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Compass points wrong direction


Uno Mas

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I'm accustomed to using a compass to find caches, but recently my compass has started pointing in the opposite direction of the cache. I can watch the distance count down, but the pointer is unreliable. Mostly it points opposite of where the cache is, but sometimes it fluctuates. Anybody else have this problem and figure out how to fix it? I'm leaning toward believing it's the iPhone 7's fault, but I'm hoping someone else has figured out a fix. I have iOS 10.3.2. 

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3 minutes ago, Uno Mas said:

I'm accustomed to using a compass to find caches, but recently my compass has started pointing in the opposite direction of the cache. I can watch the distance count down, but the pointer is unreliable. Mostly it points opposite of where the cache is, but sometimes it fluctuates. Anybody else have this problem and figure out how to fix it? I'm leaning toward believing it's the iPhone 7's fault, but I'm hoping someone else has figured out a fix. I have iOS 10.3.2. 

I usually use my handheld GPSr. But when I do use my iPhone, I frequently get that same behavior. But it usually only happens when I am less than 50 feet and close enough to just put it away and use my geo-senses. But I agree that it is annoying when it happens.

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My iPhone SE compass points in the wrong direction sometimes..  My friend has an iPhone 7 and hers points in the wrong direction at different times than mine does.  Mine is fairly reliable in the mornings and hers works better in the afternoon.  No telling when it happens, but it seems the more I cache the more it points backwards.  I've had to use the sun and pictures to determine the location of some caches because all I use is the iPhone.  I even tried shutting down the iPhone and restarting which sometimes helps.  But that trick doesn't work on my friend's phone.  It is aggravating and I wish it would work like the old program that is no longer supported.   

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I have an iPhone SE, compass problems appeared about a year ago and after throwing everything at it, eventually went away. This time the symptom is more annoying and persistent. When I go into compass mode, North is always pointed at the top of the phone, and the orange arrow appears at the correct relationship to North (but not toward the cache unless I actually am facing North). Those positions are locked, rotating the phone does nothing, although the distance to cache will change. I have tried rebooting the phone, reinstalling the app, Location cycled OFF/ON, compass calibration cycled OFF/ON, cycling to and from Never Use, waving phone in a Mobius Twist. The Apple Compass that came with the phone does the same, even after going through the same troubleshooting. I downloaded Commander Compass, and it also shows North at the top of the phone when I open it. Oddly enough, however, it then acts 'compass-like', spinning to keep North in that direction, wrong though it may be. And no, I do not have in a metal case, the phone acts the same with no case.

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22 hours ago, archsmooth said:

I have an iPhone SE, compass problems appeared about a year ago and after throwing everything at it, eventually went away. This time the symptom is more annoying and persistent. When I go into compass mode, North is always pointed at the top of the phone, and the orange arrow appears at the correct relationship to North (but not toward the cache unless I actually am facing North). Those positions are locked, rotating the phone does nothing, although the distance to cache will change. I have tried rebooting the phone, reinstalling the app, Location cycled OFF/ON, compass calibration cycled OFF/ON, cycling to and from Never Use, waving phone in a Mobius Twist. The Apple Compass that came with the phone does the same, even after going through the same troubleshooting. I downloaded Commander Compass, and it also shows North at the top of the phone when I open it. Oddly enough, however, it then acts 'compass-like', spinning to keep North in that direction, wrong though it may be. And no, I do not have in a metal case, the phone acts the same with no case.

 

You didn't mention actually doing the compass calibration.  Did you play the ball game? Screenshot below.

I did a quick search and found a thread with a couple more ideas:  https://origin-discussions-us.apple.com/message/30019727#message30019727

 

IMG_7385.jpg

Edited by kunarion
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I have the same problem.  I replaced my water soaked 6S Plus (thank you lifeproof - Not) and now the compass arrow doesn't work.  The count down does, but not the compass.  Has anyone figured out what the problem is?  All other compass/GPS based apps work just fine.  But not the native geocaching app.

