gsak question

[jclaudii]

I've been using gsak for a while now to manage and transfer my caches. I sometimes go for months before I update my database (dead of summer) and when I load my newest pq it does not update all the "old" listings. I am wondering if any of you know a way to sync the caches (mainly statuses) in the gsak database with that of geocaching.com. My pq pulls all geocaches that I have not found within a 50 mile radius of 72802. Now after a while ,archived caches are not pulled with the above query. Over the weekend I found my self looking for a cache that was archived. I found a way to do individual "checks" on each cache, but no way to do an entire database or group.


I am open to any advice. Thanks

[flannelman]

Do you check the active caches box when you set up your pq? That will prevent the pq from including temp disables and archives. You probably neet to check the cache not active box on your pq.

[flannelman]

I just tried it out and checking the not active box will give you disabled caches but not archives. I don't know how you would be able to find those but having the disables should be a big help.

[RGS]

If I read your question correctly, you're saying you have an old GSAK DB and run a new PQ for "not found" caches. But when you update the GSAK DB, some of the older caches have been archived and therefore still appear in the newest GSAK DB, even though they are no longer available.

What I do in that case is run everything like you did, and then sort the DB on the "Last GPX" column. Any entry that does not have the date of the current PQ (GPX file), should be the ones archived prior to updating the DB and can be deleted.

RGS

[flannelman]

Thats a good tip!! I just have a fuzzy sense of when a cache is no longer active and I'll check GSAK vs GC.com to see fore sure. Your way is much better!!

[Team_Pink]

Archived caches are a bit of a problem. Not because of any technical limitation in GSAK but because of the way they are handled in pocket queries. When a cache goes into the archived state, there are no more updates to that waypoint number. The cache will remain in whatever state it was in in GSAK when it was archived because there is no update in the pocket query to change it. If it was temporarily disabled it will remain that way or if it was active it will remain that way.

While deleting any caches that were not updated in the last pocket query will not harm anything other than notes, or other user changed data, it is not technically accurate to say the those caches have been archived. Caches that are 5/5, 4/4, puzzle cahces, etc are often stagnant and no change will show up.

[TnT]

Team Pink is correct in this. Nothing you check in your PQs will give you info on an archived cache. Once they're archived, they won't update through your PQs. There are a couple of workarounds for this issue though.

1. You can start with a fresh GSAK database each time you load PQs by clicking on the box on the load screen that says "Clear database before loading". This of course will remove all existing data from your database.

2. You could use the instant notification feature for premium members to be notified when caches in your area are archived.

3. You could individually query any caches your suspicious of by setting your "split screen format" option to "online display" and scroll through each of your caches. Or,

4. You could download the macro from the gsak library at gsak.net that somewhat automates this for you.

The bottom line is that any cache that wasn't updated in your most recent PQ is "suspicious" and before hiking 5 miles might be worth verifying to ensure it's still active.

Hope this helps.

[OldRiverRunner]

1. You can start with a fresh GSAK database each time you load PQs by clicking on the box on the load screen that says "Clear database before loading". This of course will remove all existing data from your database.

I do this by default and I've never had a problem with old information or archived caches showing up in my lists. -- ORR