iMapMy: For those having trouble saving with iMapMyRun or iMapMyRide

All-

I have been looking through our server logs to troubleshoot various "can not save" feedback from the iPhone applications, and I have noticed that there are a lot of failures due to no GPS data.  The most typical case for this is running the apps from a 1st generation iPhone device (which does not contain a GPS receiver).

Note that iMapMyRun and iMapMyRun currently require an iPhone 3G device for proper functionality.  We have tried to make this clear in the application description, but I can see how this can be confusing, and the next release will contain clearer error messages and descriptions.

There are other cases where saving can fail, and the most common is the case where the phone does not have internet connectivity to our servers.  During normal operations, this will happen occasionally (i.e. like a dropped call- the phone network lost connection).  However, we have accounted for this, and always save your last workout to the phone.  To save your last workout to our servers after having a network error, simply exit the app, and relaunch it and you should be prompted to save your last workout.

I hope these tips help- it should explain most of the save failures that most users are seeing.

We are also working hard to release new versions that incorporate feedback from users here.  Notably, in the next iTunes store release you'll see an improved screen lock/unlock functionality that should fix many of the UI issues that users have reported.

As always thanks for the feedback and please keep it coming.

-jeff

echoing link2's comments, I too have the 3g iPhone, and I've been having these same issues with the app.

@jeff, you state: "During normal operations, this will happen occasionally". I've seen this happen every time I've stopped a run and tried to save. Same result whether I'm on 3g, EDGE or GPRS. However if I quit the app, and try again on my home Wifi network it uploads sucessfully, not necessarily first time, but eventually.

Also, the last run I did, I got a green GPS icon, and hit start, before putting the iPhone in my pocket for the duration of the run. However, when I came to end the workout, I realised it hadn't tracked any distance, but the timer was still counting up, i.e. the GPS icon was still green, it said I'd been running for ~1h20m, but 0.00 mi, 0:00 current & average pace. I thought it may have just been a problem with displaying the data so tried uploading anyway. Got an error every time, whether on wifi or not, and after restarting app, and resetting iphone. Gave up eventually and entered the run manually online...

Looking forward to a fix soon.

It sounds like you guys might be having issue with procedure. Here's my 'routine' that seems to work rather well:

First, set your double click home button brings up audio controls.

Second, get your iTunes playlist ready so you can hit play and rock it out.

Third, fire up the IMMR app and let the GPS guage go green.

Fourth, when you've got your green, hit start. IMMEDIATELY hit the sleep button on top of the phone. Don't let the app automatically go to sleep with it's "unlock" screen.

Fifth, now double tap your home button to bring up your audio player/itunes controls. Tap play and hit the trail.

Now if you need to adjust the playlist, don't ever unlock the phone during your workout. Double tap your home button to bring up your controls and move foreward or backward through your list.

When you're approaching the end of the trail, unlock the phone and your IMMR app should be there waiting for you to hit stop. As soon as you do it will prompt you to save, resume, or discard. Save it, categorize it and set it down while you get a good rehydrating dousing of water. The longer your workout, the longer it will take to post it. It will then ask you if you'd like to see what you've just done.

As far as the difficulty with stopping the application at the end, get the latest update. There's a fixer for that bugger in there. :)

Voila!

All the best,

RG

As of this morning there is a new ...Run app on iTunes, version 1.1.2.

The ...Ride app remains at version 1.0.

This is the third revision to be posted to ...Run but not ...Ride.

@jeff, I've updated to the new version and all looks good. I'm still having problems getting a GPS signal, as in it still takes longer than when I use the built-in maps app or everytrail. But other than that it seems good, and I like the added functionality in the training section. It would be useful if hrm data could be added through this page as well. And a calendar type view so we can see weekly and monthly totals would be good. I haven't yet tried a run with the new version as I injured my knee over the weekend but hopefully I'll be able to give it a shot soon. Thanks for all the hard work you guys are putting into the app. It's gonna be spot on with a few more tweaks. One other thing that would make this even better is the option to use abroad, i.e. when data roaming is switched off. Say I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks, and I want to do a few runs, and save the routes to all be uploaded together once i'm back home. Currently the app would only allow me to do this for one run. It would be useful if the app were less reliant on a data connection, so multiple routes could be saved locally, and also if the training log, or at least some sort of summary (weekly, monthly totals etc) of the data were available offline.

Do you provide "release notes" on the new version?  It might be helpful to see a discussion of what you believe has changed from release to release.  In particular which known defects have been addressed, which have not, and what procedures have changed for the intended model of use.

I have done one ride this morning with the new version.  When I arrived at work there was an unexpected dialog box being displayed, which I dismissed.  I believe it was complaining about not being able to connect to the server.  I didn't understand why it needed to connect to a server.  After dismissing the dialog,  I then clicked on some kind of an unlock shadow icon and got to a stop button that didn't work.  I used the lock button to lock the machine, unlocked it, and asked it to save my route.  The save succeeded, including the end time. On a quick inspection the route appears correct.  Total mileage agreed with cycle computer within a couple of tenths of a mile.

