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Okay color me stupid


ajlepel

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I just learned of Cachly and its app for the iPhone. I learned enough from the Internet to know that I wanted this tool instead of my Geocaching Classic app that is soon to be discontinued. I have found that the Cachly app is OUTSTANDING! I love it! It is more and better than the Geocaching Classic app ever was. Cudos to you Sir on your accomplishment.

But I have a problem. What particularly drew me to the Cachly app was the fact that it featured offline maps. My GF and I frequently find ourselves geocaching where there is no Internet service. We've long since stopped using our GPS devices in favor of our iPhones. In trying to figure out how to use Offline Mapping I keep getting lost. I have tried to find instructions on how to do this and I cannot find any. I've google searched about as much as I can. I've tried YouTube as well and I cannot seem to find instructions on how to use this feature.

Is there somewhere I can get step by step instructions on how to perform the steps required to get Offline Mapping on my iPhone. Please and Thank You. 

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I'll start high level which may be enough. See if this helps...

On the main map page that is displayed when you launch Cachly, click on the map icon displayed at the bottom. It's the icon with 3 stacked squares.

In the map window that opens, the top option is Download Offline Maps. Click Download Offline Maps, then since it looks like you are in Rochester, NY, select North America, then United States and then New York or US Northeast. Do this while you are on Wifi. This one time download will finish and then will show listed under Offline Maps when you click the map icon displayed at the bottom of the main screen. 

If the above doesn't work or you get stuck, let us know and we'll try to unstick things. 

Edit: I took a screenshot of my map screen when you click the map icon (stacked squares) at the bottom of the main map displayed at launch. My screen show I've downloaded new Jersey, North Carolina and the US Northeast offline maps. These were downloaded by going thru the steps above and following the "Download Offline Maps" link at the top of my screenshot.  You can see by the check mark that the active map being used by me is the offline US Northeast map that was downloaded. 

IMG_1344.PNG

Edited by Team DEMP
Included screenshot
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Thank you both for getting back to me so quickly. I apologize because I am still confused. I think my confusion is over the fact that I may not understand what a Offline Map is about. Does Offline Map mean that when I am out of range of a cellphone tower my iPhone will still have a map of the area that I am geocaching in, with the geocaches that are in my area?

Perhaps it would be better if I state my predicament. I"m going to the Smokey Mtn. National Park this summer. I created a Pocket Inquiry from Geocaching.com of geocaches in the area that I want to find. My Pocket Inquiry from Geocache.com is created and from it I printed a paper map of it. Now I go to North Carolina and I'm in the Smokey Mtns to look for my geocaches and  my iPhone says no signal. So now all I have is a paper map and no way to get to the geocache ground zero nor a compass to directly to where the geocache is located.

Is it my understanding that Offline Maps will enable me to find the geocaches from my Pocket Query? Is there a way my Pocket Query will be mapped out on my iPhone when I'm out of signal? How do I get the geocaches from my Pocket Query to show up on Offline Maps? If the geocaches do appear on my Offline Maps, will the compass on Cachly direct me to the geocache? I hope I'm making myself a little better understood.

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3 minutes ago, ajlepel said:

Is it my understanding that Offline Maps will enable me to find the geocaches from my Pocket Query? Is there a way my Pocket Query will be mapped out on my iPhone when I'm out of signal? How do I get the geocaches from my Pocket Query to show up on Offline Maps? If the geocaches do appear on my Offline Maps, will the compass on Cachly direct me to the geocache? I hope I'm making myself a little better understood.

Yes, this is all possible. What you need to make sure to do is go to the More tab in Cachly, then to Pocket Queries and download your PQ to an offline list. This is the first step. Second, download the offline map that you are needing and you are good to go.

When you have no service make sure to turn on the offline map that you need, and then view your downloaded PQ in the Offline tab. Then you can navigate to any of the caches, view info about them, etc all while offline. The compass and GPS both work while offline.

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Just now, ajlepel said:

Thank you Nic.  Is all of this documented somewhere? Am I the only one who does not know any of this?

Thanks again. I'm loving this app you've created. I'll be following the forum and your website from hereon.

These are documented in the Help section of Cachly. Many of the features like this are built to be very intuitive so that we don't have to have vast tutorials. However we are more than happy to answer any questions when confusion arises!

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Nic gave some specifics but I wanted to throw in some other thoughts. Offline maps and Pocket Queries (PQs) are 2 different features/functions that can be used independently or together. I use offline maps regardless of my access to a cellular network. I like the Open Street Maps which is what the offline maps are and I only switch to online maps if I want to use Google satellite view. Otherwise I use the offline maps. If you care about how much cellular data is being used (I don't), offline maps uses none of your data. It also seems faster to me loading the offline map vs the online, even when I have a full cellular signal. I use the offline maps without a Pocket Query (PQ) and just the live map view on the initial page when you launch Cachly. 

Folks use PQs for different reasons. You can use a PQ with an offline map or with an online map like Google or Apple maps. 

So to be total offline, you'd use offline downloaded maps and PQs, but they both work well even when online. 

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1 minute ago, Team DEMP said:

So to be total offline, you'd use offline downloaded maps and PQs, but they both work well even when online. 

Or you can load up caches in the Live tab, then tap the ... and choose to save those to an Offline List. Or, you could import a GPX of caches. Many ways to have caches offline.

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