What's new

iPhone Compass Misbehaves

Michael Graubart

Active Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Messages
191
Reaction score
48
Location
London, UK.
I have an iPhone SE (new version).

The magnetometer upon which the iphone's compass app depends behaves erratically and unpredictably. The compass frequently displays a wrong orientation.

I have compass calibration switched on in Settings; if I switch calibration off and on again, the compass will show the right orientation, but if I then move the phone — especially if I rotate it — the compass very often loses its directionality and shows an inaccurate direction, sometimes even wrong by nearly 180 degrees.

If one is finding one's way in the country or in a city, takes one's phone out of one's pocket and opens the compass, there is no way of telling whether it is at that moment telling the truth or lying. Surely one should not have to go through the whole procedure of finding compass calibration in Settings and switching it off and on again before deciding whether to turn left or right to continue one's walk?

I should be very grateful for any suggestions.
 
Do you have Compass Calibration toggled on in Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services?
 
Do you have Compass Calibration toggled on in Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services?
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I have got it turned on, and also ‘Use True North’. . But the solution has turned out to be so simple and obvious that it never occurred to me! I have (or rather, I had) my phone in a case, which has an iron or steel shield built in. I had forgotten that. Now that I have taken my phone out of the case, the compass works fine!
 
Top