It seemed to me that battery life may have improved.  This is based on a sample of one, and my subjective recollection of the appearance of the charging icon when I connected my iPhone to my computer at work this morning.

Are others having success with 1.1.2?  

 

 

Avg pace that is :) darn iPhone typing correction

According to iTunes, I have 1.1.2.

For those continuing to see stop button issues, can you please try the following procedure:

1.  Delete iMapMyRun and iMapMyRide from your iPhone.  To do this, click and hold the applicaiton icon until it gets wavy, then tap the X and confirm deletion.

2.  Reboot your iPhone

3.  Re-download and configure iMapMyRun

From our experience, the Apple update process is sometimes flawed, and can cause some strange issues that often get cleared up with the above procedure.  When testing the app internally, we are not able to reproduce the stop button issue after following the above, so hopefully this will fix the issue.  Please let me know your results.

-jeff

I will try the purge and reload.  I only did the standard app update.

On my first two rides I saw the screen you picture above.  In both cases I tapped the unlock icon, which displayed the stop button.  The stop button did not work.

I did not see the screen pictured above this morning.

I found your email.  I will respond shortly.  Thank you.

Thanks Jim!

After speaking with Jim, I have been able to reproduce, verify, and isolate the "stop button not working" issue.  This was a tricky one to see and find, because it only usually shows itself once recording has been taking place for 30 minutes or more.  

I believe that I have found the fix, and I'll be submitting an update to the app store tonight.  FYI, the process between submittion and availability in the store usually takes about 3-4 days, but I will update the forum when the fixed version is available.

Thanks everyone for your patience and sorry for the troubles.  The feedback in these forums really helps us improve the products, and we appreciate it.

odelay:

echoing link2's comments, I too have the 3g iPhone, and I've been having these same issues with the app.

@jeff, you state: "During normal operations, this will happen occasionally". I've seen this happen every time I've stopped a run and tried to save. Same result whether I'm on 3g, EDGE or GPRS. However if I quit the app, and try again on my home Wifi network it uploads sucessfully, not necessarily first time, but eventually.

Also, the last run I did, I got a green GPS icon, and hit start, before putting the iPhone in my pocket for the duration of the run. However, when I came to end the workout, I realised it hadn't tracked any distance, but the timer was still counting up, i.e. the GPS icon was still green, it said I'd been running for ~1h20m, but 0.00 mi, 0:00 current & average pace. I thought it may have just been a problem with displaying the data so tried uploading anyway. Got an error every time, whether on wifi or not, and after restarting app, and resetting iphone. Gave up eventually and entered the run manually online...

Looking forward to a fix soon.

 

Yeah, it's getting a bit annoying now!

Not once have I been able to save the time and pace of my workouts, over 15 runs and bike rides.  I've tried every combination of not locking/locking/not playing music/keeping the phone pointed at the sky/etc that I can think of, but every time I just get a 'save error'.  I have to exit, go to a wifi connection, re-open the app and then save (works fine every time), but then the time and pace isn't saved.

This would be an absolutely excellent app if this issue was fixed, but for me it's pretty much useless at the moment.

Please help!

Folks-

I'm sorry to hear about the issues some of you are having with saving routes while on a cellular data network.  Note that our next versions will include more detailed error descriptions, to help determine the cause of the error (i.e. network connectivity vs. another error such as a login error).

In the meantime, for users that are having issues saving, can you please try/report the following:

1. Have you set your username and password on the settings screen?  After setting the username and password, do you get the "account verified" message?
2. When having problems saving, can you tell what network you are on, and the signal level?  You should be able to see 3G, E, (or neither), and a number of bars

From what we have seen, it looks like a majority of the save errors are due to network connectivity issues (i.e. weak or no signal when trying to save).  For this reason, we store the data from your last workout if you are unable to save it.

If you have weak or no signal when your workout is completed, we recommend the following procedure:

1. After your workout is stopped, if you don't have a signal, or have received an error message, immediately exit the app by pressing the circle button on the front of the phone.
2. After you have moved to a location with a known good signal (Wi-Fi is best), re-launch the app.  You should be promoted that there is an unsaved workout.  At that point, you should be able to save your workout.

If the above does not work, we recommend reinstalling the app:

1. Delete all iMapMy apps from your phone (iMapMyRun and iMapMyRide).  To do this, tap and hold the app icon until it is wavy, and click the X button on the top-left of the icon.
2. Re-install the app from the app store
3. power cycle (turn off and then on) the phone 

Hi Jeff. Thanks for your reply.

