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FAQ Update - Archived Caches in Pocket Queries

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Can I get a list of Archived caches in my Pocket Queries?
No.

Typical Situation: If I download a PQ and at some stage cache gets archived how can I get my offline database updated to remove it? I spent quite a bit of time looking for a cache which when I returned home I found it was archived. Very frustrating.


Ever since Pocket Queries were introduced in July of 2002, there have been several axioms:
  1. GC.com didn't create PQs for users to maintain offline databases. They were created as a means for querying against the database and downloading sets of caches for quick upload to your GPS.

  2. Any offline database created by a user is - by definition - instantly out of date with the most current version, which resides on Groundspeak's server.

  3. GC.com takes a hard-line stance that while caches are in the database for archival purposes, they do not send out data on archived caches. As far as the PQs are concerned, they do not exist except in the "All My Finds."

  4. Since offline databases are stored and maintained in third party software, the onus is on third party software to weed out archived caches.
So - after years of requesting this, I can say with a good deal of certainty, it ain't gonna happen.

OK, I get it - GC.com doesn't like offline databases.
But I've got an offline database in GSAK.
How do I get the archived caches out of that database?
There are two methods of getting the archived caches out of the GSAK database. The first is purging your database. The second involves sorting by Last GPX Update date.

Purging your database
This is by far the easiest way. When you are importing your data to GSAK, click the setting found in the image to the right.

This will purge all of the logs, markings, waypoints, additional waypoints and all other data from the database prior to loading the new data. Since archived caches weren't included in the pocket queries, the archived caches are deleted with the purge and won't refresh.
Sorting by Last GPX Update Date and Deleting the Data
The other method is a little more complicated. First, you need to make sure that your Pocket Queries are truly grabbing all of the data for the area for which you're trying to build the offline database. In other words, if you have the PQ set to grab caches within 10 miles, and there were 490 caches, but today's PQ would have included 502 - that's bad. Each PQ results should be set to return less than 500 caches. Otherwise, you'll be purging non-archived caches from your database, thinking they're archived.

Once you have your data, load the database with the "Clear database before loading" UNCHECKED. This will overlay the new data on to the old one. This has several effects. Instead of purging the previous logs and only loading the 5 most recent logs, the system will add the new logs on to the old ones. It will also update the Last GPX Date field in each line. This is the critical point.
Once the data is loaded, sort on the Last GPX Update field (if it's not showing, show it). Any date that is older than the most recent upload of caches means that it wasn't in the most recent set up Pocket Queries. Since you made sure that the pocket queries are capturing ALL of the data, the only reason they wouldn't be included is if they are archived.

Use the "User Tick" check box and click the delete - and then delete all user ticked (or use a filter for a certain date). When you're done, you'll have ONLY the caches that are currently not archived, and you'll be able to stack the logs from previous pocket queries.

But of course, the data is already out of date.



Last Updated: Nov 13 2007