Memory Map for All (Android Phone)
You can find the previous part of this guide here: Part 7: Memory Map legacy mobile app
Part 8, the latest part of this parallel user guide covers the use of the new Memory Map for All app, on an Android mobile device.
Quick Menu
This is quite a long page and it would be difficult to break the content down into multiple pages, so the following menu may help you navigate to the section most relevant to your interest – alternatively just start at the top and work your way down.
Introduction
The Memory Map for All (MM4A) app is available on Android and Apple mobile devices, including phones and tablets, it is also available for Windows, Mac and Unix devices. However, it should be noted that the new MM4A for Windows is not (yet) meant to replace the current MM v6 Windows app discussed in the previous parts of this guide. It is designed for use on mobile Windows touch devices such as MS Surface tablets, which are likely to be used outdoors.
Although this guide describes the function of MM4A on an Android phone, as the name suggests, the use of the app and its features should be common across all platforms.
This guide was written between late April and late July 2022, the MM4A Android app version at the time of publication was v1.0.19. The app has been live in the app stores for a couple of months, following an extensive beta testing period. 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try and update this page as quickly as possible, but bear in mind that things change and this page may become slightly out of date.
In order to download the MM4A Android app, use this Google Play store link.
First it’s probably worth setting out one of the key functions of the MM4A mobile 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). You can get a 10-day trial license if you wish to test the app with the OS maps in the hills.
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, select the MM4A app and install it 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 MM4A 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).
If your screen is just showing the map and nothing else, tap the screen and a series of menu buttons will appear, one in each corner of the screen and one on either side half way down the screen.
1: Opens the Main Menu
2: Opens the Overlay Menu
3. Opens the Map Menu
4: Activates the GPS Lock – this places the current location (as determined by the GPS sensor in the mobile device) in the centre of the screen
5. Moves the Screen Layout to the next page on the left
6. Moves the Screen Layout to the next page on the right – the pages will scroll in a loop so if you only have a couple of pages, it doesn’t make much difference which way you scroll.
If you don’t touch the map screen for a few seconds, it switches into full-screen mode and the menu ‘corners’ disappear, leaving just the map screen visible. Touch the screen again to make the menu corners re-appear.
If you turn your phone on its side, into landscape mode, you may find the page layouts move into Tablet mode (again, see more on this later).
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 menu corners, then click the bottom left hand corner (the little stack of squares). 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 ‘burger menu’ (the three horizontal lines) to open 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. Note: the current beta version 1.0.14 does not yet support SD cards.
Now that you’ve selected your map storage location you’re going to want to download some maps. 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 ‘Account Sign-in‘ menu option from the map menu, enter your MM account credentials and click the [Sign In] button.
When you select the user name or password fields a little paste icon appears, allowing you to copy your credentials from a password manager. I always check the ‘Save Password‘ box too, so I don’t have to sign in each time I get to this point.
If this is the first time this device has been used with MM4A, you will be asked to give the device a name. Describing the device properly will help in the future if you ever need to migrate licenses to or from this device.
If you don’t have an MM account you can create one using the [Create Account] button – this will take you to the MM website, so you need to do this while you have an internet connection. When creating a new account, you will also be able to use the OS maps for 10-days on a trial license.
If you need to sign out for any reason, you will find this option in the main menu (top left corner), then Settings > Account > Sign Out
Once you’ve signed in, you will be sent back to the Map List screen.You have two rows of buttons at the top of this page and these act as filters to show you the maps you want to select from. The top line selects the storage location of the maps: Maps on Device / My Online Maps / Digital Map Store – and the next line filters the list again based on: Maps at View / Maps Everywhere.
I initially found that the functions of these buttons weren’t particularly obvious. For example, by default the filters show you only the maps you’ve downloaded onto your phone and only those at the current map view. In order to see all the maps you’ve downloaded you need to select the [Maps Everywhere] button from the bottom row. And if you want to see all the maps you have licenses for you need to select [My Online Maps] from the top row and [Maps Everywhere] from the bottom row. The [Digital Map Store] button allows you to see all the maps in the Memory Map portfolio and purchase one if needed.
