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FAQ

I keep posting comments to Google Play, but I don't get any reply.

This is because Google does not allow replies to market comments. I cannot even post comments myself, as the publisher.

If you have a suggestion, a question or some other form of feedback that asks for a reply, consider e-mailing me. Better yet, read through this FAQ first. Some frequent issues are already covered here.

You are still invited to post market comments (and ratings). However, consider this as a way to just tell your opinion to other (potential) users.

I'd like to see support for City X or Country Y.

In many cases, there needs to be at least basic support by the corresponding ÖPNV association/company. If you happen to know a contact person, would you let me know?

Öffi has got three launcher icons. Why is this?

Öffi consists of three mostly independant parts:

• Stations: Which stations are nearby and will I catch the bus/train?
• Directions: How do I get from A to B?
• Plans: I want to navigate myself.

Some of you regularly use Stations and some of you normally use Directions. I received some complaints that you always had to go through Stations in order to get to Directions. And, to be honest, this is not healthy for the phones resources as well. Thus, I introduced icons to directly launch into the most used parts.

You don't have to use all icons though. It is still possible to go though one of the other application parts if you like to, by using the options menu.

But I don't like my desktop cluttered with multiple icons.

Note that you only need to put the needed/wanted icon(s) on your desktop. Leave the other icons alone and never see them again. If you prefer to directly launch application parts without having multiple icons on your desktop, put them into a folder! If you need to switch to another application part only now and then, feel free to use the options menu.

I'd like to have a 'Take me home!' button

You probably want to create a launcher shortcut. Shortcuts will always take you from your current position to a pre-programmed destination station or address. You can add a shortcut for your home, one for your work, and so on.

The easiest way to create a launcher shortcut is to use the context menu of a station or an address. Just long-press on that entry and select "Create launcher shortcut" from the menu. Choose a name for your shortcut and you are ready to go!

Öffi sometimes crashes with java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget

After hours of investigation, I am pretty much convinced that this is a serious memory handling problem of all Android versions to date.

If you'd like to see this fixed, you should vote (star icon) for this bugreport. Even if it has been closed without resolution, your vote works towards the problem to be taken seriously by Google.

There is also a discussion here.

Using my mobile data connection, I often get errors or 'no information available'. Using WLAN, everything works fine. What's going on?

Most likely, this is due to your network provider not conforming to net neutrality. In order to save bandwidth, some providers drop information from the conversation they consider unneeded. They also add other information they think at least wouldn't harm. Both of these are false assumptions. The forums are full of problem descriptions that can be attributed to this behaviour.

However, this issue should be worked around in all recent versions of Öffi. If you still have problems, try the following workarounds:

• T-Mobile Germany: Their 'feature' is called Speed Manager and can be disabled via a web interface (mobile only!). I strongly advise you to do so, as this issue affects other applications as well. You can find more information here.
• Vodafone D2: You can disable their 'feature' using performance.vodafone.de. Again, I strongly advise you to do so. Thanks to Dominik H. for the hint.
• o2 Germany and e-plus: Not affected, currently.

Öffi is using a lot of memory. Can you support external storage (SD card etc.)?

I know. The trouble is, Öffi's station databases can't be put on external storage for several technical reasons.

However, you can tame Öffi's memory usage by using the new transportation network dialog (Option menu → Preferences → Transportation network). For example, if you don't need "Germany/Europe" just free up 12 MB by long pressing the appropriate entry.

You can delete downloaded network plans the same way in the plans dialog (Option menu → Network plans); however Android will delete them automatically if memory runs short.

What about the Froyo "App2Sd" feature?

Unfortunately, the Froyo "App2Sd" feature is designed in a way so only the application itself can be moved to SD. Dynamic data cannot. Thus, of the several MB Öffi can allocate only about half a meg can be moved to SD. This is not worth the effort.

I'm tired of all these update notifications. Can you bundle updates into several larger ones?

Unfortunately, in many cases there is no way around releasing an update as fast as possible. Often, one of the data providers web sites change, and the related network stops working for all Öffi users.

If you are using Froyo (Android 2.2) user, you can check "Allow automatic updating" on Öffi's page on Google Play. You'll never be bothered by an update again!