Alert: Compatibility Issue with Apple iOS 8.3 and External GPS Receivers
DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR APPLE DEVICE TO iOS 8.3 IF YOU RELY ON AN EXTERNAL GPS RECEIVER.
We are investigating reports that iOS 8.3 (released by Apple earlier this week) is not feeding GPS data from most external GPS receivers into 3rd party apps, such as ForeFlight, WingX, JeppFD, Navionics, and others. We have reproduced this issue in our lab and confirmed that this issue is not unique to Bad Elf GPS receivers, but affects other GPS receivers from Garmin and Dual Electronics as well.
Our newer GPS accessories, including the Bad Elf GPS for Lightning (BE-GPS-1008), Bad Elf GPS Pro+ (BE-GPS-2300), and Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor (BE-GPS-3300) do not seem to be negatively impacted.
We are working with Apple to resolve this issue and will provide status updates as we get more information. In the meantime, we recommend you wait to upgrade your Apple devices to iOS 8.3.
Update (Monday 13-April): We've passed all of the necessary information to Apple Support and got confirmation over the weekend that it has been passed to the correct team. We're optimistic it will be fixed in the next iOS 8.3.x release, and will post updates as we receive them.
Update (Thursday 16-April): We're still awaiting any news from Apple. In the meantime, we’re exploring several possible workarounds. We have confirmed that the beta iOS 8.4 released earlier this week has the same GPS issue. Some customers have reported successfully downgrading their iOS back to iOS 8.2, but we can’t recommend that process to our customers — it’s not supported by Apple and requires a complete wipe of your settings/apps/data. If you are a pilot grounded by this issue, please contact us via email to support@bad-elf.com and we’ll see what we can do to help. Rest assured we are doing everything in our power to get this resolved and will send another email when we have any new information.
For future updates on the iOS 8.3 situation, please view the latest information on our supplemental blog post, available here.
I have been patiently waiting. I figured something would be in the works but not so. I visited some Apple Savvy sites and got a different perspective. Some people are of the opinion that Apple has no reason the fix the problem and their opinions seem to have merit if it is true that this upgrade was no surprise and that it is the responsibility of the device manufacturer to issue firmware upgrades for their devices. I take personal responsibility regarding the upgrade to IOS8.3 as I trusted Apple and was/am still ignorant of how these systems work with one another. I refuse to purchase any device as a fix for this situation. I contacted Appareo and asked if the same thing could happen to the stratus II ($900 marvel of technology) and the answer was… yes the same thing could happen. I’m sure many of us will no be suspicious of upgrades. I applaud Bad Elf for offering the Pro+ at the greatly discounted rate but I’m not buying. I hope this issue can be resolved soon.
Hi all, thanks for the comments. Some replies below…
Jeff — correct, WingX is working around the issue by using the Dual SDK. They already had support for that since they support Dual’s ADS-B receiver. While at Sun ‘n Fun I spoke with several app developers (including Hilton/WingX) about using our SDK to work around the issue. I can’t speak for any of those developers, but we will support their plans and possible workarounds ASAP.
Fred — please read the last 3-4 blog posts on our website re: the iOS 8.3 issue affecting GPS receivers like ours, and get in touch via support@bad-elf.com if you have any unanswered questions.
Pierre/Dan/Aerosteve — yes, the 2.70 GLO firmware brings their unit up to the same level as our GPS Pro+ and GPS for Lightning dongle. Now, these 3 units are unaffected by the iOS 8.3 bug when used with newer Lightning-based iOS devices. However, NONE of them work with 30-pin iOS devices running iOS 8.3. This was not a new/recent GLO firmware release from Garmin — it was released on Feb 25, 2015.
But, it’s a good question: can we do a firmware upgrade for our 30-pin dongle (-1000) and Bad Elf GPS Pro (-2200) to at least enable them to work with Lightning-based iOS devices running iOS 8.3?
1. For the 30-pin dongle, the answer is simple: NO, because 30-pin accessories cannot use the newer (working) accessory protocol. Only Apple can fix the issue with the older protocol and restore functionality to 30-pin devices/accessories.
2. For the GPS Pro (-2200), we CAN do a firmware update, but we have to complete the MFi product review process for this new configuration. This takes 4-5 weeks minimum and multiple 3rd parties are involved. We’ve already started the process, but are hopeful Apple will release a fix before this new firmware update is ready.
We are very frustrated with this issue, and are moving forward on several paths to work around it. I hope to have some positive updates later this week.
Upgraded to 8.3 and no issues using my DUAL gps on Wingx
My bad elf will not work with the new apple ios 8.3 up date. Help
If Garmin managed to make GLO work with 8.3 with their latest firmware update (2.70)…
Perhaps the solution to this whole mess reside in Bad Elf & Dual adapting also their firmware to Apple’s new standards…