App Feedback

Joshua1979 wrote: Been using the app for a while and it's good but I think there is one glaring gap that needs to be addressed which will make it awesome. The ability to add routes right from the app. There are a lot of missing routes at even well documented crags. If you had the ability to snap a beta shot and add info while you're right in front of the route (then sync with MP next time you're within wifi range) that would be of great value and probably increase your database size quicker then people just adding routes on the PC. 

This would be awesome! I have been traveling in Colombia recently and trying to add climbs when I can but I am not traveling with a computer so usually by the time I have access to one motivation is low and memory is foggy.

Please make it possible to download areas, not just entire states. This is a major step backwards.

Ryan Huetter wrote:

Please make it possible to download areas, not just entire states. This is a major step backwards.

+1, with limited storage on my old phone, I thought this was an unfortunate change.

Also, it now shows the number of routes in each of the download packages, but not the file size. I found it helpful that the old app showed the file size so that I knew what I had room for on my phone when looking for areas to download.

(Yes, obviously I could use a new phone, but that is beside the point)

Curtis Tripp wrote:

+1, with limited storage on my old phone, I thought this was an unfortunate change.

Also, it now shows the number of routes in each of the download packages, but not the file size. I found it helpful that the old app showed the file size so that I knew what I had room for on my phone when looking for areas to download.

(Yes, obviously I could use a new phone, but that is beside the point)

While we want to support somewhat older devices, we also want to take advantage of what the new phones can do.  Since the last app version was designed many years ago, the standard level of storage has grown, chips are much faster, and there are lots of new operating system features.  We can build a better app if we take advantage of those things.  So we don't want to leave you out, but we look at the statistics about devices using the app, and choose a cut-off point that doesn't affect too many people.

Is there any way to consistently get overview maps / photos of the different areas? This is the one function of a good guidebook that the app is nowhere close to replacing. It is so hard to orient at a new area with multiple sub-areas when there's no map, especially given that the sub-areas are listed alphabetically in the app menu rather than in some logical sequence based on geography / physical adjacency. 

Nick Wilder wrote:

While we want to support somewhat older devices, we also want to take advantage of what the new phones can do.  Since the last app version was designed many years ago, the standard level of storage has grown, chips are much faster, and there are lots of new operating system features.  We can build a better app if we take advantage of those things.  So we don't want to leave you out, but we look at the statistics about devices using the app, and choose a cut-off point that doesn't affect too many people.

While the storage issue is a part of it, having SO many areas within a large state (CA or CO for example), it adds an extra layer of cumbersome scrolling and tapping to get to anything I actually want to use. 

Ryan Huetter wrote:

While the storage issue is a part of it, having SO many areas within a large state (CA or CO for example), it adds an extra layer of cumbersome scrolling and tapping to get to anything I actually want to use. 

Ryan, an option is to review with the area admin if breaking up a state into a few large areas, Colorado looks pretty ripe for this sort of regional cleanup, same with Minnesota...

It's annoying now that you can't see other people's TICKS.  The comments on TICKS are often the best ones!

You can look at them by clicking the "View Ticks" link that is in the header at the beginning of the comments.  A bit hard to find... and they only load if you're online.

On my iPhone app; when I'm in the forums and want to click on a link that someone has pasted, it won't load. been this way since the swap over. 

Why can't we download sub areas anymore within States? Now the new update requires me to download an entire state. Has the data been compressed such that the amount of data I'm downloaded for an entire state is equivalent to what I was downloading for a simple area bitd?

Anyone else having trouble with loading links in forums? Been this way since the big change. I can't open any link. Photo or article. 

Joe Garibay wrote:

Anyone else having trouble with loading links in forums? Been this way since the big change. I can't open any link. Photo or article. 

Confirmed.  We're pushing a bug fix soon, and we'll look into it.

I'm using the iPhone app. 

It is allowing me to download photos for areas but not individual routes. There isn't even an option to download the photos on the route only (not the area) 

This is rather important, no?

I'll say it again and stand by my assertion--the new app is garbage.  South Dakota is broken; I spent 10 days in Spearfish earlier this month relying on just the app, and had downloaded SD and all the photos for the Spearfish and Needles crags I wanted.  At some point, the auto-update feature broke for SD, it would show update progressing to 50% then the app would completely crash. Since it now forces an update for all installed areas when you launch it (as opposed to the old app, where you started updates manually), opening the app resulted in an update-crash-reload-update-crash-reload loop.  Had to delete and re-download the app; all pictures were gone, though  my phone still showed MP consuming a WHOLE lot of storage. Re-downloaded all pics, only to have this happen twice more during my trip.   Thank you REI, you broke the app with your "improvements". Way to go. Then again, having been an REI member for more than 20 years, I'm seeing the same degredation in quality in your stores, so at least you're internally consistent. :/

Drew Sylvester wrote:

Thank you REI, you broke the app with your "improvements". Way to go. Then again, having been an REI member for more than 20 years, I'm seeing the same degredation in quality in your stores, so at least you're internally consistent. :/

I'm pretty sure REI has nothing to do with the coding and development of the site or the app. AFAIK, it's still Nick et al, who have always been the ones doing the dev work.

Marc801 C wrote:

I'm pretty sure REI has nothing to do with the coding and development of the site or the app. AFAIK, it's still Nick et al, who have always been the ones doing the dev work.

Yep, blame us as individuals that build MP, not REI.

Sam built our first app years ago, and is still the only engineer on the app.  I'm still building the site after 12 years now, along with two newer engineers (Rachel and Brian - thanks to REI - I was severely overwhelmed without them).  We are employees of REI, though not part of their main engineering team, and we have our own office in Boulder (REI is in Kent WA).

BTW, we'll have a mini-release of a new app that addresses some of these concerns in a couple months.

Hmm, do I owe REI an apology? I assumed that it was a different set of engineers working on this, as the old one was great, reliable, easy to navigate, and never crashed.  The new one crashes on me constantly--what drove the new app, then, if not REI? I love MP, but trying to use this app for the last 6 weeks has been an exercise in frustration of ginormous proportions.

App has been working fine for me but i have one small gripe:

When i go to give a star rating, the app automatically applies a grade rating to the route. I like to star routes but never grade. I don't want to reinforce the consensus grade whenever I leave a star rating. Can we make star ratings and route grades separate again? 

I've been trying to add ticks for a few months but they will not sync. Also everytime I open the MP app on my Android I get an error code. I uninstalled the app hoping for a miraclr fix but ended up screwing myself more. I can no longer log into my acct through facebook and lost all of my areas. Any ideas on how I can login to the app now without creating a new acct?