GSAK, The Next Generation

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A new version of the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) program was released this week. While version 7.7.2 includes some minor enhancements and bug fixes, it isn't necessarily a major update of the software. What is interesting about this version, is that it requires existing registered GSAK owners to use a newly-assigned serial number, as the old unique registration number we've always had will no longer be valid. So if you are a current GSAK user, make sure you refer back to the email you received from Clyde, the GSAK developer, that contains your new serial number. If you lost the email, or your new serial number, you can always visit the Lost Registration site to have it emailed to you.

Once you upgrade to the new version, one of the first things you'll notice the first time you load a GPX file (in the form of a pocket query or a single cache listing) into GSAK is that the file is most likely in the old GPX format that does not include attributes. GSAK will provide a pop-up window explaining that Groundspeak changed the format of GPX files to include attributes, but did not make this change the default on your geocaching.com account.

To make the change, you need to go to your gc.com account page, scroll down to the bottom, and change the "GPX Version" from 1.0 to 1.0.1.

Save the change, and you'll be good to go. Now every GPX file you download will include the cache attributes along with all the other pertinent information. Most applications will either use the extra attribute data, or ignore it. The only application that may have a problem with the GPX 1.0.1 format is Delorme Cache Register. If you are using an application that cannot handle the extra attribute data, simply switch back to GPX version 1.0 using the same steps described above.

Cache On!