Direction of travel: Compass vs GPS

[gordol]

I'm intending on replacing my Garmin Nuvi with a GPS app on my iPhone 5, but have run into a bit of a problem with ALL of the mapping software I've tried. Apple Maps, Google Maps and Scout all show the same problem: When using it to show me the road ahead, they all think I'm facing the wrong direction.

When I set them to show me "direction of travel up", instead of front-forward, they are all front-sideways to some degree or other. This is due to the built-in compass being wrong. And it's only wrong when I'm in a car. When I'm outside, moving (walking) or stationary, the compass is correct. And sometimes, I'll actually get a compass error telling me I need to recalibrate the compass by waving it around a bit, which of course is impossible to do when driving.

Is there anything I can do about this?

The map apps appear to not have this problem when I have them actually navigating me to a destination, but I often will use the GPS even when not having it navigate me so I can see what's head road-wise, and check for traffic, or just get a GPS-accurate speed.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I haven't noticed anything like that, but then again, I rarely pay attention to the compass. I'll be on the road in about an hour so I'll test it out and see if my result mirrors yours and get back to you later.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I just walked in the door and I did indeed test out the compass/GPS facing north issue. While driving and using the compass and map without turn-by-turn navigation, the compass always indicated that I was traveling north, no matter what direction I was actually going, but as soon as I initiated the turn-by-turn navigation feature, I was asked to re-calibrate the compass and then it properly displayed the north position. It continued to display correctly after turning off navigation, but as soon as I closed the compass app and removed it from the recently used app list and then restarted it, it reverted back to its incorrect status. I have an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1.4.

 

[gordol]

I just walked in the door and I did indeed test out the compass/GPS facing north issue. While driving and using the compass and map without turn-by-turn navigation, the compass always indicated that I was traveling north, no matter what direction I was actually going, but as soon as I initiated the turn-by-turn navigation feature, I was asked to re-calibrate the compass and then it properly displayed the north position. It continued to display correctly after turning off navigation, but as soon as I closed the compass app and removed it from the recently used app list and then restarted it, it reverted back to its incorrect status. I have an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1.4.

That more or less tracks what I've been seeing. Which is making me hesitate to plot down the ~$50 or so for the Garmin or TomTom navigation apps. Except that I'm not prompted to recalibrate when I initiated the turn-by-turn directions. I only get that when I leave it in just the display/follow mode, when it eventually realizes that the facing it shows does not match the direction of actual travel.

 

[natasftw]

This is purely speculation, but looking at it from a programming standpoint:

When you have a path, you've given it the direction you're heading. You're likely not running into an issue because it's ignoring the compass.

While in your car, you're getting all sorts of interference. This likely screws with the accuracy and leaves you with the situation you describe.

 

[gordol]

This is purely speculation, but looking at it from a programming standpoint:

When you have a path, you've given it the direction you're heading. You're likely not running into an issue because it's ignoring the compass.

While in your car, you're getting all sorts of interference. This likely screws with the accuracy and leaves you with the situation you describe.

I did not have this issue with either of my three prior phones, two of which also had built-in magnetic compasses.

How does one contact Apple for a bug/feature report? Rather than vent about this here, I'd like to ask Apple to fix the issue in iOS7.

 

[Fausty82]

I did not have this issue with either of my three prior phones, two of which also had built-in magnetic compasses.

How does one contact Apple for a bug/feature report? Rather than vent about this here, I'd like to ask Apple to fix the issue in iOS7.

If you’re a developer, then you already know to report the problem via the bugreporter.apple.com website. If you’re not a developer, you can’t report any bugs in the beta because the purpose of the beta release is for developer testing of their own apps and to get them ready for the next production release of iOS.

 

[gordol]

If you’re a developer, then you already know to report the problem via the bugreporter.apple.com website. If you’re not a developer, you can’t report any bugs in the beta because the purpose of the beta release is for developer testing of their own apps and to get them ready for the next production release of iOS.

I never said anything about a beta. Just a general "user has a bug report/feature request" for iOS. I only specified iOS7 because that's the next planned release.

 

[Fausty82]

I never said anything about a beta. Just a general "user has a bug report/feature request" for iOS. I only specified iOS7 because that's the next planned release.

My bad. In that case, contact Apple via the support page (support.apple.com)

 

[gordol]

My bad. In that case, contact Apple via the support page (support.apple.com)

'Kay, thanks.

 

[gordol]

My bad. In that case, contact Apple via the support page (support.apple.com)

Well, I wound up calling Apple last night because they don't do email. I was almost unable to report/request this because I bought my iPhone more than 90 days ago, but I managed to convince the barely coherant AppleCare script reader to transfer me to someone on the tech team who was then able to understand what I was asking for.

I was advised to also use apple.com/feedback and to ask others that have seen this effect to also use that method to report the issue and request a fix for it in iOS 7.x.