What happened to OnX this year?

[Illinihunter]

I agree no issues this year, so far. Still alot of hunting season left though.

 

[Str8shooter]

App was terrible this year and will be looking at Gaia or going back to Backcountry Navigator....I even checked for updates before season and had Onx sh*t the bed in all sorts of ways...Tracker failed to work... waypoints were routinely off by over 500 ft...active location point would grey out and freeze up. Worst of all, for downloaded maps, Satellite imagery and Hybrid wouldnt work! When switching from Topo to Sat, the satellite imagery would flash for an instant then go blank.... GET IT TOGETHER ONX!

 

[n2mywake]

I had it loaded on 3 devices this year and didn't have any issues. I will say I had a freak out moment the night before our ascend and the wifi went down at the hotel and I had waited until the last minute to load maps.... a few reboots and a wireless hotspot later we got it done.... otherwise it did great.

 

[TX_Diver]

Zero issues on my last trip. Used tracker feature all day, never had it interrupted.

Had a different screen when the app opened (red/ w onX logo) rather than the two hunters picture, so maybe there was another update?

 

[prm]

I used BaseMap. The app worked well when I did my part. Unfortunately I failed to ‘Go offline’ in the app after going to airplane mode so I had maps and waypoints but not the trails. My mistake. I will play with both BaseMap and Gaia and see what I like.

 

[billoo349]

My app was constantly freezing.... Spoke with onx and they had me export all of my tracks to my computer and that fixed the freezing issue. I had about 150 tracks and when trying to load everytime was causing problems. It didn't matter that I set to not show the tracks. Now all my tracks are on my computer and my app is clean of them and it works fine.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

 

[lngbstr]

I use both Gaia and OnX. Overall I prefer Gaia but I've found the opposite that OnX maps load faster than Gaia but I like Gaia's importing better. Once they helped me create a custom kmz of all the water tanks in a state. I also use Gaia on a Samsung Tab for the larger viewing screen and like the overlay maps better but again loading in Gaia is slower.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

OnX has had these issues since at least 2016. Gaia is much better IME.

 

[silverbullet555]

My app was constantly freezing.... Spoke with onx and they had me export all of my tracks to my computer and that fixed the freezing issue. I had about 150 tracks and when trying to load everytime was causing problems. It didn't matter that I set to not show the tracks. Now all my tracks are on my computer and my app is clean of them and it works fine.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

Except that I like my tracks on my phone so I can follow them when I go back.

It seems that if there were some settings for default start up it could help.

Always start up in offline mode would be super helpful if your phone isn't in airplane mode. Sometimes I have service, but don't want onX trying to download stuff.

Also, startup with only selected "my content" would be helpful.

Maybe I'll try the other options in 2021.

 

[grossklw]

Had zero issues in the backcountry of Idaho, head to SD this weekend and don't anticipate any issues again.

 

[Sioux33]

Mine had been working fine, up until about a month ago, whenever they updated to the Red opening window. Now, the only time I can use it is on airplane mode, crashes any time I have wifi. SO frustrating!

 

[Che]

This thread is too easy to jump on.
There customer service is soooo good I cannot get angry on the phone.
I have to restart my phone or the program every time I need to check my location. It didn't matter if I was in full reception or offline. I also erased most of my tracks per their recommendation last year.
I hope they are reading this.

 

[grfox92]

Is this with the cell phone version if on x? or chipped GPS as well?


Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Sobrbiker]

My iPhone7 is running it well (128GB). Lots of med resolution Offline maps saved, lots of waypoints, not many tracks.
It has always been glitchy if I tried to load offline maps without closing app, then turning off cellular data then restarting app (I think it gets confused and tries to pull steaming data and saved maps at same time).
Been trying Basemap but the lack of a scale onscreen bugs the hell out of me.

 

[mapticon]

I've used OnX the last couple of season without any issues. I think it's a great value at $30 a year. And I'm definitely not getting paid to say this.

 

[md126]

Tried OnX and had issues immediately. My buddy has no issues in the past but did this season.

I much prefer GAIA. Does everything OnX is supposed to do, is user friendly, and much cheaper. Just my opinion

 

[willy]

Used onx last year, tracks, waypoints, maps all worked great. This year maps and waypoints were fine but new tracks would work half the time, my location would freeze, tracks would mark time but not tracks 50% of the time, would quit tracking in middle of track and disappear. Later the dot would show up where I was standing but not track was left. 30' off the mark when a waypoint or track was attempted to be found or followed. 30' is a long ways in a deadfall infested mountain in the dark. A blood trail waypointed was at least 30' from where I marked it with onx. If that's normal I haven't experienced that prior.

