I just did my second hike today with the inReach Explorer+ and according to the device, it sent 27 points. However, the inReach website and MapShare both show only 4 points received, 2 of them messages. Does this mean the other 23 were sent but did not go through? My first hike went flawlessly, the only difference between the two that I can think of is that the first one had a route preplanned and this one did not. Did I miss something when I started the hike? I went to Tracking and clicked Start and shared it with one person.
Since you see the sent points on the device, it sounds like you started tracking properly. Whether or not you are following a route does not matter.
Just as a matter of verification, does 27 points sound about right for your send interval and the duration of the hike?
Lots of moving parts in the sent points handling. If the unit says they were sent (check the History screen for all the details), then the points made it as far as the Iridium satellite. If they do not show up on inreach.garmin.com, then either they did not make it as far as the Garmin servers or there is some reason why they are not being shown on the map.
In order to reach the Garmin servers, the sent track point must transit the Iridium satellite network, reach an Iridium ground station, make it over the public Internet to the Garmin servers. At that point, it's up to the servers to display them. Sometimes there are minor delays in showing data on the map pages on the web site. But the data should not be hours or days behind.
A couple of thing you may want to check. First, in the left sidebar of the map page on the web site, make sure that your user has a circled minus sign to its right. If not, click the circled plus sign to expand data for that user. Since you can see some of the points, I doubt that this is the problem. Second, if you don't see any of the track on the web site, or if you only see the beginning or the end, check your map filters to be sure that the entire time range of the track is included in the filters. Since you said you can see some of the points, the message type filter probably is not the issue. Third, look for the track itself in the left sidebar. If you don't see any tracks, look for the small right-pointing black arrow to the right of the word Tracks. Click it so it points down rather than right. Find the track in the list and click it. This zooms the map to make the entire extent of the track visible on the map. This avoids problems related to viewing an area that does not overlap the track, or that does not cover the entire track.
If none of that pans out, you might want to try clearing your browser cache. It's unlikely to be the problem and it's a big hammer, but sometimes worth trying.
All of the above applies to inreach.garmin.com, not to your MapShare page. There are other things in MapShare that may affect visibility.
Tried all that. Waited on Tech Services for hours to call back. What a waste of time that was. They just keep saying they show no system wide problems. They tell me to turn the unit off and on and do a soft reset. Did both. It works for a few hours after then just drops again. My unit is under warranty they need just to replace it in the next town I come to.
The next hammer, which tech support has not yet suggested, is a factory reset followed by reactivation. This is going to nuke all your user settings, as well as sync-d data such as contacts, waypoints and routes. It also wipes history on the device. Suggest you not do this from the back country as you will likely need a wired sync to restore all your sync'd data.
One other thing occurs to me. Depending on the logging interval and the conditions (terrain, tree cover, rain, where/how you carry the unit, etc.), it IS possible for the unit to loose track points before sending them. I don't THINK these would show in sent point history, though.
This can occur in the following situation. You are sending points. The unit fails to contact the Iridium network for long period of time relative to the send interval. For example, you are traversing a long slot canyon or the unit is in your pack under your extra hydration bladder, or whatever. The unit continues to accumulate unsent track points. At some point in time, the unit reaches its limit for unsent points but you are still moving. (I have a vague recollection that this limit was around 40 points in the dim, distant past. No idea about current situation.) In this situation, the unit decides that more recent points are more important than old, moldy points. So it starts overwriting the oldest unsent point with the newest one. When communication is re-established, it sends whatever it has stored. This kind of situation typically results in a gap in the "middle" of the track.
Also, of course, you might have pending points when you power down. You will be warned if this is the case. If you power down anyway, all pending points are lost. In this situation, you typically have a gap at the end of the track. Although it can get weird if this is combined with the overwriting described above.
I have not had a chance to try again, but the device shows the track and sent tracking points every 10 minutes. The inreach.garmin.com only shows where I sent the start message and received a reply. I got the reply on the trail. Also, inreach.garmin.com shows that I have only sent 25 tracking points this month, which would only account for my first hike with the device and some testing, not the second hike. So, it seems as though the device thinks it sent the tracking points, but that they never got to the inreach website because it looks like they are not even tallied in my usage. In fact, the device shows a total of 68 tracking points, but usage show 25. Is this normal? If so, does that mean I can depend on only getting out a third of the tracking points when I am hiking?
