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Location blue bar at top, always on! Horrible!

freak4pc said:
Hey guys,
Sorry to disappoint but this is most probably not a bug.

Apple announced in WWDC they will be always presenting the top blue bar when an app is tracking your location in the background so you, as a user, would be able to have full understanding of which apps are using your location at a given time . . .
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I hope Apple change this policy decision based upon feedback during the beta process.

It is definitely an ugly "solution".

There was nothing wrong with the previous triangle icon based system.

---

The related change of making all apps display the option of "while using the app" for location tracking is definitely a welcome and long overdue addition, however.
 
EJ8 said:
What? No. Most people have at least one app tracking their location at all times. That means a blue bar permanently on just about every iPhone in existence? Come on man that is just stupid.
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I've explained that. Not all location "tracking" is the same. If an app is doing it right, it'll use geofencing for location triggers or obtain intermittent location updates. Very few apps--mostly mapping and exercise apps--should be constantly tracking your exact position. Only the latter triggers the blue bar.

If you have a non-exercise/non-mapping app that is triggering the blue bar, it probably needs to be fixed. (There may be other apps that need to record your second-by-second movement, but I don't have any.) Home security apps and the like should be using geofencing to trigger home/away actions. Weather apps should be checking location intermittently. Etc. None of those should be generating blue bars.
 
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Ugh -- so this is happening with Waze? I hope it's fixed by the time iOS 11 is released to the public.

EDIT: This says Waze only checks your location every 15 minutes (when "Location Change Reporting" is turned on) : https://support.google.com/waze/answer/6071193?hl=en#Location

If what the previous poster said is correct, it sounds like Waze should NOT be triggering the constant blue bar in iOS 11?

(I leave LCR on, and it results in a constant solid "location arrow" in my iOS 10 status bar -- which is fine -- but I do not want that blue bar.)
 
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mpavilion said:
Ugh -- so this is happening with Waze? I hope it's fixed by the time iOS 11 is released to the public.

EDIT: This says Waze only checks your location every 15 minutes (when "Location Change Reporting" is turned on) : https://support.google.com/waze/answer/6071193?hl=en#Location

If what the previous poster said is correct, it sounds like Waze should NOT be triggering the constant blue bar in iOS 11?

(I leave LCR on, and it results in a constant solid "location arrow" in my iOS 10 status bar -- which is fine -- but I do not want that blue bar.)
Click to expand...
Location change reporting is only for when Waze is inactive, so it can provide Time to Leave notices. When Waze is active, even in the background, it tracks location constantly. And that's by design. That's how it provides real-time routing and collects traffic data. If you put Waze asleep in the app or kill it in the task manager, it still provides Time to Leave notices, but it doesn't trigger the blue bar. (It also doesn't provide Waze traffic data or accumulate reward points.)

I don't see any evidence that Waze is "doing it wrong." I only see the blue bar when Waze is active (foreground or background).
 
It should be able to be turned off.

This is an example of Apple overcompensating in an effort to please the fringe guys who think everyone is monitoring them at every turn.

If you’re not paranoid about it, they should have an option to just turn off the notification.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about it. I imagine it's one of those things that'll be fine tuned through the beta process.
 
jhfenton said:
Location change reporting is only for when Waze is inactive, so it can provide Time to Leave notices. When Waze is active, even in the background, it tracks location constantly. And that's by design. That's how it provides real-time routing and collects traffic data. If you put Waze asleep in the app or kill it in the task manager, it still provides Time to Leave notices, but it doesn't trigger the blue bar. (It also doesn't provide Waze traffic data or accumulate reward points.)

I don't see any evidence that Waze is "doing it wrong." I only see the blue bar when Waze is active (foreground or background).
Click to expand...

OK, good.
 
IndianBird said:
I think it’ll go away once they realize most people hate it.
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I think the current obnoxious behavior is intentional and part of their testing process. Once they get things 'ironed out', it'll morph into something more palatable.
 
