Can't access RideWithGPS routes

[Rob C]

As recently as 2 weeks ago, I was able to access my RWGPS routes via the Bike Tracker App.

However, the last couple of days, I have not been able to.  Instead when I select "RideWithGPS", all I get is a spinning circle in Bike Tracker.  I've tried altering my username or password for RWGPS within Bike Tracker, and then I get a "Failed to log into RideWithGPS, Check your email and password", so I think (with my correct username/password) the App is successfully logging into RWGPS.  But for some reason it is not able to access/show my saved routes.

Is anyone else experiencing this?  Perhaps RWGPS has changed something in their API?  I'm using version Bike Tracker v1.1.25.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Rob C

[Steve Punter]

I have just checked to make sure it works on ALL of my phones, and it does.

However, I did see something like this a while ago, but it was related to a hotspot I'd set up. I have an old Galaxy S4 that I use for tracking rides and giving me directions. As I don't use this phone as my daily driver any longer, it does not contain a SIM card and only gets an internet connection when on WiFi. I usually cache the route while I'm still at home (simply by loading it at least once). However, on a couple of occasions, I'd forgotten to do this, and so I needed to connect to the internet. The solution seemed simple, and I just created a WiFi hotspot on my current phone, and then connected to that with the S4. While it seemed that the hotspot worked fine in most other ways, any attempt to connect with RideWithGPS would result in the same constantly-spinning circle. I eventually tracked it down to the Access Point I was using on my current device. It SORT OF supported tethering, but some things just didn't work. When I changed it to a different Access Point offered by my provider, everything worked fine, including access to RWG.

I'm not suggesting that this is your issue, but it does demonstrate that something like port-blocking might be taking place on the connection you are using. Does the same problem occur on both WiFi and on cellular data?

You've clearly made sure that your username and password are correct, so that isn't a possible cause. The only other thing I can recommend (if the above doesn't pan out) is that you try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Don't worry, doing this WILL NOT delete any of the stored files that you have amassed with the app.

[Rob C]

Thanks for the reply.

I tried uninstalling & reinstalling and have tried connecting via WiFi both at home & at work, as well, as over cell data, and I am still seeing the issue on my Galaxy S3 (you thought your S4 was old!), running Android 4.4.2.  Also, I tried uninstalling, and then removing (I backed them up first) all the folders on my device related to Bike Tracker that I could find (KML, GPX, SUM, TXC, RWG, Bike Tracker), and then reinstalling, with no luck either.  

However, I installed Bike Tracker on my (much newer) Samsung tablet, and it worked no problem (I can see my RWG routes).

So, I'm not sure if my S3 is just getting too far out of date?  As I mentioned, it was working for me as recently as April 24th (last time I loaded a RWG route).  I have only used the App a couple of times, but was looking forward to using it this summer for the turn-by-turn directions with RWG routes.

Do you have any other suggestions?  (are there any log files to check, or logging I can enable?).

Thanks and regards,

Rob

[Steve Punter]

I keep a really ancient Note 2 around for the sole purpose of testing apps on Android 4.4.2, and sure enough, I can't get it to work there either. I don't know if I ever tested recent builds of Bike Tracker on this version of Android. How long ago was the last time you had the app working on your S3? Did the problem occur after installing a recent build?

[Rob C]

I guess I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that you weren't able to get it to work on 4.4.2 device as well.

The only version of Bike Tracker that I've used is 1.1.25, and it was working for me on my S3 as recently as April 24th (that's the last time I successfully loaded a RWG route).  So, sometime between then and earlier this week when I first noticed this problem, something has changed to make this no longer work.

Thanks.

Rob.

[Steve Punter]

I should have a bit of time this afternoon, so I'll run a few experiments with my old Note 2 and see if I can find a solution. It's odd that with NO CHANGE in the app running on your phone that something could be misbehaving. It is POSSIBLE that a particular method of accessing a server (or maybe specifically RWG's server) no longer accepts calls from Android versions earlier than 5.0. However, until I have a look at the code, I won't know for sure.

[Rob C]

Great, thanks.

Yep, that's what I was wondering (if RWG no longer supports calls from this version of Android).  Although, the RWG app itself still works fine on my S3.

[Steve Punter]

As I promised, I did some experiments with the Note 2 and Bike Tracker in DEBUG mode. What I'd expected to find was what we've been discussing, meaning that it was a problem with the internet connection. However, that WAS NOT the problem. Instead, I found that a particular JSON parser worked differently on pre-5.0 Android than it did on current builds. Since the code didn't change, it must have been the exact format of the data returned by RWG. Newer builds of Android must deal correctly with this change, while older builds do not.

In any event, I found a way to get around this issue, and I got the app to work on the Note 2. I've attached a copy of this new build to this message. Can you please sideload it out on your S3 and let me know if it works. If it does, I'll put this build online on Google Play. Thanks in advance.

[Rob C]

Hi Steve,

I just tried it, and it looks like it works!

Thanks so much for the quick resolution.  I will be trying out the turn-by-turn feature this weekend!

Cheers,

Rob.