NavGPS Support

NavGPS is an offline-first GPS for iPhone and iPad: it records your track, shows you where you are on USGS topo, imagery and vector maps you can download for areas with no signal, and reads live engine data from an OBDLink MX plus adapter against the drive you are recording. It also shares live location with a Family Circle, keeps a library of your tracks, and imports and exports GPX.

NavGPS requires iOS 18.0 or later, on iPhone or iPad. Published by TEMBN.LLC.

Troubleshooting

The OBDLink MX+ adapter doesn't appear

This is the most common setup problem, and it is almost always iOS rather than the app. Pairing the adapter in iOS Settings → Bluetooth is only half of it — iOS also has to hand the adapter over to NavGPS specifically, and that is a separate step it does not always do on its own.

• Plug the adapter into the OBD2 port and switch the ignition on, then pair it in iOS Settings → Bluetooth.
• Open Settings → OBD2 Diagnostic in NavGPS. It lists every adapter iOS is offering the app and what each one says it can do, so you can see which half is missing rather than guess.
• If “Paired Accessories” is empty, tap Let iOS Connect the Adapter on that screen. That asks iOS to present its own accessory picker and set the session up; re-checking the list without it will never create one.
• If the adapter is missing from that list too, it is identifying itself as something this version doesn't recognise. The diagnostic screen shows what NavGPS is looking for, and you can copy it to send to us.

The first connection to a vehicle takes ten seconds or more while NavGPS works out how that vehicle talks. After that it remembers, and reconnects much faster. If a car that used to work stops answering — a different car on the same adapter, or a replaced engine computer — use the reconnect-from-scratch option on the diagnostic screen, which forgets what it learned and starts again.

Set the vehicle under Settings → Vehicles & Auto-Connect. With auto-connect on, NavGPS reconnects to a known adapter whenever it is present. Fuel range needs your tank size, under Engine → Fuel & Engine.

An offline map download stopped, or seems stuck

Downloads are built to be interrupted. Leaving the download screen, switching apps, force-quitting, or losing signal all pick up from roughly where they stopped rather than starting over.

• One download runs at a time, on purpose: splitting a weak connection between two large areas finishes neither.
• Everything in flight and everything already stored is on one screen, Settings → Offline Maps, with sizes and delete — maps, street areas, roads, places and terrain.
• A job the system paused when the app was suspended picks itself back up when you return to the app.
• A job that finished with failures, or that you cancelled, can be run again; anything already on the phone is skipped, so it only fetches what is missing.
• Download before you leave town. Tile servers are reached over the internet — in a dead zone a download has nothing to fetch from, even though maps you already downloaded keep working.

Deleting an area removes only the tiles no other area still needs, so overlapping downloads don't take each other's map with them.

Recording stops when the screen goes off, or the map won't follow me

Recording a full track with the screen off, and sharing live location with a Family Circle while the app is closed, both need Always location access and full accuracy. “While Using the App” is enough to see yourself on the map, but not for either of those.

• Check iOS Settings → Privacy & Security  → Location Services → NavGPS: set Always and turn Precise Location on.
• iOS asks in two stages — first for while-in-use, then for the upgrade to always — so it is easy to end up with the first grant only. NavGPS flags it in-app when you are sharing but the system grant is lower than that.
• Gaps in a track at rest stops are usually Auto-Pause doing its job: it stops storing points after about fifteen seconds of standing still and resumes when you move. Turn it off under Settings → Recording.
• After a force-quit or a reboot, iOS relaunches NavGPS in the background on a significant location change or a geofence exit and presence resumes on its own — the first update can lag until you have moved a meaningful distance.

Family Circle: I joined but can't see anyone

Joins are gated. Entering a circle's 6-character invite code puts you in as pending, and the circle's owner has to approve you before anyone's location is visible in either direction — until then your row reads “Waiting for the owner to approve you” and the roster stays hidden. The owner is the only person who sees who is waiting, on the circle's own screen.

