manually. There are two normal procedures:

 


  1.  
  2. Pointing the phone away from you, move your hand from side to side in a figure-eight pattern (up, circle down to the right, cross up to the left, circle down to the left, up to the right, etc.) Repeat this four or five times.
  3. Point your phone away from you. Turn it over three times around each of its three axes. This means flip it over 360 degrees sideways three times, then flip over forward 360 degrees three times, then spin it flat facing up 360 degrees three times.
     

When my compass goes squonky, I do both of these things. Makes me look like an idiot, but both methods work.

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2. While navigating to a cache, the phone constantly blacks out and have to unlock the screen again to continue navigating. The Classic app stayed on as long as you were navigating without blacking out the screen.

 

3. Having to click "Start" to navigate to a cache seems counter-intuitive. On the Classic app, after clicking on the cache from the map, you could just select Navigate from that screen. In the new app, you click to open the cache, then have to click start, and then click on the compass icon to navigate. That's an additional step.

 

<...>

 

5. Difficult to log or visit travel bugs in caches. The classic app wasn't perfect in that aspect, but at least all the travel bugs in your inventory appeared all together on one screen and you could choose to drop off or visit all or any of them. Also, noticed that travel bugs we have dropped off weeks ago and logged into caches still appear in our inventory on the new app, even though Classic and geocaching.com show they are gone from our inventory.

 

 

#2 - Yeah - that's bad. Never seen a navigation app that doesn't keep your phone up. What if you've got it mounted on your bike's handlebars?

 

#3 - Actually, I like this. I open lots of caches from the map. Doesn't mean I'm going after them. I like being able to read them, look at logs, then decide. I don't want to kick off the navigation portion of the program until I WANT to.

 

#5 - In a previous thread, I posted my experience with this. Don't remember if I ended up being correct, but here's a thread link. See post #17. ClickMe

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1. No way to calibrate the compass in the new app. The classic app had the ability to calibrate the compass when the arrow refuses to point in the right direction.

 

 

Don't expect to see this in a modern app. Unlike previous phones or GPS receivers, modern cell phones have alternate ways of calibrating the on-board compass. If an app developer puts this function into his or her app, the app is bigger, and they run the risk of finding phones where the procedure is different.

 

Think of it like Windows programs. When you click "Save", the "Save" dialog box isn't part of the program you're running. Your program asks Windows for the current "Save" dialog box - that's why they all look the same.

 

Android has no such API call for compass calibration, so you have to do it manually. There are two normal procedures:

 


  1.  
  2. Pointing the phone away from you, move your hand from side to side in a figure-eight pattern (up, circle down to the right, cross up to the left, circle down to the left, up to the right, etc.) Repeat this four or five times.
  3. Point your phone away from you. Turn it over three times around each of its three axes. This means flip it over 360 degrees sideways three times, then flip over forward 360 degrees three times, then spin it flat facing up 360 degrees three times.
     

When my compass goes squonky, I do both of these things. Makes me look like an idiot, but both methods work.

Thanks for this information. Did not know that you could do this without a calibration button as was available in the Classic app. So, to do this, you don't have to be in the app?

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1. No way to calibrate the compass in the new app. The classic app had the ability to calibrate the compass when the arrow refuses to point in the right direction.

 

 

Don't expect to see this in a modern app. Unlike previous phones or GPS receivers, modern cell phones have alternate ways of calibrating the on-board compass. If an app developer puts this function into his or her app, the app is bigger, and they run the risk of finding phones where the procedure is different.

 

Think of it like Windows programs. When you click "Save", the "Save" dialog box isn't part of the program you're running. Your program asks Windows for the current "Save" dialog box - that's why they all look the same.

 

Android has no such API call for compass calibration, so you have to do it manually. There are two normal procedures:

 


  1.  
  2. Pointing the phone away from you, move your hand from side to side in a figure-eight pattern (up, circle down to the right, cross up to the left, circle down to the left, up to the right, etc.) Repeat this four or five times.
  3. Point your phone away from you. Turn it over three times around each of its three axes. This means flip it over 360 degrees sideways three times, then flip over forward 360 degrees three times, then spin it flat facing up 360 degrees three times.
     

When my compass goes squonky, I do both of these things. Makes me look like an idiot, but both methods work.

Thanks for this information. Did not know that you could do this without a calibration button as was available in the Classic app. So, to do this, you don't have to be in the app?

 

Nope - it's not a geocaching app issue. It's a function of the Android operating system and the integrated compass.

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2. While navigating to a cache, the phone constantly blacks out and have to unlock the screen again to continue navigating. The Classic app stayed on as long as you were navigating without blacking out the screen.

