Still problems with GPS/4S/Location Reminders

[lmsboy]

Hello,
I'm on the latest OF on my iPhone 4S and I've disabled 'Location Reminders' in OF, but every day in the morning I start OF, it scans for GPS and the only way to disable the scan is, to go to settings, activate LR and disable it again.

If I don't to this, OF will scan for GPS all the time from now on - I thing this have to a bug?!

[DerekM]

This doesn't sound like an issue we've seen yet. After you toggle LR on and off, when does the GPS indicator reappear? Is is possibly after having viewed the map? Or is it every time you go back to the app?

[lmsboy]

It's most time only in the morning (the first start after sleeping, so OF is at this point the longest time not in use for this start), it appears directly after opening the App. I'm definitely not in maps or something like this and it's definitely OF which uses GPS.

This also appears, if I used OF not for a longer time.

The only way to remove the GPS indicator is to turn LR on and off again (remind: it's normally off for all the time). And it reappears after night or long time not using (open) OF.

But there's no special way for me to reproduce it.

What would be normal? Would the GPS indicator appears if LR is on, but no LR is set? And would the indicator never appear, if LR is off (like it is in my phone)?

[DerekM]

Assuming nothing else is using location services, if LR is disabled in OF, the only time you should see the indicator is when looking at the map. There have been bugs in the past that we were still monitoring your location after leaving the map. In those cases, actually quitting the app instead of just backgrounding it would get it to stop monitoring.

If LR is on and you have a location set on a context, the indicator will always appear. If LR is on and you don't have any locations set, it should not appear except when looking at the map.

Have you noticed if it is draining your battery when the indicator is on when it shouldn't be? The monitoring for LR should have no noticable impact on battery life. But if it's actively using the GPS due to not giving it up after leaving the map view, then that would drain the battery. But I have no idea why activing OF would use the GPS unless you were looking at the map.

Something to try would be after you have to toggle LR on and off to remove the indicator, does turning LR back on make the indicator reappear?

[lmsboy]

Again: I just open OF with LR off and only the OF-Homescreen without using map.

I'll try the last thing next time it appears (turn on/off/on).

I can't tell you if the battery drains, because I turn it off directly after it appears (turn off by on/off), but I know that my battery hardly drains before your last update (GPS appears every few minutes and my battery goes down very fast with LR on).


Just to understand it right: If I set a location to my context 'Home' and I've tasks assigned to 'Home' and LR is on, would it check every few mins for my GPS, even I didn't set an alert for any task-location? (<- this is just for my understanding of your LR-feature - it doesn't affect my problem)

[lmsboy]

Nothing happens, if I turned it on/off/on - the indicator disappears after on/off and doesn't come back, after I turned it on again.

[DerekM]

Just to understand it right: If I set a location to my context 'Home' and I've tasks assigned to 'Home' and LR is on, would it check every few mins for my GPS, even I didn't set an alert for any task-location? (<- this is just for my understanding of your LR-feature - it doesn't affect my problem)

The context needs to have a location entering/exiting reminder set on it in addition to a location. And just to be clear, this monitoring isn't battery intensive if that's your concern.


If you go to Location Services in the iPhone settings, does it list OmniFocus as having using location services in the last 24 hours?

[lmsboy]

Yes, it always lists OmniFocus for using GPS the last 24h

But there's a paradox thing. Last night I activated LR (without set any reminder) and in this morning no GPS indicator appears when I started OF. I try this 1-2 days to be sure, that the indicator no longer appears, but this would really paradox.

[DerekM]

Yeah, that doesn't sound right and isn't anything we've seen yet. If it starts coming back again, please email us at omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com and we'll help you diagnose this more.

Thanks!

[lmsboy]

Same problem as before this morning.

What should I write to this emailaddress?

[DerekM]

Just give them a brief summary of the issue and link to this forum thread. Thanks!

[daverobeson]

Once I run OmniFocus, the location indicator goes on and stays on. When I look at it in the Location Services part of Settings, it's showing purple for OmniFocus. When I use the multitasking bar to kill OmniFocus so the app is not even running any more, it still shows purple in Settings.

And I never use the Map view, so it's turning on for some other reason. I'll write to the ninjas, but this is really annoying.

[DerekM]

Dave, it sounds like you have a location reminder set up in OmniFocus. The indicator will behave as indicated as it needs to do region monitoring even when the app isn't running. Reminders will do exactly the same if you have a reminder set based on location. There's no distinction in the indicator between region monitoring and actively using the GPS.

[Brian]

Dave, do any of your contacts have locations assigned to them? (You can tell by looking at the icons next to each in the Context field - check the attached image for the meaning of the various icons next to your contexts.

If any of your contexts have locations attached, and have uncompleted actions, what you're seeing is expected. The region monitoring needs to be active to provide any location based reminders for those contexts.

Hope this helps!

[daverobeson]

Okay, I see now. I thought turning off "Show Alerts" under Location Reminders would stop it monitoring my location but apparently that's not the case. At least not always; it was off yesterday and still showing the indicator but today the indicator is not on. And I do have a couple of Contexts with (sadly overdue) uncompleted actions.

Thanks for the tip, i'll keep an eye on it. :)