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Anyone here use the OS Maps app? It's the main app I use to plan all my rides and I really like it. One useful feature was the map overlays, particularly the "Open Access land" one, but it now seems to have disappeared with the latest update. So I'm just wondering if they've moved it and I'm not seeing it or has it actually gone?
It’s looks like it’s in the green space layer on mine.
Ditched it. Already got strava, so will try fatmaps this year.
Not updated the app yet, but when I saw the email earlier with the line "revamped the look and feel of OS maps to be more modern, user friendly....." I thought that doesn't sound good! That usually corresponds to worse user experience IME!
EDIT - update doesn't seem to be available yet on Android.
“revamped the look and feel of OS maps to be more modern, user friendly…..”
Best user experience improvement app developers can make - stop bloody overhauling the damn thing every year or two. Stop redesigning the menus every few months too, changing where the buttons are, changing the icon, etc.
Have they actually managed to make it worse? That would have taken some doing as it's an awful app.
Has anyone ever logged on to any website, seen that it’s changed and thought ‘oh that’s good, I really like this new one’?
For years this was true as we learned about better UI's and how to lay things out on smartphones etc. Now it's fiddling for the sake of it.
At some point you reach a point where stuff works well with a solid user base and that's when you need to stop chopping and changing major elements unless you have a good reason.
Maybe the demographic here is different but I want my apps to be functional and have a decent UI - I don't need the UI to match a pair of Hunter Wellies. I suspect part of the challenge is maintaining "wow" in an increasingly competitive app market place?
Can you imagine this in aviation ...
Hi pilots
In our latest cockpit refresh we've put the throttle controls on the back of your seat, the stick is now an Xbox controller and the landing gear buttons are hidden behind a curtain on the left or is it right?
We found hardly anyone was using the emergency button so we've put it at the back of a locked filing cupboard in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard.
We have also removed certain flight instruments that you use regularly for no obvious reason.
It’s looks like it’s in the green space layer on mine.
Yeah that's the layer that seems to have disappeared now. I cant see it on my desktop or IOS?
The online offering crashes regularly while I am plotting routes, this happens on Apple, Windows and Chrome book.
I don't think I will renew unless it starts to work better. Might be better to focus on making it work instead of changing it.
V4.6.5 and it’s there on mine.
V4.6.5 and it’s there on mine.
Ah yeah sorry, its the desktop version its been removed from.
Can you imagine this in aviation …
Hi pilots
In our latest cockpit refresh we’ve put the throttle controls on the back of your seat, the stick is now an Xbox controller and the landing gear buttons are hidden behind a curtain on the left or is it right?
Well, yes. That seems to match Boeing's design and rollout for the max-8. And 9.
i'm hoping the update will improve things. If I have a few offline maps the app just wasn't usable.
Thanks for the tip. I have maps for my frequent riding areas (codes from paper maps). Their app updates inevitably log me out, which also removes the offline maps...
So when I DO need to use it, often in an area with crap reception, theres about 50-50 chance they'll actually be there.
I didn't actually update the app but it seems to have updated itself to the new one.
Trying not to damn it right away but not keen just yet.
Seems to me they're trying to make it more appealing to people that are maybe not so geeky about maps with the symbol changes and suggestions etc.
Can't blame them I suppose but I really don't need all that stuff popping up in the middle of nowhere every time I open it.
I'm going to give it a bit of a go before I launch into full moan I think 😊
Also lost the crosshairs button where you’d press it and it would centre on your current location - I don’t usually use routes, I just use the app to check where I am
It's just been changed from a crosshair to an arrow icon.
Downloading maps for offline use is easier.
Major failings of the app for me are:
- Doesn't show altitude on a tag
- No 'track up' function when following a route.
- Snap-to-path function not based on paths shown on Landranger or Explorer maps.
- Doesn't seem to be a way of uploading a gpx in the app, only online.
These might sound like small things and you can work round them but they're really annoying.
The possible solution here is Outdoor Active. It's not without its own faults but if you can ignore those, it's pretty good otherwise. Only downside is that you need a 'Premium' subscription to use OS maps which is probably fairly unappealing if you've already got an OS maps subscription.
Snap to track works in whatever map layer you're looking at at the time. You can start plotting a route along a BW on an Explorer OS map then switch map source and continue your plan along random trail that features on the built in maps but not on OS, then go back to OS maps and carry on along your bridleway.
Following a route can be done with route up and if does turn by turn voice guidance that (sort of) works really well even off road.
It likes to confuse you now and then by using random units for distance. Even though I have it set to metric units I'll get the occasional
"In 373 feet, turn left onto the bridleway"
By the time I've worked out how far 373 feet is, I've usually gone passed the turning.
I'm still struggling along with the aweful Outdoor Leisure app as its the only 'decent' one with a proper map layer for Android Wear. I'd be happy to jump ship as soon as anyone can point me to something better. It wouldn't be so bad if the original Viewranger hadn't existed and been ruined.
Doesn’t seem to be a way of uploading a gpx in the app, only online.
Save the gpx file to your phone.
Go into your file manager to select it.
Select OS Maps as the app to open it with.
Save the gpx file to your phone.
Go into your file manager to select it.
Select OS Maps as the app to open it with.
Excellent, thanks for that. It would however, be better if they just had an 'import gpx' button!
