Gaia GPS for Hunters

Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
Yep, the converted map won't show. I use G-raster and Mapc2mapc for conversions. Neither onx nor gaia support import of a converted raster image to a KML file. I use GE Pro for almost all of my internet scouting.

Oh yeah, I forgot most of them only support lines and points. I had looked into finding my own polygon KMLs for public land back when they didn't have it in pro and realized they didn't support it.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
Sweet. I just wish their satellite imagery was as good as OnX. I only have two aerial imagery sources on my app and neither are all that great. What satellite imagery are you using?

There are a couple premium imagery layers that look as good or better once you get pro. Give the free trial a shot and you'll see. Far cheaper than OnX too if you hunt multiple states.
 
Joined
Aug 4, 2012
Messages
495
There are a couple premium imagery layers that look as good or better once you get pro. Give the free trial a shot and you'll see. Far cheaper than OnX too if you hunt multiple states.

I'm trying the pro version out right now.

Contacted them about some of their satellite imagery being several years old- at least on some private land in Texas I'm hunting.

In this case, the land I'm hunting has had major clearing over the last 4-5 years, and the satellite imagery that I downloaded with the free version of pro was all older than that.

I contacted them and they are looking into it.

For me, I hunt and backpack in 3 states almost every year, so Gaia is much more affordable in my situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
I'm trying the pro version out right now.

Contacted them about some of their satellite imagery being several years old- at least on some private land in Texas I'm hunting.

In this case, the land I'm hunting has had major clearing over the last 4-5 years, and the satellite imagery that I downloaded with the free version of pro was all older than that.

I contacted them and they are looking into it.

For me, I hunt and backpack in 3 states almost every year, so Gaia is much more affordable in my situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would suspect OnX has the same issue. Satellite imaging is not cheap and they only re-image if they know something has changed or the technology has improved since the last time. Hopefully they can influence the people they buy the imagery from and request a new set for your location, but personally I know the private land that I hunt on better than any satellite pictures can show so this wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
 

idcuda

WKR
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
461
Location
SW ID
I use Backcountry Navigator and I think it's excellent. However, I've started looking at Gaia, due to it having land ownership layers. Looking at the reviews for the Android app and came across an anti-hunter's 3-star review that simply said, "Hunting, Ugh". The Gaia CEO responded to the comment in full defense of hunting. In part, he responded, "People who use Gaia GPS to hunt use the meat for their families."

Kudos to Gaia - it was nice to see them respond that way. It was enough to persuade me to download the app and give it a run.
 

huntdoc

FNG
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
Messages
47
Location
Midwest
If I purchase can I go between an Apple product and microsoft? I'm pretty dense with tech so wondered if it would be a problem.
 
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,638
I'm trying the pro version out right now.

Contacted them about some of their satellite imagery being several years old- at least on some private land in Texas I'm hunting.

In this case, the land I'm hunting has had major clearing over the last 4-5 years, and the satellite imagery that I downloaded with the free version of pro was all older than that.

I contacted them and they are looking into it.

For me, I hunt and backpack in 3 states almost every year, so Gaia is much more affordable in my situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I put in new food plots last year and onx showed them in both Mason and McMculloch counties.

I have regular Gaia but many run Onx premi now just due to layers and fact I hunt mainly same 3 -4 states a year.
 

onX Hunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
235
Location
Montana
I'd be happy to answer any questions people have regarding the onX Hunt app as users have been extremely happy with the new version we released back in August as well as the new features we have been continually adding.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
I'd be happy to answer any questions people have regarding the onX Hunt app as users have been extremely happy with the new version we released back in August as well as the new features we have been continually adding.

Sorry to say, but while the new version of the app is better there are major issues that have gone unaddressed and are beyond annoying. Reviews of the app in the app store get responses that the feedback will be addressed, but so far months later they have not been. Here are just a few of the major annoyances I found with the Android version using it heavily while pronghorn hunting this December:

1) Offline mode gets switched off automatically whenever you get service and doesn't automatically switch back on when you go out of service. If we were driving around in an area of intermittent service I had to put my phone in airplane mode for the app to work correctly and then I couldn't use my phone. If I put it in offline mode you should leave it there.

2) Offline downloading can only be done in 5mi squares and on top of that they can only be done one at a time. It can literally take hours of constantly having to babysit the app in order to download your hunting area. Downloading using the larger area modes you lose useful information like land boundaries and ownership info.

3) Offline maps can't be saved to SD card. This functionality is absolutely necessary as most people especially with older phones (which are more prevalent in the hunting community, which in general isn't very tech-savvy).

Lastly a word of advice for your company and team in the future. If you plan any major upgrades, don't push them out between September and December; especially September. You caused yourselves more blowback by pushing an app that wasn't ready right when everyone was heading out the door on their hunts and all of a sudden their offline maps didn't work.
 

wapitibob

WKR
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
5,365
Location
Bend Oregon
I have all my onx data saving to an sd card but, they better get it set up for joe6 or they'll never sell the app to an android user.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
I have all my onx data saving to an sd card but, they better get it set up for joe6 or they'll never sell the app to an android user.