• A Family Circle is always on; unlike a convoy it doesn't stop when a drive ends. You can pause your own sharing from your row at any time.
• Not seeing pins on the map is a separate switch from sharing: the Family Circle map layer only changes what you see, under Map Layers → Family Circle.
• Leaving a circle removes you from it. If the owner leaves or deletes the circle, it goes away for everyone in it.
• The emergency alert reaches every circle you are approved in, with your location — it reaches your family, not a dispatcher. Call 911 for an actual emergency.

Signing in to the web app at navgps.app/app

The browser never holds your device's credentials. Open navgps.app/app, which shows six digits, then enter them in the app under Settings → Sign in on the Web to approve that browser.

• A code is good for ten minutes and once only. If it has expired or has already been used, reload /app for a fresh one.
• An approved browser stays signed in for 30 days. Sign out from the website to end it sooner.
• Only approve a code you are looking at yourself, in your own browser. Approving lets that browser read your tracks, photos and drives.
• The web app shows what has been synced. Cloud sync is off until you turn on Settings → Sync tracks to navgps.app.

GPX import and export

Import with Tracks → Import GPX, or open a .gpx file from Files, Mail or any share sheet and choose NavGPS. Big files — tens of thousands of points — can take a moment, but the app stays usable while they come in.

Export a single track from its detail screen with Export GPX, which hands a file named after the track to the iOS share sheet; a standalone waypoint exports the same way. NavGPS also appears in the Files app, so you can copy GPX in and out over USB or iCloud Drive without the share sheet.

Frequently asked

Does it work with no signal?

Yes — that is the point of it. Recording, the compass, the GPS fix, map tiles and vector areas you downloaded, offline routing over a downloaded road roads, and place search over a downloaded pack all work with everything switched off. What needs a connection: downloading new maps, weather radar, Family Circle presence, cloud sync, and the Trail Library. Download the area you are headed to first. There is also an optional predictive cache that looks ahead while you are moving and quietly stores the map for the road in front of you, so losing signal doesn't leave a blank screen.

What map sources does it use?

USGS The National Map for topo, imagery-topo and shaded relief; OpenFreeMap for the downloadable vector street maps; Esri World Imagery and an open terrain elevation dataset for the 3D terrain view; Macrostrat and USGS MRData for the geology layers; Iowa Environmental Mesonet for weather radar; Overture Maps Foundation data for offline place packs; and NOAA raster nautical charts, which you import yourself from NOAA's download portal. Offline routing is built from OpenStreetMap road and trail data for the region you download.

What hardware do the engine features need?

An OBDLink MX plus adapter in your vehicle's OBD2 port. Apple only lets apps talk to approved adapters, so the cheap Bluetooth clones sold online cannot be reached by any iPhone app, including this one. With it connected, NavGPS logs coolant and transmission temperature, RPM, OBD speed, voltage and fuel figures against the track you are recording, reads and clears check engine codes, and can show chosen readings on the map.

How do I delete my data?

Tracks, waypoints and photos live on your device, in the app. Deleting a track in the app deletes it, and deleting NavGPS from your phone removes all of it. Nothing reaches navgps.app unless you turn on cloud sync, publish a track to the Trail Library, share one to a group, or join a Family Circle. For the copies that are in the cloud: unpublish a track from its publish sheet to pull it out of the Trail Library; delete a synced track from the web app at /app, which removes the whole thing — the route, its waypoints, its engine log and anything shared from it; leave a circle to drop out of it; and sign out from the website to end a browser session. Turning cloud sync off stops any further upload.

How do I get a track off the phone?

Three ways. Open the track and tap Export GPX to send a GPX file anywhere the iOS share sheet reaches — AirDrop, Mail, Files, another app. Or connect the phone and copy the file out of NavGPS in the Files app. Or, if cloud sync is on, sign in at /app and download the GPX — and the engine log as CSV — in a browser.