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Thanks for the reports on this issue, everyone. We've been trying to reproduce the compass problems described and so far we haven't been able to.

We have confirmed that if the iPhone compass calibration app does not have location permissions then the compass in the Geocaching app will not function correctly. To find out if that could be affecting you, please make sure the "Compass Calibration" switch turned on (see attached image). Also, please note that this is not the same as giving the standalone "Compass" app location permission.

If anyone tries this, we'd appreciate a report back here as to whether or not the Geocaching app issue is resolved for you.

IOS-272 make sure that Compass calibration is on and green.png

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10 hours ago, Ben H said:

Thanks for the reports on this issue, everyone. We've been trying to reproduce the compass problems described and so far we haven't been able to.

We have confirmed that if the iPhone compass calibration app does not have location permissions then the compass in the Geocaching app will not function correctly. To find out if that could be affecting you, please make sure the "Compass Calibration" switch turned on (see attached image). Also, please note that this is not the same as giving the standalone "Compass" app location permission.

If anyone tries this, we'd appreciate a report back here as to whether or not the Geocaching app issue is resolved for you.

IOS-272 make sure that Compass calibration is on and green.png

Tried this, no difference.

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Iphone 5SE     IOS 11.5

The GPS is not as accurate as it used to be.  It's obvious that the blue dot is not shoeing where I am standing.  I like the AP but it is frustrating when it hinders me when searching for caches.  It is poor when out in the open and even worse when in the woods.

I recognize that this is a GPS issue and not an issue with the AP.  Has anyone found a solution?

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15 hours ago, GeoTrekker26 said:

I’m curious which phone you have, iPhone 5s or iPhone SE?  They are very different animals. 

It also isn't clear what version of iOS they're running. Version 11.3 is still in beta testing, so I'm not sure how they could be using 11.5. They also mentioned "the blue dot", so it isn't clear if the issue is the compass or something else.

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Sorry to take so long; I haven't been checking this page.  We have an Iphone 5C and a SE.  Mostly we use the SE but occasionally we use both,  We were out today, using the SE, and found that sometimes the blue dot was not where we were standing.  This usually happens after we get out of the car.  Sometime it corrects quickly and sometimes it can take 5 minutes.  Today, we found a cache because its location was shown near a distinctive landmark but the blue dot was still back at the car.

Both phones have the latest update.

Thanks

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Same problem here.  I wouldn't say that my compass 'points in the wrong direction', mine is more like it's just frozen in a random position.

Like other users the distance still ticks down on the app, so at present i'm playing a little game of Hot/Cold to make my way to the cache if I can't line it up geographically.

 

It started after I recently did a bulk app update and GC app was in there too.  I've made no changes to the OS since the problems started, so the app update is the only thing I can pinpoint for my device as it was working perfectly prior.

 

I find if I soft reset the phone I might get one cache out of it before the screen locks and the compass freezes again after unlocking the phone.

 

Will update my OS shortly and see if that helps.

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On 16/11/2017 at 3:52 AM, archsmooth said:

I have an iPhone SE, compass problems appeared about a year ago and after throwing everything at it, eventually went away. This time the symptom is more annoying and persistent. When I go into compass mode, North is always pointed at the top of the phone, and the orange arrow appears at the correct relationship to North (but not toward the cache unless I actually am facing North). Those positions are locked, rotating the phone does nothing, although the distance to cache will change. I have tried rebooting the phone, reinstalling the app, Location cycled OFF/ON, compass calibration cycled OFF/ON, cycling to and from Never Use, waving phone in a Mobius Twist. The Apple Compass that came with the phone does the same, even after going through the same troubleshooting. I downloaded Commander Compass, and it also shows North at the top of the phone when I open it. Oddly enough, however, it then acts 'compass-like', spinning to keep North in that direction, wrong though it may be. And no, I do not have in a metal case, the phone acts the same with no case.

 

HA!

I didn't read your comment prior to posting archsmooth - Didn't think of trying the native compass, that's frozen for me too! Must be a hardware/OS thing for sure.

