Downloads stall constantly

[bfindlay]

I am having an issue downloading a region (Alaska). The wifi here is stable around 26 Mbps according to speedtest. Using the ipad for surfing, youtube, streaming - all are fine. I have restarted the device, made sure that iFly EFB is up to date, but nothing helps.

here is what is happening. Launch app, go to updates, download, and it starts off strong, typically 3000 kbps or so…not rocket fast, but acceptable. Then, after a few seconds, it assymptotically falls to zero….and stays there. this behaviour varies somewhat ( I have seen it stall at zero then spasm upward for a few seconds, but it stabilizes on zero).

I started a download 900 Mb last night and let it ‘run’ all night. it stalled at 17Mb by morning

So i can limp this download through by constantly quitting the app, then restarting etc, but this is very sub optimal.


Suggestions? the one thing i have not done for obvious reasons is completely off load the app and reinstall. I am mid flight and really need this map to install.

ps the map screen when i zoom in quickly refreshes , so the app overall is not stalling with respect to internet - just the download function.

 

[Cobra]

There are lots of moving parts in between the iFly servers and your device. If anyone can get data to download quickly and completely, then that exonerates the iFly servers, since if it were, then everyone would experience the problem.

I just tried downloading Alaska data on my phone. On my 5 GHz home wifi, I was getting between 2000 and 4000 kb/s, with an estimated completion time of (I think) 5-10 min. I let that run for ~2 min and didn't see any notable drop in speed. I then aborted the download and changed over to 5G cell data. I was then getting 4000-5000 kb/s, with an estimated completion time of 2-3 min. I let that run for ~1 min with no noticeable drop in speed. I pay-per-byte on my cell data, so I aborted the download and swapped back to my home wifi, where I again saw 2000-4000 kb/sec speeds (except for some of the smaller files that dropped below 1000 kb/s because of the several stop/starts for the little files as opposed to sustained data transfers for the larger files). I let that run to completion, and did not see any noticeable dropoff in speed through the 3-4 min it took to complete the download.

The whole experiment including the abort/restarts and swapping data sources took less than 10 minutes.

So it doesn't seem like the problem is at the iFly servers.

 

[Cobra]

I tried again with my Samsung Tab S6 tablet on my home wifi. Alaska download took 8 minutes. If you're incredibly bored, you can watch the download, here:

 

[bfindlay]

thanks for getting back to me. solved by going into town to a more consistent inrernet source. must have been latency related issues…weird

 

[Cobra]

No telling, really. Your point-to-point data speed across the Internet is always constrained by the slowest link between two intermediate nodes, plus everything else that can cause degradation. And the overall node path might vary from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.....

 

[Don Maxwell]

The real download problem is with the 740, and the new 740b I bought a couple of weeks ago is impossibly slow. The iOS apps, on the other hand, usually update the charts quickly. It occurred to me that the SD card that came with the 740b might be the culprit. So I bought a new, fast micro SD card (and adaptor). However, all of the maps are new, so I can't test that hypothesis for a few weeks without resetting the device, which I definitely don't want to do. (If you happen to know of a way to force an update, please let me know.)

 

[Cobra]

Are you downloading the entire US? That would indeed take a long time, even at full speed. You could minimize your issue by only downloading the subset of the US you really need. (You could also then use "unused" areas/products for your test cases, downloading and deleting them as necessary.)

If you have a Windows PC, though, the best option is to use it to download your data. Pull the SD card out of the 740(b) and connect it to the Windows machine via an SD card reader (either built-in to your PC/laptop, or using an adapter like this one), then use the iFly Connect software to do your update.

Way easier, way faster.

Edit: WHOOPS! Sorry, Don--I thought I was replying to the OP. I know you don't have a Windows PC, so I apologize for this not-helpful-to-you answer, but I'm going to leave it here in case someone else has the same question.

 

[Don Maxwell]

Are you downloading the entire US? That would indeed take a long time, even at full speed. You could minimize your issue by only downloading the subset of the US you really need. (You could also then use "unused" areas/products for your test cases, downloading and deleting them as necessary.)

If you have a Windows PC, though, the best option is to use it to download your data. Pull the SD card out of the 740(b) and connect it to the Windows machine via an SD card reader (either built-in to your PC/laptop, or using an adapter like this one), then use the iFly Connect software to do your update.

Way easier, way faster.

Edit: WHOOPS! Sorry, Don--I thought I was replying to the OP. I know you don't have a Windows PC, so I apologize for this not-helpful-to-you answer, but I'm going to leave it here in case someone else has the same question.

Hee! Cobra, I actually DO have a Windows laptop with iFly on it--but I use it only to set the stops on my Airmaster constant-speed prop (because Airmaster is, well, on the wrong side of the world).

But a couple of days ago it took only about 10 minutes to update my iPad Mini 6 with the entire US charts--I think. Didn't log it, though, so that could be very wrong. But anyway, compared to the 740s, the iPad is like lightning.

I always get all of the charts, regardless of the device--because y' never know when you might make a quick trip. Or think about it. And I always get the maximum memory available in iPhones, regardless of the cost, because you can't add memory to an iPhone, and I hate to run out. ("Always" isn't very often.)

 

[MDreger]

I was going to suggest that those iOS folks that have no use for Windows, if they want to use iFly Connect, they might ask around and see if anyone they know has an old Windows XP or newer machine laying around, preferably a mini laptop just because of the small size. I just updated an SD card with a Dell Inspiron Mini with WinXP. It took a while over wifi, but I updated the entire USA.

 

[MDreger]

I needed to update the charts for my iPad Mini4 today. I noticed that the downloads stopped if iFly was pushed to the background/another program was used, or if the iPad went into sleep mode. When I woke it back up, the download resumed from the point it was when it went to sleep/put in the background.

Is this something iFly/AP can control? It would be nice to:

-- be able to start the download, then leave the iPad alone, come back 30 minutes or so later to have the process finished.

Or

--be able to use some other app on the iPad while waiting for the charts to download.