Excessive data usage

No. All maps are offline. A few tiles of offline maps exist in the folder Maps Online for 19.2MB that are there from the past. Screenshot of folder contents attached. The 2 files titled OSM - Andere_Classic.* of today are small too and I even wonder how they got there: I displayed one offline map only today.

On Samsung Galaxy S8+ SM-G955F Android 8.0.0.

Maybe a clue: I have Locus running as a service.

It'd be extremely useful if you could figure out what user action(s) triggered this.

I found the same problem a year or two ago, and noticed because I keep a tight data warning line in Android, and investigated after seeing the message. After experimenting over Wifi and checking the total usage repeatedly, I was able to track down the trigger: an error in loading an image in a geocache log. Obscure. Anyway, with that info, Menion was able to solve the problem quickly, so I'm sure yours is a separate issue.

Thanks for your input!

In my case it has nothing to do with geocaching. Never done that.

It was during the drive home after recording a hiking track that I received an auto message from my provider that my monthly allowance was used 95%. I checked and saw that Locus was to blame, still running as a service in the background.

So sad (and costly) that it was exactly the first day of my monthly allowance that this happened.

It should be a warning to all users.

I really am afraid now to run Locus while mobile data is on. Cannot do otherwise because of the (private room) buddy tracking function.

I still find this is unacceptable behavior and I will certainly look elsewhere if it happens again.

Android has a feature to show a warning if your data usage goes beyond a limit you set. Also a hard limit beyond another line, if you wish, at which point Android disables further data use.

My usage is pretty consistent, so I enable both limits, choosing a line for the warning that I won't likely see - unless some app misbehaves. The earlier Locus bug thus only cost me about a dollar (I pay a few cents for every MB). I don't trust *any* apps enough to allow them unlimited data.

I hope you can manage to track it down, and without any further expense. Good luck.

This definitely IS unacceptable behavior and I'm really sorry for this. This is for sure different problem compare to issue that was in app year ago and that Viajero found. I still can't imagine how to find out why this happens because it is so rare ...

Will try few methods anyway, best is to block app to use internet access when running in background.

The data consumption was about 277 kB/s. I can only suppose, that live tracking is sending only small data packets. But maybe first data packet after turning on tracking is bigger. And maybe this packet is repeatedly sent due to some bug...

Additional info for developers:

- Another function, that I have used on the morning during the time when excesive data consumption appeared, was Route planner.

- And online searching for few small village names (function Search adress (Online), source for search: Google).

- Lower of data consumption in later hours (see graph from my previous post) can be caused by lowering speed of internet or by the fact, that I have worked with Locus less than during first hours.

Hi Menion,

I tried to simulate similar usage of the app, but data consumption was ok.

Regarding tour quesrion:

- backup to cloud disabled, only local backup enabled

- used route planner too

- used only offline maps as far as I know

Maybe is app trying to download elevation data in bacground in some loop? (I have them downloaded long time ago, just thinking about possible bug somewhere).

My input:

- I do not use online maps.

- I do not use route function.

- Backup is set to external SD card only.

- Elevation data is available offline for local country and far around.

Hi Menion,

it happened to me the second time now (the first time, one month ago, also while driving and track recording for many hours, I reported it as a "question" here).

How it happened:

- track recording for half a day (12 hours?) while driving

- no live tracking, no navigation, no location sharing

- offline LoMaps

- global raster map in use (OSM Classic)

- Locus was all the time running in background as I was using Sygic for navigation

- I don't use Dropbox or Google Drive for Locus backups

- only (default) automatic backup is switched on I guess

- I was moving only in area covered by already downloaded LoMaps

- for all downloaded LoMaps I had elevation srtm/hgt files present

- OS: LineageOS 15.1, Android 8.1.0

- device: Xiaomi Redmi 4X

- to me it looks like it happens always while recording track (car profile) for many hours

Omg, 2 GB overnight and you have disabled "Data transfers on background"?? If there is a problem in Locus Map, it also looks like some serious problem in Android itself that allows downloading data on background even if this is prohibited in system app settings.

Anyway, I'm really sorry for this. I'm going to check updates of major external libraries app use, if there isn't any reported problem like this. If data loss is a problem for anyone of you, write use email with your email address you use in Locus Store and we will give at least small compensation with LoCoins. Thanks guys for help and additional information.

I think data on background was disabled, I am not 100% sure now though as I was tired and upset a bit :) I took the screenshot right as I found out, then I turned off mobile data for Locus to prevent any further damage. I can't tell for sure now if background data was off, but I think it was.

Alek

Great detective work, thanks!

"change immediately this global map to something other than the online map, or rather disable it completely for now."

You mean, Settings -> Maps -> Offline -> Pre-load global map, right?

Yes, exactly, thanks for precise "path", I've improved it in my first post.

Thanks for your support and feedback.

My excesive data usage happened on 5th January with offline maps preload disabled! ... I just checked it. So maybe there is somewhere else another loop...

Or was there some app update since 5th January with change of settings??

Or because I have never edited this setting before, it was not initialized but in some default state? Hmmmm.

Hmm if you never touch this setting, there should be no default value. Maybe this problem may appear in some other rare cases, like when you really quickly changed online map to some other map when the original online map was still loading. I really hope it will be this problem. We will try to speed up the update process and publish new version till the end of January.