As a maps for life owner, quite tempted to hit them with a letter before proceedings if they try to delete my access. I’m sure there will be something in their terms and conditions that will render any legal proceedings a likely failure but would be fun to see their response.

I’ve taken the plunge and switched to the OS app.

Had VR for over a decade, but tried the OA one after I stopped being able to get tiles in the old way and it just did not work right.

OS not as good as VR but good enough

Viewranger website now point you towards Outdoor Active, though there is a link at the bottom to continue to VR, and the app continues to work, not sure how long for.

Gripe and moan. I pay about £5 for VR and it allows offline storage, and has open cycle map which I like as it mostly differentiates paths and bridleways.

OA is £26/year for offline mapping and doesn’t appear to have open cycle maps (does it have anything better?)

The price seems about the going rate though, just that VR was cheap.

So, decision time –
OA, Komoot, Trailforks, Strava…

I am pretty sure I had the maps for life option too and further to my previous post it’s no longer accessible. Meh.

I’ve paid quite a bit for ViewRanger map tiles over the years. I’ll be annoyed if they drop support for the app, which will then inevitably stop working after an iOS update at some point.

Modern Life Is Rubbish sometimes.

For anyone with old memory map tiles, there’s a new MMTracker apk, works great.

Edging closer.. the ViewRanger FB page just updated it’s cover photo to something a bit more OA.

Also, the latest Android update to the app says : Remove the new account sign up, registered users not affected.

I’m really trying to persevere with OA but I have thrown my phone a couple of times 🙂

I really love VRs ability to use OpenCycleMap – I find the mapping really clear, good differentiation between bridleways and footpaths, nice contour lines.
Komoot seems better than OA for the mapping, but neither are as clear as OCM to me.

One thing I cannot seem to find anywhere is the ability to overlay specific trails on the map for on-the-fly route planning.
In VR, I can have a bunch of short routes (that I have imported from GPXs) all showing up on the map, and I can decide to loop out to that bit of trail, or this one a bit closer – as the weather/fitness/daylight allows.
Both Komoot and OA are more geared towards setting up an entire route and following it start to finish.
Strava segment explorer still does an appalling job by not showing segments that I know are there (or only showing them at certain zoom levels), trailforks and strava both need to be online, and you can only use ‘official’ routes/segments on there.

I’ve paid for the Komoot global mapping, as it seems to be the best of the rest, but if anyone knows how I can overlay my own routes in any other app, I would love to hear about it!

I really love VRs ability to use OpenCycleMap

had a quick look at OA the other day – the inability to use OCM (think it might be a paid/premium feature?) made me go back to the old VR app in about 2 minutes!

i have some lifetime maps on viewranger. national parks plus some tiles.

signed into OA and it ‘gave me’ a year of premium plus membership.

don’t mind the UI but it won’t consistently record data through on iOS. records it in the OA app but doesnt pass it through properly to Health/Strava. Lots of sections missing and can’t work out why. has all the permissions it needs.

Yep, there is a cycle layers feature (in premium OA only) which can be toggled on and off and looks like it uses same routes as OCM. The MTB layer is just awful.
Gradually getting used to OA after VR but it’s def not as user-friendly and intuitive as VR. I only really need it to host OS maps, show a downloaded route, be able to make some changes to it and show me where I am on it when I’m out. I tend to switch over to Trailforks when out to look for trails once in a particular area.
All the other stuff on OA eg Discover is just clutter I’ll never use.

Just an FYI to anyone wanting access to OS maps on an Android phone…
Backcountry Navigator Pro allows this for a relatively small one-off fee, and allows the tiles to be downloaded to your phone (but you’re not going to be able to use previously purchased maps).

I don’t know how much it is as I’ve been using it for many years.

The app store pricing is a little confusing as there are many additional purchase options for US based data layers/add-ons
There are other maps types (eg OpenCycleMap) available for free as well.
It’s not built around route-planning and the sharing of routes as a bit clunky but you can import and export GPX files.
There’s a free demo version but I’m not sure that includes the OS maps.

Email yesterday saying they’ve completed the merge and ViewRanger service goes away “soon”.

I’ve got a lifetime premium sub that goes way back to old Nokia days before all the smart phone stuff and was a tiny price for a lifetime sub.

So do I lose that? They say the sub remains valid after connecting to OA but not for how long and mentions a 1 year sub offer, which is frankly rubbish and an insult.

Offline maps is key to me. Not fussed about OS maps so long as I get OSM and OCM, offline option, and with the same quality as VR maps, and ability to overlay tracks I’ve uploaded. For no extra cost than my existing lifetime sub. I suspect this is not the case?

The OS map app would be good enough except when you start it up it seems to always want to spend about 5 minutes trying to make a network connection somewhere before eventually giving up and letting you view your offline maps.

I’ve just looked back at the invoice for the 25K ‘lifetime’ maps I bought in 2015, it was £225 :-(. Seems pretty rough to just to loose them.

All-GB Landranger “bought” for £90 in 2012. Had my money’s worth out of it. Unhappy to be (presumably) losing it, but always knew that you don’t really own anything digital you buy unless it’s in an open format.

Guess I’ll have to subscribe to something. “Own nothing and be happy” etc.

