Viewranger ressurection (Android)

I was a heavy VR user and a huge fan. This might be useful as a temporary backup, but part of the attraction of the whol "package" was plotting a route online, keeping a log of tracks I've recorded, and syncing between the web service and multiple devices.

For a while I refused to even say the name, but I'm starting to get to grips with Outdoor Active now. It's not without issues, but it's better than any of the alternatives I tried.

I'm with you theNwind with the principles of OA use, but unfortunately it currently has a huge issue with offline mapping/performance, like losing offline maps, tracking irregularities reported etc. so many feel they can't rely on it.
Excerpts from some OA replies are - "I think the issues with saving maps for offline use are much more a thing for ViewRanger users, UK users, who naturally expect the app to do offline maps..", "The thing about removing maps not reclaiming space, that is being worked on right now, it's the big issue." - so it has a few big problems for us at the moment. I, like you, hope they fix them.

I've revived my Viewranger after following this advice. Brilliant!

OK this sounds interesting. Can you give a little more explanation of step 2 please. How exactly do I go about installing the older version of the app?

I've done this on my phones so can confirm it works.
Firstly I tried it on my old phone and once I'd rolled back to the working version of ViewRanger I could immediately see my OS maps stored on my phone.
I then did it on my new phone and it didn't pick up any local maps. However once I was logged in I was still able to download all my map tiles. This was on Sunday.

Forget my previous post. Got this working now. Used the APKmirror website rather than the app. Thanks to the op for posting this, absolutely fantastic.

mrb I don’t recall the exact procedure but install the apkmirror app on your phone, use it to find viewranger (augmentra) apk and select the one you want download etc using the buttons in the app. Google ‘sideload apk’ for numerous guides. I don’t remember much more to it than that.

Ok mrb was just writing the reply!

It's probably easier to use apkmirror app but you can just change your Android permissions to allow software downloaded in Chrome to be installed. Don't forget to switch them back when you're done!

The resurrected Viewranger hasn't worked very well for me over the last two days on the hills unfortunately. It doesn't seem too keen on picking up a GPS signal. Does anyone know anything I can do to resolve this?

I think ViewRanger will be getting your position from the location service in the Android OS. How well does Google Maps get your position when ViewRanger isn't working well?

Thanks OP, this has worked for me.

So i managed to find the maps i had already bought in viewranger, on the outdoor active app.
One feature i used to use all the time was look how far a particular landmark was away, for example a church or something. All i had to do was move the map to the church and it would read out in meters or yards or whatever. Anyone know how to switch this on in OA?

If you press and hold on a point then you get a little grey menu bar. That has the coordinates of the that place and it's distance from your current location.

Thankyou!

Thanks - this has brought viewranger and my purchased maps back to life.

I've also resurrected my viewranger app on all devices for use with the OS maps but found the method required can vary depending on the device itself as well as seemingly unknown factors.
On most devices I simply downloaded an older version then ran it with my OS maps bought as a package years ago but still ( if you are lucky ) available online to save locally .
I would make sure playstore is set not to auto update apps ( as it will detect the older version and attempt to update it ) If the VR version does get updated it will no longer be able to be used so watch out for that .
Sometimes ..(despite downloading the older version ) when you open the app it will simply not give you the option to continue and directs you to outdooractive .
Other times you simply choose to continue with VR . There seems no rhyme or reason to it.
I have also gone through the process of resigning the APK certificate so Playstore is no longer interested in updating but even having done that the app will occasionally still try and force you over to outdooractive.
As you can tell I'm no IT specialist so perhaps misunderstand what's going on but have managed to keep a working version with offline OS 1: 25K maps on my devices for general use when out and about so am happy with that . I don't route plan anyhow but have found VR great for exploring . I will be most sad if somehow VR find a way to stop this workaround. HTH's somebody.

Just interested to know if this is still working for people, I got off the edge of the crappy OA open GSM map on saturday and it annoyed the hell out of me again.

I did this last year but it packed up after a bit I seem to recall - does it still try to login to Viewranger often - it's asking me every time I open it at the moment!

Pretty certain I had it set to not auto update?

Thanks

Lee

Back when I tried this, I couldn't prevent it from auto updating, it just updated anyway despite me disabling it.

I gave up on keeping Viewranger going when I had to replace my phone and switched to the Memory Map app which still does permanent offline OS coverage, not tile by tile like VR but I just got the full UK 1:50k instead for about £40.

I don't know if/how it integrates with their desktop mapping and I don't sync devices or anything complicated - just manually loading & saving the odd gpx track is enough for me along with a you-are-here marker on the map and it does that just as well as Viewranger ever did.

I've just switched to a new iPhone 14 and the old Viewranger 2018, which I hadn't bothered to delete on my old phone, was transferred over and still works. I don't use it (I use OSMaps instead) and can't add any new tiles, but the old ones that had been downloaded on the old one are still there.

OP here. Still working for me, and on a new phone. Don't ask me how I managed to activate my purchased maps on the new phone, but it seems that the old VR account still exists and somehow it still works. I LOVE having the whole GB maps on the phone memory for hassle free offline use, I only wish some current apps would offer the same!