There are many reasons why the app might not find you location or have activity recording issues, there are several phone OS settings that can prevent the Trailforks app from getting a location.
First make sure you are outside in an area that can get a good satellite signal, if you're indoors or underground it can take awhile to get a location or make it impossible.
You must have the "Location Services" enabled on your phone, there are many versions of Android and iOS and this setting is located in different spots on different phones. Generally it's called "Location" on Android and "Location Services" on iOS, it needs to be enabled.
Enable Location Services
Sometimes it's best to force quit and restart the Trailforks after enabling location services.
Enable Location Permission
The Trailforks app also requires permission to use the Location Services on your phone. The Trailforks app should have asked you to grant it permission the first time you opened Trailforks. If you denied the app access, then Trailforks cannot use your phones location, it needs this permission. You can go to your phones settings for location services or the Android settings page for the app and grant Trailforks permission to Location.
If you are on an older version of Android (5-
you should have your location "Mode" set to "High Accuracy".
Disable Battery Savings Mode
If your phone has a battery savings mode, or low power mode, this can also prevent the app from getting a location, or greatly reduce it's accuracy. We recommend disabling this. This is one of the most common sources of bad recording, straight lines in your gps track.
Additionally Android has an OS feature where it optimizes apps battery usage, this could have negative effects on the background GPS recording. We recommend you set the Trailforks app to NOT be battery optimized. You can go to the "battery" settings page for the Trailforks app on Android and under "Battery Optimised" select "Don't optimise".
iOS Precaution
Also VERY important for iPhones. when you start recording, keep your phone screen ON while the black recording bar at the bottom of the app is fetching a GPS location. Do not turn your screen off or switch apps until it has fetched a GPS signal and the recording starts. You know it's started when the message "Waiting for GPS signal to start recording" disappears and is replaced with the time elapsed and big red stop button.
Additional Steps
Perform an "AGPS reset" on Android by installing the App GPS Status & Toolbox, then in that app, go to Menu > Manage A-GPS State > Reset.
If your phone is from one of the manufactures listed on this website https://dontkillmyapp.com/, your phone might be trying to kill the Trailforks app when its recording your ride to save battery. Use the website above to troubleshoot this issue.
If you have tried all the above and still cannot get a location, try contacting us from within the app and send us the "GPS Tracking Debug Logs". Also include a link to the ridelog where the issue occured so we can help troubleshoot.
Conclusion
But at the end of the day, GPS tracking on your phone is never going to work 100% of the time no matter what app you use. I've used dozens of different apps on different phones and they all occasionally mess up. A smartphone is not a dedicated GPS device and has many competing interests for the resources of the phone, which the OS is trying to manage to conserve your phones battery. Also sometimes weird stuff just happens with GPS satellites and your signal too them. For best results, a dedicated GPS device like a Garmin will be more reliable, but even they screw up on occasion, so running multiple GPS tracking devices is your best bet to not loose a ride recording.
First make sure you are outside in an area that can get a good satellite signal, if you're indoors or underground it can take awhile to get a location or make it impossible.
You must have the "Location Services" enabled on your phone, there are many versions of Android and iOS and this setting is located in different spots on different phones. Generally it's called "Location" on Android and "Location Services" on iOS, it needs to be enabled.
Enable Location Services
Sometimes it's best to force quit and restart the Trailforks after enabling location services.
Enable Location Permission
The Trailforks app also requires permission to use the Location Services on your phone. The Trailforks app should have asked you to grant it permission the first time you opened Trailforks. If you denied the app access, then Trailforks cannot use your phones location, it needs this permission. You can go to your phones settings for location services or the Android settings page for the app and grant Trailforks permission to Location.
If you are using Android 10 or newer the location permission for the Trailforks app must be set to "Allow all the time" for ride recording to function properly.
If you are on an older version of Android (5-
you should have your location "Mode" set to "High Accuracy".Android
Android
Disable Battery Savings Mode
If your phone has a battery savings mode, or low power mode, this can also prevent the app from getting a location, or greatly reduce it's accuracy. We recommend disabling this. This is one of the most common sources of bad recording, straight lines in your gps track.
Additionally Android has an OS feature where it optimizes apps battery usage, this could have negative effects on the background GPS recording. We recommend you set the Trailforks app to NOT be battery optimized. You can go to the "battery" settings page for the Trailforks app on Android and under "Battery Optimised" select "Don't optimise".
iOS Precaution
Also VERY important for iPhones. when you start recording, keep your phone screen ON while the black recording bar at the bottom of the app is fetching a GPS location. Do not turn your screen off or switch apps until it has fetched a GPS signal and the recording starts. You know it's started when the message "Waiting for GPS signal to start recording" disappears and is replaced with the time elapsed and big red stop button.
Additional Steps
Perform an "AGPS reset" on Android by installing the App GPS Status & Toolbox, then in that app, go to Menu > Manage A-GPS State > Reset.
If your phone is from one of the manufactures listed on this website https://dontkillmyapp.com/, your phone might be trying to kill the Trailforks app when its recording your ride to save battery. Use the website above to troubleshoot this issue.
If you have tried all the above and still cannot get a location, try contacting us from within the app and send us the "GPS Tracking Debug Logs". Also include a link to the ridelog where the issue occured so we can help troubleshoot.
Conclusion
But at the end of the day, GPS tracking on your phone is never going to work 100% of the time no matter what app you use. I've used dozens of different apps on different phones and they all occasionally mess up. A smartphone is not a dedicated GPS device and has many competing interests for the resources of the phone, which the OS is trying to manage to conserve your phones battery. Also sometimes weird stuff just happens with GPS satellites and your signal too them. For best results, a dedicated GPS device like a Garmin will be more reliable, but even they screw up on occasion, so running multiple GPS tracking devices is your best bet to not loose a ride recording.
- By canadaka
Trailforks - #112 - 13,355 views