In response to your questions:

 1. Yes, my username and password are set up correctly. I can access my training history fine, etc.

2. When saving at the end of a run, I am typically connected over 3G, with full signal strength.  Sometimes I've waited until I'm in WiFi range too.  Always the same - 'save error'.

3. I've tried deleting the app, reinstalling and re-booting.  Still no joy.

4. Your procedure for exiting, waiting for WiFi and relauncing does indeed work (sort of) - the workout is saved, however there's no time or pace information. The start time and route are all saved fine and are accessible via the phone app and the website. But without the time information this is kind of useless - I know where I ran; what I really want to know is how long it took! Of course, I can edit the workout via the website, but that's kind of annoying.

By the way, the latest update seems to have fixed the stop button issue for me - it works fine now, and displays the correct workout time and pace after I press it at the end of my workout.

Cheers,

Kieran

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys-

kieran, I can confirm the bug you reported in point #4 above, and I have some good news- I have been able to reproduce and fix the problem.  An update has been submitted to Apple, and should be available in the store in the next few days.  I will update this message board when it's available.

In the meantime, if you use iMapMyRun or iMapMyRide and run across this problem, you can workaround the issue by editing the workout details directly from mapmyrun.com or mapmyride.com

Thanks again for the feedback- it's really helping us improve the products.

-jeff

innocuous-

I am doing some specific testing on very long routes to try and track down issues like this.  Can you tell me any other symptoms that you've seen?  For example, do you get a battery low warning?  Also, do you know which version of the iPhone OS you're using?

Here are the stats you requested...

iPhone version: 2.1

iMapMyRun version: 1.1.3

Capacity: 14.6 GB

Available 13.3 GB

The app doesn't give my any battery warning. But, when I get home it is usually in the red, very low.

Hi all. I have updated the new version of iMapMyRun this morning. But now there is a upload problem. I walked this evening and I would like to upload my run, but there was an error. I saved this error, you can see it on my Flickr page. http://flickr.com/photos/annejan/3095946475/ When I reboot, restart the app, it will give the same error. Can anyone help me to get my run online? Thanks in forward! Anne Jan

Hi Jeff,

 I've installed the latest version but I still cannot save the workout immediately after running, althoughthe iPhone shows full signal strength. Not before I've reached my private wlan I can save the workout. And now it was saved the first time with the complete data.

There is another  problem. I cannot delete a saved workout, whatever I'm connected via wlan or 3g.

  gunterino

I'm getting the same issue again. I went for a cycle today, and used iMapMyRun to track it. Got a green GPS signal before I started, and when I stopped halfway, I tried to save the first leg of the trip, but got the usual error about the app being unable to save and cancel/retry options. I also tried quitting and restarting the app, to no avail. I had a full 3G signal when I was trying this, which I confirmed by being able to browse the web in safari. I decided to do the shopping and then instead of starting a second trip in the app for the return journey (which would mean i'd have lost the 1st leg as it hadn't saved), I just reopened the app and chose to resume the existing trip. Then, when I got home, I was able to save the workout first time on my home wifi. Could there be an issue where if you are connected to wifi when you start the workout (which I was), then you also need to be connected to wifi to save it??? I might test this out by being connected on 3g when starting my next workout and seeing if I'm then able to save when on 3g. This bug really needs to get fixed. It's been there since day one.

OK, this might just help someone.... I had the above problems saving a run. Then, after adding a bit more data on my profile (changing the units -- in the mapmyrun profile from my PC browser -- to the same as my iPhone ? could this affect uploading to my profile),  - then it worked. I wonder also if the server just gets too busy?

@tmetzger1226 that seems unusual. Are you using the "lock screen" feature after starting the app (i mean the app's own lock feature, not the iPhone screen lock)? I would also check your screen brightness setting, and switch off wifi when using the app. But even then it seems odd that the battery would drain so quickly, maybe try an uninstall/reinstall, and failing that, a restore.

I just bought the iPhone 3G several weeks ago and downloaded this app. I really like it when it works correctly, but like tmetzger1226's post from above, I am experiencing short battery life as well. I rode for 3 hours today and my battery was down to 10%. I am also experiencing trouble with not having all parts of the ride being tracked or there will be random straight lines either at the beginning or during the middle of the ride that show I rode through fields and houses... I turned off wifi, am using the screen lock and have turned the screen brightness down as well. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. (I also uninstalled and reinstalled the app last night). Thanks!!!

I've now tried starting a workout whilst on 3g and not wifi, and I still get the same problem where I cannot save the workout until I'm back on a wifi network. I really hope they can sort this out and haven't given up. Or maybe someone else will cone up with an alternative app. I liked everytrail and it worked perfectly every time, but the website doesn't have the same of functionality unfortunately. Or maybe we'll see a Nike+ GPS app, but based on my previous experience with using Nike+, it'll probably be even more buggy than this! :-)