Lokate ยท Archiving
Lokate writes each assignment as one zip file to your own cloud storage: iCloud Drive on an iPhone, Google Drive on Android. Tracks, photos, log and a printable report, in a folder you can open without Lokate. Lose the phone, break it or buy a new one, and your records are still there.
Lokate does its best to keep your records in your hands, in formats you can read without Lokate and without converting anything.
Tracks are standard GPX, and all tracks, clues and markers are also in GeoJSON. CalTopo, Gaia GPS, Google Earth, QGIS and most GIS and GPS software read them directly.
The .json files look odd at first glance, all braces and quotes, but they are ordinary text. Open one in any text editor and you can read the assignment, your dogs or your lists line by line.
Archiving writes a report.html into each zip by itself: the map with all tracks, the weather, the log and the dog. Open it in any web browser to review the assignment or print it. AndroidThe report comes with Full Access.
Everything you record lives in Lokate’s database on the phone. That is one copy, on a device that goes into mud, rain and rubble.
One zip per assignment, kept current as the assignment changes. You don’t press save; Lokate notices what changed and rewrites the zip at a quiet moment.
When you turn archiving on, every assignment that has never been archived is queued, back to your very first. They are written one after another, a second apart, whenever the app is open. A long history takes a while the first time; after that only the changes are written.
Almost anything you change marks the assignment’s archive as out of date: a new or edited clue or marker, a renamed, trimmed or hidden track, weather fetched, a log submitted, a FETCH collar download, imported tracks.
The new zip is written at the next of these moments:
Some moments write straight away instead of waiting: stopping a recording, saving Edit Assignment (name, type, date, dog, discipline), importing map items into the assignment, and Archive & Delete. On an iPhone these happen even when automatic archiving is off, as long as iCloud is available.
The new zip is written first and the old one is removed after, so there is never a moment with no archive at all.
With archiving on, each assignment in the list carries a thin line at the right edge. Colour says what state its archive is in; the lean says which way it is heading.
| Line | Means | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Green, upright | Archived and current. Nothing to do. | |
| Orange, solid | Being written right now. | |
| Orange, dashed | Waiting for its first archive. | |
| Red, dashed | Changed since its last archive. The update is queued. | |
| Red, solid | Lokate tried three times and gave up, or it has never been archived. See When things go wrong. |
iPhoneSwipe an assignment to the right and tap Archive to write its archive now.
Each zip opens to one folder named like the zip. The top level is made to be opened by people and by other programs; originals is what Lokate reads back when it restores.
2026-09-14-T-Bindi-T-JG0K0C-F77FC382/ report.html the printable report: map, weather, log, dog track_hdlr.gpx your track track_Bindi.gpx the dog’s track, named after the dog track_subject.gpx the subject or runner’s track tracks_all.geojson all tracks in one file, CalTopo-ready map_items.geojson clues, markers and areas log.json the filled-in log form originals/ assignment.json the assignment, weather included trackpoints.json every recorded point images/ photos taken during the assignment
A file is left out when there is nothing to put in it: no subject track, no track_subject.gpx; no log filled in, no log.json. Photos taken between the start and end of your track are included.
You can sort and find archives in any file browser without opening one.
T training, M mission, U not set.No-K9 without a dog.T trailing, A area, H HRD, W water, D disaster, V avalanche, U not set.Two more files sit in the same folder, rewritten whenever you change what they hold.
Your dogs and their records, lists, locations, vets, log form templates, report presets, the journal, and your handler ID.
Your Lokate settings: units and coordinate format, colours, map and recording options, import and export choices, triggers, archiving.
Before each is replaced, the old one is kept as globaldata-2026-09-28-1400.json and so on. At most one an hour, the ten newest kept. A restore takes the newest copy that actually has something in it, so a blank file can never wipe your dogs.
Successful archives are silent. Problems are written to Settings › Activity Log under Errors, in plain words:
“Will not be retried” lasts until the assignment changes again; any edit queues it afresh.
In your own cloud storage, in a folder you can open with the phone’s file app or from a computer.
Open the Files app, or iCloud Drive in Finder on a Mac, or icloud.com in a browser. The space used counts against your iCloud storage.
Open the Drive app, or drive.google.com in a browser. Connect the Google account to use under Settings › Auto Archive. The space used counts against your Google storage.
iPhone and Android write the same zips, with the same names and contents. On Android, the printable report.html inside the zip comes with Full Access; everything else in the archive is free.
