Compass /calibration issue

[janesca54]

I have an iPad Air, new to me, I installed my sky walk app that is supposed to orient to the current sky by holding up the iPad and moving it around, it finds and identifies the planets and constellations currently in view, I am guessing it uses a compass function. Unfortunately, it worked great on my iPad 2, but will not work on the new I paid air, using iOS 9.2.1. When I try to use the app, it is either static or it spins out of control like it is trying to orient itself but it never does. It is not the app, I tried loading a basic compass app to see what it would do, it never finds north, just keeps going round and round. Once in a while the calibration screen pops up, but the ball won't finish going around the circle to finish the calibration. I have tried every thing I can think of, uninstalling the app, shutting the iPad off, reinstalling the app, still will not work right. Any ideas?

 

[scifan57]

Which version of the iPad Air do you have? If you have a WiFi only iPad and there aren't enough nearby WiFi hotspots for it to determine its location it won't be able to align the app database with your location to show what's visible in the sky at the time you're using the app.

 

[janesca54]

Which version of the iPad Air do you have? If you have a WiFi only iPad and there aren't enough nearby WiFi hotspots for it to determine its location it won't be able to align the app database with your location to show what's visible in the sky at the time you're using the app.

I have the wifi+cellular version, however I don't currently have an active cellular account for it. That said, the app worked perfectly fine on my wifi only 4 yr old iPad 2 that I recently replace with the iPad Air.

 

[jwt873]

Not sure why your app isn't working. But, the compass and GPS on a cellular iPad will work OK without a cellular account. It's not needed.

 

[Dopplerup]

Doesn't sound good. I use Star Chart and ISS Spotter both of which seem to use a similar system - hold up IPad and look to see what the star/object is. Both work fine outside of Wifi coverage and with cell data turned off, though the database for both is downloaded to the iPad when you install the apps. You may have a hardware problem.