Recorder — Capture a route in the field
Record the GPS track and mark the places that need instructions, photographs or spoken reminders. Save it as a private roadbook, then complete it in the Editor.
On this page
1. Check GPS and start
Open Recorder, allow location access and wait for GPS ready. The accuracy indicator shows how reliable the current fix is. Start recording becomes available when the GPS is good enough. No title is required at this point.
On the web, keep the page in the foreground and the screen awake: a browser can suspend GPS in the background. Use the native app for background recording. Desktop screenshots illustrate the controls; actual field recording needs a device with a reliable location source.
2. Read the live dashboard
The four readouts show elapsed recording time, current speed, notes marked and distance. The map shows the recorded line, numbered notes and any photo pins. The large distance on the map is the distance since the last note.
Map style opens the six RDBK maps — Terra, Carbon, Rally, Relief, Trails and Satellite+ — and the one you pick is the map of every tool on this device. Heading up chooses between following your course and north-up. These change the view, not the recorded geometry.
3. Mark a note, take a photo or record your voice
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Note | Marks the current GPS position immediately. Add its written instruction later. |
| Photo | Opens the camera/file chooser. Keeping the photo creates its note and geotag; cancelling creates nothing. |
| Voice note | Hold the microphone while speaking, then release. At least 2 seconds are required; recording is limited to one minute. |
Photo and voice notes use the position where you pressed the control, even if you move before finishing. The confirmation sound/check means the capture was kept. Voice recordings become the note’s audio extra; the Reader can play them before arrival. They are not transcribed. Review or delete an accidental note later in the Editor.
4. Pause a stop
Use Pause during a stop and Resume before moving again. Recording time excludes pauses. Check the control’s state before setting off so a paused recording does not omit the next section.
5. End and save
Press End: the recording is saved as a private roadbook and opens in the Editor at once — nothing to answer. If the ride left notes, the Editor walks you through them to complete; if it left none, the map writes them as it opens (Auto-notes), ready to check. If signed out, you sign in first and come back to the same save. If a save fails, a dialog says why, your recording stays on the device, and you can Try again or Discard (asked first). In the Editor give the route a useful title, review the track and complete its notes; once every note is complete, the Editor asks who can see the roadbook.
Discard asks before removing the recording. Until you save or discard, the summary holds your work and cannot be dismissed accidentally. Exports such as .rdbk, GPX and PDF are made from the Editor.
6. Offline work and interrupted sessions
Track points, notes and recordings are kept locally while the tool runs. Uploading media, saving to the account and loading uncached map tiles need a connection. A visible cached map does not mean the whole region has been downloaded.
In a browser, after an interruption, reopen Recorder on the same device and use the recovery prompt to resume. Declining recovery does not immediately erase that recording; starting a replacement can supersede it. Avoid clearing browser/app data before saving. Recovery preserves what was recorded, but cannot recreate GPS positions missed while the browser was suspended.
Continue with the Editor or use Tripmaster when you only need instruments and a GPX track.
On iOS and Android, Recorder owns a native recording session: opening another RDBK section, using another app or locking the screen does not end it. The recording indicator takes you back without a second Resume confirmation. Pause and End remain explicit actions. If the operating system terminates recording or permission is revoked, the app reports the interruption and keeps the points already written. Reopening it cannot recreate missed GPS positions. In a browser, keep Recorder visible and awake; browser background recording is not guaranteed.
7. Re-navigate an existing roadbook
Press Edit on one of your roadbooks, or on a roadbook you can edit, and choose Ride it again. Private and public roadbooks can both be revised. Start recording normally: the original route appears as a blue dashed line, alongside your new recording. You can cover the whole route or only part of it.
Existing notes are reviewed in route order, using the same arrival and rejoining rules as the Reader. Passing close to a later note on another part of a loop does not review it early. Its drawing and text appear when you reach it. Keep confirms automatically after ten seconds; Delete asks for confirmation and stages the deletion. Pausing or leaving the app freezes the countdown. Each note is reviewed once per pass; unvisited notes are preserved. The usual Note, Photo and Voice note controls remain available; the bottom actions are Pause and End. Staged deletions can be undone in the final review.
The blue dashed route also shows the original numbered notes. Kept notes turn green; deleted notes disappear from this preview. The large distance on the map is the distance since the last existing note reached or new note added, measured from arrival rather than from the later confirmation. The dashboard still shows the total distance.
8. Choose each different branch
Press End to compare routes. Matching sections, unvisited parts and small deviations without affected notes keep their original geometry. You choose when the deviation reaches about 50 m, when an existing or new note would be left outside a branch, or when the routes cannot be joined safely. The flat map shows dashed blue Original route and solid orange Recorded route, with each distance alongside. Review each proposed choice, including a significantly different start or finish. The result has one start and one finish.
A crossing alone is not enough to join two routes. Without a reliable join, choose one complete route. A recorded branch containing a gap cannot replace the original: the app does not invent the missing road. Notes outside your chosen route are listed explicitly; keep their branch or confirm their removal from the revision. You can undo a staged note deletion before saving.
9. Save the revision safely
When you finish Re-navigate, Review now and Save for later both save the captured outing to your account first. A failed upload keeps it on the device. Open Versions under the roadbook in your profile to continue on any device. Each outing remains separate and is visible only to its owner and editors. Outings are reviewed one at a time, oldest first: a later one shows as Waiting until the earlier one is saved or discarded, and is then compared with the newest version. If the route changed since you recorded, the review says so: route choices start over, while your track and new notes are kept.
The reviewer has two buttons: Save and Discard. Save preserves incomplete decisions as Pending review. Once every route and note decision is resolved, Save creates a numbered Saved version. A recorded detour includes its new notes; the preview shows their drawings and marks the notes on the unused branch as excluded. Saving asks you to confirm the named exclusions. Original notes remain in earlier versions; excluded new notes are not included in the saved version. A zero-length original start or finish is a labelled point on the map.
After saving a complete version, a roadbook nobody else reads — private and linked to no event — simply makes it the active version. One that others read — public, or private but linked to an event — asks Use this as the active version? once per roadbook on that device: No keeps this and later versions in history without asking again; Yes activates every later save. Use as active version on the Versions page asks every time. The active version is the one used for navigation; activating it never changes the roadbook’s visibility: a private roadbook stays private. Exactly one version is active; only that version is public when the roadbook is public. Other versions stay available to editors in the history, newest first. If the active version changes on another device, reload before activating yours.
Photos, voice notes and custom symbols are shared between versions without duplicating their binary files. Discard asks before removing this pending outing and leaves saved versions untouched.
