On X Hunt App experience?

I've been running the On X Hunt app for a few months now. I purchased subscriptions for Colorado and Utah. I was running it on an S4, and it seemed to run slow. The map view would advance as you move, but public land and private info would not. If you zoom in and out, sometimes the map will refresh with the layers displayed properly, sometimes not. Fast forward to black Friday, I upgraded phone to an S7. I reloaded Hunt app and all of my offline maps. The new S7 still seems to exhibit the same behavior, so I don't think this is a processing/hardware issue. It does not matter if you are using offline maps or not.

I'm just curious if anyone else using the app has seen this? Again, if I zoom the map view out a ways it seems to reload the layers, then I zoom into where I am and it displays OK. Until I move too far and the map advances, then the public layer (or private boundaries) just disappear.

You're miles ahead of my most recent experience with OnX. I couldn't get layers to load no matter what. I usually could get the map itself to load but not always. Made for a long hunt this year. Lesson learned....The hard way...Like usual.

I contacted OnX about it when i got back home and it seemed like they could care less that their product did not work and wouldn't issue a refund.

I found that even with cached maps, when I had my cell signal enabled, it would try to download the maps. With weak signal, this meant they didn't work.

On our last hunt, I cached the maps, turned on offline mode and enabled airplane mode on my phone (with GPS Still on) and never had any problems.

The APP sure is finicky though. It seems they could do an awful lot of performance enhancements.

I'll try airplane mode, even though I have 3/4g coverage in this particular area. Thx for that suggestion.

I may be in the minority but I used the Hunt app on my iPhone SE almost exclusively this year with zero issues. I always cache my maps ahead of time, use offline mode in the app and keep my phone in airplane mode to save battery. Can get 2 days of battery life no problem.

I was 1 of 5 guys who tried to use it this year.
Guy 1, got out west and it wouldn't come up at all even though it worked at home. he spent the week out there with nothing. He called and they said since he bought it through the app store, he would have to contact them if he wanted his money back. not exactly stellar customer service.
Guy 2, it worked well the whole trip.
Guy 3 He had nonApple product (cant remember which) and it blew up his phone before we left. He got another phone and it sent that into a perpetual issue as well. He gave up on it.
Guy 4 It wouldn't load correctly part of time out there (layers showed up sometimes, sometimes they didn't). He was able to limp through with some functionality, but was not happy.
Guy 5 (me). 3 days before we left, it wacked out and went all gray. I tried to get ahold of them by phone and they had a message that they weren't taking calls! Finally they responded to a chat and I had to reload the app and all the maps. Worked well for the first half, then it did it again halfway through my trip so I was left hanging. I called them and they refunded my money, but they really didn't seem too concerned. Just a "okay, we will refund your money".

I really, REALLY want to like and use this product, but 4 out of 5 of us had major issues. I don't know what to do about next year.

You're not alone in your frustrastions. I just let my app membership expire...back in May I tried to download info for the Bear Hunt and wasn't able to cache offline data. It would download 80% and then crash even though I had a new Samsung S7. I did manage to get it to download a much smaller map (probably 10% of the area I needed). I am going to try the DeLorme/Garmin Earthmate app with hunting data for next year.

The OnX GPS chip works great and have no complaints about its function

I really appreciate this thread. I was just about to start one asking the same thing. I have had a whole host of problems.


Wyoming Deer Hunt

1st - Bought the the elite subscription through the online store using the Hunttalk promo and it wouldn't link to the app. I waited up to 6 hrs, like it says on their website, and it still wouldn't link. Since it was the weekend and I really needed it for a hunt, I bought a second subscription through the Google App store and it worked. I figured OnX would understand and refund my money. Similar to what was said above, the Google App store wont refund your money after 2 days (I was in the field for 5, so I couldn't get that refunded). Customer Service refunded my money for the first subscription, where I used the promo code, so I was only out the discount - not a huge deal.

2nd - While in the field the app would constantly crash (easily over a dozen time)

3rd - About 50% of the time it wouldn't load my sublayers (public vs private & ownership info) even though I downloaded them to the phone's memory before entering the field.

- Talked to customer service and all they could say was make sure you have the most recent version of the app


Utah Turkey Hunt

4th - Linking between app and computer over the cloud was weird (downloaded a kmz file of my turkey area). I uploaded the file to the cloud but it would never registered on the app. Finally the area showed up on the map, but wouldn't show up on the "my content" list

5th - Sublayers worked for the 1st day, but then wouldn't work the 2nd including my turkey areas that I spoke about above


At home

6th - Yesterday I could not get sublayers to show up. I tried closing the app, changing states, turning the layers on and off, but nothing worked. I would have just jumped online but I was not home so I kept messing with it for 90 mins. When I got home I had the same issue, so I jumped on my wife ipad and just logged in over the web and everything worked ok (still very slow).