I don't have iOS 11 Beta.
Does this mean that when I use the "Find My Friends" app that each friend I have on my list will get a big blue bar at the top of their iPhones???
 
DotCom2 said:
I don't have iOS 11 Beta.
Does this mean that when I use the "Find My Friends" app that each friend I have on my list will get a big blue bar at the top of their iPhones???
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It means any time you have an app that uses location you will get an ugly blue bar at the top of your phone letting you know it’s checking location.
 
jhfenton said:
I've explained that. Not all location "tracking" is the same. If an app is doing it right, it'll use geofencing for location triggers or obtain intermittent location updates. Very few apps--mostly mapping and exercise apps--should be constantly tracking your exact position. Only the latter triggers the blue bar.

If you have a non-exercise/non-mapping app that is triggering the blue bar, it probably needs to be fixed. (There may be other apps that need to record your second-by-second movement, but I don't have any.) Home security apps and the like should be using geofencing to trigger home/away actions. Weather apps should be checking location intermittently. Etc. None of those should be generating blue bars.
Click to expand...

Concur with JHFENTON... it needs to be fixed and I am going send in a bug report to Apple. The blue bar is persistent on my iPhone 7 using the Public Beta, after closing INRIX Traffic, but switches off after I close Garmin USA. Changing the settings for Traffic to "While Using the App" triggers a notice to change my settings when I open Traffic. If I leave the settings at "Always" and close the app and then double-click the home button, I can swipe the app up to completely close it. Then the blue bar disappears. That will not help those relying on MOVE.
 
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FYI : Facebook updated the other day and I’m no longer seeing the blue bar periodically. Looks like this can definitely be sorted app side (as many people have commented) so I’m less annoyed about it as a UI/UX thing now...

I’d still like them to look into making it nicer. ;)
 
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A work-around from another forum post to silence the blue bar completely is to go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Systems Services, and scroll down. Is the 'status bar icon' option on or off? If it is on, then switch it off. Worked for me in INRIX Traffic. Once the developers and Apple get the issue sorted out I will switch it back on.
 
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bwanamikebrown said:
A work-around from another forum post to silence the blue bar completely is to go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Systems Services, and scroll down. Is the 'status bar icon' option on or off? If it is on, then switch it off. Worked for me in INRIX Traffic. Once the developers and Apple get the issue sorted out I will switch it back on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was one of my first tests. I’ve had to uninstall Sweatcoin as it ignores it completely. Shame, but like you say, I’ll try again when fully released :)
 
Yeah on iOS 11 I had Facebook on the blue bar all the time. Was annoying menos much I stopped Facebook from using my location unless I'm in the app now. On the plus side I'm getting battery life on iOS 11 beta almost as good as iOS 10 now, it was Facebook all this time.
 
magicMac said:
Yeah on iOS 11 I had Facebook on the blue bar all the time. Was annoying menos much I stopped Facebook from using my location unless I'm in the app now. On the plus side I'm getting battery life on iOS 11 beta almost as good as iOS 10 now, it was Facebook all this time.
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Facebook is notorious for abusing background services and destroying battery life. Exactly the kind of app that Apple are now strictly reporting this activity for.
 
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Feenician said:
Facebook is notorious for abusing background services and destroying battery life. Exactly the kind of app that Apple are now strictly reporting this activity for.
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Yes. The Facebook app has generally been a poorly-behaved resource hog. I uninstalled it a few years ago and just saved a link to the web app in its place. Problem solved.
 
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Feenician said:
Facebook is notorious for abusing background services and destroying battery life. Exactly the kind of app that Apple are now strictly reporting this activity for.
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Yeah exactly. I suspect when iOS 11 drops in the fall many people will react in the same way as I did and disable location services for Facebook or just uninstall it.
 
jhfenton said:
I've explained that. Not all location "tracking" is the same. If an app is doing it right, it'll use geofencing for location triggers or obtain intermittent location updates.
Click to expand...
How is geofencing any better than full location tracking? Doesn't the GPS need to be always on to determine fence triggers?
 
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