Memory Map User Guide Pt. 7

Updated April 2021

Working with the (old) Mobile Version

You can find the previous part of this guide here: Part 6: Importing and Exporting Data

Part 7 of this parallel user guide covers the use of the Memory Map app on a mobile device.

Note: As of June 2022 this mobile app has now been replaced by a much improved mobile app, called Memory Map for All (MM4A). This new app is covered in the next part of the user guide. If you’re new to Memory Map I would strongly suggest skipping this app and moving straight to MM4A – it really is that good!

Introduction

The MM mobile app is available on Android and Apple mobile devices, including phones and tablets. This guide describes the function of the Android app so you will need to look elsewhere for assistance with the Apple (iOS) version of the app. The best place to start is the Memory Map support page for the Apple mobile app.

This guide was written in April 2021, the Android app version at the time was v2.9.0-516. If substantial changes occur to this version, I will try and update this page as quickly as possible, but bear in mind that things change and this page may become slightly out of date.

The mobile app can be downloaded from the links below.

First it’s probably worth setting out one of the key functions of the Memory Map mobile app. This applies equally to the Android and Apple versions of the App. The app does not require a mobile signal to function, provided you have a GPS built into your mobile phone (and almost all modern devices do) then you will be able to use this app in the hills. However, before you set out you must have downloaded the appropriate maps for the area you are walking in, and stored them locally on your device. By appropriate I mean Ordnance Survey 50k or 25k scale maps. You can’t navigate on the hills with the free-to-use base maps. This means you need to have a Memory Map license for the maps (see part 1 of this guide for more information).

If you are in any doubt about what maps are held on your phone, put it into Airplane Mode and check which maps you can access and ensure you can get a satellite lock with the GPS. Bear in mind that one should always exercise caution before putting your safety in the ‘hands’ of a delicate device, not really intended for this purpose. Ruggedise the device as best you can with a protective case, and as an absolute minimum, make sure you have a waterproof case to put it in and way of charging it if the battery begins to run low

Installation

Installation is performed through the Android Play store, or the Apple App store. Search the store for Memory Map and install the app in the normal way. Be aware, all that you are installing at this point is the app. You will not get any useful maps with this installation.

You will be presented with some device permission requests on first using the app, this allows MM to access your location using the GPS device and access your storage to store files (maps and overlays) – both of these are absolutely necessary to use the app, so ensure you select them.

Getting Started

The app works like most navigation apps and in order to locate your position the app needs your phones location services to be switched on. The way you do this will depend on your device, so check its user manual if you don’t see an obvious way to do this.

Although the app does not require a WiFi or mobile signal to function, you will need to have one of these activated to set it up – ideally WiFi because we need to download some useful maps and that could be expensive over mobile data!

The app will load into the map screen and should show a base map relative to your location, as you move around the map the app will download more of the base map. You move around as you would with any other app, drag your finger around the screen. You can also ‘pinch zoom’ using two fingers to expand and contract the map being displayed on the screen. This may also result in more of the base map being downloaded. In most cases, you can also use the phone’s physical volume buttons to zoom in and out of the map display (you can switch this off in settings later if you wish).

At the top of the screen is the main menu bar:

1: Opens the Map List
2: Opens the Place Index and alows you to search for a place name. Make sure you use this for the first time while you have a WiFi or good mobile signal.
3: GPS Location, snaps the map screen to the current location as determined by the GPS sensor in the mobile device.
4: Adds a Mark to the centre of the map screen
5: Settings Menu

If you don’t touch the map screen for a few seconds, it switches into full-screen mode and the main menu bar disappears, leaving just the map screen visible. Touch the screen again to make the menu bar re-appear. In settings, you can also set the scale bar to disappear if you wish.

The MM app, unlike many apps, will not auto-rotate when you turn the phone onto its side, into landscape mode. If you prefer to navigate in landscape mode, exit the app, turn your phone into landscape and then open the app. The MM app will now be rotated to the orientation of the phone. Basically when you load the app, it respects the orientation of the phone at that time, and you need to exit and reload the app to change the orientation.

Adding Maps

The first thing most people are going to want to do, is add some useful maps to the phone, typically maps that reflect your usage on the desktop version of the app. For the most part, you have the right to use whatever maps you own on both desktop and mobile devices, there is no need to purchase separate maps for the mobile device. However, you may need to purchase an add-on to allow some old maps to be used in the mobile app.

To access all things map related on the phone, click the map screen to activate the top menu, then click the little stack of squares at the left hand side of the menu. The Map List screen opens. If this is the first time you’ve done this you will probably only have a 250k Road Atlas base map in the list. Above the list of maps are some buttons, that will be used to filter the list of maps, when we have more of them.

