Walkhighlands

Hi everyone, OS Locate stopped working for me for a few hours yesterday, on my way back from An Soach. Perfect visibility so it wasn't a problem but I like to check I'm where I think I am even in good weather. Did others experience this too? Turning my phone off and on again didn't help...but it's fine again today. Have never had a problem before... thanks, Jeanette

Hi Jeanette

The most likely explanation is that your phone was trying (and failing) to use the mobile signal to get a location, rather than using GPS. The easy fix for this (somewhat counterintuitively) is to turn on airplane mode. That will force your phone to use GPS to find its location. Airplane mode also makes your battery last longer when out on the hill

The other possibility is that you never stopped moving (!) and your phone wasn't able to get a fix. I think that's less of a problem on most phones - but some GPS units (eg my old Garmin Etrex) need to be stationary for a couple of minutes to get a fix.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, I should have said, it was on airplane mode, and I was still!

That happened several times with me when I had OS Locate on my phone - with no settings changed, it would sometimes just not give a location. I ended up removing the app as the problem got more frequent One of the times I was walking with someone and it was working fine with his phone but not with mine half way through the walk, so maybe it was just my phone...

Probably a phone fault, or a software update required or the likes

I seen on Twitter last night that some Android devices were struggling with OS Locate. Have you got the most recent version on your phone?

I should have said, it was on airplane mode, and I was still!

So much for my troubleshooting skills

As others have said it's beginning to sound like some sort of software problem, or the app just doesn't like your model of phone.

It might be worth trying a different app to see if that works for you. I use Viewranger - although they've been taken over by OutdoorActive I think you can still install the Viewranger app. It can give you an OS grid ref for your location amongst other things. You need to change a couple of display settings - change grid to Great Britain, and coord-type to National Grid - then from the map view, tap the compass to get your location, and the grid ref appears top left of the screen.

Thanks everyone, my (Android) phone was new this year so it's probably something sbout the version/updates, so I'll try downloading Viewranger as an alternative, thanks for the replies and help, Jeanette

Android updates are a bit of a nightmare, as there are so many different versions on different makes of phone, and sometimes they get released suddenly so App providers struggle to keep up. This has caused occasional issues with my OS Maps app, but I haven't had any problems with Locate before. On my work iPhone, I've never had, and rarely heard of, issues. I always try to update my personal Android before a trip, and then test OS Maps/Locate before I go.

Wasn't getting GPS via OS Maps or Locate on my ancient HTC M8 yesterday. It's been my go-to for navigation since 2016 and never failed so far so hopefully it's not goosed. Thankfully I had my day-to-day phone and Garmin watch which were both fine.

I had switched to Viewranger for a while and preferred it but I couldn't get my OS Maps after it merged with that new thing.

Could have been a military exercise. Theres been one recently where signals have been jammed in certain areas