In order to download some maps, select the [My Online Maps] button from the top row and then click the [Maps Everywhere] button in the second row. You can now see all the maps in your account.
When you are looking at ‘Maps on Device‘ you may find your maps have an icon beside them. These indicate the following:
A map subscription close to expiry or a map installed with a temporary license, e.g. a demo, preview or a trial.
A map that may require an internet connection to see the map in full detail, i.e. the downloaded map may not cover the entirety of the current view. The general idea of this is to give you an indication, before you head out, whether the map might need more downloading.
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. You need to activate a map while you have an internet connection, so do this before leaving home.
When you are looking at ‘My Online Maps‘ or ‘Digital Map Store‘ you may see another icon:
The green tick shows a map that has been activated in your account. This does not mean it has been downloaded to your device!
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.
Just as you did with the base map, move around the screen to download more of this map. However, if you want a large section of this map, all of the Yorkshire Dales for example, then this isn’t a realistic way to continue. There are two easy ways to download a large area of map and both involve using routes you may already have or routes that are easy to create.
If you want a specific area, go to the base map and create a route that encircles your target area. Then zoom in to one of the waypoints that make up the route – zoom in as close as the base map will allow. Now go to the map menu and click on the map you wish to download, for example to OS 25k scale map. You will be sent back to the map screen close to the waypoint you selected, but now with the 25k scale map loaded. Click the waypoint and select Route Operations > Download Enclosed Map. The map download popup will appear showing you an estimate of how long it will take to download the map and once the progress bar is complete, the full map area will be available.
The second option is best if you need a section of map along the length of a route, for example if you want to download the maps for a long distance walk. Perform the same operations as above, but this time select Route Operations > Download Map Along Route. Once downloaded you will see you have a strip map, covering about 3-4 miles either side of the route.
If you want to go to the extereme, and you have plenty of storage space on your device, you can even download the whole map. Go back to the map menu and click the blue 🛈 icon next to the map you want to download.
The resulting screen (middle image below) shows you information about the map, where it’s stored on your device, how much space it’s consuming and also allows you to delete the map off your device should you wish to do so. More importantly for this example, it also has a [Bulk Download] button. Click this and a new screen appears, with a [Download Whole Map] button. Be careful downloading the whole map, it takes a lot of space and if you don’t need it, don’t download it. It also takes quite a while to download and ideally you need to keep your phone active andon this screen while the download is active. If you do need to interupt the process, when you start again the download should take off from where it finished, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Backup / Restore Maps
Installing maps can be a time consuming process, especially if you have several areas around the country you want to download to your device. The latest Android operating systems prevent you from gaining access to storage locations, so the old trick of copying your map files to another location for safe keeping is no longer an option. MM4A has considered this though and we now have a way to do just this.
Go to the map menu and select Map Storage – a new set of menu options will appear, one of which is Backup Maps To.. This will allow us to copy all the maps we have downloaded into another (user accessible) location on our device. However, before we click this option, it’s best to prepare the location.
Go into whatever storage / file manager you prefer and navigate to the ‘Download‘ folder on either your SD card or your internal storage. You may need to create a Download folder on an SD card, but it should be there by default in your internal storage. I’ve done some testing and it seems the Download folder (for whatever reason) gives a more consistent result when saving/restoring maps.
Inside the Download folder, create a new folder to store your saved maps. I tend to err on the side of caution and I don’t use spaces in my folder name, so for example I use Download/Map_Backups.
Go back to the map menu and select Map Storage > Backup Maps To.. in the resulting file explorer, navigate to the folder you just created and click the [Use This Folder] button. The backup could take a couple of minutes, depending on how many maps you have.
If you ever need to restore your maps from the backup you simply repeat the process, but select Map Storage > Copy Maps From.. instead.
