Magnetic issues with Moto Droid

[Humph1022]

I'm new to the Forum - great service. I understand that one should not use a case with magnetic closure because it adversely affects the Moto Droid -I believe the concern is the GPS radio. When I first got the Droid I used an old Covertec Palm case, which has magnetic closure, to tide me over until I bought a new case. Did I fry the GPS radio? Google Maps cannot find my location and my SMobile security system cannot find me either. WeatherBug is on and off in knowing my location. Thoughts about magnets and Droid?
Thanks.

 

[&roid]

there are magnetic sensors on the back if the droid to sense when it is mounted in either the car mount or the charging dock, there its even a metal detector app that you can download.

edit... the magnets in the holsters that you mention can cause the droid's backlight to stay on and drain the battery.

 

[johnlgalt]

My problem with the magnetic clasps was simple 0 it was activating my phone in the holster without me knowing about it and killing my battery by keeping it awake all the time.

More recent posts suggest that having a lock screen would prevent it from unlocking and doing strange things like calling people, adjusting the volume, etc. but IIRC it still keeps the screen on the entire time it is in the holster, if the magnet is in the correct place.

 

[Snaz]

I was fooling around with this because I wanted to buy a handbag/purse without a magnetic flap just to be safe.

It was more difficult than I thought it would be and found a bag that had a magnet in the center of the bag horizontally with an offset phone pocket inside the main compartment.

My husband and I experimented with the magnet.....my Droid is set to use the pattern unlock. By placing the phone correctly, directly on the magnet from the outside it would light up the screen and then about a minute later shut it down. We got those results every time we tried it. I'm not sure it will actually "stay" lit. But I imagine with movement in a hip case that it would do this repeatedly and could still eventually drain the battery.

From the inside of the bag he was able to activate magnetically with EXTREME persistance....but since my phone will not sit in that center location we decided that the "perfect storm" of battery drain is unlikely to happen accidentally.

 

[Sportster]

Bought a Velcro pouch couple weeks back. The Guy at the Verizon Booth said don't use magnet ones because it can damage the touch screen sensors and other internal sensors like the accelorameter. Anyone heard this? He was pretty adamant about it. Said a Verizon Rep warned him about it.

 

[Trel]

Bought a Velcro pouch couple weeks back. The Guy at the Verizon Booth said don't use magnet ones because it can damage the touch screen sensors and other internal sensors like the accelorameter. Anyone heard this? He was pretty adamant about it. Said a Verizon Rep warned him about it.

I'm pretty sure that's BS, otherwise, why would they be selling mounts which specifically use magnets?

 

[El Blacksheep]

A powerful enough magnet could damage the phone, but not the ones in docks and pouches.

And I keep my Droid in a leather beltloop pouch with a magnetic clasp, and it never activates dock mode.

 

[barry99705]

I'm new to the Forum - great service. I understand that one should not use a case with magnetic closure because it adversely affects the Moto Droid -I believe the concern is the GPS radio. When I first got the Droid I used an old Covertec Palm case, which has magnetic closure, to tide me over until I bought a new case. Did I fry the GPS radio? Google Maps cannot find my location and my SMobile security system cannot find me either. WeatherBug is on and off in knowing my location. Thoughts about magnets and Droid?
Thanks.

Magnets won't hurt the gps sensor. I suppose a sufficiently strong magnet could screw up the compass. Not that that would really effect the phone, you'd just lose some of the augmented reality functions. It'd still know what direction you're going in car mode. I do know that the car dock's magnet breaks the internal compass' functionality, but it returns to working once out of the dock. Like every one else has said, they can take the phone out of sleep mode, from there lots of strange things can happen.