Saving maps to an SD card was not working as of 3 weeks ago when I switched to my pixel 2 (which doesn't have one). Did they finally add this? I don't see a storage location option in the menus. I can try on my Nexus 7 when I get a chance to verify, but as far as I can tell saving map data to the SD card still isn't possible.
 

onX Hunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
235
Location
Montana
Sorry to say, but while the new version of the app is better there are major issues that have gone unaddressed and are beyond annoying. Reviews of the app in the app store get responses that the feedback will be addressed, but so far months later they have not been. Here are just a few of the major annoyances I found with the Android version using it heavily while pronghorn hunting this December:

1) Offline mode gets switched off automatically whenever you get service and doesn't automatically switch back on when you go out of service. If we were driving around in an area of intermittent service I had to put my phone in airplane mode for the app to work correctly and then I couldn't use my phone. If I put it in offline mode you should leave it there.

2) Offline downloading can only be done in 5mi squares and on top of that they can only be done one at a time. It can literally take hours of constantly having to babysit the app in order to download your hunting area. Downloading using the larger area modes you lose useful information like land boundaries and ownership info.

3) Offline maps can't be saved to SD card. This functionality is absolutely necessary as most people especially with older phones (which are more prevalent in the hunting community, which in general isn't very tech-savvy).

Lastly a word of advice for your company and team in the future. If you plan any major upgrades, don't push them out between September and December; especially September. You caused yourselves more blowback by pushing an app that wasn't ready right when everyone was heading out the door on their hunts and all of a sudden their offline maps didn't work.


Sorry to hear you are having issues with the offline maps but we appreciate the feedback. You can still flip the Go Offline switch even if you have service and that will force the app to only use the maps you have saved for offline use. If it is going back online without you manually doing it then that is something we will look into, would you mind sending more info to [email protected]? Such as one kind of device you have, software version, version of the app so we can look into that. The offline map process is not a final version and we are continually looking to improve that. I would ensure you are connected to a good wifi connection as offline maps generally don't take more than 5-10 minutes per map. Additionally, depending on how many layers you have active and the device you have could affect the download speed. The offline maps to an SD card is something that we are looking into and I will reiterate this to our team that this is a major point for Android users.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
Sorry to hear you are having issues with the offline maps but we appreciate the feedback. You can still flip the Go Offline switch even if you have service and that will force the app to only use the maps you have saved for offline use. If it is going back online without you manually doing it then that is something we will look into, would you mind sending more info to [email protected]?

Every time the phone gains service again it is flipping back to online by itself. This happens on both my phones (Pixel 2 and Sony Z3V) and my buddy's device as well, so I am assuming this was by (poor) design. Using the latest version.

offline maps generally don't take more than 5-10 minutes per map.

Yes this is the performance that I am seeing, however most of us out west download areas exceeding 50 miles once you include possible alternate hunting locations that we may want to download before we leave, so at 5 miles at a time and 10 minutes per and no means of queueing downloads, this means I have to be actively babysitting downloads for 500-1,000 minutes (8-17 hours).

The offline map process is not a final version and we are continually looking to improve that. The offline maps to an SD card is something that we are looking into and I will reiterate this to our team that this is a major point for Android users.

Offline maps is the #1 priority for western hunters. Your app is useless without this functionality, so I would suggest that you test this a lot more before pushing out in the future. Based on what I saw on other threads, you lost a lot of users this year by pushing out with this feature broken right before hunting season.
 

onX Hunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
235
Location
Montana
Every time the phone gains service again it is flipping back to online by itself. This happens on both my phones (Pixel 2 and Sony Z3V) and my buddy's device as well, so I am assuming this was by (poor) design. Using the latest version.



Yes this is the performance that I am seeing, however most of us out west download areas exceeding 50 miles once you include possible alternate hunting locations that we may want to download before we leave, so at 5 miles at a time and 10 minutes per and no means of queueing downloads, this means I have to be actively babysitting downloads for 500-1,000 minutes (8-17 hours).



Offline maps is the #1 priority for western hunters. Your app is useless without this functionality, so I would suggest that you test this a lot more before pushing out in the future. Based on what I saw on other threads, you lost a lot of users this year by pushing out with this feature broken right before hunting season.

We completely understand the frustration and unfortunately we cannot do anything to go back and delay releasing the product but I can assure you, we will do everything we can to improve our app. As we are based in Missoula, MT, we know how important those offline maps so we will start looking into this. Putting your phone in airplane mode would cut off any service from your phone, this would also help save your phone battery. Thank you for the feedback. Update: I have passed along all this information to our testing department
 
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onX Hunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
235
Location
Montana
I have heard from our testing department and they are not encountering the same issue and there may be a setting you are forgetting toggle. When you go in the "Off-Grid" section, remember to press on the "Go Offline" switch, it will then highlight that button red and say "Offline", this means the app will only use the maps you have saved. If you do this, you will not have that issue. If you are just letting your phone be which sounds like may be the case then it will still try to load the map off of whatever signal is there. Following the steps I mentioned above will not have that result as pressing that "Go Offline" switch forces the app to only use those maps you have saved then if you are using your phone for texts, calls, etc. You will not need to go into airplane mode. The other issues you brought up are being addressed as well but they may take some time to be implemented. Thank you
 

lang

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 26, 2017
Messages
186
Location
North Idaho
Does Gaia work on windows phones? Looked at their website a couple times and can't see a contact tab?
 
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