Caches disappeared from map view

[Sinnoh]

Hi all,

 

Apologies if this is in the wrong section. I’m new to the forums and haven’t been caching all that long.

 

I'm using the iOS app currently and have noticed that several multi caches that have been displayed to me in the past have now effectively gone from the map view. They’re also gone from the map on the desktop site.

 

They were greyed out to me anyway because I’m a basic member yet now they’ve disappeared entirely. When I search for them using the GC code I can locate them in the list but they don’t allow me to click on them and it just shows that padlock and mentions premium membership etc. They also don’t appear to have been disabled or deleted (as there is no red wording nor line strike).

 

Being a basic member, I don’t have any filters on as the the filter is fully green too and I’m also able to see other caches of the same and different style and of higher difficulty on the iOS map. Yet for some strange reason the multi caches I refer to above do no longer appear.

 

does anyone know the reason for this? Has the cache owner edited details somehow to allow it to appear only to premium members? If so, where is this setting as I have caches that are of the same difficultly and don’t want other players to not be able to see them. I can see other types of caches with higher difficulties and larger cache sizes, yet for some reason I can no longer see these on my map. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

[Blue Square Thing]

The cache owner has probably done exactly as you suspected and made them a "Premium Member Only" cache. This means you won't see them on any map view when you're zoomed in (if you zoom way out you might see them appear when the icons turn into dots, but even then you can't click on them.

 

There's probably a good reason for them doing that.

[Sinnoh]

Thanks for your reply. I had no idea that “premium-only” caches were a thing.

 

after doing some research and reading through other forum threads once I’d searched the term, it was quite apparent how they work.

 

Firstly, it seems to be an insurance policy for some cache owners to ensure that the probability of caches they’ve worked hard on or are expensive have a reduced chance of being stolen or broken.

 

Another thing I noticed was that in order to make a cache premium-only, you first need to have a premium account or the check box in the edit section of your geocache which allows you to change the cache to premium members only who can see it on their maps will not be shown to you.

 

The other thing I learnt was that basic members can inherit premium only caches and that they can edit them like normal, however if they remove the premium only status from the cache then I do not think they can reenable this if they change their mind.

[+HunterandSamuel]

On 10/21/2020 at 4:06 AM, Sinnoh said:

does anyone know the reason for this? Has the cache owner edited details somehow to allow it to appear only to premium members? If so, where is this setting as I have caches that are of the same difficultly and don’t want other players to not be able to see them. I can see other types of caches with higher difficulties and larger cache sizes, yet for some reason I can no longer see these on my map. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Maybe the caches were disabled?  Welcome to the forum! 

[Sinnoh]

9 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

Maybe the caches were disabled?  Welcome to the forum! 

 

Thank you! No, they’re not disabled. I was able to see them listed when I searched for a geocache that I knew I could see that was nearby (by searching via the cache’s GC code) as it also lists caches that are close to the one you typed in the search bar. I then when to click on them and saw the padlock image telling me I needed to upgrade my membership before progressing. I also managed to search the cache owners name and I was able to inspect their owned caches and both were listed without the red line indicating deletion. So they’re definitely still around.

 

guess the next step is to get premium membership!