Sup­port
Ques­ti­ons and Ans­wers to Logbook Suite

*** Now new: Logbook Suite Quick­start “Logbook with Auto-NMEA” ***

Support – Questions and Answers to Logbook Suite

Topics on this page

Do you have any ques­ti­ons about Logbook Suite or pro­blems? On this page we have coll­ec­ted some troubleshootings.

If your ques­ti­ons are not ans­we­red here, the sup­port of 2K Yacht­ing will help. You can reach our tech­ni­cal sup­port best if you send an email to: 

Please note our current instructions

If Logbook Suite should start with a German user inter­face, simply tap the button Vor­ga­ben in the Logbook Suite Mana­ger and select your desi­red lan­guage from the list.

Important note about our internal updates

Via the Update func­tion of the Logbook Suite Mana­ger we pro­vide updates for the dif­fe­rent modu­les and also for the Logbook Suite Mana­ger if requi­red. These updates should always be exe­cu­ted promptly, as they often fix minor bugs.

In order to dis­play the cor­rect ver­sion number of the instal­led modu­les in the dialog Updates, you should press the Refresh button (top left in the dialog) again.

In some cases, the exe­cu­tion of the auto­ma­tic updates does not work as smoothly as expec­ted. Please cont­act us in this case. Please also send us a screen­shot of the dialog Update so that we know what you have instal­led. We will send you ins­truc­tions for an alter­na­tive update pro­ce­dure as soon as possible.

If you want to update from Logbook Suite 2.2 to 2.3, the easiest way is to use the cur­rent instal­lers (from your store account) or an update from the App Store. Important: Just do the instal­la­taion, do not delete any exis­ting data.

In case of pro­blems, always cont­act our sup­port first before dele­ting or reinstal­ling anything.

Update to Logbook Suite 2.4.1 under Windows 11

Under Win­dows 11 you have to run the Logbook Suite 2.4.1 instal­ler to update to Logbook Suite 2.4.1. The new instal­ler is available for down­load in the store account of your Win­dows Logbook license – no matter which ver­sion of Logbook you have purcha­sed. It con­ta­ins the new pro­gram ele­ment needed to create the PDF pre­view.
For all other ope­ra­ting sys­tems it is suf­fi­ci­ent to exe­cute the updates via the update func­tion of the Logbook Suite Manager.

Important note about our internal updates

Via the Update func­tion of the Logbook Suite Mana­ger we pro­vide updates for the dif­fe­rent modu­les and also for the Logbook Suite Mana­ger if requi­red. These updates should always be exe­cu­ted promptly, as they often fix minor bugs.

In order to dis­play the cor­rect ver­sion number of the instal­led modu­les in the dialog Updates, you should press the Refresh button (top left in the dialog) again.

In some cases, the exe­cu­tion of the auto­ma­tic updates does not work as smoothly as expec­ted. Please cont­act us in this case. Please also send us a screen­shot of the dialog Update so that we know what you have instal­led. We will send you ins­truc­tions for an alter­na­tive update pro­ce­dure as soon as possible.

Updating Logbook Suite 2.2 to a newer ver­sion is only pos­si­ble with the cur­rent instal­ler (from your store account) or with an update from the App Store.
Important: Just do the instal­la­taion, do not delete any exis­ting data.

In case of pro­blems, always cont­act our sup­port first before dele­ting or reinstal­ling anything.

Tip for iOS and Auto-NMEA

Occa­sio­nally, Logbook on the iPad has dif­fi­culty con­nec­ting to the LogbookNMEA con­nect app when Auto-NMEA is star­ted. You will get an error mes­sage that the app is not set up correctly.

In this case there is a simple solution:

  1. Acti­vate the split screen mode of the iPad and show the app LogbookNMEA con­nect in addi­tion to Logbook.
  2. Now start Auto-NMEA and wait until the start entry is entered.
  3. After that you can show Logbook in full screen mode again.

