Latest update for IOS is terrible
I am extremely unhappy with the latest update from Spartan, especially with regards to the mobile app interface. Previously, the app would download new photos chronologically and individually....you could see the number of new photos increasing, starting with the oldest ones. Now, new photos seem to appear in groups. Rather than each photo being downloaded individually, batches of pictures appear at once. This seems like it would be fine except that the app does not download all of a day's pictures. Upon opening the mobile app, it will import several pictures at once, probably a few dozen or more, including the most recent. It also imports the earliest photos from that day. However, the app does not import all of that day's pictures at once. I will review what I think to be all of the day's pictures and then delete them. Then however, if I swipe down, the app will then download 6 pictures at a time, usually from the middle of the day. Delete these and swipe down again....6 more new pictures. This is quite irritating for several reasons. If I swipe down while these 6 pictures are still "not viewed" (with the green "new" tag) on my screen, nothing happens. But if I mark these 6 pictures as viewed or delete them, I can then swipe down and get 6 more new pictures. This is quite tedious. Not to mention that these pictures which come in groups of 6 fall within a period of the day in between pictures initially downloaded. So when I review my pictures for the day....usually in the evening....they are out of order as far as time of day, and I have to download about 1/3 of my pictures in increments of 6 at a time.
I have been highly recommending Spartan cameras to my friends interested in cellular trail cameras for quite a while. The user-friendliness of the app was a big selling point for me. However, this new update is bad enough in my opinion that I called one friend and told him to go a different route. I do not think I will purchase another Spartan camera if the mobile app continues to function in this fashion.
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the app is designed to download the most recent six pics for each camera. That’s what displays on the home page on an iPad in landscape mode. When you switch to gallery mode, it then downloads all the pictures between the six most recent and the ones already downloaded.
You can refresh by scrolling to the top of the home page or the top of the gallery view (thumbnails for one camera) and pulling down.
As Johnny said, let the app delete the photos. Default purge days is 30. Set that to a lower number and the app will take care of deleting.
deleting from the app also deletes from the portal so if you accidentally delete a pic by mistake, you have to pull the SD card. If you let purge days work, the pic is still on the portal for the full 30 days and you can still view it by scrolling down in the app.
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I understand about deleting the pictures and them also being deleted on the portal. I also know how to refresh by pulling down from the top of the the screen. I normally view my pictures on an iPhone. I don’t know about gallery mode other than clicking on that camera and opening up its individual gallery. But even still, it will not download all the pictures for that day. For instance, it will show me pictures from let’s say 7 am. It will also show the most recent pictures...let’s say from 3:00-4:30 pm. But if there are several pictures from the middle of the day, it will not download those unless I view and/or delete the other pictures first. I use auto purge. But the app is no longer downloading all of my pictures in chronological order
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There are gaps in time when pictures are not downloaded no matter how times I scroll up to the top of the gallery and then pull down until/unless I view/delete the other pictures. Then they come in groups of 6. 200 pictures in groups of 6 takes a while to view. If I pull down and get 6 more pictures and then repeat that process, it will not import 6 more unless I first click on each of the previous 6 or delete them. Hope that makes sense. The only way to get all of the pictures is to delete them 6 at a time and then pull down from the top again
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It's not supposed to download them in chronological order, but it should be downloading everything between the newest 6 and the ones you've already seen. I'm checking to see whether your contact info is on file so that one of your techs can get in touch with you.
Apparently uninstall/reinstall did not fix your problem.
If you're on Facebook, you can join the Spartan Camera Community page. I posted a video showing how the download should work. I think it will work that way for everyone once a few bugs are squashed.
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Please email me your phone and email, best time to call. The number on file is a 334 area code, but our tech wants to make sure that’s your number before calling.
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My reaction to the new APP interface (iPhone) mirrors Ryan's. Strongly preferred the old interface as I felt it was much easier to use. I was also disappointed in the "tap to zoom" on each photo ... the new interface doesn't zoom in as far and doing so manually requires two hands. It seems to me that the resolution isn't as high in the thumbnails as it was before (I pay for the higher res version).
I am about to purchase additional cameras for my ranch but this update definitely has me shopping around. I will say that my Spartan Cameras are stellar performers other than these new headaches. I would love to stick with them for my future purchases if these issues can be resolved.
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The app team continues to work on the app. Hopefully they’ll get it working smoother.
There is no difference in the resolution of the thumbnails or the photos. Please double-check your settings if you think that the thumbnails are lower resolution.
The previous version of the app had glitches when it was released and we all fussed and complained just like some people are now. (The app is working well for many of us, although I miss the counter and being able to zoom more needs to be fixed.) This happens every time there’s a change, and I’m one of the big complainers amongst the testers.
