Viewranger replacement? Outdoor Active?

I made a support request about not being able to download the OS map areas that I had under ViewRanger without a Pro subscription and they replied quickly and have enabled offline mapping for those maps without a sub for my account. So do get in contact with them.

Good shout. Just replied to the response to previous support request, and got an almost instant reply confirming they would still be available offline. Didn't seem to need any changes - maybe they've changed their policy, but if anyone's in the same position, probably worth confirming anyway.

Not quite. Cross hair is manual spinning, the triangle is auto spinning, but both still spin.

So it does. Although if you press it again it does put it back straight again. There needs to be another mode.
Or maybe I'll just try to get used to it. The auto orienting mode might be useful when I'm somewhere I don't know. It just makes maps you are already familiar with really confusing.

Is there a way to stop the map rotating on OA so that North is always up?

I asked the question and got the following answer:

Hi Kenny

So the short answer is you can't, but the the slightly longer answer goes like this:

There's the pinch gesture, which is what everybody uses to zoom in and out.

And, if you happen to turn your fingers a bit while you are pinching, then the map will rotate.  If you meant to do that great, if not then it's a pain.

But there is another gesture which you can use to zoom in or out without any rotation.  This also works in Apple maps etc.

What you do is: you double-tap: "tap-tap", and on the second tap you keep your finger held down, then you can slide your finger up, or down to zoom in or out without rotating. Lift finger off to finish the zoom.

Hope that helps a bit,

Cheers,

Dominic

So long, and thanks for all the fish.. I guess that answers that question then.

A sad day 😥

But I'm more hopeful than I was. I've tried Outdooractive for a few rides and runs recently, and I while it's clearly lacking some of VR's attractions, I like it more than any of the other alternatives I've looked at - OS Maps was so unstable on one of my devices that I asked for (and received, albeit as a credit note) a refund for my 3-week-old year's subscription. It might be that some of OAs features seem quite familiar from VR, and hopefully that will increase.

As former VR users with lifetime maps, we seem to have a fairly good deal too - permanent access to 50k and 25k, including offline, for the whole of the UK, with no need to continue with a pro subscription after the free year.

I tried to extend the olive branch further by offering to take part more formally in feedback/feature requests/beta testing - they said they don't have any sort of plan for this, but are happy to accept feedback via support (which is impressively responsive - quick and clearly human, rather than stock response). I intend to keep sending feedback and requests as I go and would encourage others to do the same. The "north up" mode above being a good example: hopefully if enough people ask for it, they'll prioritise it.

Thanks for passing on the tip about zooming @fruitbat. Another feature I'll be requesting is permanent zoom in/out buttons - pinching is all very well when planning a route at home, a different matter with gloves on!

we seem to have a fairly good deal too – permanent access to 50k and 25k, including offline, for the whole of the UK, with no need to continue with a pro subscription after the free year.

I messaged Sarah at OA about how disappointing it was to see VR go & asked how long I’d be able to access 50 & 25000 maps. Great news as there’s no time limit!
I don’t need buddy beacons, ski hut locations & lord knows what else, all I need are maps that’ll tell me where I am.
How it’ll cope when I’m in the middle of nowhere may be a different matter! 🧐

Yep sad, it's been a great app. So far been trying out OA and OS as alternatives - feeling a lot more positive about OA after a couple months side by side with OS. It seems to offer a few nice features (eg quick and intuitive snap-to route planning) and generally not that annoying. OS (Android) is baws - glitchy, lacks functions and poor route planner. Waste of £20.

@tomd As above, my experience with OS Maps was the same. Emailed to explain the problem and ask for a refund and they suggested a fix, but also sent me a refund (well, a credit note). Don't stand for a poor quality product you've paid for.

Double fail - OS and OA. Out the other day and trying to decide which way to ride a path. OA defaulted to some open source map, presumably one it could download to my phone with a crap signal? I'd bought the local 'tile' when VR was active and never had a problem.
The OS app would not even open! This was for a map I'd purchased and used the scratch and sniff panel to redeem.

