FAQs

General

I'm having a problem with the app. I should probably leave a short comment and low rating right?

No, please don't. This is not the way to get help with issues. I have no good way of responding to or addressing issues posted elsewhere.

If you car breaks down, you take it to a mechanic and explain the problem, right?

If you get seriously ill, you go see a doctor and explain the problem, right?

So if you have a problem with the app, please just email me (TreKingApp@gmail.com) and explain the problem.

I personally respond to every user email I get and can usually resolve most issues very quickly. It's that simple to get help with issues.

If you don't want to reveal your email or if you're experiencing a reproducible bug or crash, you can even use the Trek Support option from within the app itself to submit an anonymous bug report.

There's no reason to report issues on the market you got the app from.

Can you add X or Y feature?

Probably! Just email me (TreKingApp@gmail.com) your suggestion and let's discuss!

Are you single!? ;)

Depends who's asking, you little minx. Please send a pic.

Why aren't Pace, Metra, and South Shore available in the free version?

CTA routes are available for free because the CTA itself provides the data for free. They store, serve, and maintain the data. All I have to do is get it and show it to you.

Unfortunately, there is currently no equivalent bus or train tracker system for Pace, Metra, or South Shore that's provided for free to developers.

This app's support for those transit systems is completely unofficial.

This means that I have to do extra work to access the data, manipulate it to fit the app, store it, serve it to you, and then maintain it as things change.

This is all a lot of work that literally costs me time and money. If I were to provide all of this for free, I would end up losing money on this hobby app. Obviously, that makes no sense for me.

So these extra systems, at least for the time being, must be restricted to the paid version of the app to limit the number of people that are using the resources.

If and when it becomes cost-effective, I hope to enable these extra transit systems for the free version.

Troubleshooting

The app gave a prediction of X minutes but my ride came in Y minutes, what gives?

For transit systems that provide real-time predictions, the data presented by the application come directly from the transit system in question.

I have absolutely no control in generating these predictions and cannot be held responsible for inaccurate timings. This is simply what the system is reporting.

For predictions that are based on posted schedules, obviously the data is static and there is no guarantee that the transit system will adhere to the schedule precisely.

Again, I can only report when vehicles should be arriving. I have absolutely no way to force the transit system to keep to their own posted schedules.

I'm comparing the app predictions to the transit agency's website and the app is slow by a few minutes, why don't they match?

Good question! I have checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the app logic and I'm absolutely, positively showing you exactly what I get from the transit system.

There are latency, rounding, and caching issues that could be at play when getting predictions in the app versus getting them on the website.

To account for this problem, the app has a "Prediction Offset" setting which allows you to adjust the predicted times by up to 3 minutes, ensuring you will always catch your ride.

If you run into this issue consistently and / or find that the times are off by more than 2 minutes or so, please email me with information on the route, stop, direction, time of day, and prediction times you received.

I can take this data back to the transit system in question and work with them to get the kinks in the system worked out.

Why was there no prediction for the vehicle that's arriving at this very minute?

For transit systems with real-time predictions, the system relies on each vehicle accurately reporting it's current location via GPS to generate predictions.

Sometimes these vehicles stop reporting their locations and predictions for them cannot be generated.

Again, this is out of my control and there's nothing I can do about this.

Stop information for stops found via the Map screen or Quick Treks is wrong. What's up with that?

These features work through an online database that I maintain and refresh periodically.

Transit systems frequently make changes to stops so there are going to be times when the database is out of date.

Just let me know if you run into this problem and I will update the database ASAP.

One or more of my saved Treks are no longer loading predictions. It was working fine. What gives?

By saving stops to My Treks the app saves the current stop ID to look up data for that stop.

Sometimes, stops get moved, changed, or completely removed, in which case the data will no longer load.

Try deleting the Trek and creating it anew.

My question is not answered here. Now what?

Just email me directly at TreKingApp@gmail.com and I'll respond ASAP!

Beta

Can I sign up for the beta?

Sure! Just shoot me an email with your iOS device UDID (see below).

How do I find my device's UDID?

Info pulled from Apple's documentation:

    1. Plug your device into a Mac.
    2. iTunes should start automatically. If not, start iTunes.
    3. In iTunes, select your device from the top right, then the Summary tab (should be the default).
    4. In the top left area you see some device info, including Serial Number.
    5. Click where it says "Serial Number" or the number itself to change it to Identifier (UDID).
    6. You should see a huge string of characters - that is your device ID.
    7. Right-Click or (Control-Click) on the string of text and select Copy.
    8. Reply to me with that giant string so I can register your device to run the app.

How do I install the app once I'm registered for the Beta?

    1. Have your device and a Mac ready, with your device plugged into the Mac and iTunes open.
    2. Download the app to your Mac and double click it.
    3. The app should open in iTunes.
    4. In iTunes, select your device from the top right, then select the "Apps" tab.
    5. On the left you should see the app - select "Install".
    6. Hit the "Sync" button on the lower right side of the page.
    7. Once the sync completes, the app should be on your device and ready to run.