Beta version 1.8.`

[Rose and Mike Farmer]

The trick with loading CustomMaps folder doesn't seem to work with 1.8.1.  I had to revert to 1.7.1.    I tried extensively to get 1.8.1 to work.  Deleted the app.   Force stop.  Enable File permission.  Multiple attempts.   No luck.   Version 1.7.1 worked do the same procedure first time.

[Marko Teittinen]

I would recommend you to update to 1.8.1 anyway. Unfortunately, Google Play Store new rules prohibit "non file manager" (like Custom Maps) apps from having "access files and media" permission. Version 1.8.1 is the last one that can read the existing CustomMaps folder in the "public" storage area. All future versions will be able to show only maps stored in the Custom Maps own private storage area (inaccessible to the users and other apps for security reasons).

Even if the maps don't get automatically recognized, you can still load the existing maps into the internal private storage area by opening Google's "Files" app, and finding the "CustomMaps" folder in there. Then you need to tap each map, and they should open in Custom Maps. I understand that it is somewhat tedious to do that if you have a lot of maps.

So going forward you probably want to store your maps also somewhere off your phone, like Google Drive (or other cloud file storage system). Version 1.8.1 has a new "export all maps" menu option which allows you to pass all the map files from internal storage to another app. Note that many apps can't handle multiple files like that, but Google Drive is actually able to copy all the files to a directory in the cloud. When you switch phones the next time, you can then open each map from the Google Drive app to get them to your next phone.

BTW, version 1.8.1 also has a bug that triggers an "image too large" error message if a new map is created with an image file that has a name containing special characters or spaces. But if the image file is named with letters A-Z, a-z, digits 0-9, and dashes and underscores (- and _), the image files can typically be used without an issue (unless they really are too large for the app).

Marko Teittinen

On Sun, Feb 13, 2022 at 10:04 AM Rose and Mike Farmer <egre...@gmail.com> wrote:

The trick with loading CustomMaps folder doesn't seem to work with 1.8.1.  I had to revert to 1.7.1.    I tried extensively to get 1.8.1 to work.  Deleted the app.   Force stop.  Enable File permission.  Multiple attempts.   No luck.   Version 1.7.1 worked do the same procedure first time.

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[Rose and Mike Farmer]

I understand.  But I have over 500 maps that I am taking on this next trip so I really needed to get them loaded.  And one at a time would be tough   I trust that some solution will work in coming months.  I'm really happy with it now.  

BTW, I saw another odd thing with 1.8.1.   It will load previous map files that do not conform to google standard, such as spaces in the file name.  And they work fine.  But if you delete the map using the app, it appears to delete the map but  the map comes back again if you delete the app 1.8.1 and install it again.   It's as if the map is not really deleted from the hidden storage but other maps  that conform are permanently deleted.   Does this mean that in the future we need to get all the maps we created previously to conform to the standard?  Even they they work now with 1.8.1.

This is an awesome app.  Very useful to me.   Thanks again.

[Marko Teittinen]

Over 500 maps, wow! I never expected anyone to keep so many maps on their phone at the same time. I thought I have a lot of maps but the size of my collection is probably 100-150 and I only keep about a dozen or two local maps on my phone, and I organize the rest in Google Drive, and load them on my phone when I need them.

I will release the next version probably sometime in the summer (June/July). And I am planning on including a feature that will allow importing all the maps in a  single directory, though due to the new limitations of Android OS that directory most likely needs to be somewhere under Downloads.

Regarding loading maps with spaces in the filename: Maps with spaces in the filename work fine because they are processed differently than the map images when maps are created. The failure to process spaces and most special characters is present only when creating new maps, and only applies to map images, not to map names.

Regarding maps appearing after deleting the app and installing it again: When you delete a map in 1.8.1, the map is only deleted from Custom Maps app's internal storage. And if you uninstall and reinstall the app, and you give the app storage access permission before launching it, it will check if the CustomMaps folder contains any maps, and try to import them all (only when the app is launched the first time). But if you remove or rename the CustomMaps folder, the maps are not going to come back by uninstalling and reinstalling the app. BTW, the next version of the app will not have this feature any more, since including the storage access permission is no longer allowed. The app already does not ask for the permission anymore.

But it just might be possible for you to import all your 500 maps into CustomMaps by placing them all into the CustomMaps folder, uninstalling and reinstalling the app, and checking that it has storage access permission before you launch it. And when you launch it and accept the license, there might be a long pause without any feedback while the app copies all of the 500 maps into the internal storage. I did not create a progress indicator display for the transfer because I didn't expect anyone to have so many maps on their phone that the transfer would take a significant amount of time. I assume that if any of the transfers fail, the process gets interrupted and the rest of the maps don't get transferred. If you wait patiently, the map list should get populated with all of the maps.

Once you have transferred the maps, I recommend copying the maps in the CustomMaps directory to a safe (online?) storage, and then clearing the CustomMaps directory, since the app will not use that directory again for map storage after that point.

Marko Teittinen

Author of Custom Maps

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