Two other quick notes. One, the person I sent the map to so they could track said there were tracking points with a track line. So it seems to have been showing during the hike. Second, I did get the warning that some tracking points had not sent and I just clicked through thinking it was only the last few. Also, on the phone, during the hike, there was a highlighted track the whole time. Did I just miss something to save it or something like that?
No, you are not missing anything as far as procedure goes. All that should be required is to set a send interval (10 minutes in your case) and start tracking. And, of course, maintain a reasonable view of the sky so that the unit has a GPS fix and so the points can actually be sent.
When you say "usage", what exactly are you referring to? There is a Data Use screen on the unit (accessible from the second main screen). This will show what the unit thinks vs. the plan. There is the subscription information (leftmost column on the Home tab of the web site), and then My Stats (center column on the Home tab). Although I've never paid much attention, I suspect that the information on the Data Use screen and My Subscription reflect the monthly totals charged to the plan. I am not sure about My Stats. The main point I want to make here is that if there was a monthly plan boundary between your hikes, the plan-oriented charges may be misleading since they will have been reset at the month boundary.
I am really confused by the fact that the points apparently showed up on the MapShare page but not on your account map at inreach.garmin.com. Are the sent points still present on the MapShare page?
The situation can become more confusing when you use the Earthmate app in conjunction with the device. The Earthmate app is (at least periodically) made aware of logged points, not just sent points. IF the app is signed into your account and you sync, then the logged points will also be uploaded to the servers during the sync. To be perfectly clear, the logged points are never sent OTA via the Iridium network. They are only sent during a sync, and then over the cell network (or WiFi, if you are connected). On the maps on the web site, you can tell the difference between a logged point and a sent point. Sent points are larger circles.
It's hard to tell for sure, but in your scenario, it may be that the only thing that was showing up on the web site was logged points sync-d via the Earthmate app.
Unfortunately, the unit no longer shows the number of pending sent points during tracking. At one time, it did show the number remaining to be sent when you attempted to power down. I don't remember if that's still the case or if it now just says "some points". Regardless, in the field, it's a good idea to avoid powering down with unsent points. Do note that stopping tracking generates one more sent point to give your exact location at the time. This occurs even if a new point is not due according to the send interval.
I know it's difficult to deal with tech support. But you really should insist on resolution of your issue. This is a safety concern, not something inconsequential.
MapShare and InReach show identical maps. They show my last location and one message it appears, no track at all. The device under the Maps option shows a blue highlighted track with all of the tracking points it thinks it sent (27 points). The History option has 27 points. If I look at Earthmate, it has a blue track with no points on it and the History section shows the hike, but only show 4 points (2 messages, 1 in 1 out, and the first two tracking points). The person I sent the map to claims to have seen a track with points (She did not say a specific number, but I think they only looked once toward the beginning of the hike).
As for usage, I have looked at all three places you mentioned, and all three have identical stats. 25 tracking points. I am on the second plan that allows unlimited tracking points. However, if I look at the History option on the device, it totals 68 tracking points, 27 of which are from the hike we are referring to, 28 from a second hike that was shared with people (and worked flawlessly), and 13 from some backyard testing. I just activated the unit on the 12th and have only done two hikes with it, so there should not be a switch in the usage stats for the month.
One other variable that is different between the hike that worked great and the one that is problematic. In the problematic hike, I also used GaiaGPS on my phone along with Earthmate with the InReach connected via Bluetooth. I doubt that is a problem, but maybe?
I think that answers all of your questions Tom. I am still in the testing phase of the device for me. I bought it for peace of mind for my wife when I hike, and also for me in case of emergency.
I have not called tech support yet. I was trying to see if this was a common problem first and wanted to test it on another hike again, but I think I may end up giving them a call.
Given that the problem hike shows only the first two track points, and that the device had pending track points when you powered down, my best guess (and it's only a guess) is that all the remaining sent points where pending when you powered down - and therefore not sent. Apparently history on the device includes points that were not actually sent. I don't know if you can drill down on the device to check the send status from history or not. (Sorry, I don't have an active Explorer+ at the moment, so I can't check.) This is also consistent with the fact that the points are missing from the web site and from the plan accounting. The points would only be accounted for if they were actually sent.
The fact that the Earthmate app shows no points also backs that conclusion. Although you should see the first two points that show up in history in Earthmate.
The use of an additional GPS-enabled app on the phone definitely will not have any affect on whether or not/when the inReach itself sends track points. Especially if the phone is an Apple device, it might affect what you see in the Earthmate app. This is because the app uses iOS location services, which I believe takes into account all possible sources of position information.