Important note about the update of the app LogbookNMEA connect (iPad)

Occa­sio­nally it can happen that the App LogbookNMEA con­nect does not work cor­rectly after an update. The solu­tion is quite simple:

  1. Write down your set­tings (sources) in LogbookNMEA con­nect.
  2. Delete the app com­ple­tely from your iPad.
  3. Reload the app from the App Store.
  4. Set up the sources again.

Now LogbookNMEA con­nect should work as usual.

Important note about the installation of Logbook Suite for Windows

During the instal­la­tion of Logbook Suite for Win­dows all virus scan­ners must be com­ple­tely deac­ti­va­ted – even the inter­nal virus scan­ner of Win­dows 10/11. Virus scan­ners change the data­base files of Logbook Suite during the scan so that they become unusable.

Important note for the simul­ta­neous use of a USB con­nec­ted NMEA device with Logbook and a navi­ga­tion software:

With USB con­nec­tions, in most cases it is not pos­si­ble to acti­vate devices that are alre­ady used by a navi­ga­tion pro­gram also for Logbook, because the navi­ga­tion pro­grams occupy the port of the device per­ma­nently and do not release it for other programs.

Important note for Logbook Suite on Mac

To use Logbook Suite on Mac it is important to avoid that the Logbook Suite data folder moved to iCloud Drive. Saving the files auto­ma­ti­cally in iCloud Drive can cause pro­blems with Logbook Suite – inclu­ding file cor­rup­tion. This is because the auto­ma­ti­cally wri­ting of opened files to the cloud col­l­i­des with the way data­base-based appli­ca­ti­ons auto­ma­ti­cally save the ent­ries.
MacOS Cata­lina by stan­dard copies the users Docu­ments folder to iCloud Drive. The­r­e­fore the data folder “Logbook Suite” is loca­ted directly in the top level of the user folder and not inside of the docu­ments folder.

Logbook Suite: Installation

Note for the installation of Logbook Suite for Windows

Please note that on Win­dows com­pu­ters you only can make ent­ries in data­base soft­ware from accounts with administrator’s right. The­r­e­fore it is neces­sary that you install Logbook Suite with an account with all admi­nis­tra­tor privileges.

Nevert­hel­ess, with some Win­dows instal­la­ti­ons the admi­nis­tra­tor account hasn’t got all rights that are requi­red for the use of a data­base soft­ware. This is par­ti­cu­larly the case for com­pu­ters with addi­tio­nal accounts. You may reco­gnize that every time Logbook Suite is star­ted, a mes­sage is shown, that an update of the data files has been exe­cu­ted, even when not­hing has been updated.

In this case there is a rather simple solution:

  • Start Logbook Suite using the con­text menu of the pro­gram and select “Run as administrator”.
  • Alter­na­tively you can set up the link to the pro­gram Logbook Suite thus the soft­ware auto­ma­ti­cally gets always the admi­nis­tra­tor pri­vi­le­ges. In the con­text menu choose the entry “Pro­per­ties”, click the “Short­cut” tab, then on “Advan­ced” and acti­vate the “Run as Admi­nis­tra­tor” check box. To finish click OK.
  • In some cases, in addi­tion to the step above the access rights of the data­ba­ses con­tai­ned in the pro­gram folder of Logbook Suite (the files with exten­sion fmp12) need to be manu­ally chan­ged to full access.
  • If the access rights of the data­base files in the pro­gram folder were not cor­rect, you should also check the access rights of the files in the data folder of Logbook Suite (the folder “Logbook Suite” is in the top level of your boot drive). Cor­rect the access rights of this files if neces­sary, too. Remove all backup files which have been crea­ted during your attemps to start Logbook Suite.

