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I hate this timeline.
Great Topo Map
I love how easy it is to mark up a map or see what the elevation is an any point.
iOS is CalTopo’s lowest priority
I’ve been using CalTopo since long before they created an app. It let me do things on a non-mobile no other mapping software can. I’ve been a subscriber for years. No more.
This app is garbage. If you need view-only access to your map library, it’s okay. If you’re actually making changes or re-planning what you’re going to hike/bike/paddle/whatever each day, you’ll pull your hair out.
All feature development is targeted at their web version. iOS is a buggy afterthought. Even Android has closer feature parity. Change can be good, but when it introduces bugs and they refuse to fix those bugs, you’ve got decay. Unfortunately, this app has crossed my personal threshold.
Here’s a shortlist of issues, much of which I’ve reported:
1) background location doesn’t work. They’re using too many resources and iOS is evicting them to save user battery (something it only does in extreme circumstances). Rather than fixing their problem, they post a “doesn’t work in low power mode” dialog. No other gps tracking software needs this dialog, CalTopo is just that embarrassing
2) related to this, when the app is killed by iOS (and not the user), it loses its mind. Expect to launch to a blank loading screen. You’ll need to force-quit or close and reload your map to get functionality again
3) no bulk edits. Managing a weeks-long trip and want to organize it better? Tough. Edit each and every waypoint manually (5 taps each)
4) disorganized export. If you want to sync data to an external device, good luck! That folder organization you just wasted your time on isn’t honored by the export pane. Every single waypoint out of possibly thousands is shown even for folders you’ve hidden.
5) corrupted imports. Yup, CalTopo (across platforms) doesn’t sanitize data. If you import perfectly function geojson that just doesn’t happen to use values CalTopo expects, you can end up with a corrupted map with items you can’t delete or even view properly
6) doesn’t honor visibility settings. On desktop and Android, labels are shown or not shown based on a folder setting. iOS doesn’t honor this
7) un-tappable POIs. The icon size you can set is below what CalTopo’s software understands how to let you tap. Since icon size is largely independent of viewport, you can’t even zoom in to fix this. Combine this with the always hidden labels and you can accidentally set yourself up with a map that is unusable on mobile
8) utterly broken caching. Been using weekly imagery to negotiate a tricky section of your adventure? I hope you aren’t traveling past cell coverage. This data is never cached. The second the app is exited (see above for how comment this is), you’ve lost your tool. Screenshots are about the only way around this
9) custom icons only work online. If your data set was imported from kml, you’re likely to have “custom” icons that point to Google’s servers. These also aren’t cached at all, meaning you’ll have a lot of [ ? ] icons all over your map.
10) broken offline tile management. The benefit of CalTopo is supposed to be its layer system. The problem is the lack of granularity on their caching tool. You can add layers one by one just fine, but you can’t remove them. If you’re trying to manage space on your device by removing the more detailed layers from early days in your trip while still retaining the base map, tough, you can’t. Delete is an all or nothing tool. This is extra fun because
11) CalTopo backs up their maps in your iOS backups. Yup. A properly functioning product would only back up your intentions (ie your data) and then redownload their tiles when needed (ie their data). Imagine if Netflix backed up offline movies to your iCloud account. You’d be pretty mad that your backup is taking so long, right?
I’m going to stop now because very few people are going to read this far (and CalTopo has already shown they don’t care by not fixing a single bug in years). Thanks for reading. I hope you are able to find software that actually works for you. CalTopo crossed my personal threshold for mismanagement when they decided to raise prices on me while I was on an expedition.
This app is garbage. If you need view-only access to your map library, it’s okay. If you’re actually making changes or re-planning what you’re going to hike/bike/paddle/whatever each day, you’ll pull your hair out.
All feature development is targeted at their web version. iOS is a buggy afterthought. Even Android has closer feature parity. Change can be good, but when it introduces bugs and they refuse to fix those bugs, you’ve got decay. Unfortunately, this app has crossed my personal threshold.
Here’s a shortlist of issues, much of which I’ve reported:
1) background location doesn’t work. They’re using too many resources and iOS is evicting them to save user battery (something it only does in extreme circumstances). Rather than fixing their problem, they post a “doesn’t work in low power mode” dialog. No other gps tracking software needs this dialog, CalTopo is just that embarrassing
2) related to this, when the app is killed by iOS (and not the user), it loses its mind. Expect to launch to a blank loading screen. You’ll need to force-quit or close and reload your map to get functionality again
3) no bulk edits. Managing a weeks-long trip and want to organize it better? Tough. Edit each and every waypoint manually (5 taps each)
4) disorganized export. If you want to sync data to an external device, good luck! That folder organization you just wasted your time on isn’t honored by the export pane. Every single waypoint out of possibly thousands is shown even for folders you’ve hidden.
5) corrupted imports. Yup, CalTopo (across platforms) doesn’t sanitize data. If you import perfectly function geojson that just doesn’t happen to use values CalTopo expects, you can end up with a corrupted map with items you can’t delete or even view properly
6) doesn’t honor visibility settings. On desktop and Android, labels are shown or not shown based on a folder setting. iOS doesn’t honor this
7) un-tappable POIs. The icon size you can set is below what CalTopo’s software understands how to let you tap. Since icon size is largely independent of viewport, you can’t even zoom in to fix this. Combine this with the always hidden labels and you can accidentally set yourself up with a map that is unusable on mobile
8) utterly broken caching. Been using weekly imagery to negotiate a tricky section of your adventure? I hope you aren’t traveling past cell coverage. This data is never cached. The second the app is exited (see above for how comment this is), you’ve lost your tool. Screenshots are about the only way around this
9) custom icons only work online. If your data set was imported from kml, you’re likely to have “custom” icons that point to Google’s servers. These also aren’t cached at all, meaning you’ll have a lot of [ ? ] icons all over your map.
