FAQ & troubleshooting

“My blue triangle isn’t showing”

Three possible reasons:

1. GPS isn’t on. Tap the crosshair button in the right-side column. Goes from grey → blue. See The map screen → Follow-me.
2. Location permission isn’t granted. Go to your phone’s Settings → Apps → ApexGPS → Permissions → Location → Allow only while using the app, Precise location. Then re-open ApexGPS.
3. No GPS fix yet. Indoors, near tall buildings, or in a deep canyon, first acquisition can take 30 seconds or more. Step outside if possible.

“The map keeps dragging back to me every few seconds”

That’s the locked follow-me state. Drag the map once — the crosshair button turns a lighter blue and the map will now stay wherever you pan it. The triangle still updates; only the camera stops chasing. To re-centre: tap the crosshair button.

See The map screen → Follow-me.

“How do I turn off GPS entirely?”

Long-press the crosshair button. GPS stops, triangle disappears, battery saved.

Tap-to-toggle from the locked state also turns it off, but a long-press skips the re-centre animation — useful when you’ve panned away and don’t want the map jumping back before turning off.

“Someone sent me a location link — how do I view it?”

If the link is like https://apexgps.duttra.de/loc?lat=...&lon=..., tap it directly from your message. With ApexGPS installed, it opens in-app with a red bullseye marker. Without ApexGPS, it opens a web page with a map preview + a link to install.

Other types of map links (Google Maps URLs, etc.) open in whatever maps app you prefer — they don’t tie into ApexGPS.

See Share → Receiving a shared location.

“Can I record a new track while hiking?”

Not in this version. Live track recording (your path as you walk) is planned for a future release. Right now tracks come from importing GPX files (yours from another app, or someone else’s).

“How much storage does the app use?”

The app itself is small (~10 MB). Storage grows based on:

• Browse tile cache — tiles from the areas you’ve looked at. See Settings → Storage for size.
• Saved offline regions — tiles you’ve explicitly pre-downloaded via Maps hub. These can be large (50-500 MB per region depending on zoom levels).
• Tracks + waypoints — tiny, usually <1 MB even with hundreds of items.

Clear browse cache via Settings → Storage → Clear. Delete saved regions via Maps hub → tap a region → Delete.

“The map is slow when I zoom in / pan”

A few things to try:

1. Too many tracks loaded. Go to Tracks list → filter by visibility → hide the ones you’re not using today. Or bulk-delete old imports.
2. Heavily-detailed tracks. Use Settings → Data → Optimize all tracks to simplify — point counts drop ~90% without visible change.
3. Low zoom with many waypoints. Waypoints cluster automatically at low zoom (single dot with a count) — tap a cluster to zoom into it. If your phone is still struggling, the cluster threshold in code is fixed; consider hiding tracks instead.
4. Old phone. ApexGPS targets modern Android. If yours is pre-2020, some performance issues are unavoidable with 500+ tracks on screen.

“I can’t see the new version in the Play Store”

You’re a closed-testing tester and just got notified there’s an update. If it’s not appearing:

1. Play Store → profile icon (top right) → Manage apps & device → Updates available → refresh. If ApexGPS appears, tap Update.
2. Still nothing? Open the tester invite link again (the one you first used to join the test). Then force-stop Play Store, re-open, search ApexGPS.
3. Still nothing? Settings → Apps → Google Play Store → Storage → Clear cache. Re-open Play Store, search again.
4. Google’s CDN rollout takes 2-24 hours after “auto-published.” If you just heard about the update, wait a few hours.

“Can I use ApexGPS without giving it location permission?”

Mostly yes. You can import GPX files, view tracks, plan routes, measure distances, manage waypoints, and pre-download map regions — all without location. What you lose:

• Live position triangle.
• Follow-me / nearest-first sorts.
• The Share location feature (no location to share).
• Navigation-to-target (no “you” to draw a line from).

“Does the app send my location anywhere?”

No. ApexGPS makes no network requests with your location. The only outbound network activity is fetching map tiles, which is indistinguishable from browsing a map — map servers see an IP + the tile coordinates, nothing about you. See the privacy policy.

Sharing via the Share button is entirely user-initiated — you choose the app (WhatsApp, etc.) and recipient.

“My friend’s Android phone opens the shared link in a browser, not in ApexGPS”

The link deep-links into ApexGPS only on devices where the Google-issued App Links verification has completed. Fresh installs sometimes need a first launch of the app before verification kicks in. Have your friend:

1. Open ApexGPS once, grant location permission, close it.
2. Re-tap your shared link.

Now it should open in the app directly. If it still opens in a browser, Android may be offering a chooser — they can pick “Always open in ApexGPS” from the chooser dialog.

“Can I restore an ApexGPS backup on iPhone?”

No. ApexGPS is Android-only. The backup format is specific to the app.

“Where is my data stored physically?”

On your phone, in ApexGPS’s private app storage (/data/data/com.apexgps.app/ on rooted access — otherwise not directly reachable). Tracks + waypoints live in a SQLite database; settings in a preferences file; tiles as image files on disk.

Nothing is uploaded anywhere. To back up, use Backup & restore.

Still stuck? sandwalker.one@proton.me — bug reports welcome.