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The main purpose of c:geo is to have an online access to your geocaching platform. However c:geo also provides offline functionality to use it without any network connection (e.g. while caching abroad or outside mobile network coverage).
In order to use c:geo completely offline you will have to prepare some things depending on your needs:
This page will describe these offline use scenarios.
In case you want to avoid any data transfer you should generally disable the internet connection on your device anyhow, because c:geo will always try to login once you started it. On most devices the internet connection is disconnected automatically in roaming conditions or if the mobile part is switched off.
GPX files contain information about caches and their waypoints. You can get GPX files from various sources, e.g. as a premium member of geocaching.com you can export your lists or pocket queries as GPX files.
c:geo explicitly supports GPX files from geocaching.com and GPX file extensions from opencaching sites, however if your GPX file is from another source but uses the same syntax it will probably work as well.
To import a GPX file you have two options:
Menu
→ Import
→ Import GPX
. this will scan the directory you configured to be used for GPX imports and offer you to choose a file from there.After the import process is completed the selected list will now contain the imported caches.
Please be aware, that some information of the cache is not contained in the GPX files. In case you need some of the following information, you have to manually add it by e.g. refreshing the cache online:
Information | Description |
---|---|
Attributes | In order for the geocaching.com GPX files to contain the cache attributes, you have to select to use GPX version 1.0.1 on the website. |
GCVote rating | As GCVote is an external service, the rating information is not contained in GPX files. |
Listing pictures | The GPX file contains the links to any image the owner uses in his cache description, but however does not contain the image itself. You need to open the cache online or refresh the cache to load the images. |
Log pictures | The GPX file contains the links to any image users attached to their log entries, but however does not contain the image itself. You need to open the cache online or refresh the cache to load the images. |
Favorite points | In order for the geocaching.com GPX files to contain the favorite points of a cache, you have to select to use GPX version 1.0.1 on the website. |
Static Maps | As static maps are a feature of c:geo these are not contained in GPX files, but only (optionally) added as the last step while importing a GPX file. |
You have two possibilities of composing offline logs in c:geo:
Save offline
function in the logging screen menu.Offline Log
function in the settings which completely works offline.
While the first option is not different from online usage, the second option will replace the Log Visit
menu by a One click offline log
menu in all places. As soon as the function is activated, c:geo will not post logs online by default but only store the found status offline.
When using this menu function the following context menu will be shown:
Just click on the desired log type and your offline log will be saved accordingly.
If you already stored an offline log the current log will be marked by red tick in this menu.
The Clear
option is only available if you already have an offline log stored for this cache.
You can also select Log Visit
to open the normal logging screen to compose a complete log and store it.
Fieldnotes (a.k.a Drafts) are supported by geocaching.com and some opencaching sites and allow an offline logging of cache finds and batch uploading them to the website at a later point of time.
c:geo is supporting fieldnote export and also an automatic upload to the website (for geocaching.com). If you have saved your cache logs offline in c:geo you have the possibility to export these logs as fieldnotes.
The offline logged caches are marked by an orange line in your lists and with a red smiley on the map. To export the logs you have to open the relevant list of saved caches or the history and select Menu → Export → Field notes
Fieldnote exports will be stored by c:geo in the directory /cgeo/field-notes
in your internal storage with a date/time stamp used as filename as shown in the export dialog.
You can now either only export the fieldnote file to your device or additionally upload them to the geocaching website by enabling Upload to geocaching.com
.
The option Since last export
will check the last upload date on geocaching.com and only export those field notes which are composed after this date.
After you exported your fieldnotes to the geocaching website, the website will show that you have pending fieldnotes on this page and you can compose your logs in your browser. Please be aware that it might take a minute after the upload until the website shows the pending fieldnotes.
This function can be activated in the settings for the cache coordinates and/or for its waypoints and will download Google maps images of the area around each saved cache both as street map and satellite view (a total of 5 images). It is a helpful feature if you plan to go caching without internet access (and maybe even without an offline map).
Also a basic street map will be shown at the bottom of the cache details page, the remaining maps are accessible by selecting Static Maps in the cache Navigation menu.
Please note, that there is a limit by Google of 1000 static maps per 24h per user(IP). Having a rather huge list of stored caches or even only some caches with many waypoints, you may easily reach this limit (as 5 images cache and each cache waypoint are loaded). In this case some static maps might be missing.
The following shows an example of static maps for a cache. You can click the images to see a larger version:
c:geo supports offline map files using the mapsforge format.
Such files can be downloaded for your area/country from various sources, e.g. Mapsforge Download Server or OpenAndroMaps. With some effort you can also manually create your own map.