Scenic doesn’t follow Scenic’s routes
Quote from Atticuscat on 18.05.2026, 06:50I typically plan my routes on iPad and I choose what roads I want to use by carefully placing via points, I don’t leave the road choice A to B to C in the hands of Scenic. I often find the route my phone then sends me along is subtly different to what I planned. (I’m very careful to have my iPad and phone Scenic setting identical.) Checking the route on phone prior to pressing the “ride” button doesn’t help because Scenic ‘recalculates’ the route at the point of activation and this is where the changes are being introduced, and so where I expect to be guided isn’t always the case. And planning the route on my phone and navigation it on my phone doesn’t stop this happening either.
It has been particularly apparent over the weekend where I have been following routes generated by others or others have been following routes generated by me. Riding in a group we’re experiencing differences, sometimes quite extreme, in what should be identical routes. I’d really like to see the route that was chosen in planning to be the route that is guided without any adjustment, at least not without any changes being notified and options to accept or not. I already add a lot of via points to curate the route (I ride mostly very minor single track and actively avoid more major roads) but still Scenic thinks it knows best when activating a route and will reroute me from a more direct minor road I want to be on to a longer major route (presumably because Scenic thinks it’s quicker) because I haven’t placed a via point in that few miles section - and I haven’t placed a via because in planning Scenic highlighted the route I wanted. And this is not because of off route recalculation as I’m not seeing any trace line of the original route.
The examples this weekend of sharing routes between a group has really highlighted this issue, we were all on different versions on Scenic (me on beta, another on current iOS App Store version and another on Android open beta) and it’s just impractical (and not fun) to try and coordinate all the various routing settings between us. But I see this with my own routes planned and navigated on my own devices so it’s not just differences between versions of Scenic.
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option. I understand this is more difficult to achieve when routes are coming from outside Scenic, via GPX files for instance, but something planned within Scenic should really ‘just work’ as planned.
I typically plan my routes on iPad and I choose what roads I want to use by carefully placing via points, I don’t leave the road choice A to B to C in the hands of Scenic. I often find the route my phone then sends me along is subtly different to what I planned. (I’m very careful to have my iPad and phone Scenic setting identical.) Checking the route on phone prior to pressing the “ride” button doesn’t help because Scenic ‘recalculates’ the route at the point of activation and this is where the changes are being introduced, and so where I expect to be guided isn’t always the case. And planning the route on my phone and navigation it on my phone doesn’t stop this happening either.
It has been particularly apparent over the weekend where I have been following routes generated by others or others have been following routes generated by me. Riding in a group we’re experiencing differences, sometimes quite extreme, in what should be identical routes. I’d really like to see the route that was chosen in planning to be the route that is guided without any adjustment, at least not without any changes being notified and options to accept or not. I already add a lot of via points to curate the route (I ride mostly very minor single track and actively avoid more major roads) but still Scenic thinks it knows best when activating a route and will reroute me from a more direct minor road I want to be on to a longer major route (presumably because Scenic thinks it’s quicker) because I haven’t placed a via point in that few miles section - and I haven’t placed a via because in planning Scenic highlighted the route I wanted. And this is not because of off route recalculation as I’m not seeing any trace line of the original route.
The examples this weekend of sharing routes between a group has really highlighted this issue, we were all on different versions on Scenic (me on beta, another on current iOS App Store version and another on Android open beta) and it’s just impractical (and not fun) to try and coordinate all the various routing settings between us. But I see this with my own routes planned and navigated on my own devices so it’s not just differences between versions of Scenic.
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option. I understand this is more difficult to achieve when routes are coming from outside Scenic, via GPX files for instance, but something planned within Scenic should really ‘just work’ as planned.
Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 07:12Could you share the link to the route with me? And post screenshots of the routing settings for that route from the device where you planned it?
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option.
Scenic does this already. But you need to share through the share link and your buddies need to import with the “ride with Scenic” button on the page that opens when clicking the share link. So, not through GPX. Otherwise the routing settings won’t be maintained.
Could you share the link to the route with me? And post screenshots of the routing settings for that route from the device where you planned it?
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option.
Scenic does this already. But you need to share through the share link and your buddies need to import with the “ride with Scenic” button on the page that opens when clicking the share link. So, not through GPX. Otherwise the routing settings won’t be maintained.
Quote from Atticuscat on 18.05.2026, 11:11Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 07:12Could you share the link to the route with me? And post screenshots of the routing settings for that route from the device where you planned it?
I’ll send via email. It isn’t just one route though, I’ve had a strong incling for quite some time that the planned route wasn’t always the calculated route when the ride was started. These particular rides required precise navigation so they were checked thoroughly which confirmed my suspicions.
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option.
Scenic does this already. But you need to share through the share link and your buddies need to import with the “ride with Scenic” button on the page that opens when clicking the share link. So, not through GPX. Otherwise the routing settings won’t be maintained.
All this weekends routes were made in Scenic (my beta version, current App Store version and android open beta) and shared through the share link in app and loaded through “ride with Scenic” (which only worked first time 50% of the time, I think I was failing at proving I was a human which may be fair comment!). But I get these issues with my own routes that I activate from My Routes and even when the route has been planned on the same device it is navigated on with no changes to the routing settings.
Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 07:12Could you share the link to the route with me? And post screenshots of the routing settings for that route from the device where you planned it?
