open cpn / android 6 / sony

[birdseye]

because of lack of space on the main internal stroage I have had to locate the charts on the sd card. but open cpn wont recognise the sd card. I thought that I had solved the issue using a file programe to re-write the open cpn config file but when I open the program itself the old wrong file is still there. config file says one thing and the app says another for the chart location.

Help!

[fgd3]

Have you tried to move the app to the SD card? Later Android versions don't allow you to use different storage media for apps and data. All data owned by an app must reside in the app's folder.

Fabbian

[AISEAG]

Originally Posted by birdseye

because of lack of space on the main internal stroage I have had to locate the charts on the sd card. but open cpn wont recognise the sd card. I thought that I had solved the issue using a file programe to re-write the open cpn config file but when I open the program itself the old wrong file is still there. config file says one thing and the app says another for the chart location.

Help!

Hi birdeye,

If you are using the paid version, you will get all the help you want in the OA forum :
OpenCPN Android Forum for the Purchased App - OpenCPN for Android Versions 1.0.0 - 1.0.12

Serge

[cgwturner]

Hi Birdseye,

I had a similar problem after my tablet updated itself to Android 6.
Most programs can't see the SD card, but it turns out that opencpn can if you get the card's name correct. You need to get the card name that your phone or tablet uses. ES File explorer shows that name after you open a file or folder on the card. It's like 1234-5AB6. Each card is unique. Edit all lines in the conf file with the path to the Charts folder as /storage/1234-5AB6/Charts. Just use your own card's real name.

[cgwturner]

Just to be a little clearer, in my android phone and tablet the opencpn.conf file is in the internal storage folder "Android/data/org.opencpn.opencpn_free/files". I made a backup of that file, then copied the file to a Windows computer where I edited it with Wordpad. (Notepad doesn't handle the Unix style format as well as Wordpad does.) Then I copied that modifed file back to the Android device.

There are several lines to edit in the file:
(My charts are all in a folder called Charts.)

BaseChartDir=/storage/emulated/0/Charts ---- Change this to read:
BaseChartDir=/storage/1234-5AB6/Charts ---- Use your own SD card's name and base chart folder, though
(this is near the beginning of the file, about a quarter of the way through). Just change "emulated/0" to your card's name.

Near the end of the file, there are at least 2 other lines like:

InitChartDir=/storage/emulated/0/Charts/RNC (for an RNC file) ---- Change this to read:
InitChartDir=/storage/1234-5AB6/Charts/RNC (for an RNC file) --- Use your own SD card's name and chart folder though, and include all the folder path. Just change "emulated/0" to your card's name.
and:
ChartDir1=/storage/emulated/0/Charts/RNC^ ---- Change this to read:
ChartDir1=/storage/1234-5AB6/Charts/RNC^ (again for an RNC file) -- Use your own SD card's name and chart folder though, and include all the folder path. Just change "emulated/0" to your card's name.

There would be more lines if you have more chart files, but once you have those lines changed, you can add charts as you normally would, since opencpn can then see the chart folders on the card.

I have been able to get Opencpn to see the charts on the SD cards on a Samsung tablet and an Acer phone, both running Android 6. Since each uses a different SD card, the lines aren't the same in each. I expect it would work on most other brands, although the locations of the files might be different. I normally don't wirelessly download charts to the Android devices, I just copy them to the SD card on a computer, but today I tried that. There is a problem with permssions writing to the SD card, but if you create the download folder (named for what you're downloading) on the SD card first, you can then select that folder and download the charts to that folder wirelessly. They get used by opencpn without any extra steps.

If someone finds an easier way to do this, please post it.