I updated my iPhone 4S to iOS 7.1 today. Everything seems to be ok except my GPS is always on. The GPS arrow won't go away from the top right. I've closed all applications and restarted my phone but the arrow remains. Anyone else experiencing this or have a solution?
Pilotbob,
I agree with you on the "new GPS feature" (and I am not happy that Apple implemented it) however, from my testing, and in my opinion, I do not think Apple intended the arrow to stay illuminated in the new feature. I believe there is an issue with either ios 7.1 or certain apps. I am running four separate devices, all updated on the same date (release day 7.1). Three devices exhibit perfect, factory like behaviors but my i5 from ATT is experiencing the illuminated arrow being stuck on.
Apps that are causing my speicific issues have been identified. One of which is with the actual SIRI GPS. It is a culprit on my i5 ATT, however it does not replicate the arrow problem on any of the other three devices.
Also, Google Search is indeed causing the issue on my i5 ATT but is not doing it on the iPad Air, iPad 3rd Gen or i5 Sprint. (I must note, the GS App was downloaded after the update on those three functioning devices but it was already installed on the i5 ATT prior to, and during the update to ios 7.1) To note; a reinstall of the GS App on the non-functioning phone has failed to eliminate the issue.
As with all of the culprits, turning location services off for the offending apps has eliminated the arrow.
It's all very confusing to me at this point and seems as though Apple's new feature is causing instability in the status bar indications. We are seeing some people with issues and other with no sign of it yet they are running the same apps. I think this is a very randomized issue from person to person, app to app and device to device. We may need a fix from Apple or from the Application Devs to stabilize the problem.
If Apple DID intend for the arrow to stay illuminated, then we have a reverse bug whereas some people's devices/apps are not working because the arrow is not on. Either way, the new feature is most likely part of the cause but the effects of this new feature are not correctly working for whatever reason.
I think it's great that we are all brain storming this and I have also reported it to Apple for what that is worth. Everyone should list their device, carrier and effected apps when posting about this problem in the future so we can all compare notes.
As an FYI; From my earlier post on this forum. My own test results...
iPad Air does not replicate this problem after updating to 7.1
iPad 3rd gen does not replicate this problem after updating to 7.1
iPhone 5 on Sprint does not replicate this problem after updating to 7.1
iPhone 5 on AT&T does have the issue after the 7.1 update restart occured.
In relation to the troubled phone, these are the details I have noted. The following GPS apps are causing the arrow to stay illuminated in the task bar:
Apple Store (This app is installed on all four devices that I tested)
International SOS Travel Security App
Foap
Siri (Factory installed on all devices)
Google search app (this app is now installed on all four devices but only has an issue on one of them)
TravAware Travel Security App
The following GPS apps however DO NOT cause the issue and are running location services just fine in the background:
AccuWeather
Apple weather app
Apple Camera app
CNN
Find my friends
Groupon
ATT Wirless app
Yelp
Urban Spoon
Apple Reminders app
Open table
Navigon
Apple maps
INRIX Traffic
Google maps
Fandango
Flight Aware
Apple compass
Camera+ app
Arround me
There's a very simply solution to it. Turn off the Background app refresh for Google. Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn off Google. I have only stock apps and Google apps on my phone. Google search/now background refresh is the culprit.
There's a very simply solution to it. Turn off the Background app refresh for Google. Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn off Google. I have only stock apps and Google apps on my phone. Google search/now background refresh is the culprit.
Reinstalling the Foursquare Worked for my 5s. GPS arrow is finally disappearing after closing the app.
Maybe you could do the same with the app which causing you this kind of trouble.
THX for advice. 🙂
For me, Google and other apps are triggering this GPS issue and to get it to go away, all I have to do is toggle off either the bluetooth or WiFi and turn them back on and the GPS turns itself off. Weird.
It was 2 apps for me: Google and the Nike+ Move app. As soon as I turned either of them off in Location Services, the ever-present GPS icon went away.
I can't imagine that having location services off in Nike+ Move will be an issue, seeing as it's using the M7 chip and not the GPS.
But I guess I won't be using Google Now until this gets fixed.
Here is a quick fix for people having issues with Foursquare:
Launch 4Square
Go to Settings > Notifications > Frequency
The default will be set to Wanderer. Tur it off. If you close the app now, the GPS icon will go.
You can also switch off background app refresh off under the General in settings.
I had the hollow gps symbol showing constantly after updating. In the standard-app 'Reminders' I found out that the app had activated a very old reminder that uses a geofence ("Remind me to call xxx when I leave the City"). Turning of that reminder did the trick for me.
Several of my culprit apps have been updated over the past week by their devs. The GPS arrow indication issue has been rectified by those app updates.
Out of the six apps that were causing my specific issue, five of them have been updated. All five of them no longer keep the arrow displayed. I now only have location services turned off on that one non-updated app and the arrow is no longer being displayed by the others that used to cause it.
This is surely a random bug issue with the apps themsleves and how they responded/integrated to the iOS 7.1's update and it's new "always on" gps feature.
If your troubled app has been updated, then the issue should be rectified. If it is still causing you issues, delete the app and reinstall it and all should be well.
Why not list the apps that you have seen fixes for?
Two things that have helped me (although I wasn't experiencing any serious battery issues):
1) Deleted Nike+ Move app.
2) Turned off Location Services and Background Refresh for Facebook app. See this: http://blog.hagga.net/archives/iphone-ipod-touch/3805-facebook-app-is-draining-y our-iphones-battery
I still have location services turned on for Google app, which keeps my arrow on all the time. But no issues from that. For me, the Facebook thing has made a difference, and I didn't think my battery drain was a problem. Still, my battery life has improved since turning off Facebook's location/background.
Good point PilotBob! LOL
According to the app store auto update list on the iPhone 5 ATT, the following apps have received updates
Apple Store (Updated for "bug fixes & minor improvements" April 3rd)
International SOS (updated for "bug fixes" April 8th))
FOAP (updated for "bug squishing" April 8th))
Siri - (Although there is no "update" for this factory function, it has stopped causing the issue as of April 8th)
Google Search (Just went through and noticed that it has not been updated but is no longer causing the issue as of April 8th)
I turned my location services back on for each of my troubled apps this morning just to see if any were fixed by the luck or randomness.... That's when I noted that the arrow issue was rectified.
TravAware app has not been updated and is still causing the issue. Location services have to be turned off in the meantime to resolve the arrow issue. This is now the only app causing the arrow issue on my phone.
Also to note, I downloaded the app updates in iTunes on my mac. Also, I synced my phone over the weekend and again this morning, these are the the first times I have synced since the 7.1 update so maybe that has something to do with it as well........
Hope everyone else see a fix. It's nice to not see that darn arrow on anymore!
I have iPhone 5s 32gb on att and have the same issue. One person said to go through all the apps to see which one was causing the issue. The app that was causing the problem for me was shopkick.
My problem was Reminders, as well. As soon as I turned it off in Settings > Privacy > Location Services, the GPS arrow went away.
GPS always on after iOS 7.1 update
