Hi everyone, I updated today my iPad Pro 11 3 gen from iOS 14.8 to iOS 15.1, I noticed that now the "empty" location icon always remains active. If I turn off "find my iPad" from the privacy settings, the icon disappears. The icon is always on also in airplane mode. Same thing happens with my wife’s iPad mini 5, same update today from 14.8 to iOS 15.1. (I didn’t yet update iPhones) Do you think it is a malfunction or is it normal? Anyone else whith this issue? Thanks
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Empty Location icon always on after updating to iOS 15
- Thread starter Juans
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Since I got up this morning, I’ve had the full location icon permanently displaying on my 13 Pro Max. Location Services would suggest that something in System Services is behind this.
Just dig into the System Services menu to check out what it is. Services being used always appear purple.
Another annoying thing is every time you open the Wi-Fi settings, it triggers an actual GPS location request (solid GPS).
Same happens when not connected to Wi-Fi - it scans every 10-15 seconds and uses the GPS too.
It's all related to Find my iPhone - even if you disable Find my Network etc the phone still seems to ping nearby Wi-Fi stations and I assume help to build a profile of where you phone is based on GPS and Wi-Fi locations.
No idea the battery impact - but it's a lot of GPS requests at very regular intervals. You can disable Location Services entirely, and it still means Find my iPhone works if you enable Lost Mode (which can turn it back on)
Same happens when not connected to Wi-Fi - it scans every 10-15 seconds and uses the GPS too.
It's all related to Find my iPhone - even if you disable Find my Network etc the phone still seems to ping nearby Wi-Fi stations and I assume help to build a profile of where you phone is based on GPS and Wi-Fi locations.
No idea the battery impact - but it's a lot of GPS requests at very regular intervals. You can disable Location Services entirely, and it still means Find my iPhone works if you enable Lost Mode (which can turn it back on)
I’ve already looked & judging by the number of solid purple arrows, there’s an awful lot happening in there.
Observations so far, Find My iPhone & Significant Locations are constantly showing a solid purple arrow. Apart from a very few infrequent & momentarily interludes, Compass Calibration is solid purple. More often than not, numerous other services are solid purple.
I am now seeing the status bar briefly changing to the hollow arrow, rather than the constant solid arrow.
That’s completely normal and will switch back and forth depending on what function is active at that moment. I know a lot of people get concerned by this but with all the different features we use - location aware weather alerts, the Find app that we use to keep track of our family, a 3rd party app Life360 that gives location as well as driving speed and crash alerts, various system functions, compass, time zone, cell network, etc. our location arrow (hollow or solid) has been permanently displayed for years on all our devices. Even the MyChart app that coordinates with our medical provider and will send an alert to the office staff when we arrive for appointments uses location services and will trigger that arrow.
They are performing necessary functions, for our needs, and have had no discernible battery impact. You could drive yourself crazy, and many do apparently, trying to track down every single function that may use that system, and you could conceivably turn absolutely everything off and disable that arrow. But then why have such sophisticated devices in the first place. A Jitterbug flip phone might be more appropriate. I do believe you can turn the arrow display off so that you just don’t see it if that would give some peace of mind.
I’ve never had a solid arrow displayed for hours on end on any my previous iPhone’s. This behaviour has appeared within a week of updating to IOS 15.1.
Then turn them all off and turn them back on one by one to find out which one persists more than the others.
Or maybe it's not a system service but a 3rd party app instead...
No. It’s set as While Using the App or Widgets.
Having played about with System Services it would appear that the most likely culprit is Find My iPhone.
It is find my.
Hollow arrow Find My always on
After the update to iOS 15 I noticed the hollow GPS arrow of death in the top left hand corner and it won’t go away. After further inspection the Find My iPhone option seems to be the culprit. I didn’t have this on prior iOS’s and it’s also not showing on my iPad, just on my iPhone. After 12...
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It is find my.
Hollow arrow Find My always on
After the update to iOS 15 I noticed the hollow GPS arrow of death in the top left hand corner and it won’t go away. After further inspection the Find My iPhone option seems to be the culprit. I didn’t have this on prior iOS’s and it’s also not showing on my iPad, just on my iPhone. After 12...
That shouldn't be the case because there should be toggle in the bottom of the System services called System bar icon that should be off by default. That should mean that no system service is shown in System bar. On my iPhone system services toggles are all on except analyitics (product improvement stuff) for years now and none are visible in systus bar. System services are system itself and it should not matter, many services rarely seek you location anyway, I have tested it and they sometimes light up and do their thing and disappear.
Find my service and Find my app are two different things. If I'm right only explanation is that some app (not system service) is guilty party here and it should be visible in Settings, purple arrow outline should be next to it.
All above is based on assumption that System bar icon that should be off by default and that there is no issues/bugs causing a problem.
You’re right turning off that toggle makes it go away. But these are my location settings & the location icon is displayed 24/7 in the status bar. Turning off location for find my makes it go away.
I get the hallow purple icon explanation but it shouldn’t be displaying in the status bar 24/7 unless you open find my app.
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Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the hallow arrow mean geo-fencing? If I am correct, I don't think it means something is accessing location per say but with a geofence, it keeps an eye on movement and adjusts accordingly. That would make sense with the find my iphone as it is always monitoring location coordinates.
Like I said, it is all based on assumption that System bar icon that should be off by default and that there is no issues/bugs causing a problem. In your case I would assume that there is a bug or a glitch.
My father asked me the other day why moms phone is have some triangle in status bar and what that is. I checked and Weather app was using location 24/7. I thought that weather notification was an issue so I turned off that feature but arrow icon was still there. Turning Weather app toggle off have removed icon from status bar but as soon as I turned toggle on location icon was stuck in status bar.
After restarting phone everything went to normal. Weather notification for current location shouldn't be on 24/7 too but is was in my case. I assume issue of OS. Maybe they are changes something in iOS 15 that needs to be optimised.