 

3. Having to click "Start" to navigate to a cache seems counter-intuitive. On the Classic app, after clicking on the cache from the map, you could just select Navigate from that screen. In the new app, you click to open the cache, then have to click start, and then click on the compass icon to navigate. That's an additional step.

 

<...>

 

5. Difficult to log or visit travel bugs in caches. The classic app wasn't perfect in that aspect, but at least all the travel bugs in your inventory appeared all together on one screen and you could choose to drop off or visit all or any of them. Also, noticed that travel bugs we have dropped off weeks ago and logged into caches still appear in our inventory on the new app, even though Classic and geocaching.com show they are gone from our inventory.

 

 

#2 - Yeah - that's bad. Never seen a navigation app that doesn't keep your phone up. What if you've got it mounted on your bike's handlebars?

 

#3 - Actually, I like this. I open lots of caches from the map. Doesn't mean I'm going after them. I like being able to read them, look at logs, then decide. I don't want to kick off the navigation portion of the program until I WANT to.

 

#5 - In a previous thread, I posted my experience with this. Don't remember if I ended up being correct, but here's a thread link. See post #17. ClickMe

Thank you for all your feedback. Very helpful! The blanking out screen really is irksome and cannot understand why the developers did not think to work that into the app. It's most necessary! #3- Can live with, just noting it's an extra step from Classic and #5, will just have to use geocaching.com to manage travel bugs until they get that fixed.

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2. While navigating to a cache, the phone constantly blacks out and have to unlock the screen again to continue navigating. The Classic app stayed on as long as you were navigating without blacking out the screen.

 

3. Having to click "Start" to navigate to a cache seems counter-intuitive. On the Classic app, after clicking on the cache from the map, you could just select Navigate from that screen. In the new app, you click to open the cache, then have to click start, and then click on the compass icon to navigate. That's an additional step.

 

<...>

 

5. Difficult to log or visit travel bugs in caches. The classic app wasn't perfect in that aspect, but at least all the travel bugs in your inventory appeared all together on one screen and you could choose to drop off or visit all or any of them. Also, noticed that travel bugs we have dropped off weeks ago and logged into caches still appear in our inventory on the new app, even though Classic and geocaching.com show they are gone from our inventory.

 

 

#2 - Yeah - that's bad. Never seen a navigation app that doesn't keep your phone up. What if you've got it mounted on your bike's handlebars?

 

#3 - Actually, I like this. I open lots of caches from the map. Doesn't mean I'm going after them. I like being able to read them, look at logs, then decide. I don't want to kick off the navigation portion of the program until I WANT to.

 

#5 - In a previous thread, I posted my experience with this. Don't remember if I ended up being correct, but here's a thread link. See post #17. ClickMe

Thank you for all your feedback. Very helpful! The blanking out screen really is irksome and cannot understand why the developers did not think to work that into the app. It's most necessary! #3- Can live with, just noting it's an extra step from Classic and #5, will just have to use geocaching.com to manage travel bugs until they get that fixed.

 

As I said in that other thread, this may not be a "bug"; rather a decision they made to reduce traffic. I deal with it by refreshing my data.

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

 

Really? My app is up to date and it is not there. Just one of the many reasons why I am going back to C:Geo. It works and has all the features I want and need.

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

I downloaded the new app today and I only see three log option.

Found it

Didn't find it

write note.

Being as I have hidden 269 caches I really need this new app to allow me to log "Owner activities" Maintenance, Temp. disable, enable & archive.

any word on these additions?

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

 

Really? My app is up to date and it is not there. Just one of the many reasons why I am going back to C:Geo. It works and has all the features I want and need.

 

Mine must be broken too, because I don't have those options either. :(

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

 

Really? My app is up to date and it is not there. Just one of the many reasons why I am going back to C:Geo. It works and has all the features I want and need.

 

Mine must be broken too, because I don't have those options either. :(

That's odd, the Release Notes for Feb 8th even seemed to show step-by-step how to access both NM and NA that was added to the apps.

Doesn't work?

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

 

Really? My app is up to date and it is not there. Just one of the many reasons why I am going back to C:Geo. It works and has all the features I want and need.

 

It is not in the section with the other log types (Found, Did Not Find, Write Note), which makes no sense at all. After all, you are still making a log for Needs Maintenance or Needs Archiving. In order to log a NM or NA log, open the cache that needs the log, click on the three dots in the upper right and select, Report a Problem.

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One of your issues (#6) was addressed by the February 8th release. Generally, one or two of the gaps between the Classic and current Apps have been addressed in each release. Perhaps other of your issues will be addressed in the future.