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Jimmy House
i have uninstalled-reinstalled app to no avail. The purge day feature is not working. Pictures will reappear as new after being viewed or marked as already viewed. I understand that the pictures are being downloaded much faster now but being more or less scrambled as to order is very confusing. I do realize if I really take my time and study the time and date I can work it out but that is inconvenient to the point of being aggravating. I understand that as a company if you are not trying to improve you will lose out to competition. Please tell me and all the rest of your customers that y’all are working hard to remedy the situation we find ourselves in now. The new update and its features are just not desirable. I must say Spartan has responded to my questions in the recent past and I much appreciate it. Thanks
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Jimmy,
When you uninstall and reinstall the app, all photos within the last 30 days are new to the app.
I'm running over 30 cameras and have not noticed picture order being scrambled. Can you please post a screen shot that shows this? They do download in a seemingly random order (it isn't but it may look that way), but they should be in order once downloaded. The most recent six are displayed first, then anything between those and the last ones you viewed/marked as viewed.
For me, on multiple devices, the photos are downloading so much faster than they did on the old app. With the old app, it sometimes too hours for photos to finish downloading if I had to uninstall/reinstall the app (which we testers have to do somewhat frequently). Some people's photo downloads were a day or more behind and I saw that when we were at our camp. I no longer have that problem, thank goodness. However, there are obviously people who are having problems. The app team is aware of them and working on things.
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I think I have used every option concerning purge and mark as viewed. The very fact that I am having to to all this should be evidence enough that the new update is a failure as it stands now. I understand it is frustrating dealing with users that are having problems. Our expertise dealing with the new update is not on the same level with the developers. It makes the Spartan app so confusing and un-workable compared to the way it worked pre-update. If the app doesn’t change to a more user friendly product I’m afraid that my sharing group will give up completely with it. I don’t mean any of these comments to be threatening or ugly in any way but we are just at the end of the rope with “try this, try that”. We have invested money in the equipment, services and time in setting all sites up and expect to get a product equal to our investment and we were getting a valuable product and now in our opinion we are not. Please just change it back to the way it was or change it to what your customers are asking for. Reading the comments from others I can see most of us have almost the exact same concerns.
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The only thing that has changed is how photo download is handled (and that you no longer get status update notifications). The old download way was one photo at a time, which was painful if you have a bunch of cameras/photos. You couldn't even scroll down your home page while photos were downloading and if the camera you needed to view was the last one on the download list, you were out of luck. (There really shouldn't be any expertise involved with using the app because very little has changed with the app itself.)
The new way is a bunch at a time. It displays the most recent six on the home page (what shows on a tablet in landscape view) then when you open the gallery, it displays those between the six and the last ones you viewed. However, on a slower internet connection, the new method may seem slower.
Again, each time you uninstall/reinstall the app, all the pictures are new to the app because when you uninstalled, all the info where the app kept track of NEW/viewed is gone and it has to rebuild it.
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Considering dropping my subscription because of the new update . It takes forever to receive the photos and I’m receiving pics from 1-18 and today is 1/20 then it wants to load 6 pics at a time .... I have been a Spartan fan since I bought one 2 years ago and around august I bought another one then the the new update sucks so bad I’m ready to leave Spartan
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I’m amazed at the number of people who seem unwilling to give the app folks a little time to get things ironed out. Even big companies like Apple have to make adjustments in software they release. No matter how thoroughly you test, you can’t test on all the different devices that people use or in all different connectivity situations. Once an app goes from testing to release, there are things that crop up.
There is a new beta version of the iOS app that has fixed the zoom problem and is supposed to have optimized download under poor internet connectivity situations. (I say “supposed” because that’s not something I can test/verify since I’m not having the download problem.) It needs a little more testing but I’m optimistic.
The old app that y’all love drew lots of complaints when it was first released and yet it evolved into something several of you were very happy with. Download with it was horrible for me, so the new app is much better for me. Hopefully it will be much better for those of you who are having problems.
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Have those of you who posted in this thread updated to the latest version of the iOS app, 3.0.4.02, that was released earlier this week? If fixed the zoom problem and the missing sound in videos that some people experienced. It also should have improved download performance for those with connection issues.
Is the app performing any better for y’all?
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I’m using version 3.0.4.02 and still have problems like the issues in previous comments above. I missed a call from the tech support person and will try again tomorrow. It doesn’t seem to be a connection issue, it acts more like an app issue where it fails to load the pictures in the app. Some come through fine and others don’t for hours or days. I get the notification that I have a photo, but I open the app and sometimes it won’t show up for several hours. Or recent pictures will not show up and older pictures will.
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