Why is windy not finding my location????
-
Im currently on passage from Panama to Hawaii. After 10 days sailing windy is unable to show my current location !
Wether I press the house icon or „ find my location“ it is showing same location where I was 10 days ago and which is more than 1000nm off!
I have set in the app to GPS for location , and google maps has my correct location in seconds.
I’m using starlink.
Thx for your advice -
S Suty moved this topic from Windy Translation & Localization on
-
@kestrel1 Hi there, this is most probably caused by the Starlink provider and we cannot do much with it. I am sorry about that.
-
@Suty This is a Windy problem and blaming it on starlink it not helpful. I have my windy app set to my current gps, not my ip. This should work. I also use GarminGlo for accurate gps on my devices. Windy needs to address this asap as this can cause serious problems for people. I love the app, best thing ever for close to real-time weather while in the open ocean. FIX THIS PLEASE!!!! don’t rely on the gps provided by the internet service provider
-
@Suty I just deleted the app and then downloaded it again. It is set to location by gps. It still shows me as being in Mexico City while I am hundreds of miles away. Where is Windy getting the gps from, my service provider? All my other apps find my location just fine. This is something you need to be able to fix and fix quickly. I pay for Windy and do so gladly except for this dangerous problem and the fact that you take no responsibility for fixing it while it is clearly a Windy problem. Please explain to me how this is not a Windy problem when I have the apps default location set to current gps?
-
@robertwcass May I ask for details about your device? Do you have allowed GPS in settings of your device? Also do you have this issue on start of the app or everytime you tap on the find my location?
-
I have it set to use my current gps. I use an iPhone 15 and an iPad 12.5, both with current versions of windy and iOS. It happens intermittently nd for no apparent reason. I have both devices set up exactly the same in bot iOS and windy. Sometimes one finds my proper location and the other doesn’t at exactly the same time. This must be something to do with how windy acquires the gps from the device. Whether it be cached, from the IP address (even when windy is set to use current gps), or some other weird thing. The device find my location perfect every time outside of the windy app, navx does, google earth does. Windy only occasionally and I can’t figure out why.
I use Starlink for internet, but as said, the settings in windy are set to find my location via gps, and location services in iOS are set to always allow windy to use my location
This happens on startup and nearly every time I tap on find my location
Plus, even though I have give windy all the permissions available in both iOS and windy, my location goes away anytime I do anything on the app. It is not tracking my position (that is when it does acquire an accurate position.
How does windy accuire gps position when the setting is set to use gps?
-
@robertwcass Okay, thank you for detailed description, do you have any errors in the error console in Windy? You can find it at the bottom of the menu.
-
@Suty I think I have figured out the issue and it is 100% a Windy.com issue. If I uninstall the app, reinstall the app, insure that GarmGlo is working via Bluetooth, allow Windy to track while using the app, then go into iPhone settings and allow windy to track always, then it will work. But if I loose my gps provided by GarminGlo due to I turn it off or some other weird reason, and then reconnect to Garmin Glo, the Windy app will not use the gps from GarminGlo, it defaults to the gos provided by Starlink. The only way to get it to work again with GarminGlo is to uninstall windy and rep the above process.
This is because the coders are storing the gps metadata once and then relying on it going forward rather than looking at the stored gps metadata and comparing the timestamps with other more fresh metadata. Thus, once it has gps data stored it won’t continue to look for new gps data. Lazy programming.
The gps data should be updated every few seconds so as to have accurate position data and if the Windy setting is set for use gps, that gps should come from a gps provider like GarminGlo or other external device if there is no cellular gps available.
You guys have a great app with lots of potential but your support is very weak, especially for a critical issue like accurate positioning data at sea. Blaming Starlink is and asking a lot of questions of the user makes getting help take days and then the help is unreliable and useless. This is a known issue that should be elevated and fixed in a matter of hours is not days. Not fixing it promptly puts windy at risk of being sued if someone gets hurt due to relying on your app for inaccurate current location data. Elevate this and get it fixed please.
Finally, I’ve had to delete and reinstall windy no less than 20 times since my trip began on March 17 in efforts to figure this out and get it to work. At 47 megabytes each time, I have used approximately 20% of my 50gb Starlink global ocean data allotment on this. Not cool!
-
I’m having the same issues at sea. Sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia. SV Foxfire
-
@foxfire sorry to hear this. Bummer Windy tech help is so lame. If you read my report it shows how to get it to work only in a very convoluted work around. Hope it helps
-
-
@robertwcass
@Suty does not reply 24h on 24h. Only during office hours CEST. Now it is the week end. -
@idefix37 is he the only one who can address this issue?
-
@robertwcass
Yes probably the only one who can analyse your issue and discuss it with the team of developers.
Personally I can’t help about this matter -
@robertwcass I will discuss it with the product team on Monday. I am glad you provide these details. Also I am asking that many questions, because we are not able to replicate the issue and there are no any other users with this issue, who provide enough info to fully understand it.
-
@Suty thank you for your response. As I continue to use and analyze the problem at sea I have additional thoughts. I think this is happening because some times when the app cannot find a proper gps it looks for the next best thing, in my case that is the gps coming from Starlink which now shows me in Los Angeles (I am currently 200nm WNW of Cabo). Once it takes this less than ideal source for gps, it doesn’t want to give up using it. Sometimes it will revert to using the external gps source if I turn my phone off and then back on, but sometimes not and I have to delete the app and reinstall from the App Store.
The coding needs to have the app constantly scanning for and insuring that the Sourxe variable continues to be “Use my gps”. If it cannot determine the gps in this way and then goes to Starlink or some other source, well, there is your problem.
The app requires the user to tap on “Find my location” to cause the code to search for a gps. This is highly inefficient for the user and causes part of the problem. There should be a setting in the app to allow the user to choose to let the app “follow my location “ and show the most updated conditions for that particular location, while still allowing the user to scroll forward or backward in time to see either historical or future predictions.
Sury, I am willing to volunteer to help your team understand, fix this problem, and enhance the app for maritime use absolutely free of charge. I’ve loved your app for years but only now with Starlink is it a viable option while offshore. I believe you guys have something special and I want to help. I am willing to video conference with you or your team at anytime to speed up this
Again, thanks for your response and efforts
-
@Suty there is another user on this thread that was the same issue right now. And there are several posts about this going back over a year
-
@robertwcass We discussed this topic and Windy has never supported this type of bluetooth GPS receivers and it won't be changed. Windy uses internal location service of the device and there is no plan to implement this change. We are still a weather app and not the navigation one.
-
@Suty sad, shortsighted and downright stupid. Hopefully there will be a leadership change or you guys will wake up to what you have
-
@Suty every other weather provider, like PredictWind etc can manage this. As I said, sad, shortsighted and stupid decision