 

Note for the use of USB connected NMEA data sources under Windows

With USB con­nec­tions it is in most cases not pos­si­ble under Win­dows to acti­vate devices that are alre­ady used by a navi­ga­tion pro­gram also for Logbook, because the navi­ga­tion pro­grams occupy the port of the device per­ma­nently and do not release it for other pro­grams.
Some navi­ga­tion pro­grams offer a vir­tual port split­ter that allows the port to be used by two pro­grams. If not, addi­tio­nal soft­ware is requi­red.
This pro­blem does not exist for WLAN connections.

Receiving GPS data on iPad

In order for Logbook will be able to receive GPS data on the iPad, you need to have acti­va­ted the Loca­tion Ser­vices for Logbook Suite and for LogbookNMEA con­nect in the Set­tings app of the iOS.

To trans­fer navi­ga­tion data from the iPad’s built-in GPS or from an NMEA data source, you need our free iPad app LogbookNMEA con­nect. This app estab­lishes the con­nec­tion bet­ween Logbook and the GPS or the instruments.

Please note, before you can receive data, you need to setup the appro­priate data source in LogbookNMEA con­nect. For more infor­ma­tion, read the Logbook manual.

System preferences

Mac: macOS 10.13 and newer
Win­dows: Window 7 SP1 Professional/Ultimate, 8.1 Standard/Pro, 10 Pro/Enterprise, Win­dows 11
iPad: iOS 12.2 and newer, mini­mum 1.5 GB free memory, iOS 15 for Logbook Suite 2.4
iPhone: iOS 13.2 and newer, mini­mum 1.5 GB free memory, iOS 15 for Logbook Suite Pho­ne­Tools 2.4

iOS 15 für Logbook Suite Pho­ne­Tools 2.4

Current version numbers of Logbook and the Add-ons starting with version 2.4

If you are using an older ver­sion and have pro­blems with the file, you can down­load the new ver­sion from our web­site into Logbook Suite by cli­cking the Update button in the Logbook Suite Mana­ger and update your cur­rent file auto­ma­ti­cally. The Update dialog will always show you the ver­si­ons you are using and the latest available versions.

VersionChange
Logbook
6.2.1• Track image is now correctly synchronized with Windows
• Fixed bug with auto NMEA and km
6.2.0After automatic data retrieval the last active tap is displayed again
Logbook Suite Manager
2.4.0New version for Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.4.0New version for Logbook Suite 2.4
LogbookNMEAconnect
1.12.1Incorrect LON value with only two-digit degrees in NMEA is taken into account and corrected
1.12.0New version for Logbook Suite 2.4
Logbook Lite
2.0.5Optimization of the update function for Logbook Suite PhoneTools
Biography
2.4.1Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.4.0• New fields for days/nights at sea, at anchor and in port (for import from logbook)
• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• PC: PDF display in PDF viewer possible for all PCs
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
BoardCash
3.5.1• Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
• Repair function if instruction items were not imported during the last update
3.5.0• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
Budget
1.3.1Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
1.3.0• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• Search by date range improved
• Sum view shows also negative values
• List shows percentages by category (only if not sorted by year)
• Dialogs support duplicating
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
Crew
2.2.2Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.2.0• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
First-Aid Kit
2.4.0• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
Inventory
2.5.1Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.5.0• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• PC: PDF display in PDF viewer possible for all PCs
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
• Transfer with price to budget
• Export also contains the price
Maintenance
2.3.2Windows: improved procedure for creating PDF preview if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11) - requires installation of Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.3.0• PC: Preview image for PDF if no PDF support (e.g. Windows 11)
• PC: PDF display in PDF viewer possible for all PCs
• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
• When inserting documents, the type (PDF, video ...) is automatically detected without dialog
Scheduler
3.4.0• PC: Optimization when resizing the window
• Visualization of waiting time when building the timeline (buttons hidden)
• Time periods until 2025 in selection lists
SYNC
2.4.1New version for Logbook Suite 2.4.1
2.4.0Version number is transferred correctly again
WorldEnsigns
2.3.0New version for Logbook Suite 2.4

Update to Logbook Suite 2.4

Download the update for existing Logbook licenses

If you alre­ady own a PC license for Logbook for Mac or Win­dows, you can simply down­load the new ver­sion of Logbook Suite for your ope­ra­ting system from your 2K Yacht­ing Shop account wit­hout fil­ling out the down­load form again.