If you don’t want the backups taking space up on your device, you can copy them off to a cloud storage service and then delete them from the device. You just have to copy them back to local storage before doing a restore.
Changing the Default App 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 corner menus and click the ‘burger menu’ in the top left corner. This brings up a number of options, but we’re going to concentrate on Settings for the moment.
Click Settings > Map Settings this allows us to change the following options:
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.
Show Scale Bar: This will either hide or show the rectangular scale bar at the bottom centre of the screen. If selected, the scale bar will always be visible, even when the rest of the map icons fade out.
Automatic Download: When you scroll 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. If you don’t select this option, you will need to manually select to download the maps you need.
Use Volume Buttons for Zoom: 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.
When you’ve made your changes, click the orange tick box to save your changes, or click the white arrow to discard them, both buttons return you to the map screen.
Somewhat frustratingly, clicking either the tick or the arrow will take you back to the map screen, rather than the previous menu. So to continue changing options, you’ll need to tap the screen again to get the menu corners and click the burger menu again.
The next menu option is ‘GPS Settings‘ which presents you with the window shown above left.
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.
Compass: When selected, this will display a small red triangle beside the GPS position indicator on the map. The arrow will point in the direction you are facing, essentially showing your direction, even though you’re not moving. I tend to switch this off as it has a negative battery impact and offers me very little value.
Record Track in Background: 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 compass option) are unchecked.
Range Ring: I’ve yet to find a good reason for this feature (from a walking perspective – although I concede it may be useful for other use cases). It will add one or more concentric circles to your current GPS position. The distance between the rings is specified by the radius option and the number of rings is specified by the counter. You can see the result of three rings with a 0.9 mile radius, on all the screenshots above.
The penultimate option on the GPS Settings screen is the ability to change the colour of your GPS position icon.
The final button [Data Connection] is a Pro feature and would allow you to connect to external instrumentation – the primary use case seems to be for mariners rather than walkers though.
When you’ve made your changes, click the orange tick box to save your changes, or click the white arrow to discard them, both buttons return you to the map screen.
Click the map again and then the main menu corner again and this time select Display.
The first option allows you select a Dark or Light mode, or allow the app to take its cue from your OS settings.
The next two options, Brightness and Backlight are used to increase or decrease the overall screen brightness. The Brightness setting adjusts the intensity of the app itself and Backlight (not available on all devices) will adjust the overall display intensity. Using the two together you can get quite bright, or completely dim displays. The resulting screen intensity is only applied to the app and if you switch to another app, the usual display brightness will be applied. The screen intensity setting is only remembered for this session of the app, if you properly close the app and reopen it, the default phone settings will be applied to the app. This is a deliberate feature, preventing you from inadvertently making the app completely invisible in bright light.
Keep Screen On: 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: When this option is checked the app hides the phone’s top and bottom panels and makes the app full screen.
When you’ve made your changes, click the orange tick box to save your changes and return to the map screen.
We’ll come onto the Account and Units menu options next. For the moment, click the About option. This will show the current version of the app.
Open the main menu again and now select Account.
If you haven’t logged in, you can do so from here. Or you can logout if you’re already logged in. The other option on this sub menu is Show Licenses. Clicking this will show you the Account name currently in use, the device name and any resources that currently exist in the app, and their activation status. You can click any resource to see more details or to activate it or purchase it, depending on the licenses available in your account.
Hit the white X to return to the map menu. Tap the map and open the main menu for the final time and click Units. This gives you options to change between Statute or Metric or even Nautical.
The next option, Position Format allows you to select one of a number of different options. Most UK walkers are probably going to want to switch to British National Grid but you could also use one of the three Lat/Long options at the bottom of the list if you prefer.
The final option in this menu is Bearings and basically offers Magnetic North or True North.
Other Menu Options
There are a couple of other menu options we need to cover off before we head into Overlay management. Click the map screen and select the top right corner menu to open the Overlays menu. This actually includes a couple of non-Overlay related items and we’ll touch on these now.
