Article Review: ExplorOz Traveller

My Article Rating: My Rating 4/5

So firstly let me say the map detail on the 2021 ETOPO is great and I love it. However I have found that it seems to be significantly slower to load that the raster 2019 maps for some reason. When scrolling the map this is quite frustrating. I would have thought that the vector maps would be much quicker to load that raster? I am using an iPad mini 2. Is this an issue with the v.6* of the app?
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Reply By: Member - rocco2010 - Wednesday, Apr 28, 2021 at 14:43

Wednesday, Apr 28, 2021 at 14:43
I agree on map detail.

Age might be a factor with your iPad. Not much RAM in the older models and the mini 2 is no longer upgradeable to the latest version of IOS.

Cheers
AnswerID: 636183

Follow Up By: RMD - Wednesday, Apr 28, 2021 at 19:56

Wednesday, Apr 28, 2021 at 19:56
Yes. A mini doesn't go as fast as a Ferrari does it?
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Reply By: Rob A2 - Thursday, Apr 29, 2021 at 17:00

Thursday, Apr 29, 2021 at 17:00
Just updated from our iPad mini 2 to an iPad Air v4 and the difference is utterly amazingly fast. To test it I downloaded the maps from the Store rather from a backup file and the transfers and installs are measured in seconds rather than many many minutes.

In regard to screen refresh the 4 is certainly quicker but there is still a noticeable lag but again it's so much faster than the old 2 which will be kept as the backup map set now

Rob
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Follow Up By: Rob A2 - Thursday, Apr 29, 2021 at 17:05

Thursday, Apr 29, 2021 at 17:05
To add to my earlier comments I have stripped out all the other apps I used on the old Mini 2 which left me with around 17Gb of 32 GB. Before doing this I had less than 2GB spare so no headroom at all. After doing a full refresh to tidy up any remnant files and rebooting the 2 is moving noticeably quicker than it was. But not anywhere near as fast as the 4.

So if you have an older tablet and you can just dedicate it to mapping I suggest you have a crack at cleaning all the old apps out first to see how much of a difference that may be able to make for you

Rob
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Reply By: Member - Chris B54 - Friday, May 21, 2021 at 08:38

Friday, May 21, 2021 at 08:38
Hi guys,

I am a new member and have downloaded everything to my iphone x where traveller works great. I also want to use my ipad mini 3 (with 128gb ram) when Im out bush, and Im having big problems actually downloading the high res maps.
During the download process, it keeps 'flipping' back to the map, and I have to then go to the menu, select data manager and restart the topo map download over and over! After reading your posts im suspecting the mini 3 is not fast enough. However, I have downloaded a few other large apps and they do work well and fast!!
Is there another way to get all the maps to the mini3 somehow, or perhaps erasing everything and starting again? I havnt much time before my trip is starting.
Many thanks for any advice, Chris.
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Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Friday, May 21, 2021 at 10:40

Friday, May 21, 2021 at 10:40
Chris,
A number of people with older iPad Minis are having problems. There is a pattern developing which, IMO, indicates they may be underspecced for the Traveller app.

Minis up to and including Mini4 have only 2GB RAM. Mini5 has 3 and that may work better, depending on the processor.

The 128GB you refer to is storage, not RAM. You need 5GB of free storage for the app and maps.

I suspect you need to upgrade your device.

From the Traveller System Requirements:
[quote]
CPU/Processor & RAM
The difference between a cheap device and more expensive device is often the speed of the CPU and the type of System on Chip (SoC). This is not a “light app” so you should avoid using budget or older devices that are only designed for general everyday use for calling, browsing, or light apps. The quality of the hardware inside your device will have a very big effect on your satisfaction with the user experience. You’ll want the best CPU for processing speed, and the more RAM the better it will handle multitasking. Low RAM can result in freezing and even app crashing. A slow CPU can result in lagging and poor response.
[/quote]
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Reply By: Member - Chris B54 - Friday, May 21, 2021 at 15:56

Friday, May 21, 2021 at 15:56
Hi Frank,

Thankyou very much for your insight to this problem. Im tending to agree with you about the underperformance, however if I could actually get all the maps onto the mini3, and then test it, I would know how it would perform with the maps in place.

Is there any way to do that?
Perhaps transferring everything from my iphone for example?
I dont have many apps on the mini3, and could try deleting them all?
Would it be worth beginning from scratch again, erasing the mini3 and trying the Apple Quickstart again?
Do I need to streamline the overall settings on the mini3 so it runs to its optimum?

If you have any ideas I would love to try them out.

Many thanks, Chris.
AnswerID: 636497

Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Friday, May 21, 2021 at 17:25

Friday, May 21, 2021 at 17:25
Chris,

I'm not an Apple expert, so you've called me out on that, LOL, so I can't tell you what boxes to tick in an Apple device's settings. Maybe someone else can, I hope so.

But there are some basic principles that are common to all devices.

1 Make sure you have enough free storage. Your device has 128GB. Look in your settings to see if you have less than 123GB used up already. You say you don't have many apps on your Mini, so I think that is not the problem.

2 Transferring from your iPhone... I don't know if that will work. I suspect not because on an Android with maps on an external SD, taking the SD to another device doesn't work. I think Apple will be similar in a different way, but I suppose you could try.

3 Deleting all apps? You could try that. Some apps always run in the background, using resources. If you uninstall everything you'd eliminate those. A less drastic approach might be to try to find which apps run in the background all the time and uninstall those. In Android I find that difficult, but the Apple system might be easier.

4 Erase and start again with Apple Quickstart? I don't know what Quickstart does. If it reloads apps from the cloud I can't see it being of much help, it will just reload the problem. If you want to go to that extreme, maybe factory reset, update OS, load just Traveller and maps.

5 Streamline settings? Sorry, not being an Apple person I can't help you with that one.

If iPad mini users who have solved this performance problem could contribute here I'm sure many others would appreciate it.

Cheers
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Reply By: Member - Chris B54 - Friday, May 21, 2021 at 18:46

Friday, May 21, 2021 at 18:46
Hi Frank,

Thankyou very much indeed for taking the time on your reply.

I totally understand your situation with Apple, as I have been an Mac guy for a long time, and dont know much about Windows/Android!!


I have found a few posts and videos online so will investigate further.

If anyone else has some experience with ipads with ExplorOz, I would love to hear from you.

Best regards to all,

Chris
AnswerID: 636500

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