iPhone Does anyone have the location arrow persistently on

[rdillon2008]

People have to be on their phones every minute for this to be an eye sore. I don't care how much times it pops up; it doesn't have an effect on my battery life on a daily usage. If it was a problem for me, I would of turned off location services completely.

 

[papbot]

People have to be on their phones every minute for this to be an eye sore. I don't care how much times it pops up; it doesn't have an effect on my battery life on a daily usage. If it was a problem for me, I would of turned off location services completely.

That was also kinda my point. But it seems to be a feature that some don’t want. For my wife and myself with 5 devices, only one with this chip, the behavior is exactly the same, given our settings, and we just never notice. Everything works the way we want it to, no battery impact or any other issue. 13 is loaded with bugs that we have problems with but this, fingers crossed, was never one of them. But if some want it to work differently then submitting feedback is appropriate. For others like us, we’re good. Turning off the icon is one way to deal if the icon annoys you, I never even see it unless I intentionally go looking for it, on my big ipad I forget which side of the screen it’s on. On my 11 Pro Max it’s next to the time and I don’t normally stare at that area of the screen.

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

Has anyone tried Hard Reset to see if it fixes the bug?

 

[papbot]

I’ve had to do that for a variety of reasons, the memory management primarily. But I’ve seen no changes in location services on my 11 Pro Max.

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

iOS 13.2.2 is Live!

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

The bug still there!

 

[tangfish]

The bug still there!

Dang, that’s why I came here; to see if it’s fixed in the update.

Okay so bug vs [unwanted] “feature” aside. Does anyone know whether location data is actually being shared and for what specific purpose, every time this icon comes and goes nonstop throughout the day? My guess was that it’s looking for nearby offline devices for the Find My feature. If so, I’d like to opt out of that crowdsourced program of finding people’s devices. Yes, I can live without having the ability to find my offline devices in return.

 

[Ninflu]

Dang, that’s why I came here; to see if it’s fixed in the update.

Okay so bug vs [unwanted] “feature” aside. Does anyone know whether location data is actually being shared and for what specific purpose, every time this icon comes and goes nonstop throughout the day? My guess was that it’s looking for nearby offline devices for the Find My feature. If so, I’d like to opt out of that crowdsourced program of finding people’s devices. Yes, I can live without having the ability to find my offline devices in return.

As mentioned above, for iOS 11, 11Pro, 11Pro Max Devices this has to do something with their new U1 Chip and the capabilities of those chip. It's not possible to "opt-out" right now, unless you completely deactivate the Location Services. Hopefully a Switch will be implemented in the upcoming updates, but therefore we must provide Apple valuable Feedback. Well, if you want to know what data is shared, I highly recommend to Google for it a bit:

"The U in U1 stands for Ultra Wideband. It is a short range radio technology that’s capable of accurately measuring the distance between two devices with the U1 chip in them. This means it could be used to find devices indoors and pinpoint locations more accurately than GPS. Much like Bluetooth Low Energy, Ultra Wideband also doesn’t require much power to work."

"Apple said the U1 chip uses ultra-wideband technology for "spatial awareness" - or so the iPhone 11 Pro can locate other U1-equipped Apple devices. "It's like adding another sense to iPhone," Apple explained.
Keep in mind Apple is also merging Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into a single app - called Find My - with iOS 13. Find My has a feature that will allow others to find your lost devices. So, if you lose your new iPhone 11, you can mark your phone as lost, and then Apple will crowdsource its location by asking all Apple devices to look for your phone's signal. Once found, you’ll get an alert."

If Apple releases it's version of Tile those chip probably is used to track those devices as well. Hard so say, what the chip is really used for, because all I can find is "Marketing"-Language Material but nothing technical so far.

 

[Jpnl]

I am experiencing the same issue on iPhone 11.

Location services on, but location sharing of all apps and system switched off. Still you get the black arrow next to the clock. Primarily when you unlock the phone it is there for a minute or two and then disappears. No purple arrow in the locations settings... The update did not solve it.

Quite frustrating, i want to see that purple arrow somewhere and have the option to switch it off (regardless if it is a bug or a feature of the chip)

No issues on my previous iPhone 6 with the same settings.

I discovered the following: It seems that the arrow only appears after I use an app that requests my location (Maps for example). Even if I then close Maps and turn of location sharing for that specific app the arrow keeps appearing.
So turn off location services, then do a reboot and turn on location services and only turn on Maps location sharing. Up to this point no arrow for me. Then open Maps, the arrow appears (which is to be expected).Then close Maps and turn off location sharing for Maps. I noticed that the arrow continues to appear now...

 

[deep1]

It’s even worse in 13.2.2, icon comes on every few seconds!

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

It’s even worse in 13.2.2, icon comes on every few seconds!

I noticed worse on my device too!