I’ll send via email. It isn’t just one route though, I’ve had a strong incling for quite some time that the planned route wasn’t always the calculated route when the ride was started. These particular rides required precise navigation so they were checked thoroughly which confirmed my suspicions.
Having the planned route settings embedded in the route so that is the route actually navigated regardless of what Scenic running device did the planning seems the logical and correct option.
Scenic does this already. But you need to share through the share link and your buddies need to import with the “ride with Scenic” button on the page that opens when clicking the share link. So, not through GPX. Otherwise the routing settings won’t be maintained.
All this weekends routes were made in Scenic (my beta version, current App Store version and android open beta) and shared through the share link in app and loaded through “ride with Scenic” (which only worked first time 50% of the time, I think I was failing at proving I was a human which may be fair comment!). But I get these issues with my own routes that I activate from My Routes and even when the route has been planned on the same device it is navigated on with no changes to the routing settings.
Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 12:28Thanks for sending over the route and the details. I took a detailed look.There was a map update between the moment you created the route and the moment you rode it. That’s the main cause for this!
I know this with 100% certainty, because on my device I had not yet updated my maps, and when I first opened the route for editing it took the original intended route. Wish I made a screenshot, but I didn’t. Then I updated my offline maps and edited the route again. Now it took the “wrong” route.
At the moment, our map provider is doing some fine-tuning to get better estimates for route duration. This fine-tuning is done by changing the values for average real-time speeds on road sections. Changes in these values can affect the roads that are taken for the standard routing. I.e. other roads might be faster with the new map data (new average real-time speeds).To put it differently. When you created the route about a week ago, roads A were faster, while when you loaded the route for navigation (new map data) the other roads became the faster roads to get from via 18 to 19.With typical map updates this shouldn't happen as those don't change this avg-real-time data, however with this specific map update, where these speeds were changed, this is a distinct possibility.
There is one other thing I noticed. Will email you about that.
There was a map update between the moment you created the route and the moment you rode it. That’s the main cause for this!
I know this with 100% certainty, because on my device I had not yet updated my maps, and when I first opened the route for editing it took the original intended route. Wish I made a screenshot, but I didn’t. Then I updated my offline maps and edited the route again. Now it took the “wrong” route.
With typical map updates this shouldn't happen as those don't change this avg-real-time data, however with this specific map update, where these speeds were changed, this is a distinct possibility.
There is one other thing I noticed. Will email you about that.
Quote from Atticuscat on 18.05.2026, 14:57Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 12:28Thanks for sending over the route and the details. I took a detailed look.There was a map update between the moment you created the route and the moment you rode it. That’s the main cause for this!
I know this with 100% certainty, because on my device I had not yet updated my maps, and when I first opened the route for editing it took the original intended route. Wish I made a screenshot, but I didn’t. Then I updated my offline maps and edited the route again. Now it took the “wrong” route
That may explain some of the (truly astonishing) differences between what I was being told to do by Scenic while following a friend navigating a route he’d made and shared with me (him on iOS App Store Scenic, me on iOS beta). There were certainly also other reasons for the routing issues we had (I did a lot of coaching on how to use Scenic) but I know he had not done the map update because we’d discussed the fact I’d applied the update a couple of days earlier and he didn’t know about it. I had wondered if this could be a factor but didn’t imagine there could have been so many changes to roads that have remained unchanged for decades. I didn’t consider the changes to the route duration calculations.
At the moment, our map provider is doing some fine-tuning to get better estimates for route duration.I would say this is working well. I’m UK based and have found routing times along major and main roads (As and Bs in the UK, I presume motorways too but I use them extremely rarely) has been pretty accurate but previously on the minor roads (Cs and unclassified, mostly single track) which makes up the vast majority of my riding the routing times have been 150 % to 180 % of my actual travel times along these types of road. So far out that I’ve pretty much been ignoring it. But since a couple of months ago travel times have been just 10 to 15 % more than I typically cover ground on these roads which I think is entirely acceptable given how much these roads can vary, some are perfectly navigable at our national speed limit and others 20 mph is (too) fast. In fact my regular riding buddy, currently trying Scenic on Android, commented over the weekend that he was struggling to meet the new estimated times since the most recent map update!Thanks Guido, excellent feedback as always.
Quote from Guido on 18.05.2026, 12:28Thanks for sending over the route and the details. I took a detailed look.There was a map update between the moment you created the route and the moment you rode it. That’s the main cause for this!
I know this with 100% certainty, because on my device I had not yet updated my maps, and when I first opened the route for editing it took the original intended route. Wish I made a screenshot, but I didn’t. Then I updated my offline maps and edited the route again. Now it took the “wrong” route
That may explain some of the (truly astonishing) differences between what I was being told to do by Scenic while following a friend navigating a route he’d made and shared with me (him on iOS App Store Scenic, me on iOS beta). There were certainly also other reasons for the routing issues we had (I did a lot of coaching on how to use Scenic) but I know he had not done the map update because we’d discussed the fact I’d applied the update a couple of days earlier and he didn’t know about it. I had wondered if this could be a factor but didn’t imagine there could have been so many changes to roads that have remained unchanged for decades. I didn’t consider the changes to the route duration calculations.
At the moment, our map provider is doing some fine-tuning to get better estimates for route duration.