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On 3/24/2018 at 5:51 AM, Xavier57 said:

Hi, same thing here. On iphone 6 and last IOS version, my compass is often off, and I can only progress loooking the distance indicator. Same behaviour in the woods, in the streets or in the snowy mountain !

I hope that it will be fixed soon !

 

4 hours ago, seven_neves said:

Same problem here.  I wouldn't say that my compass 'points in the wrong direction', mine is more like it's just frozen in a random position.

Like other users the distance still ticks down on the app, so at present i'm playing a little game of Hot/Cold to make my way to the cache if I can't line it up geographically.

 

It started after I recently did a bulk app update and GC app was in there too.  I've made no changes to the OS since the problems started, so the app update is the only thing I can pinpoint for my device as it was working perfectly prior.

 

I find if I soft reset the phone I might get one cache out of it before the screen locks and the compass freezes again after unlocking the phone.

 

Will update my OS shortly and see if that helps.

 

Have either of you tried checking the "Compass Calibration" setting I discussed in my January 9 post above? Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services --> System Services --> Compass Calibration

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4 hours ago, Ben H said:

 

 

Have either of you tried checking the "Compass Calibration" setting I discussed in my January 9 post above? Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services --> System Services --> Compass Calibration

 

Yep, tried that - no change.

It was on and I toggled off>on to try and push it. No luck

Edited by seven_neves
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Hi,

 

I have the same issue. My compass in iphone is working correctly. The settings for compass are set ON for calibration. 

It was working, and suddenly the compass is backwards in the app. 

 

I tried it again just now and the compass is in the right place. Crazy. Try again later

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I haven't geocached in months due to this. When using the compass page (all green) the yellow needle is frozen in a random position. The native iphone compass works great (and is calibrated). I'm using Version 6.10.1 and iOS 11.4.1 on an iphone X. If I use the map page, and the "pivot" feature (Or whatever it's called) the map pivots as I move the phone. Has anyone figured out a workaround?

 

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I used to use my iPhone 6 and the Geocaching app to cache with. I was fantastic. Coords were always within tolerance and the compass was correct.I never had to resort to loading the coords into my GPS.  I recently upgraded to iPhone 8+ (v11.4.1) and it is nearly unusable for geocaching. The coords fluctuate and the compass often point is in the wrong direction. I thought the issues were with the iPhone but, after talking with apple support and resetting several settings and turning other services off, I'm convinced that it is the Geocaching app. I've seen the other similar complaints above. Is there a fix in the works? Are you guys working on this?

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I use an Iphone 7 -- the OS is 12.1.4  I was an avid geocacher but the phone is now useless for the sport.   The distance to the cache is correct but the direction is way off.  This makes it very difficult to navigate in these palmetto thickets! HELP

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I've observed a few things:

  • The phone needs to be out of your pocket for several minutes before you seriously start to rely on it.  It needs to lock-in on several satellites.
  • Sometimes the compass-display of an iPhone app is "just plain wrong."  (Sometimes it seems to be "180º off.") Switching to the Compass app for re-calibration might help, but ...
  • ... there's really no substitute for a quality magnetic compass in your "geocaching bag-of-tricks," accompanied by knowledge of what is the magnetic declination in your particular location.  (Easily found on-line, or a GPSr cam tell you, as can any topo map.)
  • If your app supports it (e.g. "Cachly does ..."), offline maps can be extremely useful, and every bit as detailed as what Apple Maps supplies (minus the satellite pictures o'course).