 

Really? My app is up to date and it is not there. Just one of the many reasons why I am going back to C:Geo. It works and has all the features I want and need.

 

Mine must be broken too, because I don't have those options either. :(

That's odd, the Release Notes for Feb 8th even seemed to show step-by-step how to access both NM and NA that was added to the apps.

Doesn't work?

 

Maybe signing out and back in fixed it, but now it works anyway. :unsure: Still, I need a full feature app too. I think most cache owners do. :)

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It is not in the section with the other log types (Found, Did Not Find, Write Note), which makes no sense at all. After all, you are still making a log for Needs Maintenance or Needs Archiving. In order to log a NM or NA log, open the cache that needs the log, click on the three dots in the upper right and select, Report a Problem.

 

Yes, I missed that step on the first try. I can relate to putting it there as report a problem. :anibad:

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Very poor planning on who ever thought of hiding it like that. I did see the report a problem but I thought it was for the app NOT the cache.

NM NA both need to be on the log button.

 

Now if they can just fix all the other stuff that is wrong with the new more gooder app.

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It is not in the section with the other log types (Found, Did Not Find, Write Note), which makes no sense at all. After all, you are still making a log for Needs Maintenance or Needs Archiving.

Very poor planning on who ever thought of hiding it like that. I did see the report a problem but I thought it was for the app NOT the cache.

NM NA both need to be on the log button.

At first, I also thought it was odd that the NM/NA options were 'hidden' in a different section of the app, but then I saw it from a different perspective and realized it sorta makes sense.

-- Cachers that are familiar with logging on the website will have to adjust to looking for it in an 'odd' place in the app, but cachers that usually log on the website are less likely to log using the app and therefore it doesn't matter as much where the logging options are.

-- The NM/NA log options may not seem to be in an 'odd' place for cachers that usually log via the official app because these options are new to them and so having them in a 'special' place may seem to make sense. Also, if the official app is being used by a lot of new cachers, then maybe it's a good idea to make NM/NA a bit tougher for them to get to. It may minimize the instances of new cachers mistakenly using these options when they simply couldn't find the cache.

 

But yes - NM/NA are indeed "log types", so the labeling in the app doesn't make sense for those of us that are familiar with NM/NA being grouped with the other log options on the website. But maybe the log options on the website are going to change as well? It is an improvement to have the NM/NA log options available in the app and their location doesn't seem too difficult to adjust to. The "report a problem" option is only available when viewing a specific cache.

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... Also, if the official app is being used by a lot of new cachers, then maybe it's a good idea to make NM/NA a bit tougher for them to get to. It may minimize the instances of new cachers mistakenly using these options when they simply couldn't find the cache.

Don't know if the site planned it that way or not, but that's my thinking too. :)

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... Also, if the official app is being used by a lot of new cachers, then maybe it's a good idea to make NM/NA a bit tougher for them to get to. It may minimize the instances of new cachers mistakenly using these options when they simply couldn't find the cache.

Don't know if the site planned it that way or not, but that's my thinking too. :)

I read The A-Team's post in the Release Notes thread after posting my reply. I think his idea sounds quite sensible, to help minimize mistaken NM/NA logs, yet also keep them in the 'log geocache' area. Would be great to see such a change if it's not overly difficult to implement within the iOS/Android environments.

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I've just started seeing "finds" being recorded by owners doing maintenance to their caches. App problem or lack of understanding????
Or just a brain fart on the part of the owner. I logged a few Finds after doing maintenance on my first hide, and that was before smartphones or smartphone apps.

 

(Each time, I edited the log type once I realized what I had done.)

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We overshot many caches as the navigational compass hung repeatedly and gets stuck on a certain number and won't budge no matter how far you travel! Get out of the car and the compass says its 102 feet to the cache...walk 75 feet and the compass still reads 102 feet to the cache! Fortunately, I still had my offline list on Classic and we were able to find the caches using the "old" app.

 

This has been my biggest issue with the new app so far. Is anyone else having trouble with it freezing up while using the compass?

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We overshot many caches as the navigational compass hung repeatedly and gets stuck on a certain number and won't budge no matter how far you travel! Get out of the car and the compass says its 102 feet to the cache...walk 75 feet and the compass still reads 102 feet to the cache! Fortunately, I still had my offline list on Classic and we were able to find the caches using the "old" app.

 

This has been my biggest issue with the new app so far. Is anyone else having trouble with it freezing up while using the compass?

 

Yes it does that to me too. I called it lag as it will eventually update, usually by the time we are well past where the cache is. The Classic app does not have this problem. Right now this is the #1 problem they need to get fixed in the next 2 days before the Classic app goes dark.

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