How to playback shared "My Tracks"?

[UncleMike]

This school year my son has been having problems with his school bus drivers (there are several) being unfamiliar with the route. To get an idea of what's going on I decided to have him use the My Tracks app to record the route. He has since shared the tracks with me, but I see no way to playback the shared tracks like he can on his device, or like I can with tracks recorded on my own device.

Tapping on the link in the email (how the shared tracks were sent) on my Android device offers to open the track in Chrome or Drive. Selecting Chrome just brings me to the same prompts again (even after choosing Chrome several times), and selecting Drive results in being asked to open it in Earth - which opens but does do display the track.

Clicking on the link on my desktop opens Google Maps and shows the track, but I see no way to playback the track.

Any suggestions?

 

[johnny_w]

I found this. It's to play a track on a P.C. but I think it might help. Looks like the trick is to export the file as a .GPX.

As far as I have understood, there is no gpx file when you upload to Google Maps. You'll be able to download a KML file, but you won't be able to "play" it... The way I have found to play a track on my PC is this one:

1. Save the track to SD Card as a GPX file
   • for current track, click on bottom right gray button, Save to SD Card...
   • for any other track, Menu, Tracks, long click on wished track, Save to SD Card...
2. Quit My Tracks
3. Connect your phone to your PC and Connect storage to PC
   
4. Retrieve the file - on my phone it is saved in MyTracks/gpx/
5. Open it on Google Earth on your PC - or drag and drop it on Google Earth window
6. Check Create KML Tracks and Adjust altitudes to ground height
7. In the left pane, under Places, Temporary places, expand GPS Device
8. Select your track - mine are always named YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
9. Click on Play tour button, in the toolbar just beneath Places pane, last right button
10. Enjoy

 

[tommo47]

Hi UncleMike, on your son's device save the tracks as KML files using the Export to External storage function - it saves them in /MyTracks/kml - you can then send them as email attachments to PC/Laptop and/or second Android device.

On PC/Laptop click on the attachment and Google Earth will open and let you replay the track/s.

On a second Android device you need to put the files (they have a .kmz extension) into the MyTracks/kml folder then run My Tracks and use the Import from External storage function. They will then appear with your other recorded tracks and you can replay them as you normally do.

You can also save them as GPX files (/MyTracks/gpx folder). They can then be imported to any GPX compatible app as an alternative form of viewing. I use OsmAnd to good effect.

Hope this helps.