UPDATE
Cannot Show Photos on Gallery. They were downloaded but shown as corrupt.
- Screenshot_20240122_114726_Unleashed.jpg (102.12 KiB) Viewed 1121 times
I'm on my journey in Norway, that is very frustrating
GPS works unreliable Sony A7 IV [solved: Android App needs Notifications enabled]
I have a Sony A7 IV and a Samsung Galaxy 23 Ultra and unleashed 22 with the last update. The GPS icon in the app is mostly red. Although a GPS signal arrives on the cell phone. Everything else works correctly.
UPDATE
Cannot Show Photos on Gallery. They were downloaded but shown as corrupt. Also preview does Not work in the [review]
I'm on my journey in Norway, that is very frustrating
UPDATE
Cannot Show Photos on Gallery. They were downloaded but shown as corrupt. Also preview does Not work in the [review]
I'm on my journey in Norway, that is very frustrating
- Attachments
-
- Screenshot_20240122_114726_Unleashed.jpg (102.12 KiB) Viewed 1121 times
Last edited by ulrich on January 22nd, 2024, 11:57 am, edited 5 times in total.
Sorry, I was on a business trip and found no time to visit the Forum!
Sorry also for the trouble!
GPS icon is red when there's a problem. What the current problem is, can be checked by tapping the (i) icon in the top right corner.
The most typical issue is that you didn't give the correct permissions to the app. For correct Geotagging on Android, you need to allow the following:
- Location permission (if possible "always allow"
- Location Service
- Bluetooth
- Notifications
The first three might be obvious, the last one not so much, but here's the reason: Android reserves the right to kill Apps if they're in the background, and some phone manufacturers do so very aggressively. In other words, we could not expect the app to continue to provide GPS data to the Unleashed with the app being in the background, such as when you put your phone back in your pocket. The only solution is to create a foreground service and for that to be able to be controlled, even when the App is killed by the system, we need to present a notification to the user (you'll also see a small foolography icon in the top bar).
The other most common reasons for the red gps icon are:
- GPS quality too low - especially if you have set your phone to only allow a coarse location (which uses WiFi and cell towers rather than GPS). This works fine in major cities, but is useless in open landscapes.
- GPS accuracy threshold set too high. In the Unleashed settings, you can set the Accuracy threshold of how precise the location should be before the app sends it to the unleashed. Menu->Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Settings. Default is 1km, but of course the location accuracy usually increases much higher than that with time. Still, if you set it too high, you might have a red icon for a while, and coupled with the previous point, it might stay red all the time.
- external GPS paired, but not connected
- external GPS connected, but getting invalid data
- Camera paired via Bluetooth, but not connected (this could be your case)
- Camera pairing did not complete properly.
in the latter two cases, you should delete the current pairing on both camera and Unleashed and re-pair the camera:
- go to the camera menu, and delete the individual pairing, or even better, reset the network settings to default as well.
- in the Unleashed, turn geotagging off, then go to Menu -> Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Accessories -> Your camera, and tap on Forget Accessory.
- ideally do a factory reset of the Unleashed: Menu -> Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Settings, then tap on "Factory reset" at the very bottom of the list.
- Important: turn your camera off, remove the camera battery for a couple of seconds, then plug it back in. We have found that Sony does delete "bonds" from unpaired devices until they lose power, and even on the next pairing will try to reuse an old bond!
- then re-pair everying by changing the GPS Mode to "Pair Camera" and following the instructions in the app.
The issue with the broken Images was fixed in Firmware update 3.2.1 which we released on 2024-01-12 - the bug was introduced with 3.2.0 on 2023-12-15. Are you up to date with 3.2.1?
Sorry again for the trouble and the late reply.
Sorry also for the trouble!
GPS icon is red when there's a problem. What the current problem is, can be checked by tapping the (i) icon in the top right corner.
The most typical issue is that you didn't give the correct permissions to the app. For correct Geotagging on Android, you need to allow the following:
- Location permission (if possible "always allow"
- Location Service
- Bluetooth
- Notifications
The first three might be obvious, the last one not so much, but here's the reason: Android reserves the right to kill Apps if they're in the background, and some phone manufacturers do so very aggressively. In other words, we could not expect the app to continue to provide GPS data to the Unleashed with the app being in the background, such as when you put your phone back in your pocket. The only solution is to create a foreground service and for that to be able to be controlled, even when the App is killed by the system, we need to present a notification to the user (you'll also see a small foolography icon in the top bar).
The other most common reasons for the red gps icon are:
- GPS quality too low - especially if you have set your phone to only allow a coarse location (which uses WiFi and cell towers rather than GPS). This works fine in major cities, but is useless in open landscapes.
- GPS accuracy threshold set too high. In the Unleashed settings, you can set the Accuracy threshold of how precise the location should be before the app sends it to the unleashed. Menu->Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Settings. Default is 1km, but of course the location accuracy usually increases much higher than that with time. Still, if you set it too high, you might have a red icon for a while, and coupled with the previous point, it might stay red all the time.
- external GPS paired, but not connected
- external GPS connected, but getting invalid data
- Camera paired via Bluetooth, but not connected (this could be your case)
- Camera pairing did not complete properly.
in the latter two cases, you should delete the current pairing on both camera and Unleashed and re-pair the camera:
- go to the camera menu, and delete the individual pairing, or even better, reset the network settings to default as well.
- in the Unleashed, turn geotagging off, then go to Menu -> Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Accessories -> Your camera, and tap on Forget Accessory.
- ideally do a factory reset of the Unleashed: Menu -> Unleashed with gear icon -> Your Unleashed -> Settings, then tap on "Factory reset" at the very bottom of the list.
- Important: turn your camera off, remove the camera battery for a couple of seconds, then plug it back in. We have found that Sony does delete "bonds" from unpaired devices until they lose power, and even on the next pairing will try to reuse an old bond!
- then re-pair everying by changing the GPS Mode to "Pair Camera" and following the instructions in the app.
The issue with the broken Images was fixed in Firmware update 3.2.1 which we released on 2024-01-12 - the bug was introduced with 3.2.0 on 2023-12-15. Are you up to date with 3.2.1?
Sorry again for the trouble and the late reply.
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.
That's good to hear!
The app asks for all the permissions needed the first time they'd be used, but once denied, we usually can't ask again, so you need to go to the System settings and grant the permissions manually.
The app asks for all the permissions needed the first time they'd be used, but once denied, we usually can't ask again, so you need to go to the System settings and grant the permissions manually.
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.