Help Pinpointing yourself on Google Maps?

[Jozudave]

Hi,

When I load google maps it sometimes brings up the automatic blue arrow indicator to show where I am and which direction I am facing. Very handy as I'm sure you all know.

But unfortunately it doesn't always do that so how do you force it to look up your location and display the realtime indicator if it seems to be missing?

I'm sure there must be an easy way to do it, but I can't see it.

Thanks!

 

[matttye]

It should do that every time it opens, maybe you have GPS disabled or don't have a GPS fix??

 

[Gibbyson]

I would bet that the times it doesn't show up is when you don't have a fix. It should by default show you where you are at. So if it doesn't try leaving it up and see if it pops up eventually.

 

[Jozudave]

Thanks to you both. It does tend to pop up sometimes after a while, but sometimes not. And obviously you generally want it to pop up immediately.

It worked for me last night for example which was handy as I needed it.

But right now in front of me on my desk it's refusing to find my location. The target button on the top right of screen suggests that would be what I should press and when I do it says "Waiting for location" which is then followed a few seconds later with "Your current location is temporarily unavailable".

How do I force it to get a GPS fix?

 

[Gibbyson]

Thanks to you both. It does tend to pop up sometimes after a while, but sometimes not. And obviously you generally want it to pop up immediately.

It worked for me last night for example which was handy as I needed it.

But right now in front of me on my desk it's refusing to find my location. The target button on the top right of screen suggests that would be what I should press and when I do it says "Waiting for location" which is then followed a few seconds later with "Your current location is temporarily unavailable".

How do I force it to get a GPS fix?

If you are indoors, chances are it's having an issue getting a fix, I think it works better if you are mobile also. The "waiting for location", is when it is attempting to get a lock on your loc. Your building may also purposefully block signals from entering, as a lot do. They will tweak the SW more and more to get better. Not a lot of people know this, but probably about 80% of the work behind any GPS equipment is SW.

 

[Jozudave]

If you are indoors, chances are it's having an issue getting a fix, I think it works better if you are mobile also. The "waiting for location", is when it is attempting to get a lock on your loc. Your building may also purposefully block signals from entering, as a lot do. They will tweak the SW more and more to get better. Not a lot of people know this, but probably about 80% of the work behind any GPS equipment is SW.

What's SW mean?

I think you might have hit the nail on the head about the building and being stationary. It's a pretty air-tight office building and yesterday when I actually wanted to use maps on the street was when it actually worked.

Thanks for the knowledge!

 

[Gibbyson]

What's SW mean?

I think you might have hit the nail on the head about the building and being stationary. It's a pretty air-tight office building and yesterday when I actually wanted to use maps on the street was when it actually worked.

Thanks for the knowledge!

NP,

SW=Software