Cliff Notes:
I'm really not happy. I really want this to work and I keep trying, because when it does work, it's great. The images you get with a smart phone are so much better than a GPS and I could eliminate weight in my pack. At this point I am close to calling them and seeing if they will give me a refund.

Mthuntr said:

I am going to try the DeLorme/Garmin Earthmate app with hunting data for next year.

Click to expand...

This is what I did and have been SO much happier since. One time fee, and all the ability of the OnX app with half the hassle and clutter.

I can download an entire hunting district (topo, aerial, land ownership) on the Garmin app in 5-10 minutes. With OnX that would be a multi-day undertaking, if it ever worked.

Randy11 said:

This is what I did and have been SO much happier since. One time fee, and all the ability of the OnX app with half the hassle and clutter.

I can download an entire hunting district (topo, aerial, land ownership) on the Garmin app in 5-10 minutes. With OnX that would be a multi-day undertaking, if it ever worked.

Click to expand...

+3, it doesn't hurt that it syncs with my inreach as well.

vanish said:

I found that even with cached maps, when I had my cell signal enabled, it would try to download the maps. With weak signal, this meant they didn't work.

On our last hunt, I cached the maps, turned on offline mode and enabled airplane mode on my phone (with GPS Still on) and never had any problems.

The APP sure is finicky though. It seems they could do an awful lot of performance enhancements.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you need it in airplane mode or it tries to go through cellular and can run super slow.

This year I found the property boundaries in Montana were 100-200' further north than they should have been. They haven't replied to the messages I sent them. They are going to whither on the vine unless they get their crap together, but I still find it very useful.

For Montana you can download/buy the visitor and travel maps using the Avensa app, which will give you a large area in one shot. The trails are more accurate (and official) if you are on a weak trail. It is linked up with the gps so you can see your position to avoid trespassing on private land. They even have some commercial maps like the National Geographic Yellowstone maps.

Good info, I just had to get a new phone and have the OnX trial going. Looks like I won't be buying when the trial is up.

airlocksniffer said:

I may be in the minority but I used the Hunt app on my iPhone SE almost exclusively this year with zero issues. I always cache my maps ahead of time, use offline mode in the app and keep my phone in airplane mode to save battery. Can get 2 days of battery life no problem.

Click to expand...

This is what I've done the past couple years without issue. Did the same this year and it wouldn't work. Like I said, Lesson learned.


I'm really leaning towards the garmin earthmate. I just havent researched it enough to know that its what i want yet.

I also let my subscription expire due to the app's issues. I was using it locally where I usually have cell signal but still experienced quite a few crashes and loss of functionality. It worked most of the time but not enough to keep paying for it, especially when I can pull up the gis data in an app that works 100% of the time for main county I needed. It sounds like they have a long road ahead if they want to keep the "rebranding' they started recently working in their favor. In 2014 I was able to order a paper map, google earth overlay, and a chip. Now I don't see anything for Google Earth on their site, I assume they want you to use their viewer. They quit selling paper maps a long time ago. Hopefully they can get this figured out soon.

Put me down as unsatisfied user of the App from ONXmaps. Wouldn't load, wouldn't advance, unusable.

Luckily, I had Earthmate on the phone, and it works great, and, I have a standalone GPS with the Onx Chip in it that works great.

I am guessing Onx doesn't have the ability to test the software before release. Too bad, as I want it to work based on the usefulness of their chip solution.

FWIW the layers loading is hit and miss in my experience too. Basemaps load just fine, but I'd say about 10% of the time the ownership/public land layers don't load--even if I've saved the tile for offline use.

I Have come to the conclusion that it is a scouting tool I ca use while at home. I Have had the app for a couple years and just know that I can't rely on it in the field. I'll ha to give Randy's suggestion a try. I Love their product ideas but everything from their website to the App needs a good working over. I Know and appreciate them being a sponsor here but either I need a serious lesson in using it or the special version that big fin gets to use

I don't own the app but in their defense, they're shoving 10# of s### into a 5# sack trying to turn a phone into a fully featured GPS. Add to that, hundreds of different phones, twice that number of obscure apps a guy could have on any given phone, and you're chasing a ghost trying to get it all to work. With users wanting more and more features it's gotta be tough to stay on top of it all.

I have the OnX phone app and gps chip. I download the area I want to my iPhone and put it in airplane mode when using it in the field. I also use my gps when i go further than planned or a new area to scout.
Have not had any problems with either .

Thanks for all of the feedback and suggestions. I will be back out hunting cow elk this weekend and give it another whirl with my offline maps and airplane mode. Might try just turning off mobile data as well.

FWIW, prior to the HUNT app I was running Trimble Outdoors App with an "elite" subscription. It functioned flawlessly for 3 years with both a Casio smartphone and the S4 I mentioned in my original post. Public land data, downloading data sets by county and/or hunt unit, and seamless sync with their server, all worked great. I went to HUNT because Trimble is discontinuing the service at the end of the calendar year. I have relied on the GPS in my phone for 3 years now, really don't want to go back to a dedicated GPS.