iPhone compass not working

coffeehound

The compass on this iPhone SE doesn't move at all, locked pointing north. Location services are set to 'enabled while using the app.'

The Apple community forums had a couple of similar questions to which people had suggested deleting the app and reloading from icloud, and a forced restart, plus toggling location services -- no improvement.

It is over a year old but should in theory still be covered by John Lewis second year warranty. Can anyone recommend anything else to check first pls?

tonyh66

phone compasses aren't particularly accurate, I don't know what john lewis could do about a defective app probably not covered by warranty though

DigForVictory

May not be an app - I've an SE & the compass, & mine's working. (Well, seems to be.)

What iOS are you on, & when did you last update?

System

You haven't said if you tried other compass apps from the app store?

Never heard of someone using the compass so much on their phone that its making them wonder if they have a right to getting the phone fixed or replaced.

coffeehound

Yes my worry is that it`s the sensor that is duff rather than just the app. Something else is that the display does not orient itself in Maps either -- should it orient to where you are facing like a car satnav? Presumably the same sensor if so.

Currently up to iOS 11.2.2 but it's saying there`s a new update available. It hasn't been working for a while though I definitely remember the compass working in the past.

System

just download another compass app if that does not work then it could be the magnetometer chip faulty but I am not an expert.

you could restore your device to see if that fixes it as it could be a bug.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201252

If you don't think that will work or unsure just take it into the Apple store and ask for their opinion. If you don't want to do that then take it back to John Lewis and see what they say.

Personally I would be downloading a compass app to confirm problem and then doing a restore. If problem is still there then at least i know I have done what I can and then its up to John Lewis or maybe Apple to take it further.

coffeehound

Sounds like a plan, I'll give those a go. There's an Apple store nearby so will try them before going to JS. Cheers

20aday

Have you gone into Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services to see if compass calibration is still enabled?

coffeehound

^ Just checked and yes that is enabled, thanks for the tip.