Map Screen

The photo button on the map opens the built-in Aki Map camera, which works held upright or sideways (landscape from 1.1.8; if screen orientation is locked, peak names will not line up, so turn the lock off first). The preview overlays your current altitude, coordinates, time and heading, so you can recall where a photo was taken.

• Peaks (Beta)

  Labels distant peaks with name, elevation and distance on the preview, as tilted semi-transparent tags with a vertical leader line and a heading scale along the edge. Requires an activated offline map, a phone with a compass and the rear camera. Opening the camera turns on location automatically; if location access is denied, a hint points you to Settings. It is computed from position and heading only and does not check whether a peak is hidden, so use it as a rough guide. A hint appears when conditions are not met, for example "Hold the phone upright" or "Turn off orientation lock".

• Peak settings (from 1.1.8)

  With Peaks on, a slider-icon "Peak settings" button appears on the camera screen (rear camera only). It adjusts three things: Max distance (5–80 km, default 80), Label count (3–20, default 12) and Min elevation (0–3000 m, default 0). "Reset" restores the defaults. When many peaks crowd the view, shortening the distance or raising the minimum elevation makes it much cleaner.

• Ridge lines (from 1.1.8)

  With Peaks on, the preview also overlays layered outlines of distant ridges: nearer lines are thicker and brighter, farther ones thinner, to help you match the shapes in front of you. The outline uses the elevation data of 3D Terrain, not an offline map pack; until that data is downloaded the screen shows "Download 3D terrain to show the ridge line". Like peak names, it does not check what is hidden and is a rough guide only.

• Grid

  Shows a rule-of-thirds grid; a level indicator also helps you keep the shot straight.

• Stamp

  When on, the altitude, coordinates, time and heading shown on the preview are printed onto the bottom of the photo. With Peaks also on, the peak tags and ridge lines are drawn into the photo too.

• Flash, zoom, front/rear camera

  Switch flash (Auto/On/Off), tap a zoom level, or switch cameras; the volume buttons also work as a shutter.

• After you shoot, the photo is first saved in Aki Map (attached to the current track while recording, otherwise to the loaded GPX route), then the same GPS-tagged photo is automatically added to Apple Photos — two copies in total.
• On first use the app asks for camera and "Add to Photos" permission. If you decline "Add to Photos", the photo stays in Aki Map and a notice is shown.

1. Tapping the locate button for the first time activates GPS and enters "Follow": map always centers on your location. A blue pulsing ring around the button hints that you can tap once more.
2. Tap again to enter "Follow and Rotate" mode; the map rotates to match your direction of travel. Once you have tapped the second time, the ring stops appearing.
3. Tap again to turn following off. You can move the map freely; GPS continues running.
4. Long press the locate button and select "Stop Locating" to completely stop GPS to save battery.

• Home screen alerts: During navigation, recording, or Trip Sharing, the home screen alerts you if GPS permission is denied, a location error occurs, the location becomes stale, or accuracy is worse than 50 meters, and offers an available action.
• Recording and sharing alerts: If saving a track fails, Trip Sharing sync fails, or location points are waiting to upload, the home screen offers a way to view tracks, retry, or sync now. It also alerts you when recording is paused. Only the highest-priority alert is shown at a time.

GPS accuracy badge on the home screen

At the top of the map home, next to the "Not shared" badge, a GPS badge shows the current accuracy (±meters), refreshed every 5 seconds, so you can judge the fix without opening the info panel. Beside the accuracy it shows how long ago the fix arrived (for example "3s ago"); after 60 seconds without an update it reads "Location stale", and with no fix at all it reads "No fix". Tap the badge to expand GPS course and vertical accuracy; tap again to collapse.

Why location shows as "stale"

If there has been no new location fix for over 60 seconds, the app shows "Location is stale" to warn you the position on screen may be outdated. Common causes:

• The phone hasn't moved: location updates use a distance filter (see above), so standing still means the system simply has no new fix to send.
• Airplane Mode or weak signal: Airplane Mode turns off network-assisted GPS (A-GPS), leaving only raw satellite signal; indoors, in valleys, or under dense forest with poor sky view, a satellite-only fix can take much longer, or may not arrive at all for a while.

What to do: move to open ground with a clear view of the sky and wait a few dozen seconds for GPS to reacquire. Always check for a green checkmark on GPS in "Before You Go" before heading out; seeing "Location is stale" while testing indoors is normal and doesn't mean the app is broken.

Does it recover on its own? Yes. While navigating, recording, or sharing a trip, the red "GPS Stale for N min" reminder on the home screen disappears automatically once a new fix arrives; you don't need to do anything. With Reliable Updates selected, the app also asks for a fresh fix by itself while the location is stale.

When to tap Retry: if it hasn't recovered after 1-2 minutes of moving, tap Retry on the reminder. It stops and restarts location services, which is more reliable than waiting. Indoors or with a poor signal, you still need to move to open ground first.

See at a glance which parts of a track climb, which descend, and how steep they are. Once on, saved tracks, the track being recorded and GPX routes are colored by slope.

1. Open Map Layers on the map and turn on 'Uphill / downhill track colors'. You can also find it in Settings → Map Layers. It is off by default.
2. Close the layer sheet. The track draws itself from the start to the end in about 2.5 seconds, then small white arrows along the line show the direction of travel.
3. Turn the switch off and the track goes back to its usual single color.

• What the colors mean: orange-red is uphill and blue is downhill, and the deeper the color, the steeper the slope. Flat stretches keep the track's usual color. The color adjusts about every 120 meters, and blends where uphill turns to downhill.
• Line width: with the switch on, the line gets thinner as you zoom out and wider as you zoom in, with a white outline so it stands out against dense contour lines.
• Arrows: they show only once you are zoomed in, and scale with the line. When the whole route fits on screen you will not see them; use the drawing animation to see the direction.
• Route replay: with the switch on, the part of the route already walked in Replay Route is colored by slope too, in both 2D and 3D terrain.
• If your device has Reduce Motion turned on, the drawing animation is skipped and the full line and arrows appear at once. The same happens for tracks with a very large number of points.

Turn the map or a saved route into terrain you can rotate and zoom, to see ridge lines, how steep the slopes are and how a route cuts through the valleys.

Download the elevation data first

The first time you open it, the screen asks you to download Taiwan elevation data. You can also do it beforehand: in the Maps tab, tap download on the "Taiwan 3D Terrain Data" row under the Taiwan packs. This data is separate from map packs, does not affect your existing maps, stays on this phone and is not backed up to iCloud. It is a large file, so use Wi-Fi. When a new version exists you can "Update Elevation Data", and "Delete Elevation Data" frees the space.

Two ways in

• Map screen: with a Taiwan offline vector map active, a 3D button ("3D Terrain Preview") appears in the right-hand button column. It builds terrain 5, 10 or 20 km square around the current map center, overlaid with your position, the navigation route, saved and recording tracks, waypoints, and peak, hut and trailhead names from the map pack.
• Route details: open any route under Tracks and tap "3D Terrain Preview" in the Elevation Profile section; it covers the whole route.

Controls

• Drag with one finger to rotate; pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers to pan.
• Height Scale exaggerates relief so gentle terrain is easier to read.
• Area: 5, 10 or 20 km when opened from the map; a larger area takes longer to build and uses more memory.
• Show Names and Show Route toggle the name labels and the route overlay.
• Face Ahead turns the view to the direction you are facing.
• Reset View returns to the default view.
• Dragging with two fingers to the edge of the block automatically rebuilds it at the new position, so you do not need to close and reopen.