To down­load the instal­ler from your shop account select at “Instant down­loads” the down­load button that is dis­played next to your Logbook PC license. All other down­load but­tons do not have an instal­ler because they are valid for all plat­forms.
Just ignore the ver­sion number that is dis­played in your account! For all ver­si­ons of Logbook the down­load button is linked to the latest instal­ler of Logbook Suite. All updates are for free.

The update for iPad can be loaded from the Apple App Store as usal.

Update existing data files to Logbook Suite 2.4

When instal­ling Logbook Suite 2.4 your data files from older ver­si­ons of Logbook Suite are auto­ma­ti­cally updated. Howe­ver, the auto­ma­tic update affects only files with default file names in the default data folder, other files need to be updated manu­ally to ver­sion 2.4.

If you have alre­ady used an older ver­sion of Logbook (Logbook ver­sion 2.0 or newer) or Logbook Suite, you can open your files from Logbook and the Add-ons crea­ted in the older ver­sion of the soft­ware also with Logbook Suite 2.4. But the file will only pro­vide the func­tions of the ori­gi­nal ver­sion of the program.

After instal­ling Logbok Suite 2.4 you can import your old data files into Logbook Suite so all the new fea­tures will be available. 

The fol­lo­wing ins­truc­tions explain all the neces­sary steps on the PC or the iPad.

Automatic update of older data files on PC

If you want to update older data files (Logbook mini­mum ver­sion 2.0, Add-ons all ver­si­ons) to the cur­rent ver­sion of Logbook Suite, you can do this very easily using the auto­ma­tic updating function.

  • Copy your data files from older ver­si­ons into a folder. All files need to use the stan­dard file names and the exten­sion .fmp12. If neces­sary, you should edit the file names using the Finder or the Explo­rer before start­ing the func­tion. Please note that all files need to be closed when per­forming the update.
  • In Logbook Suite Mana­ger choose the button More… and then the button Import data from 3.7 or older.
  • When you have sel­ece­ted your folder the update pro­cess is star­ted. After a few secu­rity mes­sa­ges, the data from the old ver­si­ons are impor­ted into the files of the the cur­rent ver­sion of the cur­rent ver­sion of Logbook Suite.

A step-by-step ins­truc­tion for a manual updating is pro­vi­ded in User Manual Logbook Suite Basics.

Automatic update to Logbook Suite on iPad

Using the button Import data from 3.7 and older from the menu of the button More… of the Logbook Suite Mana­ger you can per­form an auto­ma­ted update of your data from older ver­si­ons (Logbook mini­mum ver­sion 2.0, Add-ons all ver­si­ons) to the cur­rent verion of Logbook Suite. Please note that all files should not use the stan­dard file name and should be closed while per­forming the update.

  1. Copy the old data file to Logbook Suite.
  2. In the Logbook Suite Mana­ger tap the button More… and then the button Import data from 3.7 and older.
  3. In the popo­ver choose from the first list which module you want to update.
  4. Then select from the second list the file con­tai­ning the data to be impor­ted from. The list con­ta­ins all files stored in Logbook Suite except the default files.
  5. Tap­ping the button Update starts the import pro­cess of the data.

Because of the file system on the iPad, the update must be exe­cu­ted one by one for each file. 
A step-by-step ins­truc­tion for a manual updating is pro­vi­ded in User Manual Logbook Suite Basics.

