Locus Wear crashing

After writing this report I decided to start testing myself: as the Ticwatches are great watches, still the step to WearOS4 has not been made yet, still stuck on WearOS3. So it should be ok to downgrade Locus Wear to the previous one.

I removed Locus Wear from Watch and from phone. On the backups of my old (rooted) phones I found Locus Wear 1.1.6 and installed that on phone and watch.

This setup also works: the app starts smoothly on the watch. Even better, it is A LOT smoother: I turn my watch and bang, it is there. Just as I expect with a Ticwatch Ultra.

I now start to think something went bad in Locus Wear 1.2.0 for my setup. I will test some more and report back to you.

EDIT: I used it for some time now: I think this app downgrade does the trick for me: the watch now responds very fast: I turn my wrist and immediately all info is there, the map, incl Nav info. Also zooming in/out is now immediately, also that was stuttering with the latest Wear app.

I went out for some jogging and have put the Locus Wear 1.1.6 to the test: works like a charm, fast and responsive. For me it is clear there is something wrong (for me) using Locus Wear 1.2.0.

Not sure it is comparable because I only use guidance mode. But I sometimes had problems where the position on the watch was not updated or the map material was not updated and it did only show an empty grid. As well I sometimes had the error message that there was no connection to the mobile, but the watch was still connected.

Adding a detail I noticed yesterday (and totally surprised me): the phone is stating version 1.1.6 of Locus Wear, while the watch is stating 1.2.0. Euh??? I also do not want to touch the setup right now, because it works perfectly for me. Turn the watch to activate the screen and bang: it shows the map, route, all. Just as it should :)

I bought myself a smartwatch for outdoor navigation and I face similar issues.

When navigating or in guidance mode, Locus Wear seems to crash regularly. This is reported by Android system and also it "feels" like it (delays as described above). And the biggest issue - the (phone's) battery lasts only half a day then. Without watch navigation / guidance it's a full day.

Recording tracks via watch is working fine.

Setup: Samsung Galaxy A52, Android 12 + Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, WearOS 3.2

Help is very much appreciated. With the current battery usage it's not really practically usable. Many thanks :)

Any idea when pushing that new version of Locus Wear to Playstore? Do you want me to test the update beforehand?

Hi guys,

few months already I'm trying to publish the new version on Google Play but the version is always rejected, so no success so far, sorry.

For the brave and skilled users, versions are available for download and manual install in our testing Google Drive directory (next to Locus Map 4 Beta versions), so feel free to try it and let me know if finally works as expected.

Hi, wow, didn't know it can be such a big deal to upload stuff on Play Store...

Thanks for the link! I think I'd like to give it a try but I'm wondering - this is the main Locus app and not the Wear Plugin, isn't it?

Also I'm wondering, what's the difference between the two files?

Many thanks!

Ah, I'm stupid, sorry guys, wrong link.

The correct link on the latest public wear add-on is here ("wear" directory). Sorry once more.

Many thanks, Menion! I've installed version 1.4.2 and will test it in the upcoming weeks... First impression: Looks good! :)

Hey Manuel,

I am not super firm with adb commands.

So i would

adb connect <ip>

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.package.name

adb install -s <ip> name.apk

? How would I find out the package name?

thanks. Finn

Hey Finn, check this out: https://wearablestouse.com/blog/2022/01/04/install-apps-apk-samsung-galaxy-watch-4/ (Chapter 1.3.) That makes it easy. :) Don't forget to switch off ADB debugging afterwards.

Hi Menion and Locus Map Dev Team,

unfortunately the 1.4.2. version does not work for me. On the watch I noticed it's not possible to zoom out. (One click works out but if I go further, the map just appears tiny and the area around is black.)

But also my phone keeps on reporting error messages. "Wear for Locus is crashing repeatedly" and "Wear for Locus is not working properly, please clear cache" and in the end "Wear for Locus is not working correctly. Please wait for an update provided by the developer."

(Note: My Android is in German, the sentences above are free translations.)

So I think I'll go back to 1.4.0.

I'm absolutely looking forward to another update. I really want to use this watch plug in. :)

If I can help in any way to make things happen, please let me know. :)

Hi Menion,

thanks for your reply! I'll have a look and see it I can create the log. It might just take a week or so.

Have a nice weekend!

I now see version 1.4.3 in the 'wear' directory on google drive: is that fixing for above issue that Manuel reported on?

Thanks for updating the apps works a lot better, even on my older ticwatch pro 2020! HOpe to see more updates coming.

I accidentally updated wear on my phone and things stopped working, as I had mixed versions somehow on Phone vs TicWatch: so I went to the download and saw that 1.5.0 was placed there a few days ago: installed on both phone and Watch (apk adb sideloaded) and yes: I am back in business again with flashy fast watch. Hope you get it all pushed to appstore soon.

Hey I see that you uploaded new Versions I installed 1.51 and it works. If you let us know what you fixed I can Beta test it.

I opened another tracker concerning orientation and zoom. Zoom while in guideance mode has been fixed but orientation when waking the watch screen still ist north until location is updated.

Any news for that?

Hi guys,

The Wear add-on has been in Friday finally published on Google Play (11th attempt). I hope, most of the serious problems are fixed now. Thanks for your patience.

Yep, found the update via the Playstore: version 1.5.3. It updated OK on phone and then on watch as well. I biked once and the wear app behaved OK on my Ticwatch. Nice!