Messages

Since a couple of versions, whenever I share a Location from Google Maps to Locus, the resulting Waypoint will only be called "Point". It used to work properly before, ie Locus would name the point for example "Carrefour Supermarket".

The position is still shared correctly.

The google maps point sharing "fix" now extracts the points name from the funny url and does a new Locus "search" for that. It's unfortunately almost as unusable as before. I now tried it 10 times in real world situations (still being on an endless bike journey). 3/10 times Locus didn't find the point (by name) at all. 5/10 times if "found" something completely different by the same or a similar name, sometimes 100km away. 2/10 times it found the right thing.

Verdict: still an almost complete failure. re-searching in that way is not an option. if you cannot extract proper coordinates from a funny url, we're f*cked forever.

Apparently this "workaround point sharing fix app" that people here talk about manages to do it fine though. Too bad it's no longer supported and doesn't install on current Androids without jumping through hoops :-)

Buddy tracking is super unreliable btw, if anybody still cares about that function. It stops working at least least five times per day and we have to manually turn it off and on to see our points again.

It always happens when network reception is bad for a while. Locus seems to mess up internally and never gets back on track.

Btw... if you have code in there like

if phone.isOnline()
  do_stuff();
else
  do_other_stuff();

that might be the main problem. Once you leave your LTE development couch and travel through the real world, your phone will quite often only THINK it's online... like in zero bars 4G or even Edge. Transmitting a single byte might take ages though or come back with a failure after some longish timeout. Quite likely Locus hickups on that... maybe if the network error timeout is longer than the tracking interval? Just guessing.

And nope... we're not in rural India... we're in the mountains of southern France right in central Europe. Buddy tracking still fails plenty.

There are obviously at least a dozen other things wrong with buddy support in general. But unless the likely answer is different from "not a priority" (as for the last five(?) years), I won't bother repeating myself over and over again. Ask if you want two more pages of neccessary fixes... or just go cycling with a buddy, then you might finally notice yourself and do something about it :-)

I don't really know where you want to go with your search. In any case, here are some thoughts from a power user (10 hours every single day, 300 days a year, since day one of Locus, always on the road):

You will never ever be able to compete with Google (or Apple) maps search. Period. This idea is completely delusional, even if you hire 50 more Locus programmers just for search. Here's a few reasons:

Google Maps gives me local results which are most relevant to my current situation. That works in completely foreign languages as well, where I cannot even read the alphabet. Searching for "bike shop" will show me local bike shops, in places with cyrillic writing, who might never have even heard of OpenStreetMap.

Google Maps knows if and when businesses are open.

Google Maps allows me to streetview directly into a stores front window. Very useful in judging whether it's worth taking a one hour detour in brutal heat to go there of if it's just a cheap bullshit shop with a fancy website that cannot help me anyway.

Google Maps sometimes allows me to chat to the store owner directly, including automatic translation. Yes... that is super handy in countries when you're not fluent enough for phone calls.

To be brutally honest, I wouldn't mind if you completely removed online search from Locus. It can never seriously compete with the worlds biggest players anyway, so why bother? Just make the sharing interface to Google Maps as smooth as humanly possible and concentrate on OFFLINE search in Locus... that is still a massive mess as well, leaving a lot to be desired.

For starters... why would I choose BEFOREHAND on where I want to search?! That is so completely last-millenium it's not even funny anymore :-).

When I search for "everest", I want to see
* all my tracks that contain "everest" in name or description or embedded waypoints or their description.
* all my points that contain "everest" in name or description.
* all track or point folders or groups names with "everest"
* all my custom maps that have everest in their name.
* all stuff from mapitems folder with "everest" in filename or contents (kml, gpx, anything)
* dashboards names and contents
* prefs items
* etcpp... you get idea... every(!) single(!) word(!) that locus has access to... anywhere. And you have exactly one search string that does it all. Not a dozen searches hidden all over the place.

