From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Sat, 2 May 2026 13:40:16 +0200, "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2026-05-02 02:18, croy wrote:

On my Samsung S24 FE, while investigating problems with GPS, I came across >> many web pages illustrating how to get to a screen where one can choose,
"Clear cache Partition". In the illustrations, a half-dozen or more
options are shown on that screen. But on my phone, there are only 3:
"Reboot System Now", "Wipe data/factory reset", and "Power off".

I don't want to do a factory reset, but I'm wondering if selecting, "Wipe
data/factory reset" would then take me to "Clear cache Partition", or
simply drop me off the cliff.

A photo of the phone screen is here:

https://postimg.cc/p98wKrfJ

I had reasons to do a "Wipe data/factory reset" recently on a tablet. It >deletes all your apps, their data, all your configurations, and you have
to initialize your device from almost zero.

It does not delete system updates. At least in my case.

Good info/experience. Thanks!
--
croy
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Sat, 2 May 2026 19:02:34 -0600, Maria Sophia
<mariasophia@comprehension.com> wrote:

croy wrote:

After clearing "much stuff" from memory, for one 4-mile hike this morning, >> the phone's GPS had no hiccups, and I got a complete track recorded with no >> gaps or stoppages. I hope this is a fix that repeats.

If you're in the USA, nothing beats the USGS free geoPDFs which can be read >into many free apps such as Avenza & PaperMaps for location & tracking.
<com.Avenza> limited to 3 maps, but you can swap them out at will <ca.abbro.androidmap> unlimited but not as good a GUI as Avenza

For standard offline maps, this app reads in many free map databases.
<net.psyberia.offlinemaps>

Almost nothing can beat the open source SatStat for GPS utilities, although >many programs appear to have used their source code to create their adware.
<com.vonglasow.michael.satstat>

To "Clear APGS Data", this simple app makes it the very first button:
<com.mirfatif.mylocation>

The best standalone compass, I've found, is Azimuth Compass.
<ro.overwrite.azimuthcompass>

The best standalone altimeter, I've found, is Altimeter.
<org.ssandon.altimeter>

The best standalone track logger, I've found, is GPS Logger.
<eu.basicairdata.graziano.gpslogger>

The best standalone GPS-to-SMS I'm-here, I've found, is GPS to SMS.
<ru.perm.trubnikov.gps2sms>

For hundreds of USA parks, the best single all-inclusive trail map is
<com.trailheadlabs.outerspatial>

There are tons more in my hiking folder (e.g., weather apps, star maps, >sunset/sunrise timing, step counters, wildfire info, radio apps, etc.

All those apps are free, ad free, and they work completely offline.

Thanks--that's a lot of stuff. It will be a while before I can digest all that--but I certainly will.

For the moment, the GPS issues I've been having now appear to be with the phone, and Geo Tracker is very nice, when the tracking is working.
--
croy
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

croy wrote:

All those apps are free, ad free, and they work completely offline.

Thanks--that's a lot of stuff. It will be a while before I can digest all that--but I certainly will.

For the moment, the GPS issues I've been having now appear to be with the phone, and Geo Tracker is very nice, when the tracking is working.

I see you're using Geo Tracker & Gaia so I'll test them out myself as
I haven't tested hiking apps since I wrote a tutorial on them years ago.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ilyabogdanovich.geotracker

Random thoughts as I tested it long ago and it had failed.
But to give it a second chance, I installed it and ran a five-minute test.
a. I like that it set external storage easily
b. I like that it set the track format easily
c. I like that it defaulted to USA miles/feet (which is unusual)
d. I thought it interesting it had ski statistics on by default
e. It's nice that it said "Subscription UNAVAILAIBLE" on my system
f. It seems to default to online Google maps (including terrain)
g. OSM maps are only via a paid subscription though, which is odd
(when I tried to download, it says "Payments unavailable" for me)
h. It gets maps via Mapbox which costs money
i. Interestingly, it can use Petals, which is Huawei's mapping service
j. I don't see any option for USGS topographic maps
k. They have a FAQ here https://geo-tracker.org/faq/?lang=en
l. Where they say Mapbox (i.e., money) is required
m. They say caching on Google Maps is short lived
... that's enough for me ... it's a strike out ... for me. YMMV

Seems to me "Organic Maps" would be a more worthwhile replacement, for me
but I note GeoTracker is a log book while Organic Maps is for navigation.
<https://organicmaps.app/>
<https://f-droid.org/repo/app.organicmaps_26040708.apk>
Name: 20260503_f-droid__app.organicmaps_26040708.apk
Size: 71446367 bytes (68 MiB)
SHA256: 4862FBEED029516CBA5FB584C8C3D228BBCB505EACD3CEA6302B02FD511DE026

But note that Geo Tracker is better for graphs/data, while Organic Maps is better for actually seeing where you are on a trail (and it's really free).

As for Gaia, I intended to give it the same five-minute quicktest
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trailbehind.android.gaiagps.pro>

But, while it's a serious backcountry hiker map, with USGS topographic
maps, it's also subscription heavy, and won't work on my degoogled phone.

When it was bought by "Outside", apparently it became social heavy also.
But it's well-known to be an excellent backcountry app for serious hikers.
--
It takes more intelligence & effort to get what people pay for, for free.
And the main advantage of free is the privacy of not having an account.
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