Record Tracks

The most important feature of myTracks is the recording of GPS tracks. To start a recording tap the button with the text Rec in the lower left corner. Then select Start Recording to start recording.

Above the map, the current duration, length, speed and direction of movement are displayed. The number of recorded track points is displayed in the red circle. Activate the button with the compass needle in the lower bar to always automatically center the map to the current position.

The current recording is displayed as a path on the map, the current position as a blue dot or pin. During a recording, you can move the map, zoom in and out. If the map should always be centered to the current position, activate the button with the compass needle at the bottom. By default, the map is oriented North Up. But you can activate the compass in the settings. A compass will appear on the map. When you tap the compass, a small iPhone icon appears as overlay. Now the map automatically aligns to the direction of movement.

To stop recording, tap the Rec button and select Stop Recording. The new track is then automatically stored in the track library.

Track recording does not require an active internet connection even if no map is shown.

Track recording will continue in the background. If you start a recording and then turn off the iPhone or switch to another app, recording will continue anyway. But if you quit myTracks manually (using iOS app switcher), then the track recording will stop immediately.

Configure Recording

You can change settings for GPS recordings. Tap Rec and then Settings:

• Recording mode: Here you can set the accuracy of the recording. For GPS recordings you have to choose GPS here. Otherwise the location is calculated using WiFi networks and mobile phone networks. These other type require significantly less battery power.
• Accuracy Threshold: When the iPhone receives GPS data, it also provides information about the accuracy of the GPS measurement. This threshold controls whether only track points with high precision are recorded. If you select Precise or Very Precise, fewer GPS positions tend to be recorded. If you want to record as many points as possible, then select the value Low here.
• Time Interval: This value allows you to control the minimum time interval between two GPS track points. If you only need one track point per minute for example, then you can set this here. This setting has no effect on the battery consumption, but only on the size of the recorded track.
• Notifications: myTracks can send an iPhone local notification if it has not received new GPS data for a certain period of time. This can happen if you spend too long in a building and no GPS data is available. But this can also happen if iOS has terminated myTracks due to too many other running apps. In this case, you must restart myTracks to continue recording.

All these settings influence the regular recording only. They have no effect on the diary mode, nor on the recording with the Apple Watch.

Additional Information

The bar above the map displays some values of the current recording. You can swipe left for more information. The second bar shows the most values: duration, length, speed, height, minimum height, maximum height, ascent and descent.

If you swipe further, the speed profile and the height profile appear.

On the first bar you can find a button with an (i) symbol. If you tap it, a view will pop up showing each part of the GPS recording.

The values start time, duration and length are displayed in an overview. In the Details area, the individual sections between the first and the last point of the recording are listed. A section ends whenever a waypoint has been set or a photo has been taken. When you tap a point in this view, the corresponding position on the map is displayed with a red pin. If you tap on a section, it will be displayed on the map as a green section.

In the area Overview you will find a button with an (i) symbol. When you tap it, another view opens with details about the recording.

Waypoints

During a recording you can add waypoints. Waypoints are special track points that have a name and are displayed as a pin on the map.

To create a new waypoint, tap on the flag icon:

The last recorded track point is used as the waypoint. In the dialog new waypoint you can set the name of the waypoint. myTracks automatically tries to find a name for the location. However, this requires an internet connection. You can change the suggested name as you like.

In the section overview, the waypoints are displayed as well.

Photos

During a recording, you can take photos, which are automatically assigned to the GPS track. You start a photo shoot by tapping the camera icon.

These photos are stored inside myTracks data along with the track. If you delete a track, its photos will also be deleted.

In the settings, you can specify whether a copy of the photo should be stored in the iOS photo library additionally.

The position of a photo is displayed on the map with a small camera icon.

Short Time Recording

You must explicitly stop a regularly started recording. But myTracks provides a function to perform a timed recording. This feature is called Short Time Recording. You start such a recording via Rec and then Start Short Term Recording. In the following dialog, you can specify how long the recording should last. After the time has elapsed, the recording is automatically stopped.

Diary Mode

In addition to the regular GPS recording, there is the Diary Mode in myTracks. When this mode is activated, myTracks automatically creates an individual track for each day. In order to save battery power, the GPS chip is not used in this mode, but the position is determined by mobile phone and WiFi networks. myTracks uses an iOS feature named Significant Location Changes. Whenever iOS detects that the device has moved significantly, myTracks will be notified and adds a new track point.

While the diary mode is activated, you can start a regular recording at the same time. The diary mode has its own info bar above the map. The bar shows the date of the current diary record and the number of track points. There you will find the (i) symbol as well. It will open the overview of the individual track sections (as with the regular recording).

You can also add waypoints and photos to a diary recording. If the diary bar is visible, the waypoints or the photos are added to the diary track. Otherwise, the waypoints or the photos are added to the regular recording.

Within the track library, the diary tracks are stored in their own folder. You can configure the name of the folder in the settings.