You index all that and present the results all at once, immediately, while I'm typing. No clicking on "search" and make me wait for half a minute... and for the life of good... no pre-selection of where I want to search. That was a horrible idea from the start and needs to go.

Sorry for the longish post, that's just my two cents to bring offline search up to speed. Online search should be left to online search companies.

Hi guys, sharing points from Google Maps does not work for years as I know. Somewhere in 2021 maybe even later, they changed the format and the information app receives can no longer be simply converted to any text or coordinates.

Or you had a different experience with Locus Map 4.16-?

@Menion - strange, different to my experience, it (red push pin) had worked ~4.16, stopped working ~4.17, and is now working again. I only started using GMaps recently as a workaround for the broken LM4 online search experience which I now find frustrating. Sorry to complain, but it's just how it feels.

More or less the same for me. Latest version of Locus did not fix anything here though, I still cannot share points from Google Maps app. All I get is a silly URL in the Locus search window.

It used to work nicely for me for a long time, likely before Locus rewrote the Search function. Or before gmaps app changed the sharing... I have no idea. All I know is that it worked for years and not it doesnt.

I also find the new Locus online search useless. It almost never gets anything I want. When I need a "bike shop", I want a list of shops at the town where my map is pointing at. Locus online search gives me mostly utter nonsense from 500 kilometers away though.

To put it mildly: Usability regarding search has gone completely southwards recently.

Good interaction with Google maps is essential on my trips. I need opening/closing times, I need the websites of stores, I need to streetview the store front to judge wether it makes sense to cycle there and look for something. Locus internal search will never be able to compete... and it should not. Google Maps is the perfect tool for that.

Sharing position from a Google Maps entry is still broken, ever since Locus implemented its new search system. It's really quite annoying while traveling to resort to this long tap hack.

Thanks for finally making it possible to hide the Copyright button. Maybe my current Amoled display will live a longer and happier life now :-).

Just need to find a solution for status bar and navbar. In an ideal world, they should probably appear and disappear together with the Locus UI but I can't seem to make that work. There's only one setting for this? Expert settings / immersive mode?

The new search broke a very vital feature: I can no longer locate something in Google Maps and then share the point directly to Locus. That used to work nicely, now Locus simply opens the search dialog and then does nothing.

@joeloc, @tapio - not even a red pin is needed, I just long-tap in Maps > share > LM4.

True, that works for me. Does it share coordinates directly whereas the other method would share the name only and then search again in Locus? Then only the "search again" thing is broken. Not that I need it, now that I know the trick. But it's still weird when you share something to Locus and it comes to front and then does nothing.

Speaking about search: I remember a long time ago being able to search e.g. "bike shops" in Locus. I would then get a list of all shops in a town and could simply multiselect and import them all at once. That was super useful when you had to shop around for parts / repairs on the road. I can't seem to make that work anymore. Has nothing to do with new search, multi selecting search results hasn't worked in years. Or maybe I am just imagining this...

When creating a new point (by long tap), the folder for that point defaults to the folder of the last point CLICKED. That's wrong, it should default to the folder of the last point ENTERED.

Viewing points and entering points are two very different things. I have plenty visible point folders, yet during a trip, I always want to add points to a single folder for that trip.

I am pretty sure this worked properly before. The change/bug must have been introduced lately. Please fix, I keep creating points in random folders just because I view stuff in-between.

Menion... could you please please pretty please consider accepting XML files for "open with..." and "share" with Locus?

I am meanwhile completely fed up with explaining people where to put their custom maps and overlays... it's simply beyond the ability of a normal user, especially now that Locus has to hide its home directory in funky places, not easily accessible by your default file explorer.

The Strava Heatmap nowadays is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL for mountain bike navigation and beats any OSM tagging hands down all over the world. But getting it into Locus requires some kind of advanced super knowledge at the moment. How great would it be if you could simply click on the XML attachment here, choose open with / share with Locus, and simply be offered to import the contents (if any).

