Navionics App Issue

[Black Sheep]

I’d just add my voice to that of Blacksheep which seems to be consistent with what Refueler and John_Silver have seen. If you NEVER turn WiFi on on the tablet (mine is Android) and don’t have a SIM card etc in so the tablet/app does not think it should have access to the internet it seems to work fine indefinitely.

Hmm... you've slightly misinterpreted my post. I gave one example of when Navionics can refuse to let you in (when it gets a sniff of Internet), but I don't claim that's the only circumstance.

I had a different but related problem this week. The tablet I use for nav no longer connects to Internet except under my explicit control. So I should be OK, right? But when I fired it up this weekend, I had no charts. Just the "world view" that gives the vaguest of blocky outlines. Totally useless for navigation. So it didn't "work fine indefinitely".

What I think was happening is related to their subscription model. My subs came up for renewal earlier in the month. I paid in very good time (weeks ahead). But every time I used the app, it still said that my subs were about to expire and I'd lose all access. This happened even on my phone, which is connected. I got worried that my subs hadn't taken, but when I logged on to the site, there they were. I hoped that this was just a glitch, and the renewal had been logged on my phone. I took the tablet on line after renewing to give it a chance to see the renewal. But it appears that the software has a very dumb view. It only knows about the current subscription, and when it runs out. Only after it has expired, does it try to check if there's a new one. But my tablet doesn't connect, so it didn't see the renewal, so it removed all my chart access. Luckily, I was in port, so was able to connect, and the charts reappeared. It was only much later that I realised that AIS targets weren't appearing; as that's a paid-for feature, Navionics disabled it, but didn't re-enable it.

My advice is - never plan to be sailing outside data range on the day your subs renew.

These are all problems caused by Garmin's switch to a subscription model, but the software was never designed for that, so isn't robust with the kind of intermittent connections that many of us have.

 

[ylop]

Hmm... you've slightly misinterpreted my post. I gave one example of when Navionics can refuse to let you in (when it gets a sniff of Internet), but I don't claim that's the only circumstance.

I had a different but related problem this week. The tablet I use for nav no longer connects to Internet except under my explicit control. So I should be OK, right? But when I fired it up this weekend, I had no charts. Just the "world view" that gives the vaguest of blocky outlines. Totally useless for navigation. So it didn't "work fine indefinitely".

What I think was happening is related to their subscription model. My subs came up for renewal earlier in the month. I paid in very good time (weeks ahead). But every time I used the app, it still said that my subs were about to expire and I'd lose all access. This happened even on my phone, which is connected. I got worried that my subs hadn't taken, but when I logged on to the site, there they were. I hoped that this was just a glitch, and the renewal had been logged on my phone. I took the tablet on line after renewing to give it a chance to see the renewal. But it appears that the software has a very dumb view. It only knows about the current subscription, and when it runs out. Only after it has expired, does it try to check if there's a new one. But my tablet doesn't connect, so it didn't see the renewal, so it removed all my chart access. Luckily, I was in port, so was able to connect, and the charts reappeared. It was only much later that I realised that AIS targets weren't appearing; as that's a paid-for feature, Navionics disabled it, but didn't re-enable it.

My advice is - never plan to be sailing outside data range on the day your subs renew.

These are all problems caused by Garmin's switch to a subscription model, but the software was never designed for that, so isn't robust with the kind of intermittent connections that many of us have.

mmm… I have a subscription which expires/renews tomorrow. I’m not at the boat this weekend but if I get time later I’ll charge up an old phone, install Navionics and leave offline and see how it copes. I don’t have an issue with them enforcing subscription but if as you say it only checks that at the point of roll over and locks you out that is bad.