Clicking Record Track will begin to record a track. If you’re already recording a track, the menu option will change to Stop Recording. You can also add a data pane to the map screens to replace this menu option with a green dot / red square respectively.
Search is much improved over the previous version of the app. Ensure you have a good mobile signal or WiFi connection before you use this for the first time though, as it needs to download the place name database on first use. Enter your search term and the results are displayed in groups, making them easier to distingish.
Import opens a browser and allows you to select a GPX file from your device. The contents are imported into the Overlays.
We cover Cloud Sync later in this page.
Your settings options are now complete!
Introducing Pages
The new MM4A app introduces the concept of pages – multiple screens within the app that can be used to display different information. You can move between the pages using the left .png){kind=small}
and right .png){kind=small}
arrow buttons.
The four screenshots below show the default screen layouts for a phone in portrait mode. You also have page layouts for phone in landscape, and for a tablet in both portrait and landscape. If you rotate your phone into a landscape view while MM4A is active, you will be loading the page layouts for a phone in landscape mode which could be quite different, so if you do this a lot then you’ll need to create layouts for this mode too.
Editing Pages and Page Layouts
Anyone who used the original Memory Map mobile app may have played with the layout editor – the new app takes the customisation options to the next level! Whereas previously we had a drop down panel that contained a number of data cells we now have free rein to modify the whole screen – the new options for screen layouts are almost limitless! Want to see nothing but map – no problem. Want half map, half data cells – dead easy. What about three quarters of the page with a map and the rest showing a compass heading and direction arrow – fill your boots!
I’m not going to lie, this new editor takes a lot of getting used to and the early beta releases saw lots of crashes while editing. I still save regularly while I’m creating a new layout – it pays to be cautious.
Go back to the main menu (top left menu corner) and select Edit Layout.
You’ll immediately notice the top corners of the app change function and become a vivid orange colour. The top left button now closes the layout editor, while the top right gives us access to the layout editor options. We’ll look at these first.
Click Pages and then click the burger menu in the top right corner.
Save Layout As.. will save the current layout to a location of your choice. At this time we don’t have the ability to change the name of the layout, not until it’s been saved, then you can go into your file manager and edit the name as you please. Just mae sure you keep the .pstf file extension. Save often and then rename the final file you’re happy with.
Load Layout.. loads a previously saved layout.
Revert to Saved Layout will discard any changes you’ve made since the last save and go back to the previously loaded file. This is useful if you’ve made a change you don’t like.
Restore Default Layout is basically the nuclear reset option and will return to the factory default layout (the 4-page layout shown earlier).
For this guide we’re going to assume we’re editing the Phone Portrait layouts. By default this has four pages, but you can add or remove pages as you prefer. I’ve gone for a 3-page layout, by deleting one of the defaults. You can do this by long pressing on any of the default pages – this will bring up a context menu that allows us to: Show Page / Rename Page / Change position in the list / Save the individual Page / Duplicate Page / Delete Page – see below left.
The three screenshots to the right above show my personal 3-page layout for my mobile in portrait mode. On each page I’ve added zoom in and zoom out buttons, and a dual-purpose button for starting and stopping track recording. The second and third pages contain data cells relating to the track I’m recording and the route I’m following. These tell me things like how far I’ve walked, my average speed, how far through the route I am, my ETA and other useful info. I tend to keep the OS 25k scale maps on page 1 and 2 and the 50k map on page 3. If you like this layout you can download it from this link, load it onto your own device and then tweek it as needed.
Each element on the screen, including the map is a data cell and you can move and resize the cells as needed. You can select the desired contents of each cell, from a huge list – a list so big I’m not going to try and include the full set here, you will need to experiment for yourself, but this page on the MM support site covers most of them.
Click on any cell, or on the map cell and you will see a blue circle appear, click this and a context menu will popup. This will identify which data element is currently selected for this cell, along with options to:
Change Data: this will open a new menu with all the possible data elements broken down into sections. The newly selected data will populate the current cell.