So have used viewranger lots when out and about. Primarily used the OSM maps, but specifically the cycling one. Doesn't seem to be a way to get the cycling OSM layer in Outdooractive, without going pro. Am I missing something?

Re. the rotate while zooming issue. I found that if you poke the compass icon at top left - it changes from a white disc with grey outline and small black pointer to a plain white circle. When in plain white circle mode the map doesn't rotate (North at top) while pinch zooming.

If the map is left untouched for a period the grey outline returns as does rotation while pinching. Weird!

Asked the same question about OSM cycle maps earlier and got this reply from their tech help
Open Cycle Maps are an activity overlay in ODA.
https://www.outdooractive.com/en/k/the-cycling-trail-network/37514035/
On the map screen click the layers button then OpenStreetMap, on the same screen, scroll down to "Ways and Activities" and click "Cycling".
Bit of a faff to select (a common theme with OutdoorActive) but does work for me.

@fruitbat Mine seems to work differently - different versions? I couldn't see what you meant about the grey outline at first, and all I got from tapping the compass icon was a full-screen compass. But now I see that if I pinch-and-rotate, I get the grey outline with the arrow indicating north, and if I tap that, it resets to north, and the the grey outline disappears. It doesn't stop me from rotating the map while pinch zoomming though.

Thanks @excalibur, I find the OCM more useful than OSM for obvious reasons, and thought it had disappeared.

Thanks @excalibur just looked at it but I can only open outdoor active maps if I have a pro account

Yeah, I don't really know what you get with/without subscription. This thread was about ViewRanger users being forced to adopt OutdoorActive and as such, users including myself, got some sort of benefits by signing in with ViewRanger credentials. Does any of this apply to you?

@jeffl that's pants ☹

How do I get offline maps?

I had purchased a lot of 1:25,000 tiles for ViewRanger, so losing them would be very irritating. But I'd by no means paid for the whole of the UK. If we do gain permanent offline access to the full UK maps at two scales without paying, then I daresay this is actually a very good deal.

I've migrated my account to OA. I've agreed to the Legacy Agreement and the (online) OS Maps have now appeared, but I don't appear to be able to download them (iPhone app).
I can see that, as a ViewRanger user, I can get a 'gift' of 3 months Pro+. I haven't accepted this yet.

Do I have to email support or is there an 'in-app' way to activate the download function? Is it somehow linked to the Pro+ subscription?

@Superficial that seems to be the deal. It seems they don't have any mechanism for allowing you access to a certain area, so they only way to give you'd what you'd bought is to give you everything.

I couldn't work out whether it was something that needed them to activate or not, but it's worth contacting them, they're pretty responsive and seem to be treating VR users generously to try and keep us on board - they just gave me a year of free Pro and confirmed they would be available offline permanently.

it’s worth contacting them, they’re pretty responsive and seem to be treating VR users generously to try and keep us on board

Indeed. I *think* it's something they have to activate at their end - I could view maps online but it wasn't until I emailed customer support that I was able to download anything (before that, the app prompted me to buy a Pro subscription).

They've answered all my emails today within 10 mins or so, with the exception of my last sticky question which I guess they don't want to be pinned down on:

OA: You can download VR legacy maps without a subscription.

<Radio silence>

Tried OA today in a no signal area - cue much swearing as I couldn't get it to use the offline map that I thought I had previously downloaded.

It seems that downloads are deleted when you log out of the app. So you can't use OA unless you plan ahead and make sure your downloads are present before entering a no signal area.

Does the same happen with the OS app?

