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Have been using Locus Pro for years on my Android phone but have now put it on my Android tablet (ICS) but am having a big problem.

The tablet is only a cheap MID non-branded tablet without GPS or bluetooth but it works perfectly and I don't have any problems with it.

For some reason though Locus wont look up addresses.

When I long press on a road it does the address search (because I enabled that option) but it says no address found.
The same thing happens when I try to do a simple search for an address or location - it instantly tells me it cant find the address.

The online maps work etc etc so its seeing the internet.

I have no idea why this is happening as Google maps looks up addresses ok and so do other apps - its just Locus Pro that wont do anything when it comes to searching for or long pressing on a location to find its address.

Any ideas please?
Thanks.

Yep, Play wont let me have the new version either!  :-(

[Answers contained in the quote below]

Answers contained in the quote below  

Sorry to hear that it doesn't work the way you want...
Thanks Berkey.  It does work the way I want it, thats why I like it so much and have done for years, but recently I'm having far too many problems

About your questions:
(1) Does it just seem to use more battery or does it use more battery?
It does use more battery, I have another thread about this

(2) Can you share (private or public) a gpx file that causes the crash?
This happens on a range of gpx files generated from (so far) 3 different sources. It must have happened on about 10 different gpx files so far and so I am quite confident its not specific to a certain gpx
(3) + (4) Can't answer that... send logs to Menion.

There are a lot of possibilities for Locus to crash. So best method to find the reason is sending logs to Menion.
When I'm talking about lots of possibilties, I mean questions like:
- How much RAM is available for Locus to operate?
Good idea Berkely.  I have been checking this though and it seems I have about roughly 190mb RAM free when Locus is running
- Are you using vector maps and map rotation while these errors occur?
With the battery problem I have had rotation turned off but have been using a 250mb Vector map of England although its never caused problems before I agree it just may be doing something bad in these latest versions of Locus.
- Do you display lines to target or lines to GPS while these errors occur?
Hardly anything displayed. Usually 1 POI I am walking to and quite often a guiding line to the POI
- Is it just your old phone and the old Android version, which doesn't work correctly?
I use android 2.3.5 on an HTC Wildfire S... thats what Locus Crashes on.  I've resorted back to using a 7 year old regular mobile now to log my routes
- and a lot more questions...

When you have these huge problems with Locus and still want them to be fixed, please share some more information.

Cheers, berkley

Thanks Berkley.  

[I can't trust Locus Pro anymore]

I can't trust Locus Pro anymore  

Maybe similar to what joeloc is talking about - but I had 2 Locus crashes during a tracklog that was just under 4 hours.  

Unlike joeloc they luckily didnt happen in the background but instead happened as I opened Locus Pro to check my distance traveled and see what POIs were about.  Twice Locus just crashed.  

This has been happening with 2.7.x versions for me and I am now gutted to say I have to take my S.E. k750i out with me and a seperate GPS module using trekbuddy to record the track I walk as I simply do not want to walk 4 hours and risk not having a .gpx at the end of it.

Here are a few things I have noticed the last few weeks that are really troubling me about Locus. I state these things only as feedback as I think Locus is superb but recently have honestly considered stopping using it.  

1. Seems to use more battery than other releases prior to 2.7.x

2. Importing a gpx file often causes it to crash and I need to open Locus again and try to re-import the gpx. This opening and immediate crash can happen 3 or 4 times before the gpx file finally imports correctly.

3. I never have more than 3 (at the very most) POIs open at any one time in Locus when I am out and about logging my route... but sometimes when just clicking the 'points' tab - Locus will just crash as it did twice yesterday when I was performing very simple operations.

4. When Locus crashes whilst logging a route... it restarts itself which is great... but please please please can it be made to automaticly resume logging because at the moment it puts the logging into 'pause' mode when it restarts and its very easy to forget to take it off pause.  It would be so much better if after a crash it resumed logging.

Well, that my recent experiences on long walks with Locus.  Its gone from being an app I used to look forward to using to one I really like but dread how its doing to act.

I would appreciate any advice or ideas on the above.  Is it worth me installing catlog again and trying to sort out some crash reports?

Thank you.  

After a few weeks of testing I can confirm the following...

I used Locus for 4 hours yesterday without map rotation, without hardly any guiding and with the screen not on very often and it still used alot of battery.  I had airplain mode turned on, screen brightness less than 40% and everything else was off and after logging using an extended battery for just under 4 hours I was down to 19% from a full battery.

I can honestly say I have used many Locus releases in the past but do think this one is heavy on the battery for some reason - especially since I have everything turned off and set everything up to preserve as much battery as possible.  

Agreed jusc,
Using GPS indoors is not good for any battery I dont think regardless of using Locus or any other program.
May I suggest that a real test of what Locus is doing Henk is a good few hours use outdoors.

Interesting post Henk.
I havent had chance to test Locus out in the field yet for a few hours but did want to mention that I am pretty sure my case is nothing to do with Locus not switching off.

The drain for me is when Locus is being used.

I have used it on and off for a very short while today and it does seem to be switching off completely when I exit properly as the battery use is only 3%  as I would expect from very very minimal light short use.

I am not sure if Locus running as a service is what is keeping it running on your phone as I'm not sure what the running as a service does - but have a check to see if you have that setting enabled maybe?