Add Item: will also open a new menu with all the data elements, but this time when you select one it will add a new cell to the layout.
Layer: I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure what this does – it offers a new menu with numbers 1 to 9, but other than that, nope I’m stumped.
Lock: when selected, this will prevent you from moving or resizing this cell, until you select it again and choose unlock.
Remove Item: will remove this cell from the page.
The other thing you’ll notice when you click a cell is that you get a green four-pointed arrow in the centre of the cell (which allows you to move the cell) and green chevrons in the bottom right corner of the cell (which allow you to resize it).
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.
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 move the existing cell out of the way, although maybe not to somewhere useful.
Both moving and resizing will probably take a bit of getting used to! Practice all you like, you can always Revert to Saved or Restore Default to reset your changes.
Important Tip: Whatever cells you decide to add to your screen, always try and make room for the [Start Logging] button.
Managing Overlays
Another huge change in the MM4A app is the way in which it handles Overlays. You may remember from part 4 of this guide, an Overlay is a collection of routes, tracks and marks (or POIs). In the current version of the MM mobile app, these are all managed individually. There is no way to group them or manage multiple routes, tracks or marks. This can be a real pain when you have dozens of routes loaded and potentially thousands of marks – for example I have a mark for each hill and each trig point in the UK, literally thousands of marks to manage.
The good news is that the MM4A app now handles overlays in exactly the same way as they are managed in the Windows app. That is to say we can categorise them and / or select multiple routes or marks at the same time and then perform actions upon them. If you use categories efficiently you can basically switch on/off groups of routes and marks depending on where you’re walking.
Click the top right corner menu to open the Overlay menu and then select the top item, List Overlays. The screen will switch to the Overlay List, which may well be empty if this is the first time you’ve done anything with the app.
If you already have a Memory Map account and you’ve been using Cloud Sync (see below) with the current MM app, then you’re in luck. Go back to the map screen click the top right corner menu again and click Cloud Sync, this will sync all your current data into this app. If you don’t have an account yet, or you haven’t been using Cloud Sync, then just follow along as best you can, or create a couple of routes or marks (see below) to play with.
You may need to consider how you currently use categories with the MM desktop app in order to get the best value out of Cloud Sync and the overlay management options in the MM4A app. A category is essentially a folder in which you create sub-categories, or individual items such as marks or routes.
As you can see from the centre screenshot above, I have three root categories; POIs. Routes and Tracks. Each category, sub-category and each individual item has a checkbox beside it, which you use to determine whether the category or item is visible in the app. If I were to deselect Routes at the root I would hide all my routes from the map screen. I could then drill down into the Routes category and just switch on the routes within the Yoredale Way sub-category by clicking its checkbox. Or I could open the Yoredale Way sub-category and just fill the checkbox beside a single route to make it visible.
A blank checkbox means the individual item, or all the items in that category are hidden. A checkbox with a tick means the item or all the items in that category are visible. A checkbox with a minus sign means that one or more items in that category are visible.
Cloud Sync
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.
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. A ‘sync’ is counted when you invoke it 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 top right corner menu ‘Overlays‘. Click the Cloud Sync option to sync your data. Anything you’ve created on the mobile app will be sent to the Cloud and anything new that’s been sent to the Cloud from the PC app will be downloaded to the mobile app. Beware, if you delete an item on the mobile app, this will be deleted from the Cloud when you next sync.
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. If you want to stop all items in a category from being synced, you can long press on the category and select Settings > Make Unsyncable from the context menu that appears.
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 ‘Import‘ menu option discussed earlier.
Final Words
Well that’s about all folks. This has been a long page, at the end of a long series of pages, but hopefully at least some of it has proven useful.
Leave me a message below if you’d like any further assistance with any part of the app. If I can help I will. It’s always best to try Memory Map support first – they are getting much more responsive to support cases logged through their website: you can find their support page here. Check the user manual for your product, then the FAQ & Knowledge Articles and finally, scroll down to the bottom of the page and log an issue if you need to.
