Oceanic+ - A Second Look With Serious Failures

[Buadhai]

My wife and I do two or three live aboard trips per year and that’s it for diving for us.

Our first trip this year was in February and was the first chance I got to use Oceanic+ with my Watch Ultra. At that time it worked fine as a dive computer, although there were a few shortcomings which I have noted previously.

We just finished a three day trip in the vicinity of Lipe in the South Andaman. This time Oceanic+ had some major problems.

Dive Computer

During this trip my wife was on air, but I was on Nitrox for all of the nine dives that we did. Since the air mixture varied from tank to tank I always checked the Oxygen percentage and made sure my Watch (and Zoop Novo spare) were set correctly.

The eighth dive was at Eight Mile, a submerged pinnacle. A very strong current forced us to descend using the buoy line. When we got to about 20 meters visibility was only two or three meters. Since we’d spent quite a bit of time struggling to descend I checked the No Deco time on my wife’s Zoop. It showed 17 minutes. I checked my Watch which also showed 17 minutes. How could this be when she’s on air and I’m on 32% Oxygen?

After the dive ended I checked the dive settings on my Watch. Much to my surprise it appeared that Oceanic+ had spontaneously reset all settings to the factory defaults. The dive gas was set to air and no alarms were active. I normally set target dive time to 50 minutes, target depth to 30 meters and low-no-deco to ten minutes. The logbook on the watch showed that the dive was done with air. I’m not sure how this could happen; especially since I had confirmed the Nitrox setting about 20 minutes before the dive began.

[logbook air]

Logbook

Another problem was with the logbook. It took a very long time for Oceanic+ on the Watch to sync the logbook with the iPhone app. After the eighth dive I noticed that only three dives were shown in the iPhone app logbook; dives 5, 6 and 7. I tried doing manual “Sync to your watch” and even though it said “Operation Completed”, the missing dives never appeared (or re-appeared) on the iPhone. All nine dives are in the logbook on the Watch, but only three are now on the iPhone. This is a shame as I spent some time entering dive notes in the logbook on the iPhone. It appears that all of that is now lost.

[Logbook watch 1,2 and 3]

[Logbook iPhone]

Continued due to limitation on attachments.

 

[Buadhai]

The Home Screen of the Oceanic+ app on the iPhone shows only three dives for the “Last 4 Weeks Scuba Summary”. There should be nine.

[Home - iPhone]

[Operation Completed]

Surface Interval

For some reason the logbook is that it doesn’t display surface interval. Easy enough to calculate, but isn’t that why I have a smart Watch and a smart Phone?

Logout/Login

I hoped that logging out and logging back in again might fix the logbook sync issue. I logged out on the iPhone and was offered a log in screen. I tried logging back in and was presented with a rather cryptic error message screen.

[Error screen]

Does Oceanic really think that low level system errors should be passed on to end users? How about something a bit more human readable?

I never was able to complete the login process even when we got close to Lipe and had a 5G cell signal. Oddly, when I went back to the Home Screen, it appeared that I was still logged in or had succeeded in spite of the error message. Unfortunately, The Home Screen showed that my current plan was “Free” in spite of the fact that my current app rental doesn’t expire until July 11th.

[Home Screen - Free]

[Subscription]

Although we were done diving for this trip I thought I’d simulate starting another dive. As expected, I was not offered Scuba; just Snorkeling. What a shock it would be to be in the midst a multi-day live aboard trip only to find out that Oceanic had summarily cancelled your rental subscription three weeks early. What then?

Continued due to limitation on attachments.

 

[Buadhai]

GPS and Maps

On my first live aboard trip with Oceanic+ I noticed that frequently the app was unable to use GPS to determine the dive exit point. This problem persists, although you are now given an opportunity to add the exit point manually. I’m not sure how that helps. If I could find the exit point on a map I wouldn’t need GPS.

[GPS data incomplete]

I’m not sure why the Oceanic+ app can’t locate the exit point especially when several GPS satellites have a very strong signal in this area.

[GPS diagnostics]

Perhaps the problem is that when you first surface your wrist and watch are still under water. If that’s the case, the app might offer a message with hepatics asking you to hold your wrist and watch above water so the app can get a good GPS fix on your exit point. It’s not helpful to find this out only after you’ve left the dive site and are back aboard the dive boat.