Logbook: NMEA function

Test your NMEA connection with Logbook on PC

While Logbook is in demo mode and there are less then five days in the logbook, you can test the NMEA fea­ture for PC and iPad. We stron­gly recom­mend to test the NMEA con­nec­tion bet­ween Logbook and your equip­ment before purcha­sing the PC NMEA License. The con­nec­tion should work with all NMEA and GPS devices that are con­nec­ted to the PC using USB, Bluetooth or WiFi. Nevert­hel­ess there could be some devices on the market that are not com­pa­ti­ble with Logbook.

We are very gra­teful for any feed­back – regard­less of whe­ther the con­nec­tion is working or not!

Test your NMEA connection with Logbook on the iPad

While Logbook is in demo mode and there are less then five days in the logbook, you can also test the Logbook NMEA func­tion for iPad. Once you have crea­ted more than five days, the fea­ture is only available if you have ente­red a NMEA serial number for iPad.

The fol­lo­wing list shows the hard­ware, for which the app pro­vi­des preset con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons.
If you want to use a hard­ware that is not listed, please cont­act our support.

List of Devices supported in NMEA function for iOS

Our NMEA func­tion for iPad uses the app LogbookNMEA con­nect, which has been deve­lo­ped exclu­si­vely for Logbook, to con­nect Logbook to NMEA data sources. LogbookNMEA con­nect offers pre con­fi­gu­red set­tings for the fol­lo­wing devices or con­nec­tions. Inter­nal
  • iPad Baro­me­ter
  • iPad GPS

WiFi

  • Acti­sense NGT‑1 (IP)
  • Acti­sende W2K‑1
  • Astra­Yacht
  • Bon­jour
  • comar i300W/i320W
  • comar NMEA-2-Wifi
  • Digi­tal Yacht (Nav­Link 2, TCP, UDP)
  • DMK Box (NMEA 0183 & NMEA 2000)
  • DY: iAIS / WLN10
  • EKI-1351
  • Expe­di­tion
  • ezTCP CSW-H80
  • GMM (NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000)
  • GoFree™, GoFree™ Bonjour
  • iMux (AdHoc) & iMux / eMux (DHCP)
  • nke NMEA Wifi Interface
  • NMEA over IP
  • NME­A­connect Server
  • NMEA­re­mote Server
  • Pilot­Tech — AIS Pilot Plug WiFi
  • Quark-elec
  • RedBox
  • Sailmon
  • Sea­M­ate Ch.1, Sea­M­ate Ch.2
  • SeaSmart.NET (NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000)
  • Ship­Mo­dul MiniPlex-2Wi
  • Ship­Mo­dul MiniPlex-3Wi(-N2K)
  • SignalK
  • SignalK (NMA 0183)
  • vYacht
  • XB 8000 / Watch Mate Vision
  • Yacht Devices
  • Yacht Devices — YDWG-02 (N2k)
  • Yakker

You can also con­nect other devices via LogbookNMEA con­nect with Logbook, if you know the con­fi­gu­ra­tion set­tings which are used to con­nect your iPad to your GPS/NMEA device.

Hardware tip for NMEA connection of Logbook

We have tested some WiFi mul­ti­ple­xers in prac­tice and can give you a very spe­cial recom­men­da­tion here:

Small, easy to install and fully com­pa­ti­ble with Logbook:
the NMEA 2000 WiFi Gate­way YDWG-02 von Yacht Devices.
The device is less than 6 cm long and has a dia­me­ter of only 20 mm. Tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion can be found here:
http://www.yachtd.com/products/wifi_gateway.html.

From now on you can also buy this gate­way directly from us in our online shop:
https://shop.2k-yachting.de/hardware/yacht-devices/yacht-devices-nmea2000-wifi-gateway-ydwg-02.
The sel­ling price is 249,00 €. We deli­ver free of ship­ping costs.

YDWG Gateway

We also have had great expe­ri­en­ces with the GoFree Wifi‑1 Modul from Navico (Simrad, B&G, Lowrance) during our tests. This is available in nearly every well sorted ship supply store.

Please also note the tip on set­ting up the GoFree con­nec­tion. 

