iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

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iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

terribletim
At our event today a few riders ( about 5) had new to them iPhones , they clicked go to start and the banner at the bottom stayed red and didn't show a number.  I check the location setting in privacy and the app settings and they were the same as mine which worked perfectly , if they tried to exit the course it registered F1 but wouldn't go back to the start screen so we had to force quit the app .  Is anyone aware of any recent iPhone updates that could be causing this or is there a setting I have missed.
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

Peter Effeney
Administrator
Tim,

Maybe the Slingsby event?

The most common reason for mobile phones being very slow to get an initial GPS fix is the lack of Internet connectivity for the A-GPS to get help from the cellular location.

See: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-well-does-an-iphone-get-a-Dk1x2YFNSyuF4nxoXiDXXA#0

If the user has no SIM in the phone or has data turned off or the cellular signal is weak, it can take a long time to get the initial fix.

If it was the Slingsby event, I see it is the set to "Generate a result even if the user exits before finish". We achieve this by doing a forced/manual/fake punch of F1 when the user exits before finishing. This would account for the F1 punches you are seeing.

It would be interesting to see if the problem re-appears if the users involved did a "Go to Start" in this event (or any event), when they are in an area of good cellular coverage.

... Or it could be something else... but we don't have any other similar reported issues at this time.

Certainly let us know if you have further info or experience this again.

Peter
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

terribletim
Peter

Yes it was Slingsby and phone reception was very poor. I will ask those who struggled to try it again when at home , what was odd was that it was only people with new iphones that struggled , I had no problem with my iPhone . Thanks for the advice on the F1 issue that makes sense, I will leave it on as it helps with missing riders I wonder if it might be better if it only generated a result for those who had triggered S1

Once again thanks for the response

Tim
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

terribletim
Hi Peter

Two of the people with issues have tried again when in a better reception area and the lower bar went green as expected .  So I suspect it was a first use of the App that was the issue, one is going past Slingsby shortly and will retry to confirm

It is one we will warn riders about win the future

Cheers

Tim
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

Peter Effeney
Administrator
Tim,

Thanks for the update. Off-network initial fixes can take a long time, but 'in theory' should eventually be achieved. In locations like that, selecting "Go to Start" as soon as participants arrive on site would allow extra time for a fix to be acquired. I don't think there is anything we can do in the MapRun App code that will change this, but I'll review it again in the next major update.

Peter
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

DaveU
We too had the same problem last Sunday 31st Aug, Russell's Water. Poor/no signal on many phones. At least 1 Android, 1 iPhone very slow to start. 2 Androids would not start at all. Plus others (phones unknown), users gave up. Some were using watches which is often a big cause of increased issues. At next event, phone signal is weak, will gather more data. Will ask users to turn off GPS watch mode in settings. Will also put a 0 point CP near the start so they can test then restart. (Avoiding separate test course so main course can be pre-downloaded.) Will also see if getting the problem phones to connect to some else's phone hotspot will get them going.
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Re: iPhone not finding GPS signal at start

MichaelRaz
One thing i would suggest (if you have the time) is to install a GPS tool that might help determine if these issues are related to general GPS signal or specific to MapRun.  On iPhone I have two apps - GPS Data and Gpsdiagnostics (sure there are android apps as well).  Gps should work fine with all data off (cellular/wifi) although there can be some delay without data if the phone is trying to use cellular to assist with initial lock.

Regardless, one of these apps can be handy whenever you see some gps
lock issue (may not help that much here).