Do Adventure Lab caches work offline?

[+Team Waldron]

I’ll be going to Vancouver for a couple of days and there is an Adventure Lab near where we are staying. I wont have online coverage once I’m out in the field.

 

Do Lab caches work offline? I know that all you need to do is to have visited the zone for a “leg” and it can then be answered later, which I could do by recording the answers but if I get the answer wrong then I’ll be in a pickle.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Glenn

[+K13]

No. They require a data connection (among other things) due to the geo-fencing aspect of that app.

[+Team OPJim]

This really needs to be fixed.  Yes, it is true that you need to have some connections to show you are at the location: aka geofencing.  However, there are some locations that simply don't have adequate signal to download the information.  But if you already have it, then a smartphone can still work.  Please fix this bug in the app. 

[+dprovan]

On 1/21/2020 at 4:52 PM, Team Waldron said:

Do Lab caches work offline? I know that all you need to do is to have visited the zone for a “leg” and it can then be answered later, which I could do by recording the answers but if I get the answer wrong then I’ll be in a pickle.

The short answer is "no", and I don't want you to get your hopes up. But to some degree, it works as you hoped. *If* you get the AL loaded *and keep it loaded*, you can visit each stage and the AL with remember that you were there even though it can't get on-line to confirm your answer. You can even tell if your answer is right because if it isn't right, it says so, but if it is right, it puts up a spinny wheel so you know it's accepted your answer and is trying to register that fact with the wide world.

 

The problem I've had is that even if I load the AL in advance, the app tends to time out if I don't actively talk to it. Then when I wake it back up, it has to reload the AL, so if I'm out of touch, I'm screwed. In addition, sometimes when it tries to register my answer on-line but fails, it will hang altogether so I have to shutdown the app myself, leaving me the reload problem again.

 

If you won't have any connectivity, then forget it 'cuz you'll never get started. But if you can go into the nearest cafe to get on a wifi from time to time, you might be able to pull it off.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Give it up! Vancouver is a beautiful city. Instead of trying to fight with an app to do something it wasn't designed to do, just go for a walk, explore, and enjoy. 

 

Caches, tangible little hidden things, can be found offline. There's great support for that from a variety of mature apps. 

[+MNTA]

2 hours ago, Team OPJim said:

This really needs to be fixed.  Yes, it is true that you need to have some connections to show you are at the location: aka geofencing.  However, there are some locations that simply don't have adequate signal to download the information.  But if you already have it, then a smartphone can still work.  Please fix this bug in the app. 

Can we also "fix" sequential Adventure lab caches. Why do I have to follow your order of finding and visiting thing. 

[+Calypso62]

4 hours ago, MNTA said:

Why do I have to follow your order of finding and visiting thing. 

 

Because that's the way the CO designed it to be done.

[Keystone]

I'm moving this bumped thread from the Geocaching Topics forum.

 

Now that we're here in the correct forum, conversations about sequential Adventures are already taking place in other threads.  Please keep this discussion on topic.  Thanks!

[+MtnGoat50]

On 1/21/2020 at 4:52 PM, Team Waldron said:

I’ll be going to Vancouver for a couple of days and there is an Adventure Lab near where we are staying. I wont have online coverage once I’m out in the field

LOL  Too late to help the OP but there are some workarounds for doing a (non sequential) lab offline. Linky

[+searcherdog]

On 2/9/2022 at 5:22 PM, MtnGoat50 said:

LOL  Too late to help the OP but there are some workarounds for doing a (non sequential) lab offline. Linky

Thank you for the link. We have been doing an adventure in an area with very poor connectivity. I thought we would try your linky and it worked really well and we found the three remaining stages without a connection. 

[+geodarts]

I never have had a problem logging offline - perhaps it’s because I do most of my caching offline.  The lab is usually the only thing I have open and if I’m not online I don’t go past the question page, waiting submit the answer until a later time.

 

My own lab just went live.  I like it because all but one stage is in an area where traditional caching is not permitted - but it also means that cell reception may be limited.   I got a note from someone who said that when they have tried offline labs all they get is the spinning wheel.  I’m glad I knew about page linked above.

 

That information should be in an Adventure Lab FAQ or the Groundspeak knowledge base.  

[+Pihoqahiak]

On 2/9/2022 at 6:22 PM, MtnGoat50 said:

LOL  Too late to help the OP but there are some workarounds for doing a (non sequential) lab offline. Linky

It also works for sequential labs, as long as you can connect to wifi/internet in between every stage. I did this with a sequential AL in Nuuk, Greenland last week and went back to my hotel after every stage to connect to the wifi, answer the question and unlock the next stage.

[+Max and 99]

I was in an area with expected no service. At first I couldn't even log the location answers. I hit a spot that let me log answers so I completed the adventure lab and immediately posted a review. The owner says there's no review and I am getting a mixed bag of error messages for the last 50 minutes. I just know someone's going to complain that I took too long to log but I don't know what else to try. I've logged out then back in, I've edited the review and get the message "success" but it's still not showing. I tried deleting the review so I could start over and it said it was not able to delete that review. Most of the time the message says unable to load activity at this time.