GPS Tips

Slopes uses GPS to track and record your activities. GPS (Global Positioning System) works by connecting the chip in your phone to overhead satellites and is used to identify location, speed, distance, and more. While GPS works everywhere in the world and under most weather conditions, bad GPS reception can happen occasionally. This can be down to a random loss of connection to satellites or an external factor such as your proximity to dense trees or tall buildings, heavy cloud cover, or even just having your phone buried deep at the bottom of your backpack. Cool fact - your device generally needs to receive signal from around 5 satellites to get an accurate estimate of its location.

To get the most out of Slopes and make sure you capture every awesome minute of your days skiing and snowboarding, you need to make sure that your device has a strong GPS fix before you start recording.

*If you have a Samsung, OnePlus, HTC, Google Pixel, Huawai, LG, Motorola, Sony or Xiaomi device, you'll probably want to check out the device specific troubleshooting too.

Luckily, there's a few things you can do to avoid GPS issues. Most of the time your device can get a good GPS signal in <10 seconds. But if you're having issues, you can try the following:

Make sure you're outside; being indoors can degrade the accuracy of your phone's GPS.
Let Slopes get a good GPS fix before you turn off cell data or WIFI as those can speed up the acquisition process.
Turn your phone off and on.
Turn off GPS for approximately 30 seconds, then turn it back on.
Remove the phone case - occasionally a phone case can affect your device getting a good GPS signal.
Make sure that Slopes is allowed to use your location via Settings > Apps > Slopes > Permissions > Toggle Location ON. You will also need to make sure that you've allowed Slopes to use GPS in the background.
Make sure that your location settings are set to High Accuracy via Settings > Connections > Location > Locating method > High accuracy.
Clear cache and data for maps via Settings > Application Manager > Downloaded Apps > Maps > Clear Cache > Confirm > Clear Data

Device Specific Troubleshooting

If you are still experiencing recording issues, you may need to disable your device's battery saver settings such as Power Saving Mode, Battery Management, Optimization or any other battery saving third-party apps. We've listed instructions below for devices running Android 6 and above.

Google Pixel

Settings > Apps > Slopes > Advanced > Battery > Battery optimization > Change view to All apps > Slopes > Not optimized

HTC

Settings > Power > Battery optimization > Not optimized > All apps > Slopes > Don't optimize > Done

Huawei

Turn Energy Settings to Normal and add Slopes to 'Protected Apps'
Settings > Apps > Advanced > Ignore optimizations > Allowed > All apps > Slopes > Allow

Settings > Battery & power saving > Battery usage > Ignore optimizations > turn ON for Slopes

Motorola

Settings > Battery > select the menu in the upper right-hand corner > Battery optimization > Not optimized > All Apps > Slopes > Don't Optimize

OnePlus

Settings > Battery > Battery optimization > select menu at the top > switch to All apps list > Slopes > Don't optimize

Samsung

Settings > Apps > select the menu in the upper right-hand corner > Special access > Optimize battery usage > All apps > Toggle OFF for Slopes

Sony

Settings >Battery > select the menu in the upper right-hand corner > Battery optimization > Apps > Slopes

Xiaomi

Settings > Additional Settings > Battery & performance > Manage apps battery usage > apps > Slopes