For the moment, click the icon at the top with the stack of three dots. This opens the maps menu. If you’re storing high definition Ordnance Survey maps, especially the 1:25k scale maps then they can take up quite a lot of space, so you may not want to store them in your phone’s built-in storage. If your phone supports SD-card expanded memory and you have one in the phone, you can choose to store the maps here. Select ‘Map Storage‘ from the maps menu and select the desired location to store your maps.

If you change your mind later, or if you’ve already downloaded maps to the phone’s internal memory, once you change this setting you will need to download the maps again – there is no easy way to move the maps to the new location.

Now that you’ve selected your map storage location you’re going to want to download some maps. Click the ‘Map Licenses‘ menu option from the map menu. If this is the first time you’ve done this you’re going to need to login to your Memory Map account so the app can check what maps you have licenses for. Click the ‘Sign In‘ menu option, enter your MM account credentials and click the [Sign In] button.

You will be sent back to the Map List screen. Click the [My Online Maps] button at the top of the page, this will show you all the maps you have a license for, in relation to your current location. I prefer to see a full list of maps, so click the [Maps Everywhere] button in the second row – this will now show you all the maps in your account. You can expand any sections with a right pointing arrow to show the maps inside. These steps are shown below.

The resulting list of all your maps (shown above right) will have one of four icons beside it, depending on their current state.

Represents a free map, such as the base map.

A map that needs to be activated on this device. This could be one of your purchased maps that just hasn’t been activated on this device yet. Most of the maps in my list have been activated, yours may not be the first time you view them.

A map that has been activated.

A map installed with a temporary license, e.g. a preview or a trial.

Click on one of the maps that you want to store on this mobile device. You immediately jump to the map screen, at your current location and the map you selected begins to download. The app will download the area that is currently visible on your screen. See the screenshot below left, which shows parts of the map still being downloaded. You will also find a progress spinner in the top left corner of the screen which will disappear when this portion of the map has finished downloading.

Just as you did with the base map, move around the screen to download more of this map. If you want a large section of this map, or all of it, then this isn’t a realistic way to continue.

Go back to the Map List. The list filters (the two rows of buttons at the top of the page) will always default to show you [Maps on Device] and [Maps at View]. You can tell which filters are active as they have a light blue underline beneath them.

You will see that the map you selected from your account is now in the list, with a little blue icon arrow beside it. This gives us access to a new set of options for this map – shown in the panel below left.

The [Delete Map] button will remove the map from your device.

The [Chunk Status] button takes you to the map screen and shows you which parts of the map have been download. This can take a long time to do anything on a big map, so I don’t use it.

The [Bulk Download] button takes you to a new screen, shown above centre. Now we have a couple more buttons.

The [Click for more info…] button takes you to this Memory Map webpage.

The [Download Whole Map] button does what it says and allows you to download the whole map in one go. Clicking this button takes to the screen shown aabove right. It’s worth knowing some useful tips about this, which aren’t really described on the resulting page.

Firstly, this download can take a while! The England and Wales 1:25k scale HD map is just shy of 9Gb in size. It took me about 20 hours to download this map the first time I tried it. Even the 50k maps are around 2Gb in size and may take 2-3 hours. It will depend on things like your WiFi speed, but allow some time for this process. Don’t leave it until you’re in the car park booting up!

Secondly, the download seems to run OK in the background, despite the warning on this panel. I allowed my phone screen to go to sleep and it still continued. It even ran without the MM app being in focus, so I could do other things on my phone while it was downloading and it even ran overnight without any issues.

Thirdly, if you do need to exit the download screen, perhaps to do something else in the MM app, or if you need to exit MM completely – when you restart the download it seems to auto-continue from the point it left off. This is really useful and after spending 10 hours downloading a map, you’d certainly hope it would do this if you needed it to!

Once you’ve been through the process of downloading all the maps you need onto your phone, you can use the Map List to select whichever map you want to view.

There are other ways of selecting your desired map, which are discussed below, using your volume buttons, or simply by zooming out if you prefer.

Changing the Default Settings

Now that we have some maps on the device it’s probably worth looking at the various options that are available to us and some of the obvious settings that will probably want to be changed from the default values.

Tap the map screen to activate the top menu and click the stack of three dots to show the settings menu. There are three options; Data Layout, Overlays and Settings. We will look at the first two options shortly, for the time being click ‘Settings‘ to bring up the Settings menu. The first option ‘Help / About‘ just displays the version number of the app, so click ‘General Settings‘ to bring up the options panel.

Change Map Scale by Zooming: When selected this will automatically switch the map to a larger scale map when you zoom out far enough, and a smaller scale map when you zoom in far enough. For example if you are viewing a 1:25k scale map and you zoom out a couple of levels, the app will automatically switch to the 1:50k scale map and vice-versa.

Disable Screen Timeout: Your phone will probably switch off your screen after a period of inactivity, to save the battery. This option, when checked, will disable that feature and leave the screen on all the time, until you switch it off manually. Take care with this as screen activity is the biggest draw on your battery, especially when you’ve turned up the brightness as you normally would do if using it in bright sunshine.