Locus should not only accept custom map definition XML files, but also any other type of file that it deals with: database backups... cursor definitions... dashboards... god knows what... zipped or unzipped. Just parse whatever you're given and present the user with reasonable choices on what do to with it.

Thanks.

Is cloud sync actually supposed to work? I just tried it for the very first time and it remains at 1% forever.

@joeloc - maybe just 1% for a longer than expected time - I experienced similar behavior with the initial bulk upload - have a look at & maybe vote or comment on my suggestion https://help.locusmap.eu/topic/26282-provide-more-info-while-performing-cloud-sync. I use manual cloud sync & it's a great facility, but would like to see more details during progress, and finer grained update of the progress bar.

More details and progress updates are absolutely required, especially when performance is that miniscule. I have no patience for staring at a never changing 1% number. And since there is no network traffic worth mentioning during that time, I simply abort.

regarding copyright button: at least make it 60% visible only... and just 10% after I clicked and read it once for a specific map. that would still satisfy your moral obligation to map creators and stop destroying your users phones.

bright white pixels on an amoled displayed at 1000 nits 8 hours a day is one of the worst things you can do to your phone. solution: just don't!

map itself is not problem since it is always different. the rest of your statically placed and always visible UI is not 100% white as far as I can tell. But yes, it is a problem too. And not a theoretical one mind you, I have Locus UI burnin on 3 phones already.

no, this will not happen to casual users.

yes, this will happen to power users who spend their locus life in bright sunshine every day.

The new copyright button on top right is super horrible. Is there any way to disable that pretty please? Like a "I have acknowledged the Copyright for this map, remove the button" link when you first display the message for each map?

Besides of getting in the way visually and being hit accidently (moving bicycle on bumpy roads..
not while sitting in a chair...), it WILL cause OLED burn in with its super high contrast. Other parts of Locus UI have done that as well for me and are now permanent on my current phone... and my previous phones. Which reminds me... any chance of slightly moving the whole UI around by a few pixels every now and then somehow? If you run Locus outdoors, display will always be super bright and maybe always on and burn in will occur after a while for power users. All my Samsung devices going back to at least the S8 suffer from burned in Locus UI actually. S10 does, my GFs S20 does, my current S20FE also does (after 16 months heavy Locus use).

Obviously it's Samsungs fault, not Locus. But anyway... Locus is the only App that runs at 1000 nits many hours a day, so it causes by far the most stress for your Display.

Regarding sharing names... not sure I get what you meant. I want to web search for any names on the map with the least hassle possible. Tap a POI, select share, select websearch. Tap a track, select share, select websearch, long tap anything on the map, select share, select websearch.

How would I do this in current Locus? To get from any name on the map (eg Refugio Coolplace) to
https://www.google.com/search?q=refugio+coolplace

websearch meaning: send whatever "name" to default browser default search engine.

...I run a "watchdog" since a few months that checks for Locus every minute and restarts it when it's gone.

@joeloc sorry to read of your troubles - I don't have those problems, will keep 2017 Samsung phone as long as possible, but could you possibly share more details of your "watchdog" - just curious. Best wishes Andrew.

My watchdog is a super simple macro for MacroDroid. It checks periodically for the presence of Locus notification (since apparently direct check for running apps is forbidden in newer Androids). If there is no Locus notification, it plays some warning text and simply starts Locus. Locus resumes track.recording nicely in this case, which is really all I care about.

@menion, I'd love to do logs n stuff, but apparently play store refuses to deliver beta versions (even though it says it does). So atm I'm still running public 4.8. Wasn't there a web page with the beta APKs. somewhere?

Camera is the main culprit when it comes to killing Locus, today it happened again. Just once though. It also happens to me when web surfing though... or when using the booking.com app. Anything really. Whenever Locus is in the background, it is in grave danger.

Funny though, only Locus gets killed. I never have problems with other background stuff, like Audible, VLC-Player for radio streams, etc.