View Ranger

[Horizon]

I'm in Pembrokeshire for a few days, so downloaded the tile before I left. Went for a ride this morning, got a little lost, pulled out my phone to look at the map in OA and ... it wasn't there. Blank page. Went to my downloads page, clicked on the map, said I needed an internet connection. So off-line maps in a Pro+ account don't work unless you are online.

[Ripio]

Yes they do work, for me they do anyway.
OA takes about a minute to start up on my phone though, I get all the icons and buttons but the map stays black for about a minute.
When you say you downloaded the tile, what do you mean, because OA doesn't use tiles like Viewranger, you download an area that you select on screen.

[Horizon]

I downloaded a 40 x 40km area, I called it a tile for ease of reference. Having read a bit more, it seems you have to be logged in to retain downloads, once logged out, they are deleted. Log in, start again, if you happen to be out on the road in the pouring rain and no data signal - what then? It's too tedious. How do I remain logged in? I can't see a way.
I'm looking at alternatives. Maps.me is beautifully simple and uses OSM, download once, no account or log in nonsense needed. I've tried it today, it works. I plotted a route in ridewithgps, exported it as a kml file and dropped that file into the maps.me folder - shows as an overlay on the map, just as I did with VR. I'd prefer Open Cycle Map, but I can't find an app that uses these offline as yet.
I'm also trialling the OS app, also works offline no problem. The 2 week trial version doesn't seem to give 1:25k, and zooming into 1:50k is hit and miss on detail (I understand OS is raster, not vector, so doesn't scale terribly well). They also do a free version, with a simpler vector map, but the colouring is poor in my view, but it works and as a free standby it's useful to keep.

[Ripio]

Yes you have to remain logged in on OA to retain downloads. Stupid system but I have been logged in since January and it hasn't randomly logged me out yet.
You don't have to do anything to remain logged in, once you're in you are in until you log out, c!osing the app doesn't log you out.

If you are looking for downloadable Open Cycle Map, then All In One Offline Maps or it's sister app Alpine Quest allow this.
Alpine Quest also has downloadable Open Topo Map and many other maps.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.psyberia.offlinemaps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.free

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.full

There's a paid and a free version of Alpine Quest, the paid version has more mapping and also allows track recording etc. Paid version is a one off fee of £8.99.

[Horizon]

Thank you, but I'm on iOS and Mac desktop, and these are android only. I'm happy to pay a reasonable one off fee, as I understand OSM Cycle is privately developed and third parties need to pay a licence fee, which I guess they want to recoup. I didn't consciously log out of OA and I figured it just silently logged out after a period. I'll try it again and see what happens, but with another app as a back-up!

[Horizon]

Going a little off topic here, but I've discovered that maps.me actively data mines and so I've deleted it. Some of the original developers have a near identical app, Organic Maps, which clearly states that it doesn't do or allow any tracking of any sort, so I'm trialling that instead. Currently waiting for the near 1GB Pembrokeshire topo file to download to OA!

[Ripio]

Yeah OA downloads take up a lot more storage space than Viewranger did but you get the extra 1:25000 scale mapping as well, which I never bought from Viewranger.
I downloaded the whole of Scotland on OA and it took ages because you have to do it bit by bit, and it takes up about 10gb of space.

[bhoot]

I so miss having the whole country OS loaded on the phone. I love maps, and with them being so convenient, I would often check out the map for places on TV programmes, or described in ride reports etc.
I would happily pay a reasonable annual fee to have them local, but sadly it seems no option.