Full Screen Mode: When this option is checked the app hides the top menu bar after a few seconds of inactivity on the map screen. On larger devices such as a tablet, where screen space isn’t such an important factor you may wish to disable this option and have the menu shown all the time.

Enable Notifications: If you want the app to notify you about things like Mark Proximity, then leave this switched on. Proximity alarms are a Pro feature, warning you when you get close to a selected Waypoint or Mark.

Use Volume Buttons for Zoom etc: When checked this option lets you zoom in and out of the map screen using the physical volume keys on your phone. This is by far the easiest option for zooming, especially when wearing gloves. Volume up zooms in. A long press on the volume button changes the map scale so you can easily switch from a 1:25k to a 1:50k scale map by holding down the lower volume key.

Scale Bar: This options allows the orange scale bar that is displayed on the map screen to disappear when the map display switches to full screen mode. So when the menu bar disappears, so will the scale bar.

Automatic Map Download: When you scroll and zoom around a map, if you don’t already have that area of the map on your device, this option will allow you to download the map automatically. Zooming and scrolling around the map is a good way to check you have the maps you need on your phone. Remember you will need to do this at each map scale if you want them all on your phone.

Route Auto-reverse at End: if you’re following a route on your phone and reach the end of the route, this option will automatically reverse the route so you can follow it back to the start again. Useful for linear routes that you created as one way routes.

Close the window using the X in the top right corner when you have finished making your selections.

Somewhat frustratingly, clicking the X will also take you back to the map screen, rather than the previous menu. So to continue changing options, you’ll need to hit the screen again to get the top menu bar and click the stack of three dots again.

The next menu option is ‘Map Licenses‘ which presents you with the option to ‘Sign Out‘ (as we signed in earlier) and ‘Show Licenses‘ which shows you all the licenses in your account – not just the maps on your phone. Click the X to close the window.

Open the main menu again (getting annoying now isn’t it) and select the fourth option in the list ‘GPS Settings‘. This pops up the middle window above.

Velocity Vector: When selected, this draws a line on the map display, from the GPS position, representing your speed and direction of travel. It’s basically extrapolating your future position, based on your current speed and heading. This only works when you’re moving, but it’s very useful! The option beneath it ‘Vector Scale‘, determines how far into the future the line will stretch. You will be approximately at the end of the line in 5 minutes (the default) if you keep walking at your current speed.

Velocity Averaging: Is used for older GPS chipsets that were based on car velocities and were unable to cope with much slower walking speeds. In most cases you will leave this option disabled.

Record Track: This is a strange one, and I can’t figure out if it’s a bug, or if it’s working as the developers expected. By default this option is checked, so when you first start the app, it begins recording a Track. If you then [Stop Recording], as you probably would because you’re not ready to start recording yet, this option gets switched off. That means next time you start the app it doesn’t start recording automatically. I leave it unchecked.

Record Track While App is Backgrounded: This option is important if you want to keep your track recording when you switch off the phone screen. If left unchecked, the app will stop recording your track when you switch your screen off. On the other hand, if you switch this option on, the phone will continue to record your track and this will burn through your battery more quickly. If you’re on a multi-day walk and battery life is crucial, make sure this option (and the one above – just to be safe) are unchecked.

The next option is a button [Color] – click this to choose the colour your recorded track line will be saved in. I think the default is red, although the box doesn’t make it clear what colour is actually selected. Click your chosen colour and hit the tick mark in the top right to close the window. This will at least return you to the GPS Settings menu.

The [Sensors] button appears to connect the MM app to sensors it finds in your phone. If your phone has a compass or barometric pressure sensor then these can be connected using this option. A benchmark for the pressure sensor can be set by entering your current height in the appropriate field.

The [Data Connection] is a Pro license feature, and allows you to connect the MM app to an external GPS device using WiFi or Bluetooth. If you don’t have any Pro Feature resources in your account you will need to buy one to use this.

The [NMEA Debug] button has always been greyed out for me, so no idea what it does. I assume it only becomes active when you’ve connected to an external NMEA instrument (this is a marine navigation thing).

Backing out of the GPS Settings menu returns us to the map screen again, so go through the now familiar ritual of opening the Settings menu and now select the final option, ‘Units‘.

The first three options are a simple choice of how you want distance, height and speed to be displayed. When you make your selection you will be dropped back to the map screen… AGAIN!!

Open the menu again and this time select ‘Position Format..’ the trailing dots mean there’s another menu beneath this option (see the centre panel above). Here you can select the map position you need. Most UK walkers will want to select British National Grid, but you have plenty of other choices too.

Are you fed up of being dumped back at the map screen again? I know I am! Go back through the menu system and this time select the final Units option, ‘Bearings…‘ you get to choose ‘True North’ or ‘Magnetic’.