FYI:  "Map and compass skills," such as the ability to determine a bearing-line and then to accurately follow it for some distance, "pacing" that distance, have led us straight to many caches that were "under dense tree-cover" in the summertime ... to the consternation of cache-owners who supposed that they had created an intractable conundrum.  Notice the exact ("true ...") bearing that the app gives you, and the distance, then put your phone away and use your magnetic compass to follow the ("magnetic ...") bearing specified for the distance prescribed.  Easy-peasy. :D

Edited by Team Bear-Cat
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1 hour ago, Team Bear-Cat said:

Notice the exact ("true ...") bearing that the app gives you, and the distance, then put your phone away and use your magnetic compass to follow the ("magnetic ...") bearing specified for the distance prescribed.  Easy-peasy. :D

That depends on the app giving you an accurate bearing to use, but this discussion is all about the app not giving an accurate bearing, so I don't think a magnetic compass would help much.

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This issue has returned with the recent app update. Using iPhone se

big problem

initial reading will be correct, but as you move and location is updated, the direction is sporadic. Location on map is updated correctly 

 

setting for compass is set as shown above. 

Apple compass works as expected 

Edited by Machined Parts
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I’m another user experiencing this. I am using an iphone 6s. I have been caching using the official app for the last two years without major issues but in the last two weeks the needle when in compass mode has been pointing in completely the wrong direction, 180 degrees to where it should be. The distance to the cache is fine and this is now how I navigate, just keep walking in the direction opposite to the needle and watch the metres count down. Cachly does not seem to have this issue on my phone so its an app specific issue.

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I use Android and also can experience the same issue. However, it is easy to fix - at least for me. Power off the Iphone and restart. If that has made no difference you can try to recalibrate the compass sensor. There are 2 ways I know of to do this. First and easiest is once outside where the magnetic waves are strongest, move the phone in an exagerated figure of eight. Hold the phone level at arms length in front of you and make the figure of eight horizontally from side to side.Turn the phone over in the air as you make the return trip  in each pass. You only need to do this 4 to 6 times. Another method which does work too, is to turn the phone over a) head over tails b) side over side and c) laying flat, spun around all directions 5 to 8 times.

 

As you might have guessed, there are apps which can guide you through this.

 

I have to do this daily to ensure a good steady output from the sensor which I can rely on.

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I had just posted the following tread yesterday and I found this tread today. So i have added my comments here. Many have commented this started about 2 years ago. I agree. I think it was when an update in software replaced 10.3.3

 

There was a time when I could go caching using my I Phone and have expectations of success. Not any more.

For a long time my phone would accept an azimuth and take me to a cache. However now it will accept the azimuth and start towards the cache. But when I get close to the cache the screen freezes and generally points 90 degrees off the cache. I can work around this problem if there is a road displayed on the map. If I am in the woods or on a field, dead in the water.  If I continue walking in the original direction the distance measurement will continue to drop. If I follow the direction displayed on the phone it takes me away from the cache. I have not found a way to get the Phone to re accept the azimuth and point towards the cache.

 

I think this has something to do with when Apple started using 3 digit gestures to control some app functions. What ever it is it has made the phone useless for Geo Caching.

 

I have contacted Apple several times but have not found anyone that has any idea of the concept of navigating using a compass or directional device. Several letters to Tim Cook also have proved useless. Bit if others want to write him that may get them off dead center.

 

 

Edited by acachebox
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I may have found the answer. Try this and please post your results.

What I found was once an azimuth has been set on the phone and you start towards the cache I have a tendency to drop the phone down by my side while walking. When the phone was brought back up to view and held parallel to the ground the direction would be 90 or 180 degrees off. If you find this happening and while holding the phone parallel to the ground lift the top edge of the phone skyward. As you lift the top edge at about 30 degrees you will see the azimuth return to the correct direction. Don't ask me why but all the testing I have done causes it to correct itself. This works if the azimuth is off by 90 degrees to the left or right and also if it is off by 180 degrees.

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57 minutes ago, acachebox said:

I may have found the answer. Try this and please post your results.

What I found was once an azimuth has been set on the phone and you start towards the cache I have a tendency to drop the phone down by my side while walking. When the phone was brought back up to view and held parallel to the ground the direction would be 90 or 180 degrees off. If you find this happening and while holding the phone parallel to the ground lift the top edge of the phone skyward. As you lift the top edge at about 30 degrees you will see the azimuth return to the correct direction. Don't ask me why but all the testing I have done causes it to correct itself. This works if the azimuth is off by 90 degrees to the left or right and also if it is off by 180 degrees.

