Outdooractive Reviews 247

forced onto crap outdooractive from brilliant viewranger, utterly useless and hopeless, look at all the other 1 star reviews, just don't bother, would give zero stars if I could

Like others on here I have been a satisfied Viewranger user for years and invested good money on various maps and now having been forced to transfer to this totally useless Outdooractive app which doesn't allow me to use my paid for maps feel totally ripped off. Maybe all previous Viewranger users should club together to make the owners of this app refund all the money paid for lost content.

I'm a keen hill walkers, not an IT specialist. I admit I haven't given OA a proper try-out yet. First impressions? Terrible, despite the help team being quick to respond. 2 hours to download Yorkshire Dales OS maps? Would have taken seconds on Viewranger and downloading used my entire GB allowance for the month. I have no way of knowing if said maps have downloaded until I get out walking or if I've got loads of others I don't want. No grid refs - a vital feature. Feels like an app designed by computer geeks, not serious walkers.
In TGO mag May 2021, the OA CEO promised VR wouldn't be switched off at some random date. But that's what's happened. His response to criticisms of the app back then was always 'we're working to improve the app and instal missing features' - the same reply to negative reviews up to the present. Why weren't these bugs sorted before making VR users transfer at the end of Feb 22? Why antagonise VR users by ending the VR app? Why fix something which wasn't broken?
I'll give the app a good go while I'm in the Dales, but like plenty of others you've already annoyed me by cancelling access to maps I've paid for and thought were mine for life. So you're starting from a low base of goodwill

Rubbish... So sad... You only miss it when it's gone... #RIP #ViewRanger

Totally useless compared to ViewRanger, all the money and routes I’ve planned over the years will be lost, thanks ViewRanger, any chance of my money back that you’ve had over the years 🙁😩
Utter, utter rubbish, avoid, just need to check I haven’t subscribed. Back to O/S maps then for me 👎🏽

This app is utterly useless. I used to have viewranger which was excellent but unfortunately they sold out to this company. The tracking is usless, the maps wont appear and i just wish hadn't gone with it... Only option now is the OS app which I'll use from now on.. Please dont pay for this app as its a complete waste of money!

Like many others I have used the excellent viewranger app for years and the replacement outdooractive app is utter crap in comparison. There are much better apps on the market for os. I paid £250 lifetime OS for viewranger and now feel ripped off

I’ve just tried using this clunky and very poor app again. Why, oh why did they have to take what was a brilliant app in the shape of ViewRanger and change into this dreadful thing? So poor and quite unusable in many ways and lacks so many of the core things ViewRanger used to do so very well.

Forced to use Outdoor Active by forced closure of Viewranger unfortunately the OS maps I purchased are no no longer showing in my account , OA would of been better simply rebrandinding VR as Outdoor Active . I can honestly say it's a VERY poor replacement for Viewranger and I would not recommend maybe it will get better

I too spent 100's of GBP on over 60 maps covering the entire GB mainland, walking and photography are my two main hobbies, but don't always want to carry around heavy SLR kit so I found an ideal phone in the Samsung K zoom, unfortunately it runs on android 4.4.2, and the Outdooractive app will not run on anything before android 5, I belive, so I thought I'd lost everything, anyway after a little research, it turns out there is a work around, I know Viewranger will never be updated, but at least it's up and running again.
I did get Outdooractive working on a tablet, but it is truly awfull, I would advise anyone to just buy a map with a digital download.

Same experience as many others. I paid for the full set of OS maps in viewranger and these are now useless to me as the new app will only allow small areas to be downloaded offline to take with you. Also more worryingly the GPS accuracy is worse than woeful!! This could lead to injury or worse

Steer well clear of this app. It's basically an advertising platform with some awful social media crossover added with no thought given to the actual purpose of the app - navigating in areas with no mobile signal!!!!

A useless app that has destroyed Viewranger and stolen my paid for maps. Avoid at all costs.

Rubbish compared with Viewranger., in every respect

I've been a huge advocate of Viewranger, which has been taken over by Outdooractive.
As a keen fell runner I often google race routes and Viewranger was the app of choice for many people to share and store these race routes. I had quite a few routes stored, ready and waiting to go, having meticulously researched potential adventures.
Outdooractive have chosen to disable the Viewranger app and offered the option to transfer all our data to Outdooractive.
Unfortunately the routes I had stored did not transfer across.
Googling several of these routes they are not available on Outdooractive, and some of them are not available anywhere else.
It will take a long time for many users to research, plan and store these routes again. As a Viewranger route was so easy to follow it was a brilliant navigation aid on the fells, and not having that resource available could easily lead to more mountain rescue callouts by waylaid fell runners, or worse.
An irresponsible and short sighted decision by Outdooractive, and sadly many many people seem to hold the same opinion 🤔
I wish Viewranger would be reinstated, greater choice can only be a win win situation for the consumer, the company and the outdoor community 🙏

This app failed straight away for me as it would not run on my "old" (6 years) mobile phone, so much for saving the planet. I asked for my money back, spent on maps and credits on Viewranger but of course no result. You can read the other reviews for just how bad Outdoor Active is. I will be looking elsewhere. Would give it 0 stars obviously if I could. Must now wave goodbye to a hundred or so routes and tracks a history of my cycling and walking.

They took over viewranger and any maps that had been purchased in the old app are no longer usable. They now want you to pay a subscription to use the maps already paid for, total rip off. After asking the question about the maps, the they sent be an email with a link to what looks like a spam email address and a link back to the site. Stay clear.

Forced to choose a new navigation app by the greedy incompetents who purposely killed off a superb product, Viewranger,much admired by its users and who have stopped me using the maps I had already paid for. The patronising responses to the many hundreds of users, those who point out what a pile of steaming horsecrap Outdoor active actually is, will be the reason why the majority will seek an alternatjve, any alternative, rather than pay to keep these scammers in business. Outdooractive will soon fold because of its dire reviews on Playstore, Trustpilot ect- good riddance.

View Ranger was a pleasure to use for my off road cycling. It was straight forward to plan a new route and it never let me down on navigation. I have struggled for hours trying to plan a new route this-morning on Outdoor Active, and failed. I have been let down on half of my recent rides when the navigation has failed completely. This programme is totally unsuitable for a navigation in demanding situations, it is so unreliable. Outdoor active is so cumbersome and outdated compared with VRanger, with feature that most folk are never likely to use. At least my routes and maps have been transferred over, hence the one star. My pass-time is off road cycling, not struggling trying to get software to function.

I am probably biased but outdoor active is poor compared to view ranger. I am trying to create a route and cannot even work out how to save it. Having invested time in learning view ranger and then being forced to a worse app is lousy and arrogant marketing.

OA also eats battery

Viewranger has been killed by a cheap imitation. Outdoor Active is so poor. I've used viewranger for 8-10 years to navigate, plot routes or find routes others have posted. Outdoor active maps are SO BAD you cannot navigate using them! don't bother.
they killed something great and replaced it with this. I can only assume to save money and increase profits as the customer is not benefiting at all!