Your settings options are now complete!

Data Layout Panel

We’re now stepping back to one of the menu options we skipped over earlier. The Data Layout menu is the first one off the main menu, activated using the three stacked dots. Don’t click on the menu option just yet though.

It’s going to give us access to configuration settings for an area of the map display that may not have been immediately obvious until now. The app has a drop down panel that contains a number of navigation cells, each of which can contain specific information about the route we’re following or the track we’re recording. In the first screen shot below, see the grey tab highlighted by the red box. Click the tab and the Navigation Data panel will slide down over the map display.

The first thing to know is that this panel can be resized so it doesn’t eat up half our map screen. Click and hold the tab and drag it up or down to resize the panel. The cells inside the panel will try and resize as best they can, but they don’t do a great job and there’s only so much we can close the tab before we start to lose view of the cells. Don’t worry we can change the cells, the number of them, their position and much more.

That’s all done using the ‘Data Layout‘ menu option, so now may be a good time to click it open. It presents us with the menu items shown in the right hand panel above.

The first option is ‘Arrange‘ and as you would expect, this allows us to arrange the cells we want to use inside the drop down panel. If you click ‘Arrange‘ with the panel closed it won’t open it, so you will need to do that in order to arrange the cells.

When in ‘Arrange’ mode you can perform three main tasks with the cells; move them, resize them and change what data point is displayed in them.

Moving Cells: You move a cell by clicking it, at which point it will be given a green four-pointed arrow and a green chevron in the bottom corner. The four-pointed arrow icon means that you can move the cell and you do this by dragging it into a new position on the panel. If no space is free the two cells swap places, and if there is space the existing cell will get moved across or down.

 

Resizing Cells: You can resize a cell by clicking and holding the green chevron and dragging the corner of the cell to make it bigger, or smaller. If you drag the corner over an existing cell and the panel is already full, it will remove the existing cell  completely. If there is space free on the panel, it will try and move the existing cell and keep it on the panel.

Both moving and resizing will probably take a bit of getting used to! Practice all you like, you can always click the main menu button again, select ‘Data Layout‘ and click ‘Restore Default Layout‘ menu option to reset all your changes.

Changing the Data Point: Each cell in the panel holds a distinct data point, perhaps Average Speed, Current Position or Moving Time. You can choose what data point to show in each of the cells. Simply click and hold the cell and this menu appears. Click ‘Clear Cell‘ to remove this cell from the panel or click ‘Change Data‘ to change the data point it displays. This will bring up a quite bewildering array of data points to choose from. I’m not going to go through them all here, but this page on the MM support site covers most of them.

I have found there are only 3 or 4 that I actually need to see when I’m walking. My navigation panel holds: Average Speed, Distance Walked, Distance to End and the [Start/Stop Logging] button. Others may also want to include useful items such as ‘Current Position’ or ‘Altitude’. This would look like the panel shown below.

Once you’re happy with your positioning of the cells, click the main menu button again, select ‘Data Layout‘ and click ‘Done Arranging‘.

You may want to save this new Layout and you can do this by going back through the menu structure and selecting ‘Save Layout As‘ and choosing a name for the layout.

The same menu (shown left) also lets you add or remove columns and rows from the navigation panel. My four selected cells fit quite nicely into a single row and 4 columns. You can experiment to find what works best for you and then save you results. You can have multiple different panels, perhaps for different activities, and just load them as you need them.

Important Tip: Whatever cells you decide to add to your navigation panel, always try and make room for the [Start Logging] button.

Data Sync (PC <> Mobile Device)

Possibly the best feature of using Memory Map on both PC and mobile device is the ability to seamlessly move data between the two platforms. Unlike some of the mobile device features, this is beautifully designed and works perfectly.

First we need to recap slightly on the desktop version of the MM app. Overlay items like Routes, Tracks and Marks, and Categories within the Overlay Objects panel, all have a ‘Sync to Cloud’ option in their right-click context menu (see below).

Sync to Cloud: will allow you to save this overlay item on your MM account in the cloud. If you aren’t already logged in to your account on the MM desktop app it will prompt you to do so and then it will send the item(s) to your account.

You can view all your synced Routes, Tracks and Marks by logging in to your account on the web. Click the [My Overlays] button and select the appropriate tab.

It’s worth remembering though, that you are allowed only 10 sync operations per calendar month, unless you buy the Premium sync package (about £9), which allows almost unlimited syncs.

I’m not 100% sure what constitutes one of your 10 free ‘syncs’, but I think it’s when you send information to or from the mobile app, rather than the act of sending it from the desktop app.

You can see how many syncs you’ve used at the bottom of the list of synced items in your MM account on the website.

Once you’ve synced some overlay items from the desktop app, to your web account, you can now sync items to the mobile app. Note, if you’ve manually created items, or recorded tracks, on the mobile device already then you don’t need overlay items in your web account to do a sync.