 

The newer iPhone issues may be different from the OP's "iPhone SE" compass problem from 2017.  The newer iPhones supposedly are more automatic with compass calibration.  It may be that the iPhone is re-calibrating the compass when it remains in a certain position for a while.  So once enough movement is detected by internal sensors, the iPhone corrects itself again.

 

You might try the "figure of eight" calibration, which is discussed and shown here: https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-figure-8-movement-work-to-cancel-out-compass-interference-on-phones-like-the-iPhone

 

That's pretty much all I've ever done with an iPhone when I suspect there's a compass problem, ever since iPhone 5S which had the "ball game" I mentioned previously.  Not only do newer iPhones not have that kind of calibration screen anymore, Apple got rid of references to the "figure of eight" calibration.  But that fixes my phone.  I did the "figure of eight" on my 'droids for years, and even on my Garmin GPS, so I've never tested any problem, I "calibrate" them by habit.  Probably as you say, enough motion, say, just tilting it upward a little, could be enough.

 

Edited by kunarion
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I don't think this tread or the problem is limited to the I Phone SE since several have commented on having issues with later model I Phones.

Yes I had an I Phone 5 that worked great for some time. I first noticed the problem after a software update on the I Phone 5, I had been using 10.3.1. Since I had skipped a few updates I can't saw for sure which update actually introduced the navigation problems. I can say it has existed ever since the update of the 5 and as long as I have been using the 6S.

 

After my call to Apple yesterday I realized that the I Phone might be re-calibrating the compass depending on the phones orientation. With that in mind I tested this theory several times. When it became predictable as to what would happen each time I would drop the phone to my side and then bring it back up for observation the azimuth would be off. Not sure how I discovered that simply lifting the top edge of the phone towards the vertical it would correct the azimuth. 

 

Duplication is the accepted testing of a theory

 

All I ask is for another cacher that is having the navigation problem of the I Phone not holding an azimuth while heading towards a cache try what I have described above and comment.

Edited by acachebox
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19 minutes ago, acachebox said:

All I ask is for another cacher that is having the navigation problem of the I Phone not holding an azimuth while heading towards a cache try what I have described above and comment.

 

Are you asking about leaving the App open and in view, and then holding it with the top of the phone toward the ground for a while?  If I'm walking and not using an App, I've typically put my phone in standby and placed it sideways in its case on my belt.  If there's any compass strangeness with any such device, I do the "figure of eight" thing as a force of habit, and I'm good.  It's not a big deal.  Nothing to re-write an App about.  It's why I prefer my handheld GPS, it's better at GPS-ing.  Go figure... of eight. B)

 

But with my iPhone 5S, pretty much when I started any "compass" App (or return to it after a while), I was presented with that steenkin ball-game, and I could not get into the App without playing the game (re-calibrating).  iPhones have notoriously bad sensors.  Sometimes you get a dud.  My iPhone 5S internal battery expanded and split the case open.  Fortunately, there's always a new one coming out, the old one can't be updated, and you need a brand new iPhone every couple of months. :ph34r:

 

 

 

Edited by kunarion
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I can't speak to your comments as I have never placed the phone in sleep mode or opted out of the app while heading towards a cache.

 

Once I place the app in a navigation mode and start waling towards the cache I have a tenancy to drop my arm, phone in hand, to my side. Once I lift the phone up for another view the azimuth may be off as I know what direction I was walking and the phone now saw I am 90 to 180 degrees off.Since there is no figure 8 function in the newer phones, the re-calibration is automatic I have been looking for an answer. 

 

The instinctive action when viewing a lensatic compass is to hold it level as the needle has to set on the pin to function. That may have been my problem all along if the I Phone is re-calibrating to every new position. 