The problem of needing an Internet connection to view maps persists as does the inaccuracy of Apple Maps in both the North and South Andaman. Oceanic should offer users the option of downloading decent quality maps in advance. Other apps (WorkOutDoors, GPS Tracks) offer this, so it is not an insurmountable problem.

Bottom Line

After this experience I’m not sure what to think of Oceanic+. It’s hard for me to imagine ever using it as a primary dive computer and I’m certainly glad that on this trip I had my trusty Zoop Novo as a backup. That said, I very much like the during-dive display on the Watch Ultra. It’s clear, informative and easy to read. If only it were a more reliable dive computer.

 

[z28lt1]

Thanks for posting your experiences, very helpful.

I only did a few quick dives just to test it out, and I had sync issues as well. However, my sync issues cleared up after updated to the latest app, IOS (which was 16.5 when I did it) and Watch OS. Just using the newest Oceanic+ app didn't help until I updated IOS as well.

If you are already all up to date, this doesn't help you. If not, I would make sure everything is updated.

 

[bonedoc18]

I've had the same issues with the log book not syncing on both my and my wife's watch. Tried force quitting both apps (phone and watch), logging out and it, updating operating systems, restarting phone and watch in alternating order, restarting and opening the apps in alternating order... no luck, logs still not visible in the app. Finally I tried un-installing and re-installing the app, which deleted the dives completely. Also had trouble with some settings being reset.

This is very unfortunate because I really liked the readability of the watch underwater and the interface. It's disconcerting to me as well that, even with the Apple monster behind them with this flagship-type feature, Oceanic can't seem to fix it. Hopefully they don't struggle with the same problems with the computer built into the new phone housing.

I think the AWU/Oceanic+ has a lot of potential, but certainly not ready for prime time. Luckily we were using as a backup for Perdix 2s which, I hear, are half-way decent computers.

 

[mattfish]

The logbook part of the software is garbage. Beyond the syncing issues, there’s nowhere to record start and end tank pressures. Even basic paper log books have this.

I think the dive computer app itself is nice (not great, but ok) but the entire syncing and logging feels like a rushed afterthought. The loss of settings is concerning, but could be as simple as permissions on the prefs file getting changed so the app couldn’t read it. It’s a huge deal for a dive computer app, but not uncommon in general.

 

[tridacna]

I love my UW. Perfect for the gym and hiking. I would NEVER buy the Oceanic app. I never even took the freebie trial that Oceanic are offering at tradeshows. Thanks for helping me confirm my decision.

 

[Buadhai]

Here are the versions I was using at the time described in the OP:

Oceanic+ Version 1.1.4
Apple Watch Ultra - WatchOS 9.5.1
iPhone 14 Pro - iOS 16.5

Although the sync issue is an important one, the most egregious bug is the fact that Oceanic+ suddenly and without warning completely reset itself to the factory defaults. This meant that my gas was switched from Nitrox (32%) to Air without my noticing. Perhaps I should have noticed, but who anticipates that their dive computer will do a spontaneous reset?

 

[kimh]

Does Oceanic really think that low level system errors should be passed on to end users?

Clearly just a bug.

After this experience I’m not sure what to think of Oceanic+

As I said in the other thread: This is actually the first time I've ever seen a bug report about Oceanic+ relating to in-water functionality, as opposed to something like syncing dive log info on the surface. The fact that the default is air means that resetting from nitrox to default – will at least be a mistake in the conservative deco direction. Still disconcerting.

 

[Buadhai]

Clearly just a bug.



As I said in the other thread: This is actually the first time I've ever seen a bug report about Oceanic+ relating to in-water functionality, as opposed to something like syncing dive log info on the surface. The fact that the default is air means that resetting from nitrox to default – will at least be a mistake in the conservative deco direction. Still disconcerting.

I understand. What troubles me about the non-in-water bugs is that it demonstrates a pattern of failure to adequately test and verify their software. If their mistakes can cause the summary cancellation of a subscription mid-journey, or the sudden disappearance of six out of nine dives from the logbook, then what other surprises lurk; perhaps mid-dive? As you say, disconcerting.