Cloud Sync on the mobile device is accessed through the main menu, and select ‘Overlays‘ this also provides access to all the overlay management options we have, but more on that in a moment.

The first screen that’s presented is a list of all the Overlay Data, with a tab for each type; Marks, Routes and Tracks. Click the stacked dots menu option to bring up the Routes Menu.

The bottom option is ‘Cloud Sync’ and clicking this will sync all items between the mobile device and your account on the website. This is bi-directional, so anything new on the website will be brought down and anything new on the mobile device will be sent up.

You can sync up to 2Mb of data, up to 10 times each calendar month, as part of your MM license. If you need to move more data, or more often than this, then you will need to purchase a subscription. The thinking being that most users will manage with 10 syncs, but heavy users will be able to pay for more. The cost is around £9 per year and that gets over the 2Mb limit and allows you 10,000 syncs per month.

If you don’t want certain items to be sent from your mobile device, you can edit the item and deselect the ‘Syncable‘ option on the item (see below). If you want to stop all Routes being synced you can select the ‘Make all Rts non-syncable‘ in the Routes menu (see above right).

If you run out of syncs you can always revert to using GPX files to move data between the desktop and mobile apps, but obviously this is a bit more painful. Use the ‘Load Saved Data‘ menu option from the Routes menu (see above right).

Managing Overlays

The first two screenshots in the section above get you into the Overlay Data screen, from where you can select any Mark, Route or Track stored on your mobile device. Use the tabs beneath the top menu bar to select the data type, then click on the desired overlay item. The resulting screens differ slightly depending on the type of overlay you selected.

The resulting panel is the Edit page of the overlay item and it displays the properties that were given to the item and brought over from the desktop app, as part of the sync process. You can change the properties in this page and those changes will be synced back, unless you deselect the ‘Syncable‘ checkbox.

Visible: This determines whether the item is shown on the map screen or not. If there are too many visible overlays on the map screen it can get a bit slow, so best to only display what you need to.

Locked: If checked, you will not be able to move or delete this item from the map screen, until you unlock it.

The rest of the options are buttons, firstly the ones that are common to all data types:

[View] button: Takes you to the map screen and displays that item on the map. If it’s a Mark it will centre it on the map. If it’s a Route or Track it will try and fit the whole item in the map display and change the scale to accommodate it.

[Share] button: Opens your phone’s share function and allows you to send this item to someone in your contact list, using an appropriate share method, such as Email, WhatsApp, Google Drive, etc. the available options will depend what apps you have installed. The process will send a GPX file of the item.

[Delete] button: Does what it says on the tin, as you would expect

Now the ones that are specific to a data type:

Mark [Icon] button: Allows you to select the icon used when showing this Mark on the map screen. You can also change the colour of the Mark and ‘Set as Default‘ so all future Marks you create on the device will be the same as this.

Mark [Enable Alarms] button: This is a Pro feature, so you will have had to subscribe to use this button. If so, it will let you set an alarm and a distance at which the alarm goes off.

Mark [Goto] button: This will navigate you to this Mark. This will appear to do nothing except change the button to a [Cancel Navigation] button, but in the map screen your Overlay Data panel will now be pointing you to the Mark and will show how far there is to go before you reach it – assuming you have these cells in your panel of course.

Route & Track [Color] button: Allows you to change the colour of the Route or Track displayed on the map screen. You can also change the Opacity of the line, how thick the line is and the style of the line, e.g. Dash, Dot, etc, as in the desktop app.

Route [Follow Route] button; Works in a similar way to the Mark’s [Goto] button. Your navigation panel will now be reflecting the chosen Route.

Track [Resume Recording] button: If you’ve stopped recording a Track, this button will allow you to resume recording, rather than starting a new Track from the position you left off. This is useful for taking a lunch break, stop recording when you stop and resume recording when you start up again.

Adding Marks and Routes

As well as syncing overlay items from the desktop app, and importing them from a GPX file you can also create them directly in the app. This isn’t the easiest way to create overlay items, especially Routes, but it can be useful in a pinch.

To create a Mark or a Route you click the [Mark] button in top menu bar. Shown below left, with a red circle around it. This will drop a new Mark in the centre of the map screen (shown below centre). The Mark will default to a flag icon and will have two other buttons flanking it. The green button allows you to move the mark to whatever position you want and the blue button opens a Properties menu for the Mark.

When you drop the Mark, move it to where you want it and if you don’t need to change the name or the icon, then just click somewhere else on the map screen and the blue and green buttons will disappear.

If you need to make changes to the Mark, or if you wish to create a Route you will need to click the blue button. The menu shown left will appear.

Go-To: Click this option to begin navigation to this point. Various cells for the navigation panel will now relate to this location.