Phone was always in airplane mode except when at top of mountain to check signal, same as year before. I'll keep using onx but will look for something for foolproof.

Same phone.

 

[805Bowhunter]

I've used OnX the last couple of season without any issues. I think it's a great value at $30 a year. And I'm definitely not getting paid to say this.

The sting hurts a bit more when you're paying $100 for all 50 states and it doesnt work or glitches out in multiple states.

I have had a decent run with OnX but a few glitches on key hunts has me open to other options. I get the "backup" and I always have a paper map of the area on me. The convenience of being able to move through the day quickly (especially Sept elk run/gun) with a cell/gps on your bino harness is a huge convenience. Its a good time to be a consumer with all of the new competition coming in to this field. Also know that we are largely the testers of it all and it will take a while for the technology to progress to where its truly flawless. I also understand that with cell phones especially, there are going to be bugs and issues, but losing waypoints, tracks, saved maps etc is a dealbreaker.

 

[widnert]

I thought twice before posting, figuring this was a pile-on for OnX but, considered that maybe this might help someone reading through this thread. First, I don't work for OnX nor am I paid anything by them. I'm just a user that has been using the phone app almost since it first came out. I pay for if annually, just like everyone else. After reviewing all of the comments thus far in this thread, I thought I would share some things I've learned about the product over the years that has helped me have a consistent performance when I needed it.

It's been stated above several times about airplane mode on your phone while in the field. I can't stress this enough. If you haven't disabled "auto-update" for apps on your phone and you're in a sketchy coverage area, your phone will try to download any new version of the app. This can/will cause issues if not completed before you lose cell signal again. Just leave your phone in airplane mode until you're back in solid coverage. Or, turn off the "auto-update" feature for this app on your phone to stop this from happening.

OnX released a new version this year that will automatically download updates to the map layers for any saved offline maps. Thus, once you are back in coverage or, hit a little bit of cell signal in the field, if there is a new update to one of the layers used in an offline saved map, it will try to download it. Obviously, if you fall out of coverage in the middle of this download, the offline map is going to have an issue. Again, disable "auto-update" in your phone and stay in airplane mode to prevent this from happening until you're back in solid coverage.

Having all of your saved tracks and hundreds of waypoints saved to the app is great for in field knowledge and use however, these details are stored on your phone's on-board memory. Not the added memory chip added in the extra slot (if your device has one) but, the actual memory storage capacity on the core circuit board for your phone. This is also the default storage location for any other apps you have downloaded to your phone along with any material downloaded for those apps. On some phones, you can move any downloaded app to the additional memory chip however, anytime the app is updated, the system will usually move the app back to the on-board memory. This is an operating system thing you can't change without some in-depth knowledge of the workings of your operating system. Therefore, if you didn't get the max memory available for your on-board memory on your phone, you are probably going to run out of memory unless you continually perform some memory management and watch your app usage and the number of apps on your phone. Basically, having all that data on your phone uses alot of memory. Take the time to manage this usage on your device and your experience with the OnX app itself will likely improve.

Finally, plan ahead. Download your offline maps when you're in solid coverage. The download speeds have been improved tremendously and I find they no longer take more than a minute or two. Whereas they used to require 30 mins to an hour for each offline map. This is based on being in a 4G network/home WIFI with good download speeds. If you are trying to download offline maps in anything less than 4G, it's going to take a while longer. Also, if you forget and try to download maps in a poor signal area, this will cause problems. And, watch your phone to see if it is in 4G coverage or not. I've been surprised by how many cell sites in remote locations in our area are not even 3G, they are even older technology. Trying to download maps with older technology will take longer and may introduce issues.

And to simply restate this important point again, turn-off the auto-update feature in your phone for the app and leave your phone in airplane mode. These two will cover "most" of your user issues.

Just thought I would try to help some folks. YMMV. Don't yell at me too much. Just trying to help some folks have a better experience.

 

[trophyhill]

My guess is OnX is or has been made aware of these issues. They are a great company and in it for the long haul. Anytime a company is developed by hunters, for hunters and have the great CS these guys have, I will stay the coarse and give them the opportunity to update or upgrade the technology. With technology constantly changing, not only with satellites, but cell phones in general with 5G work and fiber optics continually progressing, glitches with the phones will continue. Have any of you experiencing issues talked to the great folks at OnX about your issues? I would think you’d all contact them before bashing on the web. But then again this is the world we live in now.........