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.
For those of us whom just purchased an iPad, which has IOS 8.3 already installed, installed ForeFlight and purchased a new BE 2200 Pro only to find out that it does not seem to work with ForeFlight is less than disappointing to say the least. Position data (LAT LONG, SATS etc) seem to be updating using the BE iPad utility when viewed on the GPS view but position fixes are not shown on the map.
So at the moment I have TWO $150 paper weights with respect to the intended use of in-flight navigation.
Arrived here after an hour of messing around and head scratching. Not a happy camper with Apple at the moment!
When I tethered my phone to my iPad (mini) and let it get internet access, it seemed to pick up the GPS. I can’t say for sure that it was using the Bad Elf or the data coming from the phone, but all was well in the world.
Probably alright for those of us that fly helicopters… (or low flying aeroplanes), but may get somewhat frustrating at 30,000ft and / or overseas where the 3G / 4G coverage may be spotty or nonexistant.
Heres hoping we get an update most ricky-tick.
Does the current iOS 8.4 Beta 2 resolve this issue?
The changelog says they fixed something with respect to third-party GPS devices:
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/27/ios-8-4-beta-2/
My husband and I travel full time in a Motorhome. I use the Bad Elf to connect to my iPad and Google maps for traveling.
I was wondering what the problem was…as it wasn’t working.
I hope that you can resolve this issue.
I was really enjoying using this device.
Because of this mistake, I had to buy a new Ipad mini with internal GPS for navigate my Piper Seminole