Create Route: This will switch the mode into route creation mode, allowing you to drop multiple additional waypoints just by clicking on the map screen at the point where you want the next waypoint to be dropped. Each new waypoint gets the blue and green buttons, so you can position them accurately. A yellow [Done] button is also added to the map screen, which you will click when you’ve finished creating your new Route. See the right hand panel above, showing a Route being created.

Edit Mark: This will open the Mark properties panel shown earlier on this page. Here you can edit the name, the exact position, the icon and all the other properties.

Delete Mark: Does what you’d expect, with a confirmation box just to be sure.

Editing Routes and Marks

If you click an existing Mark or waypoint on the map screen, you will be presented with the blue and green buttons for that Mark or waypoint. Click the blue button to bring up the Waypoint menu (shown below left).

Follow Route: This will navigate you along the route and the appropriate cells in the navigation panel will change to reflect this.

Edit Route: This brings up the Edit Route screen shown earlier on this page and gives you access to all the properties that can be changed for the Route.

Delete Route: Does just that, with a confirmation box.

Route Operations…: Brings up the Route operations menu (see below).

Waypoint Operations…: Brings up the Waypoint operations menu (see below).

The Route Operations menu (shown above centre – R1) allows you to change aspects of the Route.

Reverse Route: Changes the direction of the route – the last waypoint becomes the first and so on, all along the route.

Optimize Route…: This will bring up a new menu, with options to ‘optimize’ the route for cycling, walking or driving. For walkers, this will try and snap the route to footpaths and bridleways along the route. There are only certain areas of the country that this works for, mostly National Parks and only for routes of a certain length. Have a play and see how you get on, but I don’t use this option.

Convert to Track: This turns the Route into a Track

Download Map Along Route: If you don’t already have the map, this option will download a strip of the current map type, along the length of the route.

Download Enclosed Map: If you don’t already have the map, this option will download an area of the current map type, inside the route. As far as I can tell, the route doesn’t need to be ‘closed’, it will attempt to download either way.

The Waypoint Operations menu (shown above right – R1P4) allows you to change aspects of the current waypoint.

Delete Waypoint: Does the usual, with a confirmation

Go-To Point: Click this option to begin navigation to this point. Various cells for the navigation panel will now relate to this location.

Insert Waypoint: Will add a new waypoint into the route, between this waypoint and the next. It temporarily enters ‘Create Route’ mode, but for just one waypoint. If you select this menu option from the last waypoint in a route, it enters ‘Create Route’ mode properly and allows you to add multiple waypoints.

Edit Waypoint: This will open the Mark properties panel shown earlier on this page. Here you can edit the name, the exact position, the icon and all the other properties.

Split Route: This menu option only appears if you selected a waypoint that’s in the middle of a Route, i.e. not the first or last waypoint of the Route. It will split the Route into two, at this point. As with the desktop app, the resulting two waypoints are in exactly the same position, so you’ll need to select the waypoint again and move it to see the split routes.

There appears to be no way to re-join a split Route, or indeed any way to join any two Routes on the mobile device.

Recording a Track

We record a Track using the [Start Logging] button, which should be positioned somewhere in your navigational panel (as hinted at earlier on this page).

When you click this button, it changes to a [Stop Logging] button.

You can click on a Track, just as you can with a waypoint and you will be shown the Track menu.

Edit Track: Opens the Track properties box shown earlier on this page and allows you to change the name, the colour, width, etc.

Split Track: Allows you to split the Track at approximately the point you clicked on the Track. Nothing obvious will happen, but now when you click each side of the split you will be shown different Track names in the top of the menu bar. As with Routes, there appears to be no way to Join Tracks on the mobile device.

Convert to Route: Turns the Track into a Route, but you will lose quite a lot of detail. There is a way to reduce this loss of detail on the desktop app, but not on the mobile app.

Delete Track: I think we get the idea now.

The final part of this guide can be found here: Part 8 – Memory Map for All – New Mobile App

29 thoughts on “Memory Map User Guide Pt. 7”

  1. Is it possible to change the default settings (name) for waypoints? It would be useful if I could name the first waypoint of a route for, say, Bowfell as ‘BF1’ and then every waypoint afterwards would be ‘BF2’ and so on? I realise I’d probably have to change the default settings every time I plotted a route but it would be helpful (to me at least!) if the default ‘WPxxxx’ could be altered.

    1. Hi Ian – this is a three part answer!
      As you’ve posted this question on the page relating to the old mobile version, the first answer relates to that app and the answer is ‘no’.
      However, if you’ve not already looked at it, you should now be using the new mobile app Memory Map for All (available on iOS and Android) – see here: https://lonewalker.net/memory-map-a-users-guide-part-8/ – the answer for that app is ‘yes’ – you can change the default prefix for Routes, Tracks and for individual waypoints that make up a new route….. Open the Overlays List, click the Menu at the top right of the dialog, and select Edit Defaults > Route Template, then click Waypoints – in the name, the %R is replaced by the route name, and # is replaced by a count.
      The final answer is for the desktop version and the answer for that is also ‘no’ I’m afraid.
      Hope that helps.

