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Loading geocaches...


NanCycle

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A couple days ago I was out caching and the (official) app on my android phone would show "Loading geocaches..." but would  never actually load them.  Fortunately I was able to find caches because I had them loaded on my Garmin handheld GPS, but I wanted to use the  app on the phone to navigate between caches.  It was quite a cloudy day, but the Garmin didn't have any trouble finding satellites, and the Google map app didn't have any trouble navigating.  Today at home, in the house, the app can load caches.  Any ideas what the problem was?

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1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

I am often in areas of no cell coverage. This is why I love the ability to download lists/caches for offline use.

 

This assumes you planned ahead and downloaded in advance. Would be great if the app would store some info of the immediate area so if you went into a blind spot you aren't #$#@# 

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8 minutes ago, MNTA said:

This assumes you planned ahead and downloaded in advance. Would be great if the app would store some info of the immediate area so if you went into a blind spot you aren't #$#@# 

I don't understand why Groundspeak's app doesn't automatically cache data that it has downloaded about geocaches. Every other geocaching app that I've used does this. But Groundspeak's app seems to discard it unless the user specifically chooses to save for offline use. I see no benefit in that.

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Well, that surely makes sense and I can't say that lack of cell coverage wasn't the case, but it brings up some additional questions.  Would Google map service not be affected also?  It's not as though I was out in the middle of a forest or something--I was right in town all day, in one case in a major shopping center.  A couple of the caches I was looking for were in an area where I think cell coverage might be lacking, but that's not where I was when I was trying to load them.  Next time I'm there, if it happens again, I''ll specifically check for cell coverage.  In any case, that's why I'll never give up my Garmin and Pocket Queries.

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5 hours ago, niraD said:

I don't understand why Groundspeak's app doesn't automatically cache data that it has downloaded about geocaches. Every other geocaching app that I've used does this. But Groundspeak's app seems to discard it unless the user specifically chooses to save for offline use. I see no benefit in that.

 

The API apps allow Full or Lite downloads, the Groundspeak app uses Lite only. Selecting a cache in the official app causes a Full download of that cache data... nothing is discarded. Lite is faster which is why some complain about API apps being slow in Full mode when compared to the official app. 

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Well, there's got to be something else going on. Last weekend, Saturday afternoon, sitting in an open air stadium, under a clear blue sky, waiting for a football game to start, I tried Loading Geocaches, and again nothing would load. (Yes, there are geocaches in the area.) Tried again at half-time, still no success, but I did have enough cell coverage to make a call . This location was about 40 miles from where I was the week before.  Now, at home, no problem.  Other ideas?

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A stadium full of people, all with a few minutes to kill, all fiddling with their phones?  That could've overloaded the nearby towers.  (A modern version of the flush-at-once phenomenon.)  Voice calls go through a separate path (mostly), so it's believable that data was plugged but voice wasn't.

 

Around here, when we have festivals in a park that sees few people the other 360 days of the year, the phone companies put up temporary cell towers.

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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1 hour ago, Viajero Perdido said:

A stadium full of people, all with a few minutes to kill, all fiddling with their phones?  That could've overloaded the nearby towers.  (A modern version of the flush-at-once phenomenon.)  Voice calls go through a separate path (mostly), so it's believable that data was plugged but voice wasn't.

 

Around here, when we have festivals in a park that sees few people the other 360 days of the year, the phone companies put up temporary cell towers.

 

This does nothing to explain the original problem. Btw, this "stadium full of people" is not 50,000+ as you might be thinking, but under 5,000 total, and they were not all fiddling with their phones; many of them were talking to each other, etc.  But, thanks for the info re voice calls vs data, that my voice call was irrelevant to my data issue, so a better test would be one data source vs another data source, such as Geocaches, vs Google maps, as I used in my original post.

Edited by NanCycle
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1 hour ago, NanCycle said:

Well, there's got to be something else going on. Last weekend, Saturday afternoon, sitting in an open air stadium, under a clear blue sky, waiting for a football game to start, I tried Loading Geocaches, and again nothing would load. (Yes, there are geocaches in the area.) Tried again at half-time, still no success, but I did have enough cell coverage to make a call . This location was about 40 miles from where I was the week before.  Now, at home, no problem.  Other ideas?

 

Check phone settings that you can download over data? Getting the caches to download at home might be on a wifi network.

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I do not like using the Groundspeak app for caching. Whether I have full bars (good cell service) or not, the app on my Android phone doesn't always work. I just tried it the other day but couldn't get it to zero in on my location. This after hitting the "center on my location" button repeatedly. Yes, location services and cell data were both on. I had to manually zoom out, move over to where I was, then zoom back to load caches near me. It's hit or miss with the app, probably works ok about half the time. Thankfully, I still have GSAK and my old Garmin handheld. :D

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2 hours ago, Mudfrog said:

I do not like using the Groundspeak app for caching. Whether I have full bars (good cell service) or not, the app on my Android phone doesn't always work. I just tried it the other day but couldn't get it to zero in on my location. This after hitting the "center on my location" button repeatedly. Yes, location services and cell data were both on. I had to manually zoom out, move over to where I was, then zoom back to load caches near me. It's hit or miss with the app, probably works ok about half the time. Thankfully, I still have GSAK and my old Garmin handheld. :D

Why would it be the app? Curious. I use an Android with GS app and have never had that experience. Do you have another phone to compare?

I also prefer my Garmin and mostly use the phone on maintenance runs where one app bug does show up. It loses the "Enable" log and I have to log out then back in to get it to show (this has been experienced by others and noted in another thread).

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1 hour ago, fuzziebear3 said:

I don't know what phone or carrier you use, did you max out your data plan perhaps, or reach a throttle?

 

I buy blocks of data, and when my data runs low/out, things stop working.

 

 

Maxing out the data plan would not explain why "Loading Geocaches" doesn't work but Google map navigation does. Also wouldn't explain repeated occurrence of not working one day but working the next.  (Possible explanation for if it happens to be the end of the plan month -- one time, but not again the next week.)

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