8 thoughts on “Memory Map User Guide Pt. 8”
Thanks its been a great help. The tutorial was well constructed and easy to follow. I used the Memory Map on a recent 4WD trip in Australian Alps earlier this year prior to any tutorial. Fortunately our leader had plotted the route prior to us starting out. Might have a go at setting up some routes myself now. Happy travels
You mention that MM for all “is not (yet) meant to replace the current MM v6 Windows app discussed in the previous parts of this guide”. But the MM download page says “Our new cross-platform app, Memory-Map for All, is now available and recommended for all new users”. That is a bit worrying for the future of the proper desktop application. I wonder if there will be any further development on that at all. The For All product is lacking in so many respects compared to v6.
Marcus, I have been assured by the CEO of Memory Map that there are no plans to retire the current Windows desktop app. Although MM4A will run on any platform it is only currently intended to replace mobile apps on phones and tablets. The development of MM4A is on-going and as new features are added it may well become a serious competitor to the Windows app, but not for the time being. Development of the v6 desktop app had a surge about 12 months ago and added some great new features (like joining and splitting routes), this isn’t going to be abandoned for the foreseeable future as far as I know.
A question for you – something that often puzzles me.
Over the years I have accumulated a number of GPS devices; the ones I still have are a Garmin GPSMAP 62s, a Toughphone Defender TX4 and a Motorola One Action (the latter two are SmartPhones running MemoryMap).
What puzzles me is that each of them invariably gives different results for distance travelled – why is that?
Strangely enough I tend to take the TX4 as being the most accurate; the Garmin appears to exaggerate by about 2% and the Motorola by about 3%.
If I go into a Hostelry for fluid replenishment, the Garmin (which I still use only because it uses Barometric Pressure to measure altitude and it has a SD Card for the Lake District) seems to completely lose the plot.
I will have a go by putting them side-by-side on a table in the garden and see how that goes . . . more to follow (perhaps)
Incidentally, many thanks for your posts, they are always interesting and sadly far too tempting – thanks 😉
Hi Frank, I would imagine it’s down to GPS accuracy. The starburst effect you get when sitting indoors for a while is almost certainly down to the device losing and regaining satellite lock and has been apparent on all of my devices over time, but is much worse on some. My current Galaxy S22 Ultra seems to have a really poor GPS and wobbles about all over the place even when in clear sight of the sky, indoors it goes haywire. On the other hand I use a Galaxy S7 for my backup device and that seems to have a smooth GPS track when outdoors and suffers very little when indoors. As such, the age of the device seems to have no direct correlation in my experience.
Something that Memory Map identified to me was interesting, and may be related when it comes to smartphones…. Sometimes a phone will get a fix from a nearby mobile tower that approaches the accuracy of the GPS, so it switches to reporting a non-GPS-derived location for a short while… this may result in some track recording drift if you have a good signal.
Brilliant Tutorial, better than memory map themselves, learning a lot from it
Micky
Thanks Stuart,
This is a great tutorial and I’ve certainly picked up some useful tricks I’m going to use to improve my experience with this sometimes frustrating software. There is one glaring omission (MM’s not yours) that I don’t believe would be too difficult to address. I use MM on cycling routes as well as walking. With the phone attached to a bracket on the handlebars, it is ideal to be able to select “route up” or “track up” rather than the default “north up.” MM support tells me that this is not possible. It can take some getting used to, riding forward and appearing to be going backwards or and angle sideways!
Other than that, I am warming to this app and your tutorial has made the experience even better.
Dick, you’re not the first person to have mentioned this to me, so I doubt it’s the first time MM have heard it requested. I would just say that development on the app is far from complete, and I’m told that they have a long list of ‘nice to haves’ from people on the beta program (myself included), so this feature may well appear in future releases.
In the meantime, you can add a direction arrow to the map display which points to the next waypoint and that should always be oriented in the direction of travel – edit the layout then choose Goto > Arrow (I think) in the pane of your choice, or add a new pane.