  2. Hi. Thanks for pointing me to be able to change my position to be displayed as OS Grid. What I really want to do (on Android especially but also Windows PC) is to be able to search for an OS Grid reference to see where it is on a Memory Map OS map. I often go to field trips where I am given a grid reference as the meeting point. Can you help?

    1. Hi Stephen, the best way to do this on both the Android app and on the PC app is to drop a new Mark anywhere on the map and then edit it – replace its grid reference with the one you’re searching for and then click ‘View’ – you should jump to the map position with the new Mark in the centre.

  3. A really useful guide – thank you. I also changed from Viewranger to Memory Map. I find it a bit clunky by comparison, but it does the main things I need – which is basically to show position in the field and record a track (phone version) and allow me to plan out a route (desktop).

    One problem I find is that my downloaded map (usually 1:25,000 England & Wales) can disappear at random, with no obvious way of getting it back. I have the maps stored on the SD card, and a small section seems to cache on the main device memory. The phone then doesn’t appear to access the main memory. The ‘outage’ can last a minute or two up to several hours. I wonder if this is specific to my device or a general issue with Memory Map.

    1. Hi Stan, I’ve never seen that behaviour on any of the phones I’ve used the MM app with. Have you tried the usual Android ‘fix’ of clearing the cache for the app? Go into Android Settings > Apps > MM then go into Storage and click the ‘clear cache’ option. If that doesn’t work I’d be tempted to uninstall and reinstall from scratch. We’re much closer to a new version of the app, which I’m currently beta testing and it’s absolutely ace! Be patient 🙂

  4. UPDATE: A new version of the MM mobile app, for both iOS and Android is coming in the very near future. It has been re-written from the ground up and looks and feels much improved, with some lovely new features. I’ll be sure to update this article when it is released.
    Check the Memory Map website (https://memory-map.com/) for news of the public beta program, hopefully starting in the next few weeks!

  5. Now that Viewranger has been turned off I am trying to get to grips with OutdoorActive. However, tracking on OA with my Huawei P30 is very inaccurate, with lots of straight lines due to loss of GPS. Not happy with OA.
    What are you using to replace VR?

    1. Hi Dave, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve replaced VR with MM. It does all the basic stuff just fine and I’ve not had any issues with GPS track accuracy. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the VR app, but there’s a new version coming soon which will add a lot of functionality to the app. The ease of sync between desktop and mobile is fantastic and outweighs a lot of minor niggles I may have with the MM app.

  6. Hi Stuart,
    As Michael commented a couple of days ago on Part 7, you’ve put together an excellent tutorial on MM. Like Michael, I’ve been using VR for several years and have the whole of the UK 25000 downloaded on my phone. I’ve tried the Outdooractive replacement and downloading maps to the phone to use offline is cumbersome to say the least – it would take years to download the whole of the UK, even if the download of a single 40×40 km portion didn’t continually fail. Looks like MM will soon have a new customer. I take it that with MM in its present form that if my intended walk is at the junction of 4 Explorer paper maps the software merges those maps into a single “map” on laptop and on phone? Best wishes

    1. Hi Bill – you sound like most people I know, “VR was great, OA is awful” – such a huge shame to be losing (what for so many people was) the perfect outdoor mapping tool. MM allows you to download any area you like from the UK and display it on the desktop or mobile app – you decide which area to download by drawing a route on the screen and then downloading the area inside that route – dead easy. Or you download the whole of England/Wales and the whole of Scotland in two downloads. Hope that makes sense. Cheers, Stuart

      1. Thanks Stuart. Just downloaded the MM app and a demo 1:50000. Finding my way round it with the help of your pages and the MM support pages. Pity on the Track system that they don’t include a height gain data button to go with the distance travelled. Bill

  7. Hi
    As a Viewranger user looking to jump ship I have just trawled your extremely well written and comprehensive user guide to MM, and am now considering the MM option for my future walking excursions, you mention you too use Viewranger and I would welcome your views on how they compare, warts and all, I am still sorry to see VR morph into another company, especially as I had purchased outright all the OS maps, I look forward to your comments.

    1. Hi Michael – this is a really great question and the answer is probably worthy of a blog post rather than a reply on here. However, the answer sort of depends on how much of the feature set of Viewranger you actually use. At the simplest level you can use both of them to create new routes and POIs and record your walking/hiking tracks and then export those tracks to GPX (or in the case of MM, sync them to your desktop app). Beyond this, there are so many differences – in summary though MM mobile is very simplistic and feels very dated in comparison to VR. Some of the stuff I will really miss from the VR app include things like being able to see how far it is to a specific waypoint in a route, what the height elevation profile looks like on a route and I think the pinch and zoom ‘feels’ much smoother on VR.
      What features do you use most in VR?

