Traveling around the world has become so much easier. Among the things that made it more convenient is, without a doubt, the wide availability of GPS navigation on our smartphones. Wherever you are now, you can just take out your phone,enter Google Mapsor any other online navigation app, and quickly check how to get where you need to go. No more fiddling with a map or a standalone sat nav. But that doesn’t mean Google Maps is always correct.
Unfortunately, your smartphone can lose track of your position from time to time. This often happens if you’re underground, like in a tunnel or something similar (although Google recently came up with aneat solution for the tunnel problem), but it can happen inexplicably while wandering around, too. When you take out your phone, and it cannot locate where you are, giving you only anapproximate location, it’s probably having difficulty tracking your position for one of the aforementioned reasons.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to resolve this issue: You need to calibrate your positioning in Google Maps. It’s quick, easy, and lets you instantly go back to adventuring.
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Do you have the correct location settings in Google Maps?
You need enable locating sharing
First, before calibrating Google Maps, you need to make sure your location services are set up correctly in Google Maps, so check the permissions on your phone. It’s a crucial step, as these permissions dictate whether the app can use your location and how accurate it can be when checking where you are.
How to enable Google Maps to use your location on Android
How to enable Google Maps to use your location on iOS
How to download Google Maps directions for offline use
If you’ll need some navigation, but know that you won’t have internet access, then downloading some maps is an essential pre-trip activity.
How to quickly calibrate Google Maps
Enable and then do figure 8s
If you’re having problems with your location, you might need to enable the ability to calibrate your phone’s compass, and then you can actually calibrate Google Maps.
1. Enable Compass Calibration
Enabling Compass Calibration on an iPhone enhances the accuracy of the device’s internal compass, ensuring more precise and reliable directional information in navigation and map applications. Improve Location Accuracy on Android, like compass calibration, can improve the precision of your device’s location tracking. It does this by using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scans to supplement GPS data, resulting in more accurate and reliable positioning for navigation and location-based apps.
2. Do the figure 8 in Google Maps
Now, you’re ready to calibrate Google Maps by moving your phone in a figure-eight motion:
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How to calibrate Google Maps using Live View
Tap your location indicator
If you’re in more of an urban area, you might also have the ability to calibrate your Google Maps positioning using theLive View feature.
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Why should you calibrate Google Maps?
Google Maps location inaccuracies explained
Calibrating Google Maps is important for improving the accuracy of your location data, which is crucial for effective navigation and getting reliable directions.
Your phone does not magically just know where you are in the world. It needs to connect to a GPS signal orr your Wi-Fi or mobile network. So, most of the time, one of the two can be responsible for an inaccurate location. Causes can vary. You can be obstructed by some structures, the internet might be having a bad day, or your phone’s antenna can experience interference. It’s quite common to lose GPS signal underground, or - maybe intuitively - downtown, among all the skyscrapers.
Of course, you’re able to also lose it when traveling through dense forests or any other place where the skies are heavily obstructed.
Wi-Fi and mobile data is another story, and here everything depends on the nearest access point. Typically, mobile data coverage should be rather fine almost everywhere, but if you go a bit too far off the beaten track, you might start losing network connection and thus your location will suffer. Unfortunately, sometimes Google Maps decides to give you an inaccurate location seemingly for no reason at all. If that happens - do not panic, as there are some quick and easy fixes to try.
