How to view Preset Messages in MapShare on the map?

Preset messages aren't showing up on the map on my MapShare page. The messages are all listed if I click on he "Messages(20)" line, but they don't get displayed on the map. Even if I open the list and click on a specific messages, the maps centers that message, but there is no icon or other marker on the map indicating where that message was sent from.

When I send a preset message, my recipient list does get it and when they click on the list, they get a page showing just that one message location on the map.

I do have the MapShare checkbox checked on configuration for the preset messages.

It seems like once I sync my inReach Mini with my phone (I assume it is the Earthmate app doing the syncing), the locations show up, but I suspect that is because my active collection is getting synced rather than it showing the actual messages received

So how can I have my preset message locations shown on MapShare for users to follow me when I'm out of cell range and can't sync my phone.

0 twolpert over 5 years ago

If you want presets to show up in MapShare, you must include MapShare in the recipient list for the preset. The ONLY messages that appear in MapShare are those addressed to MapShare, regardless of whether they are presets, quick text, or custom.

0 ekutter-dnu over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

Looks like that is exactly what checking the MapShare checkbox should do unless I'm missing something. As you can see, specifying the two recipients and checking the MapShare box, results in all 3 being on the too list. And the messages are getting to MapShare, they just aren't displaying on the map. Although the location is clearly there since when you click on the message in the left pane, the map centers on that location.

These two images are from the Messages tab under the PresetMessages configuration

And after hitting done, this is what it looks like.

This is my MapShare page. When I click on the top message, the map gets centered, but no icon indicating where it was sent. If there are a series of sent messages, I'd expect them all to show up on the map for friends to follow.

0 twolpert over 5 years ago in reply to ekutter-dnu

The conventional wisdom is to clear your browser cache and view the MapShare page again. Sometimes this helps with these kinds of issues, sometimes it does not. You might also try a different browser. For example, if you normally use Chrome, try Edge or FireFox. (This isn't about the capabilities of the individual browsers. It's about using a browser which has no cached data, no cookies, etc. for MapShare.)

Although it should not matter for this particular problem, you might also want to be sure that you are not logged into your explore.garmin.com account when you check your MapShare page. If you are logged in, you will see something different than what the public sees.

If none of that pans out, you should probably open a call with tech support. They can't fix it if they don't know about it.

0 ekutter-dnu over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

Thanks. I usually do everything in Chrome but did try it in Edge and it performed the same. So there wouldn't have been any cookies there, and it shouldn't have been impacted by explore.garmin.com. Next step is to contact support. Just wanted to make sure I'm not doing something obviously wrong first, as I am new to the whole inReach eco-system.

0 twolpert over 5 years ago in reply to ekutter-dnu

Not that I can think of. I just tried something similar - but not identical - myself. I had no problems viewing a message sent to MapShare, either at explore.garmin.com or at my MapShare page.

However, I'm on my lunch hour. Not in a position to sync preset message changes. So I sent a normal (custom) message to MapShare. And I did it from my 66i using the Explore app. So lots of differences between this use case and yours. Since we're dealing with an issue on the web end, I wouldn't think any of that would matter. But you never know.

0 Volker over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

Perhaps the last part of this message is the answer for his problems?:

Explore site accounts are not being created for some new customers

New incident: Identified

Some new customers are signing into the Explore mobile app and a corresponding web account is not being created properly. We've identified and are fixing the issue. Updates will be provided.

Time posted

Jul 22, 13:31 EDT

Components affected

Garmin Explore Website and MapShare

0 ekutter-dnu over 5 years ago in reply to Volker

Ah, interesting. My account was just created last week so that could be part of the problem. Thanks Volker.

I'm definitely having some weird sync issues between the mobile apps and web sites. I've tried deleting everything in my library except for 4 messages, just to simply things. Also turned off syncing with my 945 so nothing is getting uploaded from that in to my library.

Loading Earthmate re-adds much of what I just deleted, even when I have explicitly deleted tracks from Earthmate. So I'm going to stop running Earthmate.

Deleting things in the Explore app does seem to remove those items from MapShare and the inReach web page.

So now that the only thing in my Library are the last 4 messages I've sent, I see the 4 messages listed in MapShare. Interestingly, the 3 messages I sent yesterday are now showing up on the map with the little blue message icon. The message I sent 20 minutes ago is in the list but still not showing up on the map.

So there is some weirdness going on, but maybe it is related to this account issue. I'm going to not do anything else and see if the latest message does eventually show up on the map.

0 ekutter-dnu over 5 years ago in reply to ekutter-dnu

Where did you see the above message? Wonder if I need to contact someone to make sure my account is fixed if that is the issue.

0 Volker over 5 years ago in reply to ekutter-dnu

I have signed in on the inreachExplore website to get an email, if there is something going on...

0 twolpert over 5 years ago in reply to Volker

You can get to a summary from the colored "status dot" icon in the upper right corner of explore.garmin.com. From the status page, you can subscribe to updates.

Note that this outage is new today (7/22/19). It also appears to apply to a very specific account creation scenario.

Haven't used the Mini in a while. The last time I looked, the Mini was not supported by GCM, which means there's no way to pair it with the Explore app? So I assume you're using GCM/Explore courtesy of the pairing with the watch. That kind of indirect syncing is going to make it difficult to diagnose problems like this. I think you're right to try to avoid that.

I'm sure you know this, but as a general rule - if your iR device is supported by GCM/Explore app, you should use Explore. If not, you should continue to use Earthmate. You probably should not mix sync operations across Earthmate and Explore, even indirectly via the watch.

Messages sent to MapShare should show up fairly promptly (after actually leaving the iR device) without syncing.