New Geocaching App

[+qzmstrspd]

I started using the new app and all went well until about a week ago, then the compass page started locking up. It would indicate a distance and direction, but the distance would not decrease until the alert for getting close went off and then would not change but the direction did change. While viewing the cache description and activities the horizontal bar graph indicator functioned correctly giving a direction and distance.

 

Was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this problem?

[+Jayeffel]

Referring to the Geocache App on iPhone? The problem I have is when nearing a cache and the message about getting close appears I cannot trust the direction and distance. I kind of goes all over the place. For instance, I come to a cache and when I get about 30 feet the message appears, I press okay and try to follow the direction bar. It says east about 17 feet, so I go that direction and distance and it then says north 8 feet. So I go that way and am told it is west 25 feet. I t appears that when I am close the iPhone doesn't really know. I try triangulation I and that doesn't work the best. I know I am close to where it is recorded as being.

 

I use my Garmin eTrex 20 then (as long as the info is uploaded to it) and that is tricky in itself. I tell it to "Go there" and need to walk in any direction to get a feel for the right direction and distance. Ity also sends goofy forsection at times. I guess if we a were told exactly where caches are and the instruments worked perfectly, the hunt would be less interesting.

[Keystone]

I'm moving this thread from the "old app" forum to the "new app" forum.

[+Sages]

I was just about to start a new thread when I came across this one. My iPhone will say it is 246 feet (or whatever) from the cache. The compass indicator works. I then walk toward the cache and the footage stays at 246 feet. I have found that I can close the compass page and then select the compass page again and the distance will refresh. It still locks at this new distance however. When I get to about 60 feet away, the proximity alarm goes off and when I hit ok to go back to the compass page I find that it has refreshed the distance again. It still freezes the distance however. I have tried deleting the geocaching app and reinstalling but this did not help. It did not used to do this on my phone. I don't know if it is app related or phone related but it sure messes up my geocaching experience.

[+noncentric]

It sounds the same issue was noted in this thread: Meters block compass

 

In that other thread, BenH from Groundspeak notes that they are working to fix the bug.

[+RyanClan5112]

I had the same problem today - the compass indicator stayed at whatever reading it had until I exited, and went back in.

 

Wouldn't it be simpler to just bring back the old app?

 

TB

[+Machined Parts]

Same issue.

Has anyone found a work around?

[Ben H]

We released an update today that should fix this issue. Please let us know if you continue to experience the bug after the update.

[+zeze1]

I just downloaded the update and the compass seems to work now. Thanks, Ben H!

[+Sono/Rad]

Thanks GC for the app updates and fix!!

[+acachebox]

Below is a copy of what I think is a solution. It has worked after several tests.

Aug 17 2019

 

I don't think this tread or the problem is limited to the I Phone SE since several have commented on having issues with later model I Phones.

Yes I had an I Phone 5 that worked great for some time. I first noticed the problem after a software update on the I Phone 5, I had been using 10.3.1. Since I had skipped a few updates I can't saw for sure which update actually introduced the navigation problems. I can say it has existed ever since the update of the 5 and as long as I have been using the 6S.

 

After my call to Apple yesterday I realized that the I Phone might be re-calibrating the compass depending on the phones orientation. With that in mind I tested this theory several times. When it became predictable as to what would happen each time I would drop the phone to my side and then bring it back up for observation the azimuth would be off. Not sure how I discovered that simply lifting the top edge of the phone towards the vertical it would correct the azimuth. 

 

Duplication is the accepted testing of a theory

 

All I ask is for another cacher that is having the navigation problem of the I Phone not holding an azimuth while heading towards a cache try what I have described above and comment.

Edited August 17, 2019 by acachebox

[+kunarion]

4 hours ago, acachebox said:

All I ask is for another cacher that is having the navigation problem of the I Phone not holding an azimuth while heading towards a cache try what I have described above and comment.

 

I tried it this afternoon.  I am consistently able to duplicate the Official App's 180-degree compass effect on my iPhone 8.  If I'm navigating by compass to a cache, and if I tip the phone up from horizontal in any direction, the arrow (and the compass dial) immediately flips either 90 or 180 degrees off, pointing elsewhere and stays that way when I return the phone to horizontal.  This jumping effect is very jarring.  The App does not play nice with the internal accelerometers.  The compass with its directional arrow "jump" together to the new direction.  So the arrow is correct, the entire compass has shifted from its proper alignment.  I can then try any calibration trick I like (figure of eight, or even just tipping the front of the phone toward vertical again), and the compass jumps back to its place.  It will remain in its incorrect alignment unless I take action.  I have to at least tip the phone again to get things back to normal.