 

[tomviolence]

Have this too on my iPhone 11 Pro (currently iOS 13.2.2): location services arrow popping up on a regular basis with no (system) apps allowed to use my location services.

There’s nothing to worry about.

I have to disagree: when my phone sends my location, I want to know why that is and to who it is sending it to. A very basic matter of privacy.

 

[Elitegate]

I phone 11 pro, had beta 4 and now public release. My location arrow on the upper left of the screen keeps coming on and going off with no apps open. No apps are showing persistent location usage in the privacy>location setting. This wasn’t happening with my XR, so I’m not sure if this is the phone or iOS. Thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas.

No, but often enough, even when i don't use any app in the fore- or background that uses my location. I am very strict when it comes to selecting the Apps that i grant permission to use my location. But i also have some system services enabled, and Weather, which has Background Activity / Refresh.

 

[willmtaylor]

Have this too on my iPhone 11 Pro (currently iOS 13.2.2): location services arrow popping up on a regular basis with no (system) apps allowed to use my location services.



I have to disagree: when my phone sends my location, I want to know why that is en to who it is sending it to. A very basic matter of privacy.

...so it's probably a non-system app in the background then? (E.g. a weather app, Google Maps, etc.)

 

[tomviolence]

...so it's probably a non-system app in the background then? (E.g. a weather app, Google Maps, etc.)

Well, at least none that are showing in the privacy settings: everything is turned off there… So some app or system process appears to be doing this in the background, with no control over it.

 

[MisterSavage]

Can't remember if it's been mentioned in this thread but for me it's a watch face with a weather complication. If I switch to a new watch face it goes away.

 

[dcpmark]

This issue has nothing to do with specific iPhones, or Apple Watches, or wifi.....my cellular Mini 5 exhibits the same on-off every few seconds issue as well on LTE. I noticed it after 13.2.2, but it could have been there earlier. And yes, my battery life has definitely taken a hit, so I believe that something is accessing Location Services.

 

[akash.nu]

Have this too on my iPhone 11 Pro (currently iOS 13.2.2): location services arrow popping up on a regular basis with no (system) apps allowed to use my location services.



I have to disagree: when my phone sends my location, I want to know why that is and to who it is sending it to. A very basic matter of privacy.

I completely agree with the privacy concern but generally if it’s an app then it’ll show up in the list of apps that’s using the service. Since it’s not the apps it’s safe to assume that the OS is using it which means the data is being sent to Apple. You can request your data from them to check what they’ve got on you.

Here's all the data Apple collects on you

Apple gave me all the data it collected on me since I bought my first iPhone — in 2010.

www.zdnet.com

 

[Fantasigraphic]

Mines hollow 90% of the time and solid for a min or two throughout the day. It’s tied to Storm Shield. Once I change it to NEVER it goes away.

 

[Ninflu]

This issue has nothing to do with specific iPhones, or Apple Watches, or wifi.....my cellular Mini 5 exhibits the same on-off every few seconds issue as well on LTE. I noticed it after 13.2.2, but it could have been there earlier. And yes, my battery life has definitely taken a hit, so I believe that something is accessing Location Services.

Question is, is that happening with new Beta also? If so, we should try to accept it, as it's not yet classified as a bug by Apple (see "Text from Apple Dev" and the "Explaination of U1 Chip"). I totally get the privacy concerns about it, but when it comes to the technical specs of the U1 Chip, this on- and off makes more sense.

Also, besides what Feedback ID's do you guys have? Maybe we can all add an entry to let them now that there are more Feedbacks avaialable (Apple doesn't seem to link them automatically).

 

[Ninflu]

It is happening also in the new 13.3 Beta 2, so no luck there.

 

[dcpmark]

Question is, is that happening with new Beta also? If so, we should try to accept it, as it's not yet classified as a bug by Apple (see "Text from Apple Dev" and the "Explaination of U1 Chip"). I totally get the privacy concerns about it, but when it comes to the technical specs of the U1 Chip, this on- and off makes more sense.

Whatever it is, it does not involve the U1 chip as my iPad Mini 5 doesn’t have that chip.

 

[spunde]

Same problem on iPhone 11 Pro Max (iOS 13.2.2)

Do you think Apple will fix this problem? Or is it not a problem at all?

 

[Ninflu]

Do you think Apple will fix this problem? Or is it not a problem at all?

Well, right now no one knows if its a Bug or a Feature. The opinions on that are different here in this thread. All you can do is right now to report it via the Feedback app.

 

[spunde]

Well, right now no one knows if its a Bug or a Feature. The opinions on that are different here in this thread. All you can do is right now to report it via the Feedback app.

Thanks for answer!

Can anyone provide me with a text to send feedback to Apple? I don't have the technical skills in the English language. I'm from another country. I will be very grateful for a detailed report with this problem location for feedback.