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Questions about GPS and a lost iPhone

Minoosh

Penultimate Amazing
Minoosh
Joined
Jul 15, 2011
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This is more a community topic but it's a tech question too. I mislaid my phone again. I think I also turned the sound way down while playing a game, using the volume buttons on the side, which I fear turns down the ringer as well because when I call from the land line I don't hear ringing.

Well, as always my phone seems to know right where it is, though on the cloud locater on my laptop twitches a little bit now and then, but it's generally registering as either just inside or just outside my apartment or the apartment next door. This morning it abruptly seemed to move about 30-40 feet west of my apartment wall, but a search there turned up nothing and all other times it's been hugging the wall.

My technical question is: Could it be somewhere else entirely? I lost it yesterday, and I hate not having my phone, but if I know it must be around somewhere I'll keep looking inside and out until the signal fades. I'm not sure how much precision to expect but in the past it has been very reliable. I am pretty sure GPS is involved but I could even be wrong about that.
 
I'm by no means an expert on GPS on cell phones, but I would say it's pretty unlikely that your phone is showing on the locator app that it is in or near your apartment when it is someplace else entirely. For it to briefly register as being a short distance from its actual location is, in my experience, a normal sort of GPS glitch, so that particular reading may be a glitch rather than actual movement of the phone. In order to show a location on the app, the phone has to be able to communicate with the cellular network and the GPS satellites. If it can't do either, the locator site should state that it can't find you phone, and show the last known location (in this case it could be anywhere, or nowhere, having somehow been damaged or destroyed, or possibly in the last known location with a dead battery. Most likely it is somewhere in your apartment, and, as you guessed ringer volume is turned down. I have also experienced not hearing a ring when using "find my phone" because the phone is muffled by being under a couch cusion, blanket, or something of that nature. If the phone sometimes shows as in your neighbor's apartment, it might be worth asking your neighbor if they found your phone. I'm not sure which locator app or website you are using. I know Google's (which should work for any Android phone registered to you Google account), has the option to ring the phone, and this will ring it for longer than just calling it from the land line, which may help you in finding the phone if it's buried in the couch or something like that.
 
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CORed said:
I'm by no means an expert on GPS on cell phones, but I would say it's pretty unlikely that your phone is showing on the locator app that it is in or near your apartment when it is someplace else entirely.
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It has probably been in the same spot since I dropped/lost it. In this community the chance of someone turning it in if they found it is close to 100 percent. I checked and I am not sitting on it, that's a not uncommon scenario.

If it's just outside I can call it and check for light in the bushes or turn out all the house lights and look for flashes ;)
 
It was in my mother's bed ... interesting because it was definitely preferring the location outside the exterior wall. It still shows it's outside even though it's sitting on my chair a good 15 feet from the wall. It's not as accurate as I thought.

Good to know for next time :D
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
You need to really proactively get ahead of the questions this is going to raise.
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It wasn't set to vibrate, so that's one question down ;)

ETA: I would think my absentmindedness is due to aging, except I've always been like this. I'm going to try paying attention, see if that helps.
 
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Minoosh said:
It was in my mother's bed ... interesting because it was definitely preferring the location outside the exterior wall. It still shows it's outside even though it's sitting on my chair a good 15 feet from the wall. It's not as accurate as I thought.

Good to know for next time :D
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Think about what you've just said. A phone/camera/computer/gaming device/internet terminal/general purpose computer that fits in you pocket was receiving signals from satellites to determine its location and sending them over the internet to another device and it's off by fifteen feet. We really do live in the future.
I just checked Google maps and it's got me pretty much spot on.

ETA: I reloaded the map page and have moved 5-10 Northwest!
 
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Trebuchet said:
Think about what you've just said. A phone/camera/computer/gaming device/internet terminal/general purpose computer that fits in you pocket was receiving signals from satellites to determine its location and sending them over the internet to another device and it's off by fifteen feet. We really do live in the future.
I just checked Google maps and it's got me pretty much spot on.

ETA: I reloaded the map page and have moved 5-10 Northwest!
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Did you check outside your window? A drift to the Northwest probably means your local Ley lines are realigning as the magnetic North Pole settles in for the coming Great Reversal. You have been warned.
 
This question is psychological, not technological.

GPS was consistently telling you that your phone was somewhere in or near your apartment. Which makes sense, since that's where you lost it.

But your awareness is so shot that you were seriously considering that maybe you lost it somewhere else entirely. What's up with that?
 
Trebuchet said:
Think about what you've just said. A phone/camera/computer/gaming device/internet terminal/general purpose computer that fits in you pocket was receiving signals from satellites to determine its location and sending them over the internet to another device and it's off by fifteen feet. We really do live in the future.
I just checked Google maps and it's got me pretty much spot on.

ETA: I reloaded the map page and have moved 5-10 Northwest!
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The closer the phone was to me, the less accurate it got. I mean, still pretty accurate, but it showed itself as farther outside when I had it on my lap.
 
theprestige said:
This question is psychological, not technological.

GPS was consistently telling you that your phone was somewhere in or near your apartment. Which makes sense, since that's where you lost it.

But your awareness is so shot that you were seriously considering that maybe you lost it somewhere else entirely. What's up with that?
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Do you ever stop to question your own assumptions? I never thought I'd lost it somewhere else. My thought was that the positioning system could have been stuck or faulty.

I knew I had not run any errands or strayed very far from the apartment - I'm not that gormless.

Mom could have been jostling it, it was in bed with her after all.
 
Trebuchet said:
Now I'm wondering what your phone was doing in bed with your mother....
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That's the least mysterious part to me. I'm just in her room a lot. Sometimes we snuggle the dog together or I am straightening her bedclothes or whatever. Now they have leggings with tech pockets, I'm definitely due.
 
Minoosh said:
It wasn't set to vibrate, so that's one question down ;)

ETA: I would think my absentmindedness is due to aging, except I've always been like this. I'm going to try paying attention, see if that helps.
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I will admit that question crossed my dirty mind, but I had already decided not to post it when I read the quoted post.
 
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