Troubleshooting Guide for iWalk Cornwall Apple app

Apple Troubleshooting Guide

Contents

    Buying walks

    Normal behaviour: walks are sold as in-app purchases so on pressing "buy walk", iOS pops up a box for Apple to take a payment and the purchase is stored in your Apple account. The app is then notified of the purchase and should download the walk (progress bar) which should then appear in "My Walks" in the app.

    Trouble making a purchase

    If you are having trouble making a payment to Apple, here are some things that could help:

    • Check you have a valid payment method setup for the App Store. There are some tips on how to do this here.
    • Check the restrictions on your device to make sure in-app purchases are allowed. There's a guide here.
    • Restart your device (this will force it to re-sync its purchasing data with Apple's servers).
    • Reinstall the app (in case it was corrupted during installation).

    If none of those things help you can try contacting Apple for support as they will be able to look into any issues with your Apple account.

    Not sure if purchase went through

    You can double-check that the purchase went through and was recorded in your Apple account using the guide here.

    Purchase went through but walk didn't download

    A quick thing to try first is:

    • Select "Check for walk updates" on the "More options" menu of the app.

    This will check back with Apple if the purchase was delayed but has now come through. It will also download any walks in the Apple account that are not already on the device.

    If after this, the walk still doesn't download (i.e. the information about the purchase hasn't been delivered from Apple to the app) then the following has fixed the majority of "stuck" purchase issues reported to date:

    • Restart the device (clears in-memory caches)
    • Uninstall the app (clears caches in phone storage)
    • Reinstall the app and re-run it
    • Wait a minute or so to give the app a chance to sync up with Apple
    • Press "Restore Purchases" on the home screen of the app if the walks don't automatically download

    If this doesn't bring back your walk, then it's likely that either the purchase is stuck somewhere in Apple's purchasing system or that your device is having trouble communicating with Apple. A couple more things you can check:

    • You can check the status of the purchase in your Apple account using "show order history" to see if it's marked pending due to some sort of payment processing delay between Apple and the payment provider.
    • Since the walks are non-consumable in-app purchases (which in plain English means you can only be charged once by Apple for a walk then you own it forever in your Apple account), you can also try purchasing the same walk again to attempt to kick the Apple purchasing system into life. Apple will detect that you already own the walk and will not charge you twice but it may trigger the stuck purchase to be delivered to the app - this has worked for some people.

    If you're still having problems after this please Contact Us, providing the diagnostic info when prompted and describing clearly to us what you've already tried and we'll help you troubleshoot further. It's more likely to be a problem with iOS than the app itself but we might still be able to give you some things to try or give you some more detail about the cause if you need to call Apple support.

    Problems opening downloading/opening your walks on a new iPhone

    Check your new iPhone is signed into Apple with the same Apple ID as your old one as Apple store the walks that you own in your Apple account.

    If you restored your apps from iCloud onto a new iPhone and are experiencing issues, uninstall the app from the device and reinstall it from the App Store. When it starts, the app will get a list of the walks you own from Apple and download these. You can also use the "check for walk updates" on the "More Options" menu to manually trigger a check with Apple.

    Also see the next item for more general things...

    Purchased walks are not synchronising between my devices when I press "restore purchases"

    You need to be signed into both devices with the same Apple ID. If you definitely are signed in as the same user on both devices then try the following on the device that the walks are not appearing on:

    • Select "Check for walk updates" on the "More options" menu of the app.

    If that doesn't work:

    • Uninstall the app (this will clear the operating system caches)
    • Reinstall the app and re-run it
    • Wait a minute or so to give the app a chance to sync up with Apple
    • Press "Restore Purchases" on the app home screen

    If that's still not working then it's most likely that there's some kind of problem in iOS/iPadOS.

    • Try restarting the device and also signing out and back into your Apple ID (both have fixed issues for some people) and then try Restore Purchases once more.
    • Double-check that your device can see the walks in your Apple account by opening the order history on the device - Tap on "Showing 90 days" at the top to go back further if necessary. Then re-open the iWalk Cornwall app to see if the walks download (the act of viewing the purchase history will sometimes unclog Apple's purchasing system).
    • Since the walks are non-consumable in-app purchases (which in plain English means you can only be charged once for a walk then you own it forever in your Apple account), you can also try purchasing one of the walks you already own (but isn't restoring) again to attempt to kick the Apple purchasing system into life. Apple will detect that you already own the walk and will not charge you twice but it may trigger the purchase to be delivered to the app - this has worked for some people.