Hate it when companies get bought out and good products are discontinued while funneling existing users to the buying company’s worse offering.

The OS map app would be good enough except when you start it up it seems to always want to spend about 5 minutes trying to make a network connection somewhere before eventually giving up and letting you view your offline maps.

I’d suggest that’s something on your phone causing that, mine (after they sorted a few other issues over the last few years) is superb now.

Just had an email from Google Play (Viewranger subscription is purchased through them):

Your ViewRanger: Trail Maps for Hiking, Biking, Skiing subscription from Google Commerce Limited on Google Play will be canceled on Jan 17, 2022. No refunds will be issued

That’s when my current year’s subscription was due to expire anyway, so I guess I can’t expect a refund, so long as I can use it til then. I guess that’s the end though. Shame. Presumably my owned maps will still work as long as the app still works, but I need to find an alternative, and it won’t be OA, and I don’t want to be using two different apps depending on where I’m going. Will probably give Backcountry Navigator a go.

Loved ViewRanger. Don’t like Outdooractive. What a shame!

Anyone tried Topo GPS?

This is gutting….anyone found a good alternative for offline maps?

OS is brilliant for offline maps.

There seems to be some kind of functionality that VR had that OS doesn’t, I’m not sure what it is, as I never used VR.

This is gutting….anyone found a good alternative for offline maps?

I haven’t found anything yet that handles offline maps in the same way. They all seem to be on a subscription and download model now. Its a pain. Maybe someone will write a app that can handle viewranger files. That happened for memory map but I believe they had licence or copyright issues and that died a death too

I had an email from outdooractive today saying viewranger will be taken offline soon and asking me to accept a legacy agreement. Something about anyone who’d bought maps on viewranger would now have access to them on outdoor active.
I accepted it and now I appear to have access to 25k and 50k OS maps for most of Britain. I’d only bought 50k map packs and tiles before, so this feels like a win. No indiciation of how long they’ll last though.
I had not accepted the free 3month trial they’d offered me previously.

Anyone else had similar?

Yes, but unless you go Pro you can’t download them for use offline, so it’s pretty pointless still and doesn’t match the functionality of ViewRanger.

Just realised this, bummer. It seems to cache the map but no idea how long for

Still happy with memory-map. Download whole of Scotland or England/Wales in one go, no worries (except space).

Not quite the experience of VR but perfectly useable. Can download on multiple devices too

@si465

Same here. I think you are getting a years free subscription and then your bought outright maps/tiles will no longer be accessible. I contacted support and asked (and moaned at them) and this is what I was told.

However:

‘ once your account is connected, a free subscription will be started automatically. When this subscription expires your account will default to basic and you will not be charged anything’.

So is that a just access to a pro account for a year? And then you default to a ‘free’ account with basic mapping? Or is that a basic account, but you get to keep the maps/tiles you bought? Biggest pisser for me will be the loss of the French IGN maps I bought and paid for. I want my money back!

@dufresneorama

I looked at MM, but as far as I can see they are only supplying older OS maps, not the latest series. I doubt that matters much, but I’m guessing some permissive BWs and cycle paths will be missing. I can’t seem to find where on MM I worked that out from though – or it might have been some other OS reseller.

I’d love it if somebody took on/over ‘Where’s the path’. I love the simplicity and the ability to view OS maps alongside the satellite/earth view. Still works fine if you use it early in the day, before the OS page fetch quota is used up.

I thought they had the 2021 GB maps on there?

Memory Map

Edit… Looks like only in the platinum packages

I bumped my gums like most about OA but eventually decided to switch over completely and give it a chance with the 12 month pro offer. I’ll be honest, its seems to do everything I need so far, but my requirements are simple… research and plot routes using the OS and satelite layers, pop onto the handset and navigate…sometimes download gpx for mates and their garmins on the same ride.

It would be nice if it allowed map storage on the SD card in the (Samsung) handset but no biggy. We’ll see how much renewal is come September. As I said, my requirements are simple and I had only invested less than £30 in tiles.

It would be nice if it allowed map storage on the SD card

I was coming round to the idea that I’ve got nothing to lose by giving OA a serious try (wary of signing an agreement that says I’ve transferred whatever rights I have to the maps I’ve bought and then it’s on their terms, but realistically I’m not going to take them to court, life’s too short). But this makes it a non-starter. Why the hell can I not store large amounts of seldom accesses data on an SD card rather than internal device memory? Bonkers.

Yes, I’ll not be subscribing in the future.
Shame as VR was a cracking app.

Customers don’t count anymore…it’s just about cash-flow and tying you in. Progress, eh?!

@Marko

Memory map just emailed me. They’ve released 2022 OS maps early.

OS are offering a tenner off their premium subscription so £13.99 for a year

OSMAPSTEN

Nice one cheers!

No worries – guess who managed to order it and forget to use the discount code 🤦‍♂️

pat100
Free Member

I’ve been using the excellent, free Openandromaps for a few years using the Cartograph 2

Did you create the app? I see this is your first post here and you are the first reviewer of the app too.

Is there a term for implausible and obvious lying while genuinely thinking others believe you? Guy I went to school with was like that too.

Is there a thread going for “what to replace with.”

OA and OS doesn’t seem to use OCM, and I don’t think Komoot does OS? And OS and OCM are what I really would like.