Frequently Asked Questions

Array ( "I get a message saying my account isn't activated", <<<'END'

Occasionally the Niantic servers give this misleading message - what it should usually say is "Failed to check account status - please reload to try again".

Sometimes this is caused by server issues, and no amount of reloading will fix it. Come back later and try again.

However, another reason for this message is your account being blocked/suspended by Niantic. There are no (known) cases of this happening due to IITC use, but any use of bots, unofficial clients (e.g. iPhone, broot), or other ingress mods (auto-drop/pickup apps) could lead to this. In this case, the scanner app will also fail to work correctly ("Scan failed" error message).

END ), 'broken' => Array ( "No portals are displayed on the map/some portals are missing", <<<'END' Two common reasons.
  1. You have some portal layers turned off in the layer chooser
  2. Some requests failed - check the status at the bottom-right of the screen
In the second case, wait 30 seconds for the next refresh, or drag the map a very small amount to perform an immediate refresh. END ), 'curved-lines' => Array ( "Long lines are drawn curved on the map", <<<'END' This is a good thing. IITC has been updated (as of 0.13.0) to draw long links/fields correctly. If you want to understand why they are drawn curved, see here. END ), 'uninstall' => Array ( "How do I uninstall/disable IITC or plugins?", <<<'END' This depends on your browser. From here you can remove/disable individual plugins or IITC itself. ), 'mobile-plugins' => Array ( "Is it possible to add external plugins to IITC Mobile?", <<<'END' Yes it is! Note: END ), 'debug-data-tiles' => Array ( "What do the colours mean in 'DEBUG Data Tiles'", <<<'END' The data from the Niantic server is download in square tiles. Sometimes requests fail. The colours show this status visually. The outline colour shows the state of the request: The colour within the square shows the state of the data: The status message at the bottom-right of the screen gives a summary. The tooltip for this message gives more details. END ), 'no-penalty' => Array ( "Will Google/Niantic penalise me for using IITC?", <<<'END' There have been rumours that Niantic/Google have been asking people to stop using IITC, and penalising users with a loss of points for doing so. This, as far as we can tell, is a hoax. Consider the following:
  1. Before penalising users, they would request that this site is taken down. This has not happened.
  2. Any such request would come via email, not via a Google+ message. Ingress is not closely tied into the Google account system unlike, for example, Gmail; an email, like they already use for portal submissions, is the only communication method available.
  3. The message I've seen talks about "points" - when they should be talking about "AP".
Some notes from a Hangout available here with further details. END ), 'cheating' => Array ( "Isn't using IITC cheating/an unfair advantage?", <<<'END' IITC only uses data that is sent from the Ingress servers to the browser - it just displays it in an easy to use format. With the right skills it is already possible to see this data using the browser debugging console, and there were, and continue to be, other browser add-ons that display this data - just not widely available. Having a good quality, feature rich add-on, available to all - Enlightened and Resistance - ensures one side does not have an unfair advantage. END ), 'export' => Array ( "Can you add an export feature?", <<<'END' No. As it stands IITC is tolerated, but not officially accepted, by Niantic/Google. Adding in features that allow exporting of data outside the browser environment, or break additional Ingress terms of service is likely to trigger a takedown request from Google. END ), 'otherapp' => Array ( "I used another {ingress mod/IITC plugin} and it's broken - can you fix it?", <<<'END' Probably not, no. If the plugin is not listed on this site, it's not part of my IITC distribution. I do accept new plugins (see the Developer page for links to Github), but I do not accept any that allow export of Ingress data outside of the browser or make use of data not retrieved by the standard intel website. END ), ); print ""; ?>