  8. Great tutorial – learnt a great deal, use it for walking the western front and now I can, thanks to this user guide accurately pin point and log a position and then analyze once back home. Sounds basic to some but for me this is ground breaking, thank-you

  9. Thank you for creating these very informative webpages. I enjoy saving my MM tracks after a walk or cycle and use a spreadsheet to total distances. It is almost like a second hobby looking for nearby places I can visit next time, and they serve as a good memory jogger, much like photographs.

    I also take two phones when I know I’m going to explore a new or longer route (iPhone, and old Android phone without SIM but has GPS) – nothing worse than getting home and discovering the signal was lost after 5 minutes! I suppose it is wise to check the signal regularly, but I rarely do.

  10. Doug Chesterman

    Thanks for the excellent guide. I’ve been looking for a good app with OS mapping, and I think this may be it.
    Another sounce of mapping I use a lot is OSM – specifically Open Andro Maps. Is there any way of loading these into Memory-Map, or will I have to continue with Locus, Orux etc?

    1. Hi Doug, I’m not aware of any facility to use OSM maps in the MM mobile app. You can import third party maps (e.g. BSB or Geotiff, as mentioned on the MM maps home page) and you can get the OS street maps. Sounds like you’d have to keep the other mapping app on your device to maintain OSM support.
      Cheers, Stuart

  11. Ive just lost all my recently loaded marks all my icons have disappeared too, is there anyway of restoring this?

    1. Jill, by ‘my icons’ I’m assuming you mean custom icons that you’ve created yourself – if these aren’t in the icon list you’d have to reload them from the jpg/png files you created. There’s an [Add] button on Overlay > Icons menu for this purpose. You really need to save Marks into an overlay file in order to back them up, there is no automated backup or recovery built into the app

  12. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how inaccurate MM is at recording tracks? When compared with other apps it can add between 10% and 25% to the recorded length. Some of the reasons seem to be that it frequently wanders off course when walking slowly or stopping to admire the view. Anyone know the solution to this problem?

    1. David – I can’t say I’ve noticed this. I tend to record all my walks with both Viewranger on my main phone, which I use for navigation and also on Memory Map running on my backup phone, which sits in my backpack. In most cases they both pretty much record the same track. If I’m under thick foliage then both phones tend to wander off course somewhat, but I haven’t found MM to be anymore prone to this than VR. I can’t speak for any other apps unfortunately.
      Regards, Stuart

  13. Thanks for your very useful guide. Do you know, is there a way to add a custom icon for marks to the (iPhone) app like the custom Mark icon that I can make for the Windows desktop app?

    1. Hi William – I don’t use an iPhone and I’ve also stopped using custom Marks – they are just too much admin and hassle for minor benefit. having said that, I don’t think there’s a way to do this – but I could be wrong!

  14. Hi – I have a Microsoft Surface Go with fully functioning LTE GPS module, and Memory Map is loaded, together with licensed and activated DMS maps. On opening the Microsoft Memory Map app the two right hand GPS icons on the menu bar are greyed out and not available.

    It doesn’t look like M-M is accessing the internal GPS.

    Any idea if using M-M with GPS on my Surface is feasible?

    If so, any idea of how I can do it?

    I have contacted M-M support but they couldn’t assist.

    Fingers crossed for a positive reply!

    1. Hi Reg – given that the Surface has a GPS module, I would also expect the Nav icons to be active. However, I can’t offer anymore of an explanation as to why they aren’t, than MM Support could – sorry about that! I assume other map apps like Google Maps work correctly as a GPS?
      Sorry I can’t be of more help, Stuart.

    2. A first guess is that MM is not looking for the GPSr on the correct COM port. I don’t use MM on Windows while travelling, as I have better software. So unable to give exact advise.

      Use the menu option GPS¦GPS Setup. You will need to enter the COM port used by your LTE GPS module. To discover this, right click on the Start icon and select Device Manager. Scroll down to Ports (CON & LPT), then click on the grey right pointer.

  15. Is there a known trick for adjusting viewing of routes on mobile app (Android) ?
    As with tracks the Colour, Opacity and Thickness of the line can be adjusted, but considering all the waypoints on the route are shown as distracting blue blobs it seems a moot point. There is know obvious option of not showing the waypoints on the route or at least making them less dominating.

    1. I’m not aware of any way to switch off the waypoints when viewing a route. Hiding waypoints in routes that aren’t selected has just been added to the desktop app, but I don’t expect it will follow to the mobile app any time soon, or indeed ever.
      Instead of displaying the route on the screen you could show a track, which doesn’t have waypoints – but then you don’t get the route guidance, as you can’t follow a track. If you don’t mind losing the route guidance, click any waypoint in the route, go to the Route Operations menu and select Convert to Track.

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