Category Archives: FAQ

How can I use my external SD card for offline maps?

One of the new “features” of Android 4.4 (KitKat) is that applications can no longer use the external SD card as a generic storage volume and read/write everywhere. There are valid security reasons for the change, but the way Google has done this breaks many apps and doesn’t provide a clear way to do things right for application developers.

In the case of MyTrails, it means that if you want to store your offline maps on your external SD card, you’ll have to jump through a few hoops:

If your device is rooted, you can use a free app like SDFix to revert to a fully-writable SD card
If your device is not rooted, there is only one folder that MyTrails can write to on the external SD card: /storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.frogsparks.mytrails (this path may be slightly different if you’re using the preview version of MyTrails, or your device mounts the SD card to a different location within /storage; some devices use /storage/extSdCard/)

Please note the following caveats (if your device is not rooted):

you can not share the same offline maps between the official and preview versions of MyTrails
if you uninstall MyTrails, your offline maps will be deleted (this is by design, part of the reason Google make this change in KitKat), unless you use a privileged file manager (one that comes as part of your device’s default software) to move them beforehand

On recent versions of Android, even the internal storage may no longer be accessible to MyTrails. One location that should always be available is /sdcard/Android/data/com.frogsparks.mytrails. This is the offline location you should use if all else fails. Warning: that location is deleted by Android when you uninstall MyTrails!

Alternately, you can use the standard Android file picker with MyTrails, which makes it possible to load and save GPX files from anywhere. Enable it by turning off Use internal file picker in MyTrails > Preferences > Other.

I changed or reset my phone, how can I get my purchases back?

Background

MyTrails tries hard to keep track of your map subscriptions or Pro status even when it is uninstalled or reset, but sometimes it fails.

By default, your purchases are tied to your device through a unique random identifier that MyTrails creates (referred to as the UUID). In some circumstances (device reset, ROM update, etc.), this UUID may be regenerated, which breaks the connection between your device and subscriptions.

For this reason, we recommend to also connect MyTrails to your Google account (in MyTrails > Preferences > Accounts > Google), or create a FrogSparks account (if you prefer not to use your Google account everywhere), so that MyTrails may have a more permanent way of tying your purchases to you.

Solution

So, provided you did associate MyTrails to your Google or FrogSparks account before you changed or reset your phone, all you need to do to restore your purchases is to connect to your account again (MyTrails > Preferences > Accounts > Google) or in MyTrails’ navigation menu.

For paid offline maps, once you have restored your account connection, you can copy the map data from the old device to the new (it’s usually stored in /sdcard/MyTrails/offline), or you can download it again; because MyTrails subscriptions are based on the area of the union of your downloads, if you download the same areas, you will not have to pay extra (and you can use maps.frogsparks.com to de-authorize maps that you had downloaded to the old device).

If this fails, please contact support@frogsparks.com and provide the email address associated with your Google (or FrogSparks) account, as well as the Google Wallet purchase number for the purchases (you can find it on the email receipts from Google, or on wallet.google.com).

Migration issues between FrogSparks and Google login

If you’re a new user, you should always use a Google login on the web site and on your devices (as long as you have configured a Google account on the device, which you have done if you use the Play Store or Gmail): it’s easier, one less password to remember, and you should not encounter any problem.

If you had already created a FrogSparks account, you should also migrate to using a Google account everywhere. In most cases, simply logging in to your Google account from MyTrails on a device that is also connected to your FrogSparks account should automatically merge your Google account to your FrogSparks account.

There is one possibility for failure: if your Google account’s email address is not the same as the email address you used for your FrogSparks account and you connect to your Google account from a device not already connected to your FrogSparks account, or from the web site, then both account will remain separate and you will not be able to merge them. You should contact us so we can delete your Google account from our databases so you can then merge the account properly as described above.

You may choose to use only a FrogSparks account everywhere (if you don’t have a Google account for example). Or once you have an account that works both as a Google account and a FrogSparks account, you can use the FrogSparks account where the Google login is not available (for example on Kindles).

MyTrails Pro available as an in-app purchase

When I started developing MyTrails, in-app purchases (IAP) were not available on the Play Store, so like all apps from that generation, a tiny app (MyTrails Pro License) served to indicate to the main app that the user had purchased the Pro version.

It worked, for the most part, but some users didn’t know that they could just download the Pro license again for free when they switched to a new device.

So now MyTrails is available as an IAP. Buying it is slightly easier and the minor support burden should be a thing of the past.

I also wanted for users who have both a Google device and a Kindle to not have to purchase the Pro version twice just because of the platform divide, so the license information is stored on my server, and it is attached to your FrogSparks account.

On Google devices, the FrogSparks account is superseded by using your Google account; on Amazon devices the FrogSparks account remains. If you already have a FrogSparks account (or you also use a Kindle), both accounts can be attached by first connecting to your FrogSparks account, then your Google account, from your Google device.

