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Motion Calibration

Mac7

Mac7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 14, 2009
864
125
Does anyone know what motion calibration is for and why is it constantly using location services?
 
Mac7 said:
Does anyone know what motion calibration is for and why is it constantly using location services?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what it does but it kills my battery so I have turned it off. Everything still seems to be working normally. It's probably just an iOS bug.
 
I'm having the same problem. Not sure what's going on or what it even is. There should at least be an explanation as to wtf motion calibration is.
 
I just turned mines for a a bit and the health app stopped recording steps and stuff.
 
I always turn off everything in that section. None of it really does anything useful. May have 1 or 2 on.
 
It seemed like having Motion Calibration turned on was burning through my battery so I turned it off. Can't tell if it's just a placebo but it looks like it helped my battery life a bit. But now the health app isn't recording anything
 
Mac7 said:
It seemed like having Motion Calibration turned on was burning through my battery so I turned it off. Can't tell if it's just a placebo but it looks like it helped my battery life a bit. But now the health app isn't recording anything
Click to expand...

Interesting, I turned mine off and my health app is still recording my steps and floors climbed.

Bizarre.
 
I turned it off and health still tracks steps and flights. Sometimes there is lag with the M8 sending data to health, so your steps may jump rapidly out of nowhere.
 
Mac7 said:
Does anyone know what motion calibration is for and why is it constantly using location services?
Click to expand...

I'm having the same issue, but it JUST started yesterday. I've been running iOS 8.1 on my iPhone 6 since the day 8.1 came out and had nothing weird happen until just yesterday. Yesterday, the location arrow turned on on my top bar and stayed on. Turning off the phone and rebooting didn't help! So looking in my privacy, location, system services settings I see that motion calibration is on ALL THE TIME now. All the time! ???

Yes, I could turn it off. But.. Apple obviously put it there for a reason, and I *do* reference my motion data in the health app (where I also keep workouts, etc). So maybe they could fix this? Please Apple?
 
Mac7 said:
Does anyone know what motion calibration is for and why is it constantly using location services?
Click to expand...

Apparently this is happening to some users who restored from backup instead of setting up their phone as NEW. I have this feature on and don't see the "using location" indicator (white arrow in status bar) ever for this feature.
 
I set up my iPhone 6 Plus as new the other day, and I am also seeing this. Impact on battery life doesn't seem to be huge, but still I'd like to know why this is happening.
 
Schtibbie said:
I'm having the same issue, but it JUST started yesterday. I've been running iOS 8.1 on my iPhone 6 since the day 8.1 came out and had nothing weird happen until just yesterday. Yesterday, the location arrow turned on on my top bar and stayed on. Turning off the phone and rebooting didn't help! So looking in my privacy, location, system services settings I see that motion calibration is on ALL THE TIME now. All the time! ???

Yes, I could turn it off. But.. Apple obviously put it there for a reason, and I *do* reference my motion data in the health app (where I also keep workouts, etc). So maybe they could fix this? Please Apple?
Click to expand...

I've had it turned off since the original post and have not noticed any difference in the health tracking app
 
I had battery issues and discovered Motion Calibration running all the time. I was not even getting a full day of battery.
Turned it off and now I get almost 2 days from my battery. Health app still records steps and elevation.
 
macmaccy said:
I had battery issues and discovered Motion Calibration running all the time. I was not even getting a full day of battery.
Turned it off and now I get almost 2 days from my battery. Health app still records steps and elevation.
Click to expand...
After a month I got a replacement iPhone 6+ and the battery didn't last like the other one. So I called and just spent a half hour with 2 AppleCare perps, a Jr and Senior tech to find out what Motion Calibration is, how it works and what it's for and why do I need it to waste battery power. It should only work when an App is on that needs it. All I got was a royal runaround and finally gave up. AppleCare doesn't know, and won't admit it! So much for tech help from AppleCare!
BTW...The onhold music is terrible.
Hank
 
Everything in that section sends back to apple. That's the conclusion I came to after scouring the Internet since iOS introduced that area/settings panel.
 
iPhone6 Plus

I had the same issue with my iPhone 6 Plus, so I was playing around with turning it on/off - reboot. no help...

I decided to try to reset location & privacy (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Location & Privacy).

So far its been 6 hrs and my location icon hasn't been present - when I wasn't expecting it to be. battery only down 1% in the 6 hrs now - huge improvement
obviously you have to re-accept all app location services requests


Thought I would share...
 
rmiller065 said:
I had the same issue with my iPhone 6 Plus, so I was playing around with turning it on/off - reboot. no help...

I decided to try to reset location & privacy (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Location & Privacy).

So far its been 6 hrs and my location icon hasn't been present .
Click to expand...

Right.. But.. Have you checked to see if resetting those settings also turned off the "show icon" option for system location processes? Because that's an option that comes (ships) "off", so OF COURSE you aren't seeing the arrow. I turn mine on for a reason - so I can see what, if any, crazy system process is running location. And *that* is how I noticed that this Motion Calibration thing apparently doesn't ever quit.
 
Schtibbie said:
Right.. But.. Have you checked to see if resetting those settings also turned off the "show icon" option for system location processes? Because that's an option that comes (ships) "off", so OF COURSE you aren't seeing the arrow. I turn mine on for a reason - so I can see what, if any, crazy system process is running location. And *that* is how I noticed that this Motion Calibration thing apparently doesn't ever quit.
Click to expand...

Ahhh ... didn't notice that. back to just leaving it off.
Thanks for pointing that out.
 
I have the same issue. I noticed battery drain too. My fix is a bandaid approach, but I turn off location services unless I need to access maps.

Also, I restored my iPhone 6 from a backup. Any why would this even matter? Say from a technical standpoint? Location services was turned on with my older phone, but I was running iOS 6. Maybe someone can shed more light on this situation?
 
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