Help with onXmaps hunt app

I have had the onXmaps hunt app (found out about it from the podcast) for awhile now and have been very happy with it, while using it for researching for this upcoming deer season. A couple weeks ago, I took my Samsung Galaxy S4 Active to the trailhead that I plan on using just to check it out, make sure I could find it in the dark, where to park, and to test out the hunt app. Found out that my hunt app will not open unless I have cell service or wifi. Went down the road to where I had a signal and the app would open. From there, I could put the phone in airplane mode, and go back to where there was no service, and the app works just fine. Until, you accidentally close out of it, it has been inactive for awhile, or turn the phone off, then the app will not open until you get back to cell service. Basically, at this point, I figured out how to probably have the app work for me for my first day hike in, after that, it probably will not work for the rest of the trip. Problem is, I don't need it for the hike in, I got it for those next three days hunting in the backcountry.

Onxmaps customer service has been great, but so far, could only come up with it possibly having something to do with their server upgrade (I am not sure about that since the problem occurs when the phone is not in contact with their servers), and told me to wait until today, uninstall, reinstall, and then try it. Did that, and still the same thing. I would think that it was just something with my phone, but this also happens with my Samsung Tablet. Both my phone and the tablet have the latest Android version 4.4.2 and have reinstalled the latest version of the app.


Can anyone with an Android replicate this? Make sure you are completely closed out of the app (hit the back button until it asks you "Are you sure you want to exit Hunt?". Hit "yes" and close it out. Then put your phone in airplane mode, and then try to open the app. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I would have never known about the problem, had I not gone to scope out my trailhead. Thanks in advance. I basically have one day to figure this out before I leave

I just tried it on an S4 running android 5.0.1 with the newest Hunt app (just updated it 2 minutes ago). I have no problems, it seems to be working fine. I did have issues with the app 2 versions ago on the S4, but they seem to have been resolved with the last version. Phone would inhale the battery and go into a reboot loop, killing the phone.

marksjeep said:

I just tried it on an S4 running android 5.0.1 with the newest Hunt app (just updated it 2 minutes ago). I have no problems, it seems to be working fine. I did have issues with the app 2 versions ago on the S4, but they seem to have been resolved with the last version. Phone would inhale the battery and go into a reboot loop, killing the phone.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I am trying to see if I can update to 5.0 right now.

Installed android 5.0.1 and then reinstalled the hunt app. Same problem exists, if app is completely closed out or phone turned off, then app will not open without cell or wifi.

Pretty sure i have the same issue with iphone. I make sure to load my saved map before I lose service but if you close the app I'm not positive it will reopen the saved map.

Good question. Hopefully onX will reply to this.

Yeah, that's my plan right now. I'm so used to hitting my home screen button on my phone after looking at something on my phone, I'm going to have to be really careful. When it happens, it just goes to the loading screen (the dude at the fence), and then I get the pop up box that says "unfortunately hunt app has closed"

This is why I have been hesitant to buy the app and am thinking of just getting a stand alone GPS unit.

Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy. Always have back-ups with you when venturing in familiar and unfamiliar territory. I carry a Garmin, Map + Compass, and the app. Something will work, and I'll never get lost.

I do as well, always a good map and compass. I am not worried about getting lost out there. I actually prefer land nav with the map and compass. Just bummed that all my saved info on there might be of no use.

If this is as the OP describes then is a massive fail to offer a phone app that does not allow a phone to function like a normal phone and have applications shut, the phone be turned off, have a battery run down, etc, without causing a complete loss of access to the map information even when recharge battery or turn phone back on or open the app again. That would be as unacceptable as if your headlamp required you never shut it off during the hunt or would not turn back on to be useful.

I thought you could save a portion of the map set to the phone memory so when not in cell range could pull up that saved information. Is that not the case?

Yes you can save maps and it will work without cell signal if you opened the app before losing cell service. But if you have to open the app and dont have service, it won't even open the app. If you could open it, it would work fine. You are supposed to be out in the middle of nowhere and turn it on and use your saved maps. I was planning on turning my phone off at night to save battery but won't chance that now

Just wanted to be clear, that the app has still been awesome to use for preplanning, and their customer service has been great so far, just hoping that this bug can get fixed soon. For some reason, the app is trying to get something from the server so that it can open, just need to figure out why and how to stop it.

I sure hope this is not the case as I was planning on using the app on my phone with saved maps for my elk hunt in september. If this is the case for all users then that is a terrible failure on their part, but I bet(at least I hope) it's an isolated occurence. This would mean your phone needs cell service to access it's stored data such as your music, downloaded books, etc., which are no different than a map that was downloaded. As for the app not opening....I have no idea, but that doesn't sound right. I will be calling OnxMaps first thing Monday morning and asking some questions about this for sure!

I have used the app over the last two years on an S4, Note 4 and now my S6. I have never experienced the problem you're describing. I had to recently uninstall and reinstall due to the new version and their issue with that. After that, no problems.

Make sure you have downloaded the maps to your saved maps before heading out into the field. I prefer to do it on wifi since my hunt zone took about 1GB to get all the maps I wanted. After that, I toggle to the offline mode using the "used saved maps" switch. You can test it at home that way. NO issues for me at all.

I just got back from a 5day scouting trip offline and it worked perfectly. Hopefully Onx can work through it with you. I have never read about your issue before. Their customer service has walked me through two previous problems and both times it was remedied quickly with emails.

Yes, I have done all that, multiple times now (because everytime you uninstall, you lose your saved maps). Worked great the first day of my trip, and then the app would not open when I accidentally went back to my home screen the first night. Customer service has been great and I am sure we will figure this out. I am in contact with them now, but I have been gone for 4 days and as soon as I got back, I had to go help evacuate my parents cabin by boat due to the Chimney Fire here in CA. I will start back in contact with them today and work to get this figured out. Weird that it is also doing it on my tablet. Going to do a lot of messing with settings and uninstalling reinstalling. Will definitely post back when we figure it out. in the meantime, any ideas on what phone settings to check for would be great. Far as I can tell, my phone needs something (or is looking for something) from the server in order to open the app.

Still working with OnX to try to figure this out. I am now wondering if it has more to do with my account rather than device. I am getting the same result on 3 different devices. They are all android but still weird to be happening on 3 different devices. Here's a video I sent to OnX to show them https://youtu.be/UotdDGr-WdU

Newest app update has solved the problem!! If you just do the update, it probably won't help (it didn't work for me). Uninstalling the app and then reinstalling it with the newest version did the trick. App doesn't crash when out of network or in airplane mode. Can have my phone in airplane mode, power down my phone, and when I turn it back on (still in airplane mode) it opens the app just like it is supposed to! You will lose your saved maps when you uninstall though. My deer season is over unfortunately but it is good to know that it is working now.

Has anyone done any comparison with the standard onXHunt Map and the onXRoam? They seem very similar.