All this happens in MyTrails > Preferences > Accounts > FrogSparks.

If you already have purchased the Pro license, MyTrails will first prompt you to create or connect to your account, and will transfer the license to the server, after which you will be prompted to uninstall the Pro License (but you don’t have to). The Pro License application will remain available on Google Play for the time being, but should no longer be used.

tl;dr: If you want MyTrails Pro, from now on the IAP is the way to go, MyTrails will guide you.

Why don’t I see my offline maps when I connect my phone to my computer via USB?

This should only happen on CyanogenMod-based ROMs.

In order to avoid having the Android Media Manager index all the files MyTrails uses for offline maps (thus wasting space and battery on every startup), MyTrails adds a .noscanandnomtp file to offline maps.

This in turn prevents MTP (which your desktop uses to connect to the phone) from seeing these files.

If you wish to transfer an offline map from your phone to your desktop (perhaps to share the offline map with a friend), you can:

create a ZIP archive of the offline map (on your phone)
or temporarily remove or rename the .noscanandnomtp file (using an Android file manager) which is inside the main directory for your offline map, then cause Android to re-index the directory, perhaps by rebooting the phone and waiting a few minutes

you will then be able to see the map (or its archive) through MTP.

MyTrails incorrectly computes distance and speed

MyTrails uses built-in Android methods to compute distances (and speeds). Unfortunately a small number of phones use a version of Android where a critical element of the platform (the Dalvik JIT compiler) suffers from a bug that causes these calculations to be severely incorrect.

This issue may also cause tracks to be displayed as thick lines across the screen.

In MyTrails 2.0 and later, please try to activate the Fallback distance calculation preference in Visual preferences.

In MyTrails 1.3.23 and later, you can work around this problem by using the toggle alternate distance hidden option.

How do I send the execution log?

When you encounter an issue with MyTrails and ask for assistance (preferably in Google+, but possibly via email), we may ask you to send the execution log for MyTrails.

Before attempting to submit a log, please enable error reports in MyTrails > Preferences > About, since all logging is disabled unless you do that.

First, make sure you replicate the issue before sending the log, or it will not contain useful information. Also, because Android overwrites information in the log fairly quickly, make sure you send the log rapidly after having replicated the problem.

Sending the log is easy, just go into MyTrails > Preferences > About and tap Send usage log. This will submit the log in the background and create an email message so we can correlate the log we receive to the discussion about the issue. Feel free to add information to the email, then send it.

Please take a look at our privacy policy before you send a log, as it does potentially include personal information.

How do I join the beta?

The new Play Store rules prohibit MyTrails from self-updating, so while it can check for updates (including optionally beta versions) on startup, it can no longer download and install the update, but must instead wait for the Play Store to perform the update.

Google mandates the following process for participating in a beta program:

activate the beta program
wait for the Play Store to find the update (if there is a beta version more recent than the current release), or go to MyTrails’s page on the Play Store to force the update

This can be done on the web or a device, and it’s reversible: if you want to leave the beta program, just go back to the link in step 2 and deactivate the beta (if you’re currently using a beta, you won’t be automatically down-graded to an earlier release).

All users are advised to set the Play Store to auto-update all applications. If you like to keep track of updates, Changelog Droid is a great app for that (and more).

Getting back to the release track

If you need to go back to a stable version after installing a beta and are not willing to wait for a more recent stable version to be released, do not uninstall MyTrails unless you have made a backup of your current data. If you do, your settings and data will be lost (except tracks saved to GPX).

go to this page and choose Leave the test
make sure that you have no unsaved recording in MyTrails (a track you’ve been recording but which has not been saved to a GPX file)
make a backup:
- if you have rooted your device, you can use Titanium Backup or a similar tool
- if you have not rooted your device or are not sure what “rooted” means, you can use a tool such as MyBackup (you can install it from MyTrails > Preferences > About) or Helium
once you have a reliable backup, you can uninstall MyTrails, then reinstall it from the Play Store (you should be getting the release version instead of the beta)
and restore your backup!

Can I extend the size (rather than the duration) of an offline subscription to a premium map?

You can extend the duration and/or extend the volume by purchasing another subscription within MyTrails.

When you purchase another subscription, if it is the same “size” as a current subscription, it by default extends the duration, but you can select the option to add to the current subscription area instead.

Purchasing a subscription of a different size always adds to the area rather than extend the time.

Can I only subscribe to (not own) premium maps?

MyTrails lets you freely define the locations you download offline, so you don’t have to select a particular map number or administrative division when you purchase a map. Also, when you no longer need to have a given map offline, you can remove it and download another map without any additional cost (like a map lending library), so you don’t have to pay for a very big subscription, only what you need to have access to simultaneously.

This flexibility does mean that we can’t offer perpetual licenses (similar to owning, but in the digital world actual ownership is getting scarce).