I have now re-done my 'field of view' icon as although I like the eye - its does look a bit out of place on gyntas screenshot.

I have incorporated the view icon into gyntas wonderful red icons pack (I hope this is ok gynta(?))

The pack uploaded into this post is designed to run on none HD screens.  For example a Wildfire S which has a 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches display.

The sizes of the icons are purposely various and are made so for ease of walking navigation and POI walking guidance.

The sizes are as follows:

ic_location_cross
ic_location_gps
ic_location_move
ic_location_network
Have all been left as gytas 72x72 for ease of viewing on a small screen out in the field.  The Move arrow has been recoloured slightly for more red.

ic_rotate_arrow
Has been downsized to 48x48 and now has large N,S,E,W labels with a 50% transparency for the outer diamond in order to make the labels more readable.

ic_location_view
is a large 256x256 icon and will appear large on a small screen.  I have made it this way so that I can very easily see my direction towards a POI when I am walking out in the field on a bright and/or sunny day without having to have the screen brightness on full.

I cannot take screenshots on my phone and hope this pack is of use to someone with a smaller screen device.
All kudos to gynta for the original 5 icons in his pack.

Please see post number 1 on this thread for links.

Excellent, thank you tommi62.
I have changed the setting know after yours and Menions great advice.
Unfortunately though, I dont think it will change the battery drain problem simply because when I am walking and geocaching I use the 'guiding' function and so when the phone is sleeping in my pocket - it is still guiding and therefore presumably using the same amount of power as the 'only when GPS on' setting.

I have however turned map rotation off so I really hope something umproves with this battery usage thing.

Thanks again jusc, Menion and tommi62 :-)

(UPDATE)
with the greatest of respect tommi62 I wouldnt have thought running 2 versions was not a good idea at all - especially when trying to diagnose a problem.
In answer to your question, lets say for example I use Locus for 1 hour.  During that 1 hour it will be logging my walk.  For about 10 - 20 minutes in total the screen will actually be on as I check how far I am from my geocache POI but that is usally done via the compass screen and I hardly ever use the map whether rotating or not.  Throughout all of the 1 hour Locus is probably guiding for about 50 minutes in total.
So - in summing up... Locus is mainly in my pocket with the screen manually switched off.

[edit]

Thanks so much Menion,
So I understand your reasonings for turning off 'always screen on'. I set this as I thought that is what was needed for when using Locus to navigate whilst driving?
So if I turn this off,when I am in the car and navigating with LocusPro - the screen will stay on and not time out?

edit
Actually Menion, I just checked and the 'always screen on' is now set to be always on but is set to Only When GPS On.  
If I set it to Only When Guiding then that would be the same surely?
So is it your suggestion I leave it as System Settings or will that cause the screen to sleep whilst I am using it in car?
Thanks alot.

I wanted something a bit larger and easier to see whilst I am out walking and so have made an icon to be placed in the cursors directory of Locus.

The icon replaces the default view icon and is alot larger and very high in colour making it much easier to see under bright sunlight.

I also thought it would be a good idea to put a graphic of an 'eye' on the icon but did this only as a bit of fun but was quite happy with how it looked and so decided to leave it.

For anyone wishing to make these icons please refer to:
http://docs.locusmap.eu/doku.php/manual:map_cursors

Note that if you want to use my icon with a set of others your have downloaded you will need to unzip both sets and then rezip into one singular zip file before placing it within Locus.

regards
UKlocusfan

Sorry for posting in the wrong place Menion & gynta, I thought keeping the icon question in that place was right but now I realise it was just for icon releases.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction Menion, I really just couldnt find the right area on the docs that told me how to do it.

I have now made an icon and will upload it in the correct place.  :-)

HI all,

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.

Does anyone know if a custom Icon can be made for the 'show view' in the map settings.

Show view is the one that has the orange field of view to show which direction you are facing but I would like something a bit bigger.

Any info would be greatly appreciated - thank you all.

tommi62,
Those are questions I had too.
I completely understand what Menion is saying about large vector maps rotating and using alot of battery, but in my case the maps was only on screen for around 10 minutes out of the 3 hours I was logging... the rest of the time I was using compass to guide to a POI.
With that considered, I wouldnt have thought there would have been much drain on the battery as the screen was off most of the time anyway and therefore I would have thought the only battery consumption would have been for Locus actually running, and also the GPS logging the route with the screen off.

I messed around with running Locus as a service yesterday as I had experienced another crash - but I am unsure to actually try it whilst out walking in case it does require most battery power on a contact level.

Menion:
Thanks so much indeed... I hope the email got to you ok.  :-)

HI Menion and thanks so much for the reply again.

I have just emailed the file to you.

I am still unsure why the battery drain is so much as those are the setting I have always used although I have carefully read your reply and have changed a few things in order to test it in the next few days.  I do like my offline vector map of England and so have left that as my default map although I have now turned map rotation off.  I do need to keep GPS on as it will be logging my walks but I am hoping the map rotation being turned off will help alot... maybe the heavy CPU usage is also to blame for the crash I experienced in 2.7.2 also.

Anyway, I agree the battery indicator in android is poor and I use something called battery solo widget although I will search the market for a more in depth battery readout app.

Well, I hope the emailed file came through to you ok and hopefully there is something in there that may help me out.  In the meantime I will disable map rotation and see how that goes.  :-)

Thank you once again Menion.