Apple Watch compass calibration

I may have a solution... I also get this regularly with my Series 5. Just wave your arm, with the watch on and the compass app active, in a wide figure 8 pattern a couple of times. Hasn’t failed on me yet. I remember doing this to my previous Android phones when the internal compass was out of whack.

Hope this helps!

I removed my Milanese band and held the phone without any band. The compass became perfectly accurate. Put the band back on and compass was off 90 degrees. For me the Milanese band is definitely the cause. Come on Apple Support at least notify people of the potential issue! I have had every iphone since the iphone 2. My first apple watch however. 800.00 watch and inaccurate compass, no dual notifications on watch and phone at same time and if you are hearing impaired that's an issue. Wakes you up at 3 am to tell you to stand and walk (really). Apples support answer is put it on silent mode. This means missing critical texts and Phone calls. How can you miss something so simple as to stop exercise remainders when you are asleep. As an exercise device apple watch 5 doesn't hold a candle to the fitbit it replaced versa now owned by Google so soon a perfect combo watch. Overall I love the watch. But it is mind boggling a software company can be this bad. Apple needs real support people and get back to being the industry leader in software and interfaces we all love.

Brand new Apple Watch Series 5 with cellular, and the compass app is anywhere from 90 to 180 degress off. Have followed all the steps to reboot, turn on location services, etc. Tried both magenetic and true north...no difference. The compass app on my iPhone is dead on accurate.

I was having the same issue. I have compass on for work as one of the face Complications. After much fruitless research and frustration I tried the following with success.

Went to Compass Settings and turned off true north.

Went back to compass and then turned my wrist over several times. Not to slow but not to fast. A deliberate wrist rotation. Pausing after each rotation to check the compass direction for a couple seconds.

That’s it. After a few rotations, maybe 7 times, the compass corrected itself. I observed the red shaded area, around North, get smaller and smaller each time. Through Google research I found this was an accuracy indicator.

The wrist rotation idea came from when I first got the watch and was playing with it while laying down. I noticed the compass direction would flip North to South with very little wrist movement.

Best of luck, hope that helps.

Hey rickfromomaha,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

I see that you're having some calibration issues with the compass on your Apple Watch. I'd be happy to help out.

In this situation, I'd like for you to check through the steps here first:

Use the compass on Apple Watch Series 5 - Apple Support

Cheers!

Mine is also off about 90 degrees. How do I calibrate? The above link was not helpful and very basic.

I too have this problem. An inaccurate compass is a real danger to me as I walk in the mountains of Spain and France. The deafening silence from Apple is completely unacceptable.

Regards,

George

Not helpful.

On your apple watch goto >> settings >> Compass>> turn off " true north "

With or without True North enabled the watch is incorrect... by a great amount.

I have to agree. Some of these "little" issues are pretty sad and embarrassing for such a company as Apple to, not only make, but not rectify after months or years. We pay premium prices for Apple products, so tend to be a little more demanding. They're still great products, but at least fix the things that can be fixed. I had to laugh about getting the alert to "stand" in the middle of the night. I don't think so. I, too, am on-call most of the time, so turning the phone on night/silent mode is not an option. And, of course, the answer to the compass is to replace the more expensive wrist band. Sigh.

Followed all instructions and checked every setting several times.... finally took it back to the local Apple Store I got it from. Got an exact replacement (Series 5 44mm space gray aluminum with Cellular Nike edition) and the new watch works perfectly. Apple seems to have a hardware issue with some of these!

Very helpful. My compass was off by 180 degrees. North was South and East was West. I could not get it to calibrate at all nor delete the bearings. Once I removed the Milanese band and replace it with a leather one, I was able to calibrate it. All is now right in my world and North is where I know it to be. Thanks