 

I will add that Cachly has a similar problem in that it will not hold an azimuth if you touch the face of the phone while walking towards the cache. I don't think this is a compass problem as much as a conflict within the Cachly software with Apples use of multi finger gestures. Again this problem with Cachly came after an Apple update and adopted additional multi finger gestures to the phones. Lets test the Geocaching app problem before going off on another tangent.

Edited by acachebox
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31 minutes ago, acachebox said:

Since there is no figure 8 function in the newer phones, the re-calibration is automatic I have been looking for an answer. 

 

Figure of eight works fine for any device I own (except for the iPhone 5S). It's similar to your discovery of lifting the phone vertical, but figure of eight awakens all the accelerometer sensors at once.  It "calibrates" my iPhone 8 without issue, if I notice an issue.  I first tend to walk 180 degrees in the wrong direction for a while, and discover there's a problem only because the distance is increasing.

 

I'll test my iPhone 8 held down sometime without any figure-of-eight, to see which Apps may be affected, and to see when the affect starts.  But it only tests my phone.  Each phone arrives from the factory with differences in hardware accelerometers, varied enough to create a difference in results from phone to phone.  These devices are not pinpoint accurate, they are good enough for Google maps or whatever, although you may luck out and get a great one.  You really could get a dud.

 

But it is possible that some Apps work better with the onboard sensors than other Apps. 

 

Edited by kunarion
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I have emailed several of the posters to this tread and asked them to test the theory.

I will say I just went out for a test and got a First To Find and a second cache with out a hitch.

They are the first caches I have been able to successfully use the phone for since the I first encountered the problem.

 

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On 8/17/2019 at 10:53 AM, acachebox said:

The instinctive action when viewing a lensatic compass is to hold it level as the needle has to set on the pin to function. That may have been my problem all along

 

This resolved the issue for me. Holding the phone upright feels wrong, but it works. I have been dealing with this for almost a year and would have never discovered this simple fix on my own

thank you everyone who posted this fix

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Thank you for confirming the theses. I have been trying to get through to Apple about this for a couple of years but I don't thing there is  sole out there that has any idea what an azimuth is.

 

You do not have to HOLD the phone upright once the azimuth has been set to the correct direction. Just lift the top edge to about 30 degrees to correct it and you will see the azimuth correct itself. Once corrected it will hold that direction as long as you are holding the phone level. It will fail again if you change the phone orientation from level, as if you dropped your hand to your side while walking.

 

 

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Only just found this thread ... I too have the same issue, BUT feel it is an iPhone "fault" rather than the official or other app. Problem has been there for a relatively a long time for me.

 

I experience the "backwards" or "off" compass direction with an iPhone 7 Plus, currently on latest iOS 13.1.3, using 'Looking4Cache Pro' app - I usually mess about switching the compass off/on, changing to another cache, re-booting L4C, but this usually does no good. Then suddenly the compass points in the correct direction all on its little own! It's very random, but has been worse, or may even have started, since changing from iPhone 6 to iPhone 7 Plus a couple of years ago!

 

As others have mentioned the build-in roller-ball calibration app disappeared a long time ago.

 

I will try both 'figure-of-eight' and 'tilt-top-of-phone-upwards' suggestions over next few days and report back. Really would like a solution to this issue.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

PS: Slightly off thread from the compass pointer issue, but relevant to GPS/satellite performance in general ... did you know that Apple dumbed-down the GPS satellite accuracy/function on models after the iPhone 6? I spent several months working with Apple's very helpful UK/Ireland Technical Team comparing the good GPS performance of my old iPhone 6 against the poor GPS performance of my iPhone 7 Plus. They even exchanged the 7+ handset foc out of warranty in an attempt to resolve the poor & unstable satellite accuracy issue I had ... replacement handset was/is better than the original 7+ but nowhere near as good as my old 6, which I sometimes take with me if satellite signal is likely to be poor (e.g. under tree cover). I was on such good terms with the last Apple techie contact that I persuaded him to test his own iPhone X by installing an app ... he had more or less the same poor/unstable satellite accuracy performance as my 7+. Gave up at this point thinking Apple had simply dumbed down the GPS performance (on purpose?) and use caching nounce/experience when the phone is not at its best satellite accuracy!

