Monthly Archives: January 2015

New recording UI

MyTrails 2.0.9 introduces a new recording UI, which should make it easier for new users to grasp what the application is doing. The original recording UI is still available and will continue to be supported for users who prefer a greater degree of control.

How to select

You can select the type of recording UI in MyTrails > Preferences > Recording, Extended recording UI (uncheck for the new UI).

How does the new recording system work?

The new system consists of two buttons: Record/Pause and Stop.

New recording UI

Currently recording

The icon that is lit corresponds to the current recording state. Tap a button to switch to that state. For example, to pause the recording (without saving and closing the track), tap Record/Pause.

Tap the Stop button when you are done with your recording: MyTrails asks you to save the track (providing a name, etc.), and possibly upload the track to a community. The recording is then cleared, so MyTrails is ready for another recording, which you can do immediately by hitting the Record button.

You can also find the recording controls in the navigation menu, which is available on all main screens (stats, graphs, tracks, maps, etc.), not just the map view.

Streamlining the recording experience

With this new mode, MyTrails tries to make it very quick and easy to record your tracks:

  • when you launch MyTrails, recording starts right away (unless MyTrails was exited in the paused state)
  • when you get back to your starting point, MyTrails reminds you to save the recording with an unobtrusive notification (you can dismiss it by swiping it away; you can also disable this feature)
  • when you stop the recording and save the track, you can leave MyTrails any way you like:
    • just sending MyTrails to the background (using the Home button) stops using the GPS
    • actually quitting (using the Back button) is still better: when you next start it, MyTrails will know to start recording a new track

How can I move already downloaded offline maps to my external SD card

So you’ve downloaded a bunch of maps offline, and MyTrails placed them on your phone’s internal storage?

MyTrails doesn’t attempt to help do this, because moving large amounts of data around is difficult to do in a compatible and safe way. So please follow this guide:

  1. in MyTrails > Preferences > Other (storage), set the New offline maps location to your external SD card (you can use the SD card icon if you see one, or navigate to the external SD card if not)
    Create offline maps in
  2. use an Android file manager such as ES Explorer to move the contents of /sdcard/MyTrails/Offline to the location you selected above
    if this is not possible (Android 4.4 and later, unless rooted), transferring the files using a computer is required
  3. in MyTrails > Maps, tap on each of the offline maps you created and adjust its location
    Offline map location

If step 3 sounds too tedious, you can skip it; the next time MyTrails starts (you can stop it manually to make this happen sooner), it will automatically regenerate the map definitions for you (but it leaves the old ones, you’ll need to hide them in MyTrails > Maps, or delete them by long-pressing the map names and selecting Delete – make sure not to delete the map data, just the definition!).

If this does not succeed, please use the reset offline hidden option.