Delete one in Files or Drive and it is gone from the cloud. Lokate writes it again, but only while the assignment is still on your phone.
iPhoneIn the iPhone’s Settings, tap your name, then iCloud. Make sure iCloud Drive is on and Lokate is allowed to use it.
AndroidIn Lokate, open Settings › Auto Archive and connect the Google account whose Drive should hold your archives. Lokate can only see the files it creates there.
In Lokate, open Settings and find Auto Archive. Turn on Auto Archive Assignments. The first archives start straight away.
Minimum Battery Level goes from 20% to 50% in steps of 5. Below it, background archiving waits so a search isn’t cut short by a flat phone. 30% suits most handlers.
Under the switch, Archived assignments shows how much of what’s on the phone has an archive, Total archives online counts the zips in the folder, and Storage Used shows their size. The lines in the assignment list turn green as each one is written.
Check that the cloud is reachable (iCloud Drive on, or the Google account still connected), that the battery is above your floor, and look in Settings › Activity Log for the reason. On an iPhone, swipe the assignment to the right and tap Archive to try again now.
A fresh install asks before it does anything else:
Tap the button that says you have archives. On Android, pick the Google account that holds them. Lokate looks in the Archives folder and lists what it finds by handler ID, with how many assignments each has and when it last archived. Your own ID is picked from your saved dogs and lists; if those aren’t there, Lokate asks which ID is yours. Tap Restore and it brings back:
Keep Lokate open until it finishes; it shows what came back and anything it couldn’t restore. Nothing in the cloud is changed by a restore, and teammates’ archives in the same folder are left alone. If the cloud is off or slow to answer, Lokate says so and lets you try again.
AndroidChose “new” by mistake, or connected Drive later? Settings › Restore from archives… runs the same restore at any time.
If an assignment’s data is damaged, Lokate says so and looks for its archive. When it finds one, it tells you how many track points and photos the archive holds and how old it is, with a warning when it’s more than an hour old: changes since then are not in it. Tap Attempt restore from archive to replace the damaged copy.
iPhoneIf Lokate can’t read them from the phone, it asks:
Lokate offers the newest backup that has content.
Tap Restore, then close Lokate fully and open it again before changing anything. Until then Lokate won’t save dogs, lists or forms, so an empty screen can’t overwrite what you just got back.
Deleting takes the assignment off the phone. Its archive stays in the cloud with -deleted added to the name, so you can see what it was and a restore leaves it out. The delete question offers Archive & Delete, which writes a final archive first; if that can’t be written, the assignment is not deleted.
Want it back on a future restore? Take -deleted out of the name in Files or Drive.
Both apps write and read the same archive files, so your history can come with you when you switch. iCloud and Google Drive don’t see each other’s folders, so you copy the files across yourself.
Open Lokate on the old phone and check that every assignment shows a green line. Anything red or dashed isn’t in the cloud yet.
From a computer is easiest: download Lokate › Archives from iCloud Drive (or Google Drive) and copy the zips and globaldata.json to the other service.
To an iPhonePut them in iCloud Drive › Lokate › Archives before you first open Lokate, then choose to restore.
To AndroidLokate can only see the Drive files it made itself. Open the copied zips with the import button in the assignment list, which uses the phone’s file picker.
The handler ID in the file names is yours on either platform. Restoring takes it over, so new archives on the new phone carry the same ID as the old ones and sit beside them in one history.
Assignments, dogs, lists and forms move across. App settings only partly do: the iPhone and Android apps don’t have exactly the same settings, so some have no match on the other side. Go through Settings on the new phone once after the move.
An archive is an ordinary zip. You don’t need Lokate to use it.
Send one zip to a team lead, an evaluator or a court. report.html opens in any browser and prints; the map in it needs an internet connection.
The GPX files load into CalTopo, Gaia GPS, Google Earth and most GPS software. tracks_all.geojson brings all tracks into CalTopo in one go.
Have every handler copy their zips into one shared folder. The names never clash, because each carries its handler ID and assignment ID. Sorted by name, the folder reads as a timeline; filter by handler ID, dog or discipline to see one handler, one dog or all the HRD work.
The archive folder is a dated history of every trail, by dog and discipline, with the log form for each. Useful for certification, and for seeing how a dog has come along.
Keep the shared folder apart from your own Archives folder. Lokate ignores teammates’ zips in your folder, but a copy of a mission you also ran can make your own copy look archived when it isn’t.