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On 10/26/2019 at 8:31 AM, PlasmaWave said:

I will try both 'figure-of-eight' and 'tilt-top-of-phone-upwards' suggestions over next few days and report back. Really would like a solution to this issue.

 

Tried both methods a few times but neither made any difference to the direction of the compass, when it was pointing in the wrong direction!

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On 1/9/2018 at 1:54 PM, Ben H said:

Thanks for the reports on this issue, everyone. We've been trying to reproduce the compass problems described and so far we haven't been able to.

We have confirmed that if the iPhone compass calibration app does not have location permissions then the compass in the Geocaching app will not function correctly. To find out if that could be affecting you, please make sure the "Compass Calibration" switch turned on (see attached image). Also, please note that this is not the same as giving the standalone "Compass" app location permission.

If anyone tries this, we'd appreciate a report back here as to whether or not the Geocaching app issue is resolved for you.

IOS-272 make sure that Compass calibration is on and green.png

I did this but still have the problem 

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On 11/15/2017 at 11:52 AM, archsmooth said:

I have an iPhone SE, compass problems appeared about a year ago and after throwing everything at it, eventually went away. This time the symptom is more annoying and persistent. When I go into compass mode, North is always pointed at the top of the phone, and the orange arrow appears at the correct relationship to North (but not toward the cache unless I actually am facing North). Those positions are locked, rotating the phone does nothing, although the distance to cache will change. I have tried rebooting the phone, reinstalling the app, Location cycled OFF/ON, compass calibration cycled OFF/ON, cycling to and from Never Use, waving phone in a Mobius Twist. The Apple Compass that came with the phone does the same, even after going through the same troubleshooting. I downloaded Commander Compass, and it also shows North at the top of the phone when I open it. Oddly enough, however, it then acts 'compass-like', spinning to keep North in that direction, wrong though it may be. And no, I do not have in a metal case, the phone acts the same with no case.


I had the same problem!

FiXED!!!

 

I gave up on this for a while.  
 

Today, I was playing with the iPhone compass feature and went into setting to change it from MAGNETIC to TRUE.  It stopped working!

 

i searched for a fix, and it turns out that the fix also fixed the problem with the geocaching app!  Hooray!!!

 

here are the steps that worked for me. 
 

Go to Settings

 

privacy

 

location services ON

 

geocaching WHILE USING APP 

 

now click on BACK to get to the previous screen

 

System Services

 

I turned on all of the following. 
 

on compass calibration 
 

on location based alerts 

 

on motion calibration and distance

 

on setting time zone 

 

on system customization 
 

I don’t know if ALL of these needed to be turned on, but it fixed the problem.  
 

 

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3 hours ago, mariejo71 said:

Ok I do have the same problems with my iphone 8! Thank you for the infos...me teens do love to geocach but it's very difficult now with the crazy compass :(

 

The compass in the Cachly App seems smoother.  It works OK even when the Official App compass is going nuts.  But lately my iPhone 8 is kind of jumpy with the GPS reading, regardless of Geocaching App.  Waze is OK, probably because it always sticks to a road.

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20 minutes ago, mariejo71 said:

stupid question: are the cach the same on both app? 

 

Yes, you can view caches on the map and load all the caches (as a PM) on either App.  But each App has its own interface, terms for things, and bugs.  I mean features.  :D

 

The Cachly compass is livelier, to me it seems more fluid, than the Official App's compass.  On the Official App on my iPhone 8s, it's too easy to get the compass stuck 90 or 180 degrees off.  I have to do the "figure of eight" motion to wake it up.  That's second-nature to me now, I do that any time.  But the phone has become very disappointing for hiking guidance, because the GPS position is wandering.  I use it mostly for car navigation.  Then I break out the Garmin GPS for the actual caching.

 

Edited by kunarion
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