    If you're still having problems after this please contact us via the app (More Options > Contact Us), providing the diagnostic info when prompted and describing clearly what you've already tried and we'll help you troubleshoot further.

    Walk progress isn't being tracked

    • At the risk of stating the obvious, the walk needs to be followed in the direction written (not backwards). The app only works in one direction because the directions are detailed hand-written descriptions like in a walking book which are nonsense when read backwards (simplistic computer-generated instructions used in road satnavs don't work in the countryside).
    • Check the walk has started (the Summary screen should say "Walk progress" below the title). Normally the walk starts automatically when you reach the start location but:
      • if you don't visit the start point, tracking won't begin until you reach another direction point and say "yes" when it offers to start from there.
      • if the walk was previously marked as completed, it will need to be reset first (this is so your walk stats don't get wiped when you pass a walk you've done before)
      If the Summary screen doesn't say "Walk progress":
      • if it says "Walk completed", press the "Reset walk" button
      • if it says "Parking" below a title and description, the walk hasn't started yet so scroll down to "Begin walk" (just above the green box) and press that.
    • Check the app is being delivered GPS positions by checking if your position (yellow arrow) is shown on the map screen. If not see the GPS troubleshooting tips.
    • In the app's settings (More, Options, Settings) check that "GPS tracking" and "Background GPS tracking" are both enabled.
    • In the phone's settings, check the app has been granted location permissions of "Always" (Apple) or "Allow all the time" (Android) (this is needed because "When is use" / "while using the app" actually means "turn off GPS when the screen is off" which is no use for tracking a walk).

    GPS

    There's a red "NO GPS" sign at the top of the page

    While this sign is displayed, the app cannot track your position to give you relevant direction information.

    If the app is denied access to the device location, this sign will appear. The first time you enter navigation mode, you will be asked if you wish to allow the app access to your location. You must answer "OK" to enable the app to navigate. If you tapped "Don't Allow" by accident, go to the Settings app, select Privacy, then Location and turn on location services for this app.

    This sign may also appear if your device does not have a GPS receiver or it is not accessible. Note that while the iPhone and iPad-Mini have built-in GPS receivers, WiFi-only iPads (those that do not have a 3G sim card) do not. If you wish to use this app with an iPad that doesn't have an internal GPS receiver, you will need to purchase an external GPS receiver.

    There's an orange "SEEKING GPS" sign at the top of the page

    While this is displayed, the app cannot track your position to give you relevant direction information.

    It is displayed when the GPS receiver your device is using is activated but a GPS fix has yet to be acquired. In order to track your position, the receiver must locate a minimum of 3 GPS satellites. When the walk navigation is started, this can take anywhere from a couple of seconds to a few minutes. You may also see this sign appear if your GPS receiver loses its location fix. This can occur when objects are obscuring the sky such as when you are under heavy tree cover or inside a building. The sign will disappear once a fix has been reacquired. If for some reason this sign doesn't disappear, try restarting your device.

    App is not tracking progress around the walk

    The highlighted direction should automatically advance as you follow the walk and the app should alert you with a beep when you reach a new direction. If neither of these are happening, it's likely the app isn't getting location updates from the phone.

    There are 2 separate places in the Settings where permission needs to be given to be able to get your location to guide you on the walk:

    • In Settings, Privacy, Motion and Fitness there is a global "Fitness Tracking" switch which needs to be on.
    • In Settings, iWalk Cornwall:
      • "Motion and Fitness" needs to be on
      • Location needs to be "Always" (note that "When in use" mode is no good as it will deny the app location data when the screen is off which is useless for keeping track of a walk)

    Directions are updating but no sound is being made

    If the app is tracking progress (i.e. the current direction is being advanced OK) but there is no beep when you reach each direction, check:

    • In Settings, that "Do not disturb" is not enabled.
    • In the iWalk Cornwall app, in "More Options", "Settings" that "Play sound on alerts" is enabled.

    An issue not described here

    The following steps have been found to fix 99% of device issues:

    • Restart the device (clears in-memory caches and reboots phone operating system)
    • Uninstall the app (clears caches in phone storage)
    • Reinstall the app (ensures the app installed properly e.g. if the phone operating system was malfunctioning before)
    • Press "Restore Purchases" on the home screen of the app (re-downloads a fresh copy of all walks)

    If an issue still persists after this then contact us and we'll help you to troubleshoot further.

    Also, if you have a question rather an actual problem, check out the FAQ.