I stumbled across that "lose your downloads" statement by accident while trawling through the OA website whilst pondering the loss of VR. I can access my VR lifetime maps ok online but the fun begins when you download some tiles (a time consuming process and a real pain for me as I like to have the whole of Scotlandshire accessible - I just love pouring over maps), if you log out of the app you're stuffed, it's tile roulette when you open the app to access your downloaded tiles - some randomly don't load for about half an hour, the black screen that appears far too frequently on opening the app and takes about 90 seconds to clear - an age when you are out in the field, overall just a buggy piece of crap. I really tried hard to get on with it but gave up. All I want is quick, reliable access to a map (not bothered about route planning or any of the other fancy stuff - I'm a dyed in the wool old codger), ended up investing in Memory Map and perfectly happy now - apart from the additional cost but my VR maps needed updating anyway.

I think OA is about to be dumped by me! I'll have a look at MM and OS I'm like murdooverthehiill and just need reliable access to maps and am not too bothered with route planning and fancy stuff.

Moved to OA under duress this evening.
Useless.

Tried to plot a route across a local hill for Mrs SC and it wouldn't do it. Routes back to the village and up again - when all I wanted is 100m across a hillside. Pah!

Do I understand correctly that there is no way to download all of the UK maps for offline usage? I think you can only download 50km squares, which totally sucks. The beauty of Viewranger was that once you have downloaded all the maps, you don't have to worry about network coverage.

Once you have to selectively preload maps, it doesn't give the confidence that the maps will always be there when you need them.

Yep. The offline maps was the best feature of viewranger and as far as I can tell no other app does this. The download on outdoor active falls a long way short.

You can download entire maps with MM and it also gives the choice to use SD card if you wish.

Had a look at OS and read this "
<div id="savelost" class="cms_faqquestion cms_faqactive">"Why have I lost my downloaded maps?</div>
<div class="cms_faqanswer">

The most common reason for this is because you have logged out. As all downloads are linked to your OS Maps user account, they will be deleted if you choose to log out".

That sounds the same as the OA statement.

</div>
I've taken the plunge and opened a MM account.

I have just downloaded OsmAnd.

It actually looks OK. Will keep this on my phone and will use it to test it. Have also deleted OutdoorActive.

Neither OS Maps nor Outdooractive can be trusted to actually work in the hills.

Had problems with OS before not showing any map despite having downloaded it offline. Had the same today with Outdooractive.

With ViewRanger I'd happily go out on shorter rides with just a hip pack and no paper map. Highly recommend not doing that with these two apps.

@StirlingCrispin in OA it defaults to snap to route planning. When you enter the route plan mode there is a little magnet icon to toggle it on and off with one touch.

I only know this because I was trying to plan a canoe trip and getting very frustrated. It's actually quite a smart design once you get used to it as you can flip between the snap to and bee line really quickly while doing A single route.

At the weekend I plotted a route on my phone with OA, whilst waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. No problem doing this on the phone with a poor mobile connection.
We all jumped in the Van and navigated to the start point using google maps - which lost the connection due to no signal in the valley and so I was expecting the OA route I'd plotted to be useless, but (much to my surprise) it worked flawlessly. Full OS mapping all the way to the top of Pen Y Fan.
Was this because I plotted the route with a decent phone signal and it cached it on my phone? I don't think I closed down the OA app as such, but we used my phone to navigate to the car park starting point (on Google maps).
Who knows, but I'll give it another chance.

I have just stumbled across this thread
I am also irritated by the demise of viewranger. Been using that for 10 years and had it all set up very nicely.

Main grumbles..
Although I started off buying a load of OS maps and I do have access to OS mapping in OA (probably temporarily) in recent years I had been using Open cycle Map much more due to the increased detail and number of paths. This is not an option on OA. There is an Open Street Map overlay but it does not have anywhere near as much detail. Second biggest irritation is that viewranger used to show you elevation in the top right corner as you scrolled around the map. I used to use that feature loads when planning routes and when out in the mountains (e.g. have I got enough daylight to climb over that peak..?).

there are other grumbles (inconvenient offline mapping etc) - enough for me to ditch OA.

Does anyone know of a mapping app that has open cycle Map and shows altitude in real time ?

If you select open street map from the map options you can then scroll down and add cycling or MTB as an activity. Not sure if this is exactly the same as open cycle map but looks about the same to me.

