GEC Account: sync, store and share your Aqua Map data

Your GEC Account is the hub that connects everything you do in Aqua Map across devices and, if you want, with the wider Aqua Map community. It's free to set up and unlocks a handful of features that are genuinely useful once you're managing more than one device or want to keep your markers and routes safe somewhere other than your phone.

What you get with a GEC Account

Purchases shared across up to 5 devices, Apple and Android alike. Buy something once and it follows you.
A secure place to store your markers, tracks, and routes. One important distinction: this isn't a typical cloud service that automatically backs up or syncs your data in the background. You need to actively save items to your GEC Account using the sharing function, and saving the same item more than once creates separate copies rather than overwriting the original.
Access to the Aqua Map community through Live Sharing.
An easy way to share your data publicly with other Aqua Map users via the Public Folder.

Using your GEC Account in the app

Register and login

You'll find the GEC Account login page from the main Settings menu.

From there, log in with your existing GEC Account credentials, or if you're new, register directly on the same page, either the standard way or through your Google, Facebook, or Apple account.

Prefer to register from a browser instead? You can do that too, from our website, more on that in the "GEC Account on the Website" section below.

Once you're logged in, you'll land on your Profile page (covered in detail further down), and from that point on, all your Aqua Map purchases sync automatically across every device you log into, up to five. You can also start using your GEC Account as storage for the data that matters most: markers, tracks, routes, and photos.

Saving data to your GEC Account

To back up an item to your GEC Account, use the sharing function and choose "GEC Account" as the destination. You'll need to be logged in for this option to appear.

Importing data from your GEC Account

Go to the Search page, open the "User data" tab, and select "Download from your GEC Account".

This opens a browser window showing everything saved in your account.

Tap a file to preview it on the map, then hit the import button in the top-left corner to bring it into the app.

Managing your profile

From Settings, tap the GEC Account option to open your Profile, where you can:

Log out using the button in the top-right corner.
Update your account details, like name and email. Your username, however, can't be changed once set.
Request account deletion. This triggers an email confirmation step, and once confirmed, the deletion is final and can't be undone.

Two more tabs live here worth knowing about. "Subscriptions and devices" shows every purchase currently tied to your GEC Account and is also where you redeem any promo codes you might have.

"Change password" does exactly what it says.

Using Your GEC Account on the Website

Register and login

The quickest way to register is right from our website: hit the Login button in the top-right corner of the homepage.

Your archive

Once logged in, your archive appears in the file manager panel on the left side of the Chart Viewer page.

From there, you can:

Select one or more files (hold Shift or Ctrl to multi-select), then drag and drop them into folders or subfolders.
Create a new folder or subfolder.
Create a new route or itinerary directly in your archive.
Delete selected files, which moves them to the trash folder rather than removing them instantly.
Rename a selected file or folder, though changing a file's extension isn't allowed.
Upload new files (KMZ, KML, or GPX only) using the upload icon, or just drag them in from your computer. To download, select one or more files and use the download icon; selecting multiple files bundles them into a zip.
Hide every file currently shown on the map with a single click, or toggle individual files on and off using their checkboxes .
View a file's details by clicking the info icon or double-clicking its name, which isolates it on the map.

Right-clicking any selected file also opens a context menu with quick access to these same commands.

One worth calling out: "Edit as new itinerary," which is how you modify an existing route or itinerary file, since it lets you start a new itinerary pre-loaded with everything from the file you selected.

On the map side, you can zoom and pan freely, search for any location worldwide, and adjust map settings from the same panel.

The Public Folder

Inside your GEC Account, you'll find a folder simply called "public." It's created automatically and can't be renamed or deleted. Everything else in your account stays private, but anything you move into this folder becomes visible to the entire Aqua Map community. For the full picture, see the Public Folder page.

Reliving your trips

Double-click any file in your archive, and it overlays directly on the map. From there you can dig into everything the file contains, track statistics, markers, photos, routes, plus depth and speed graphs where available, so you can relive the trip step by step, right down to where each photo was taken.

Creating or editing an itinerary

Building a new itinerary means pulling together tracks, markers, routes, and photos into a single file (GPX, KML, or KMZ), which the system then saves to your archive under whatever name you choose (with automatic numbering if that name is already taken). Once saved, you can download it, share it on social media, or load it straight back into Aqua Map.

While editing on the Chart Viewer, a set of tools becomes available. Each one turns orange when active and stays active until you press it again or switch tools:

Edit geometry by clicking directly on an object to drag, add, or remove points.
Add a marker, which you can then name, describe, assign an icon to, and attach a photo to, all editable up until you save.
Digitize a new route, clicking point by point on the map to place waypoints. A helper dialog tracks distance and bearing as you go, and lets you undo, redo, save, or cancel. Once placed, you can name, describe, and color the route.

Split a track or route into two separate objects: select the feature, then click where you want the split to happen.
Join two or more lines of the same type (route with route, track with track) into one.
Reverse a line's point order with a single click.
Delete any object from the itinerary you're building. There's no undo here, so double-check before removing anything.
Save, which stores the finished itinerary in your archive and closes the editing session. You'll be asked to name the file and choose GPX and/or KMZ/KML as the format.

A couple of ground rules apply throughout: an itinerary can only be edited before it's saved, and duplicate names aren't allowed for items of the same type within one file, so the system will rename yours automatically if needed.

Watch the tutorial

For a full walkthrough of GEC Account features, check out our video tutorial.