Once you've done it it'll just open gpx files as the default app. Snap-to seems to work quite well now. Offline maps download more reliably, rather than breaking mid-download. I'm sure there's a fix for tags and track up issues - but I don't know what they are.....for someone like me who just uses the app as essentially a giant scrolling map of the UK, with user-definable offline map sheets that I can take into places with no signal, plus the 'where-am-I?' get-out-of-jail card, it's pretty good. I wish I didn't have to sometimes force it to access the offline maps by going into aeroplane mode, but that's a minor criticism.
The new version also doesn't seem to offer the grid ref search facility when offline. Pretty sure the old one did.
I use it as my main mapping app now for hikes and hikes and it has lost a very important feature with the update, at least for me.
When you downloaded a route previously you didn't need any mobile signal for it to work, very important if you're deep in the hills somewhere.
Now, even with the route downloaded when you start the app you just get a black screen. Very annoying when you've just started the hike and there's a fork in the path.
The work around is to take a paper map or screenshot the route with map when at home but the facility to see exactly where you is what is wanted and what is missing.
Fortunately even the smallest scrap of mobile signal is enough to get the map up, so you can sometimes get it as you climb, but it doesn't work as it did and should do.
I am using an iphone, anyone else get this? I have left a review with the question on the app store but as yet no response.
Worked fine for me last week with no signal. Like I said above, you just need to go into aeroplane mode then open the app. Stops it hunting for a signal that it won't find.
Brilliant thanks Uncle Monty, I'll give that a go.
Like I said above, you just need to go into aeroplane mode then open the app. Stops it hunting for a signal that it won’t find.
That's now working for me which it definitely wasn't before.
So my complaints are down to, no track up, no altitude on tags and the clunky snap to path!
I suspect the snap to path works better in Englandshire and paths that get more traffic in general.
Snap-to-path seems to be using an "invisible" OSM layer. I don't know how often Ordnance Survey update theirs but I'm going to make a change to OSM near me and then monitor it on OS. I also don't know what happens to your "offline" copy of the map when there's an OSM change. I suspect it's not synchronised.
FWIW, Komoot update their OSM mapping every couple of weeks.
Yeah, good old OS maps tried to stiff me on my subscriptionn renewal. Pretty certain it was increasing from 23 quid to nearer 40 quid.
Didnt renew and a week later they are offering 30% off.
I renewed fairly recently and it was less than £30
Seems ok to me.
Agree they should do major overhauls for the sake of it every year or 2. Don't think the UI has improved. Seems to require more click to do what you use to do.
Is it me or is it missing the 'centre on me' button?
It's now an arrow 👆
@jekkyl, I had that on a previous version...downloaded the map the night before on WiFi. Checked in car park that it was working (it was), got 20 minutes in and just a white screen... absolutely refused to load (zero phone signal). Got back to car park a few hours later and it worked instantly.
Has only happened once for me, but I have noticed a slowness to load the maps when browsing around, all seems to be working but takes a bit longer for the map to load.
On iOS at least you can sidestep having to use airplane mode by turning off access to mobile data for OS maps in settings. Can still download maps at home over wifi.
I notice in the settings now (Android) there is an option to 'show offline areas on map.' I've enabled it, be interesting to see what happens next time I don't get a signal.
@montgomery - yeah, this handily reminded me that I'd downloaded a few overlapping areas, so I was able to delete some.
Rotation/off grid line issues (android app)
Has anyone else found that the whole map is off at a slight angle?
It's almost like someone has set it to magnetic north not grid north - it's that kind of level of difference but all the place names and labels are just a fraction off level. Just enough to be truly irritating/off-putting and if you straighten it every time you move it goes back wonky?
App is latest Android and I've tried reinstalling.
If you access the new format in the browser and search for say "Norwich" to pick a place at random the map renders off-centre and then straightens to grid North. That's fine as it takes a second or two. The app goes off straight and doesn't then seem to re-align. At least Google Maps has the grace to rotate the place names with the map.
Sub is up for renewal soon, wondering what the alternatives are now as with the retrograde UI move as well it's not as good as it was.
I'm not experiencing that problem. I can rotate the map at will and place names are correctly rendered.
If I do a "find" then the map retains whatever rotation it was last showing.
That's the most recent app version on Android 14, Pixel 6.
That’s the most recent app version on Android 14, Pixel 6.
Same tech here. Now after 3 days of misbehaviour it seems to be rendering properly again. Other than replacing a cracked screen protector nothing else has changed.
Oh well, glad it's working again (for now).
Yep mine's squint. Hadn't noticed it before so dunno if it's a new feature. On iphone
On the ios app if you rotate the map so north isn’t at the top of the screen a compass appears. Click that and the map re orientates to North at the top of the screen. Then the compass disappears
Ps orientation send to be preserved in searches
bingo!
Has anyone experienced problems with the compass on the OS app pointing the wrong way? I reported it a couple of years ago but they said it must be my phone but since then the app has been updated and I have a new phone and it still does it sometimes - usually 90 degrees off. Not a problem when you are in civilisation but could be a danger on a foggy mountain top.
I have checked against the Apple built-in compass app and that works fine even when the OS compass is playing silly beggars.
I've had that issue in the past. I always carry a proper compass if I'm out and using OS maps to navigate as I don't trust the one in the app as anything more than a rough guide.
At times it works fine but I wouldn't trust it for a safety decision.
My latest update seems to have sped it up and solved any issues I was griping at...
Oh, I didn't know there was a layer for open access... That sounds useful. How do I find that on the Android app? I've only got 3 layers available, standard, topographic or aerial