How to calibrate Google Maps – and why you should

Main points

• Calibrate location settings in Google Maps to ensure accurate navigation.
• Enabling compass calibration improves the accuracy of your device’s compass, resulting in better directional information.
• Calibrate Google Maps by resetting and improving accuracy using figure-8 motions from your phone.

Traveling around the world just got easier. There is no doubt that the widespread use of GPS navigation on our smartphones is one of the reasons that makes it more convenient. No matter where you are right now, just whip out your phone and go into Google Maps or any other online navigation app to quickly see how to get where you need to go. No more fiddling with maps or standalone sat navs. But that doesn’t mean Google Maps is always correct.

Unfortunately, your smartphone sometimes loses your location. This happens a lot if you’re underground, like in a tunnel or something similar (although Google recently came up with a clever solution to the tunnel problem), but it can also happen inexplicably when wandering around. When you take out your phone and it can’t pinpoint your location and can only give you an approximate location, it may have trouble tracking your location for one of the reasons mentioned above.

Luckily, there’s an easy way around this: you need to calibrate your positioning in Google Maps. It’s fast, easy, and has you back in action in no time.

Is your location set correctly in Google Maps?

You need to enable location 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. This is a crucial step, as these permissions determine whether apps can use your location and how accurately it checks your location.

How to enable Google Maps to use your location on Android

1. Open set up app.
2. Click Place menu.
3. At the top of the menu make sure location switch Opened.
4. Under the toggle switch, look for Google Map One of the most recently used location apps.If it doesn’t exist, you can also find it by clicking App location permissions and check the full list.
5. In Location access settings, select allow all times or Allow when using the app.
6. Below, you’ll find Use precise location switch. Make sure it’s turned on as well.

How to enable Google Maps to use your location on iOS

1. Go to set up app.
2. Click Privacy and security menu.
3. then click location services.
4. make sure location servicesswitch is set to on.
5. Below you’ll see a list of all apps that can access your location.Look for Google Map in the list and click on it.
6. under Allow location access menu, select one of always or When using the application.
7. Below you will find accurate locating switch. Make sure it’s turned on.

How to quickly calibrate Google Maps

Enable and then do figure 8

If you’re having trouble with your location, you may need to enable the ability to calibrate your phone’s compass before you can actually calibrate Google Maps.

1. Enable compass calibration

Enabling compass calibration on iPhone enhances the accuracy of the device’s internal compass, ensuring that directional information in navigation and map apps is more accurate and reliable. Improving location accuracy on Android, such as compass calibration, can improve the accuracy of your device’s location tracking. It does this by using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning to supplement GPS data, providing more accurate and reliable positioning for navigation and location-based applications.

• On iPhone, Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and toggle Compass Calibration to On (green).
• For Android systems, Open Settings, make sure Location is on, and select Improve accuracy (or on a Pixel phone, go to Settings > Location Services > Google Location Accuracy > Improve Location Accuracy) , then move the slider to Blue/On to enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning.

2. Draw “8” on Google Maps

You can now calibrate Google Maps by moving your phone in a figure-8 pattern:

1. open your Google Maps App.When you see your location is imprecise (either the cone in front of the position mark is very wide, or your position mark is only an approximation), begin the calibration process.
2. To calibrate your positioning you need to use Google Maps app opens and start moving it to Figure 8 pattern. This will prompt your iPhone compass to reset and recalibrate to improve the accuracy of Google Maps.
3. Calibration works best when you Use your phone to draw a horizontal figure 8.The phone should not always be facing one direction, but turn as if Cycling around a figure-eight track.
4. It’s enough to trace the figure 8 3 to 5 times to calibrate positioning.
5. If you get one you will find that the process works location marker When I looked at the Google Maps app again, there was a narrow cone in front of me.

How to calibrate Google Maps using Live View

Tap your location indicator

If you’re in an urban area, you can also use the Live View feature to calibrate your Google Maps positioning.

1. Open Google Maps App.
2. click on your position indicator (The blue dot shows your location).
3. In the location menu, select calibration.
4. Use a scanner to scan your surroundings live view feature.
5. Once the scan is complete, Google Maps will calibrate and tell you exactly where you are and which way you’re facing.

Why calibrate Google Maps?

Explanation of inaccurate Google Maps location

Calibrating Google Maps is important to improve the accuracy of your location data, which is essential for efficient navigation and getting reliable directions.

1. Improve positioning accuracy: Smartphones use GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile networks to determine your location. Obstacles such as buildings, trees, or underground may interfere with these signals, resulting in inaccurate positioning. Calibrating Google Maps can help correct these errors.
2. Enhanced navigation experience: If Google Maps is not calibrated, you may encounter issues such as incorrect route navigation or the wrong actual location on the map. Calibration ensures the application provides accurate and useful navigation guidance.

Your phone doesn’t just magically know where you are in the world. It requires connection to a GPS signal or Wi-Fi or mobile network. Therefore, most of the time, one of the two may cause location inaccuracy. The reasons may vary. You might be blocked by some structure, the internet might be having a bad day, or your cell phone antenna might be experiencing interference. It is common for GPS signals to be lost underground or (perhaps intuitively) in city centers, skyscrapers.

Of course, you can also lose it when you’re walking through dense forests or anywhere else where the sky is heavily obscured.

Wi-Fi and mobile data are another story, where everything depends on the nearest access point. Normally, mobile data coverage should be pretty good almost everywhere, but if you go too far you may start to lose network connectivity and thus your location will suffer. Unfortunately, sometimes Google Maps decides to give you an inaccurate location for seemingly no reason. If this happens, don’t panic as there are some quick and easy fixes you can try.