Custom Maps lost maps

[ghost]

So after finally submitting a review I was given the chance to finally contact you, I have multiple maps that I've made and stored in my custom maps folder in my SD card. However custom map says it cannot find anything in order to give me any option to actually point out where it is, it tells me to create a new map to help find the old ones but alas I can't find the new ones either that I just created. This is rather frustrating because I've made quite a few maps for this infrequently I have to start over and remake them because of some update. Unfortunately every time I go to use the app this is the case hence this is basically worthless and every time I need a map I have to spend hours in a service area to make a new one. 

[Marko Teittinen]

Sorry about the problem.

Some background:

Google Play Store no longer allows uploading non-file-manager apps that request access to read external storage. So Custom Maps had to be adjusted to move all maps into the internal storage area of the app where the maps are not visible to the user except in the map list inside the app. The current version 1.8.1 tries to minimize the issue by trying to copy the maps from the previous storage folder (if it still has file access) into the internal memory. Unfortunately, the recent Android versions have started removing permissions from the apps if they are not used in a while, so Custom Maps may not have had the storage access permission to transfer the maps automatically.

Solution(s):

Your description didn't make it fully clear if you switched to a new phone, or if you lost access to your maps on a phone where you had already used the maps.

• If the problem is not transferring the maps to a new phone, the maps are all in the "CustomMaps" folder on the external storage. To make the automatic map copying work, you should first open the system info for Custom Maps (long press the icon, select "App info"), and then clear data for Custom Maps. This does not delete any maps in the "CustomMaps" folder. Then select permissions and enable storage permission for the app. Then you can open Custom Maps, and it should import the maps from the usual storage folder, and they should be available to you again. Note that any new maps are created in internal storage only, so you have to export them out if you want to move them onto a new phone. Once the maps have been imported, I recommend you keep a separate copy somewhere safe so you can make them available for your next phone when you get one (maybe Google Drive or Dropbox).
• If the previous does not work for some reason, you can import individual maps into Custom Maps, by opening ("clicking") them using a file manager app. Note that Samsung's "My Files" does not work since it doesn't understand files with the ".kmz" extension, but at least Google's "Files" app is able to pass the files to Custom Maps.
• If you are moving the map files to a new phone, you need to transfer the files somewhere where a file manager app (again, Google's "Files", not Samsung's "My Files") can see them, and when you tap each one of the maps, they are imported into Custom Maps' internal storage.

IMPORTANT TIP:

I'm guessing you haven't used the latest version of the app much since you haven't been able to access your maps. Note that version 1.8.1 also has a bug that incorrectly displays an error message about map image being too large if the name of the map image contains spaces or special characters. If you rename the image file to a name that contains only letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9, and underscores and dashes (_ and -), the same images can be used unless they really are too large.

Custom Maps 1.8.1 has improved export features to help moving the maps to a new phone. For example, all maps can be exported all at once, and at least Google Drive can understand such action and store the exported maps into storage. Unfortunately, importing maps has to be done one at a time, but the next version of Custom Maps will allow importing all maps in a user specified directory.

Again, sorry about the trouble caused by the new version.

Marko Teittinen

Author of Custom Maps

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 12:54 PM 'ghost' via Custom Maps users <custom-m...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

So after finally submitting a review I was given the chance to finally contact you, I have multiple maps that I've made and stored in my custom maps folder in my SD card. However custom map says it cannot find anything in order to give me any option to actually point out where it is, it tells me to create a new map to help find the old ones but alas I can't find the new ones either that I just created. This is rather frustrating because I've made quite a few maps for this infrequently I have to start over and remake them because of some update. Unfortunately every time I go to use the app this is the case hence this is basically worthless and every time I need a map I have to spend hours in a service area to make a new one. 

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