[bhoot]

Reviving this thread as this might be useful to any other Viewranger fans out there. I discoverd Anquet OMN (Outdoor Map Navigator) a couple of months ago and have been using that - weirdly I think it popped up as an app on Playstore, so I checked it out and downloaded
Pluses:
 - ability to pay for and download maps onto the phone, including ability to store on an SD card if necessary (it is an annual subscription but happy to pay that to keep getting updates quarterly)
- OS maps at 1:50000 and 1:25000
- can download a route to follow
- can record a track - yesterday I managed a 200km over 13 hours and the phone battery was quite happy, so seems to record fine when in background)
Minuses:
- not good for plotting a route on the PC app (unless that is just me being incompetent) as it doesn't do follow roads etc
- does not seamlessly move between map scales by zooming (liek Viewranger, Outdoor Active, OS maps do well), you have to select from your available maps for the location

Given one of my main requirements was offline OS 1:50000 mapping I am very pleased, the ability to record the track is a bonus too. To get around the route plotting I also have an OSMaps subscription (which I am happy to pay for as OS maps are such a good resource) which has a good plotting mode with follow the road for "on road cycling" (and also I think for walking within some areas like National parks).

Initially I did have a few issues synching routes and tracks between my phone and the cloud, but I am glad I perserved. It won't suit everyone but if offline mapping is a major concern for you, it could be worth checking out.

[Horizon]

That's a good find, but it doesn't seem to offer anything more than the OS app does, although they don't offer SD storage (as far as I can see). I've pretty much abandoned Outdoor Active and written off my one-off payment for all of the UK OS maps that I had on Viewranger. OA deletes downloads too often, and I've been caught wanting to look at a map only to find it's gone. I'm pleased with the OS app/browser, it's intuitive and doesn't lack much. OS have put a lot into developing it from rather a shaky start. Downloads are limited to tile sizes, which is slightly annoying to download a lot if a large area is required. I use Ride With GPS for route plotting.

[bhoot]

I have found it much better than OSMaps for having the maps on the phone - I just downloaded 1:50000 for the whole country. With OSMaps (unless I am missing something) you have to create a "route" to define an area you want to download. And then I found I ran out of space and had to delete some (but have quite old phone). I do agree though the OSMaps user interface is now quite nice, but I find the phone app a bit buggy and very slow to open - so not to be relied on for "where am I and which turning do I take" which Viewranger was excellent for.

I had the premium OA subscription based on my original map purchase but I didn't renew and OA is de-installed now.

[Horizon]

With the OS, you can download a route map or a specific map area (or both), but the area is limited in size, can't recall exactly, Wales is very roughly 35 tiles, but there is no limit on the number of tiles. It would take me several hours to do the whole of the UK I think! That said, they are 50k and 25k, you zoom through, but there doesn't seem to be an option to download the vector map at all. Plotting a route is quite good now, with snapping to roads (and cycle tracks) sorted. However, I exported a .gpx and opened it in RideWithGPS and there is no cuesheet and so no turn-by-turn. I'll stick to generating routes in RWGPS, it generates really good turn-by-turn and syncs seamlessly with my Wahoo. The Anquet OMN does look good though.

[Lightning Phil]

I’d say that is because OMN comes from a hill walking background.  I have the classic version from 2002 which is pre subscription, whole of UK at 1:50,000 for £50, plus larger scale or Harvey’s or French IGM for selected areas.  Sadly the “legacy” phone app isn’t supported anymore, and I can’t use my perfectly good maps on the subscription app. They just live on, on my PC. I now have the OSMap subscription, precisely because of the snap to paths or roads and like it.  OMN did use to have the ability to create tracks and then you could combine them to produce the routes with waypoints.  But that got changed in about 2011 for something I felt was inferior as I could no longer reuse tracks to quickly recreate new routes.


Turn by turn wasn’t something really used for hill walking, though I did use RidewithGPS on an organised self guided walking holiday in Cyprus and it worked pretty well with the phone packed in rucksack and giving voice prompts.  Just get the phone out and look at map when negotiating village alley ways as some TBT will be missing or not clear!.

[Horizon]

I see you pay more than double the OS Premium Plus cost  (£36 > £80) for just the addition of the OS 1:10,000 Vector Map Local. How much different is that to the OS 1:10,000 Open Map Local included with the premium Plus? Also, how different is the quality of the SD maps to the HD maps? Does anyone know which the OS use? I did ask the OS when they would be making the 1:10,000 Vector available for iOS download and was told they were working on it.