I’m also very frustrated with outdoor active.
Driving me mad - all I want is to see an is map online and show me where I am on it when offline.
On view ranger I had all of Wales at 50,000 and my most ridden areas at 25,000 It was great.

Is there any app that does this when offline
More than happy to pay. - would save me hours getting lost when exploring

So today I went to use ViewRanger for the first time in months and it wasn’t working grr. I loved ViewRanger and had a lot of money invested in it.

Anyway I’ve downloaded trail boss, free, downloadable (unfortunately OS maps not available) and I’ve got to say it’s really good, better for our uses than ViewRanger, plotting a route is easy, downloading map tiles is really easy. I haven’t tried the route guidance yet, but this Canadian app is looking really impressive so far.

I have finally got the os maps to work offline
There is a setting to save to device and not to cloud which lets you download chunks of the os 25k
Not as good as viewranger but works ok
North Wales is about 12 chunks for example
Found outdoor active to be crap for all the reasons stated above

Installed an older ViewRanger version and disabled auto-updates. Went out into the hills two days later, app had updated regardless and all I had was the "we've switched it off" screen.

What I miss the most is having the whole UK 1:50k just on my phone already, so there's no need to remember to load a map for wherever I go. All the apps I'm aware of now only let you download offline maps one screenful at a time. Outdooractive is better than OS on this front because it actually shows you the already-downloaded areas so you can line up the next square to download.

Damn these companies.

Seem to have lost all OS access to areas previously downloaded and have nothing to show for my spending on Viewranger over the years.

That's the final confirmation I'll need to go elsewhere. Either Memory Map or OS maps.

Viewranger was good whilst it lasted.

Seem to have lost all OS access to areas previously downloaded and have nothing to show for my spending on Viewranger over the years.

If you had lifetime maps then you can access the same type of map through outdoor active. I've got the whole of the UK in 25k and 50k OS which is more than I had with viewranger. The app is not as good so its a compromise but the extra map access is handy.

If you had lifetime maps then you can access the same type of map through outdoor active

Seems to have vanished on my app.....

Friends plotted a route through many of the peaslake trails, on plotaroute and send me the GPX

Komoot got horribly confused in some places where the route crossed over itself, and ended up routing the wrong way up so e trails

OA got it spot on. So I'm slightly reluctantly keeping it to use in some circumstances

Seems to have vanished on my app….

Contact support. They are pretty quick to get back to you, so that's a plus for OA.

I've been using OA since the demise of VR and whilst it is not as good as VR, I do like:

1. The voice turn by turn option. Works well and no need to have a phone accessible. I've yet to try it in an area with a poor/no phone signal though. I'm hoping it loads the whole route to the phone once started?

2. Zooms easily to both OS map scales.

3. Route plotting seems to have improved, but sometimes it will not re-route when you've made a mistake.

4. Whole of UK and France is a massive bonus.

Potential PSA

I can't say if this still works because it's some time since I did it, but I'd like to link you to another post. It may be of interest to some of you.

viewranger-ressurection-android

p.s. This is still working for me. I've additionally made good use of an old phone by setting it up this way as a stand alone VR gps device - now without SIM card, & wifi off (just to be sure)

PSA for anyone else that got kicked over onto outdoor active.

As well as the 25k and 50k os maps the subscription let's you easily switch between os and Harveys maps layers.

I didn't know it had this. Love a Harveys map, the paths often seem better marked than 25k OS and scale is more mtb friendly.

I've used it a fair bit now - the offline maps seems to work really well and you can download very large areas. Route tracking is a bit weird but other than that it seems fine.

Former Viewranger lifetime map owner here. Been using Outdoor Active since VR packed in.

Had an email today saying my Pro+ subscription has expired. Anyone else had this?

My understanding was that OA had agreed to provide indefinite access for lifetime VR owners but that doesn't seem to be the case.

If the reduced access doesn't provide offline access to maps then that's going to be a major problem.