 

If I try the same thing with Cachly, the compass also jumps, but the entire screen is flipping to correctly show landscape or portrait mode, while the Official App doesn't shift to and from landscape.  I also tried just the stock Compass App, and it is almost perfectly smooth in any orientation, you can't fool that App.  AND I tried the Official App while that other Compass was running, and while Waze was active in the background, and having another App "open" makes no difference with the 90 and 180-degree-off thing that happens to the Official App.

 

I don't know when this issue started on my phone, maybe it's always been like that.  Figure of eight, that's what to do.  It wakes the sensors, calibrates the compass, makes the App point to where I'm going.  It's what I'll need to do immediately after anything besides holding the phone straight and level.  It's pretty much all I've ever done, as soon as I notice it's not pointing in the right direction.  Most of the time I use a handheld GPS, so a couple one-second phone calibrations has been no big deal.  But I don't know why this bug wasn't caught and corrected before App release, nor why it continues to be not fixed.  Maybe it affects only certain iPhones, or only certain runs of particular models of iPhone, or iOS versions.

 

Official Geocaching App Version 8.3.1

iOS version 12.4

iPhone 8

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by kunarion

[+acachebox]

I just tried what i think you were describing in your first paragraph.

I set an azimuth to a cache. Then while holding the phone horizontally  raised the top edge of he phone upward. That had no effect on the azimuth. However if I rolled the phone on its side the screen deflected 90 degrees and remained off when I returned to phone to the horizontal. Again as I raised the top edge of the phone upward the screen corrected.

Every test I have conducted today when the screen has been locked and the azimuth off has been corrected by just lifting the top edge of the phone upward.

In one of my many conversations with Apples Customer Service today we discussed this issue. As it happened the Apple rep knew about caching and said he would run some experiments after work. While he can not get back to me directly one my original issue was resolved he assured me that if he could duplicate my theory he would advise the engineers.

[+madill]

I had the geocaching app for android and it was ok until the last week.  I have deleted it because when I want to go to the browser and there is a link...it fails and returns me to the map.  The query on google or chrome send me to the app so I can not add photos, conduct a search of stats, souvenirs, watchlist....well basically anything I want to do is not accessible from the app.  One I deleted it; bingo, I have access to the geocaching.com browzer and the info I want.  The app...is No good for me.

[+K13]

3 hours ago, madill said:

I had the geocaching app for android and it was ok until the last week.  I have deleted it because when I want to go to the browser and there is a link...it fails and returns me to the map.  The query on google or chrome send me to the app so I can not add photos, conduct a search of stats, souvenirs, watchlist....well basically anything I want to do is not accessible from the app.  One I deleted it; bingo, I have access to the geocaching.com browzer and the info I want.  The app...is No good for me.

Did you post this information in the Android app forum?

[+SpiritGuide]

4 hours ago, madill said:

I had the geocaching app for android and it was ok until the last week.  I have deleted it because when I want to go to the browser and there is a link...it fails and returns me to the map.  The query on google or chrome send me to the app so I can not add photos, conduct a search of stats, souvenirs, watchlist....well basically anything I want to do is not accessible from the app.  One I deleted it; bingo, I have access to the geocaching.com browzer and the info I want.  The app...is No good for me.

 

Check out this thread...

 

 

[+acachebox]

On 8/17/2019 at 9:12 PM, kunarion said:

 

I tried it this afternoon.  I am consistently able to duplicate the Official App's 180-degree compass effect on my iPhone 8.  If I'm navigating by compass to a cache, and if I tip the phone up from horizontal in any direction, the arrow (and the compass dial) immediately flips either 90 or 180 degrees off, pointing elsewhere and stays that way when I return the phone to horizontal.  This jumping effect is very jarring.  The App does not play nice with the internal accelerometers.  The compass with its directional arrow "jump" together to the new direction.  So the arrow is correct, the entire compass has shifted from its proper alignment.  I can then try any calibration trick I like (figure of eight, or even just tipping the front of the phone toward vertical again), and the compass jumps back to its place.  It will remain in its incorrect alignment unless I take action.  I have to at least tip the phone again to get things back to normal.

 

I think you have proven my theory on this subject that I posted on another tread on this forum

 

I may have found the answer. Try this and please post your results.

What I found was once an azimuth has been set on the phone and you start towards the cache I have a tendency to drop the phone down by my side while walking. When the phone was brought back up to view and held parallel to the ground the direction would be 90 or 180 degrees off. If you find this happening and while holding the phone parallel to the ground lift the top edge of the phone skyward. As you lift the top edge at about 30 degrees you will see the azimuth return to the correct direction. Don't ask me why but all the testing I have done causes it to correct itself. This works if the azimuth is off by 90 degrees to the left or right and also if it is off by 180 degrees.

 

I would ask another cacher to test this out and post their results.

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by acachebox