10) broken offline tile management. The benefit of CalTopo is supposed to be its layer system. The problem is the lack of granularity on their caching tool. You can add layers one by one just fine, but you can’t remove them. If you’re trying to manage space on your device by removing the more detailed layers from early days in your trip while still retaining the base map, tough, you can’t. Delete is an all or nothing tool. This is extra fun because
11) CalTopo backs up their maps in your iOS backups. Yup. A properly functioning product would only back up your intentions (ie your data) and then redownload their tiles when needed (ie their data). Imagine if Netflix backed up offline movies to your iCloud account. You’d be pretty mad that your backup is taking so long, right?
I’m going to stop now because very few people are going to read this far (and CalTopo has already shown they don’t care by not fixing a single bug in years). Thanks for reading. I hope you are able to find software that actually works for you. CalTopo crossed my personal threshold for mismanagement when they decided to raise prices on me while I was on an expedition.
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Map frequently crashing and resetting
The maps is generally usably, however I've noticed it crashing and resetting map when changing the sentinel weekly overlay visibility while on 3d mode. I've also experienced this when toggling slope angle shading on. I'm on iPhone 14 Pro, an I running out of RAM?
The Crosshairs suck
This is a great application, I especially like the slope contrast colors so you can instantly get an idea how steep a slope is. But, for some reason the crosshairs that tell you where something/you are at, are so ridiculously small and thin that you can’t really see them unless you stop and try really hard for a while - and you need to only be doing this when you are hiding in some shade (otherwise you will never see them if you are out in the sun). It makes it hard to use the map to see where you are or where something is, which is kind of the entire point of a map application. You would think they would have a way to make the crosshairs nice and big and bold and obvious or some other color or something, but nope.
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The way to go
I’ve used half a dozen different mapping apps over the years as a professional mt guide and SAR specialist. CalTopo has steadily improved since it came into the scene and is now the gold standard. Keep up the refinements!
Response from developer
Thanks for the kind words! Our goal is to keep improving the app and that means a lot to us. Thanks for using CalTopo!
Game Changer
My team uses CalTopo for search and rescue operations and it’s an invaluable tool. We use it on every operation.
Lots of features, doesn’t handle large datasets, poor UX, & buggy
Update: already documented the issue throughly on the forum and created tickets for the others. Have some that are years old at this point.
Keep have to restarting the app when using offline every 10-15 minutes, unintuitive downloading of layers, obvious tiling bugs on things like sun/shade layers, unresponsive with ~1k waypoints and recommended workarounds are massively tedious.
Geared for single map SAR use and heavily planned routes. I keep trying caltopo wanting to like it but bounce off. :(
Keep have to restarting the app when using offline every 10-15 minutes, unintuitive downloading of layers, obvious tiling bugs on things like sun/shade layers, unresponsive with ~1k waypoints and recommended workarounds are massively tedious.
Geared for single map SAR use and heavily planned routes. I keep trying caltopo wanting to like it but bounce off. :(
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Response from developer
The offline behavior you described does not sound like the expected behavior. Please send us an email at help@caltopo.com so we can dig more into it as well as address some of the other issues you described.
Sucky interface
Title says it all, nothing is easy or intuitive. Trying to download layers is a pain.
Alaska Pacific University OS Grad
One of my absolute favorite classes at APU was risk management for outdoor professionals. We were required to get a subscription service route plane navigation app and CalTopo does not disappoint! Learning to identify hazards and areas of interest, among a myriad of other great features. Thanks for creating an amazing app!
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Click bait
I've used Caltopo on my laptop so I figured I'd try it on the iPhone. Screen mostly blank white. I probably need to pay, which I definitely am not doing until I see it actually works when I am away from a major road.
Lots of features, doesn’t handle large datasets, poor UX, & buggy
Keep have to restarting the app when using offline every 10-15 minutes, unintuitive downloading of layers, obvious tiling bugs on things like sun/shade layers, unresponsive with ~1k waypoints and recommended workarounds are massively tedious.
Geared for single map SAR use and heavily planned routes. I keep trying caltopo wanting to like it but bounce off. :(
Geared for single map SAR use and heavily planned routes. I keep trying caltopo wanting to like it but bounce off. :(
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Junk.
Genuinely cannot see why anyone would use this app. It simply won’t work. I paid for a subscription, followed the instructions online, imported all of my tracks and markers from other navigation apps, and yet I cannot save my own maps or download offline layers.
Response from developer
Please send us an email at help@caltopo.com so we can help.
Melhoria
O aplicativo é muito bom, no entanto pode melhorar com a disponibilidade do mapa de satélite para uma melhor funcionalidade
Response from developer
We do have several satellite map layers available, some are not available on the free account. Please email us at help@caltopo.com with questions.
The Best
Probably the best backcountry mapping app available for US. Can do everything you need, has a good web/PC interface as well as a good mobile app. Extremely useful for trip planning. I’ve used it in CA, WA, Japan, Italy. Never going back to Gaia.
Fantastic for SAR
Our SAR team started using CalTopo and it’s great. I now use it on personal trips. All the information available in one place makes this app an easy to use one stop shop!
Best navigation app
Best navigation platform bar none. Nothing even comes close. It’s great for hikers, backpackers, SAR, hunting. Anything you’d want in a navigation tool.
Fantastic
Excellent. Highly recommended for trip planning
Go-to mapping app
Me and my friends all use Caltopo for planning climbing, backcountry skiing, and trail running trips. Easy offline usage and a great web mapping system make it the right choice for backcountry use
Excellent tool
Love the versatility of this application for managing timber stands to burn units.