Troubleshooting: NMEA data retrieval does not work or is too slow

Incor­rect set­tings in dialog Default, GPS/NMEA can cause that no data trans­fer is pos­si­ble or that it takes a long time until the data are ente­red in Logbook. The­r­e­fore in the dialog Default, GPS/NMEA only the opti­ons for the data that really can be recei­ved should be enab­led. Other­wise Logbook will wait for unavailable data until the time­out. This applies par­ti­cul­lary to the option iPad Pres­sure, which should be acti­va­ted only if the iPad has an inte­gra­ted baro­me­ter. In the app LogbookNMEA con­nect, which is used for the data retrie­val, you also need to setup and acti­va­ted the source iPad baro­me­ter in addi­tion to the source for recei­ving the navi­ga­tion data. We recom­mend to use the option Use time from iPad only if the NMEA data source of the ship net­work does not pro­vide a relia­ble UTC value. 

Troubleshooting: Aborts of NMEA data recording via Auto NMEA (iPad)

The Logbook Suite com­mu­ni­ca­tion app LogbookNMEA con­nect from ver­sion 2.3 on can detect and ignore errors in the NMEA data so that the data is passed to Logbook wit­hout errors. This is espe­ci­ally hel­pful when using the Auto NMEA func­tion, because NMEA data errors could lead to aborts of the data trans­fer to Logbook.

If there are still aborts during the data recor­ding with LogbookNMEA con­nect 2.3, you can use the option Vali­date (in the set­tings of your source) to acti­vate a second step of error correction.

Tip: Setting up the GoFree connection in the app LogbookNMEA connect

With the latest iOS updates, the Bon­jour pro­to­col, which is used for the auto­ma­tic detec­tion of GoFree, has been updated seve­ral times. Howe­ver, since GoFree still uses an old ver­sion of the pro­to­col, the inter­face is no longer reco­gni­zed correctly.

This can be reme­died by manu­ally set­ting up the source. Pro­ceed as follows:

  1. On your plot­ter go to the plot­ter con­fi­gu­ra­tion page. Look for the IP of the plot­ter, which is also dis­played here. Write this down.
  2. Open the app LogbookNMEA con­nect and choose Source, Edit, Add source.
  3. Choose NMEA over IP.
  4. Make the fol­lo­wing settings.
    • Pro­to­col: TCP
    • Host: IP of your plot­ter (it is shown on the info screen of your plotter)
    • Port: 10110
  5. In the top you can give this source a name, for exam­ple GoFree manu­ally.
  6. If you now acti­vate the source, data should be dis­played in the blue field.

Important note for owners of chartplotters with WiFi

Unfort­u­na­tely, the plot­ters from Ray­ma­rine, Furuno and Garmin don’t stream the stan­dard NMEA data via the inte­gra­ted WiFi. The WiFi only sends spe­ci­ally pre­pared infor­ma­tion for the own-brand apps in a vendor-pro­prie­tary, non-public data format. Unfort­u­na­tely the manu­fac­tu­re­res are not inte­res­ted in releasing the inter­face for use by third-party software. 

This is why you need to have instal­led a NMEA mul­ti­ple­xer with WiFi func­tion in your ship net­work to access the NMEA data from any other device or application—even if you use a plot­ter with wire­less LAN function.

Get your licenses 
Topics on this page

Logbook Suite for PC

Load your free Demo Version for Mac or Windows

Logbook Suite for iPad

Load your free Demo Version from the Apple App Store

Logbook Suite PhoneTool
for iPhone

Load your free Demo Version from the Apple App Store

Logbook Lite
for iPhone

Load your free Demo Version from the Apple App Store

LogbookNMEA connect

Load our app for the NMEA connection of Logbook and Logbook Lite from the Apple App Store (free of charge)

User Manuals

Download our detailed manuals to Logbook Suite, Logbook, Logbook Lite and the Add-ons

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