Turning on location

The map can show where you are, follow you along a route, and tell you which way to turn. For that, your phone has to let this website use its location. Your location stays on your phone: the map only sends it if you choose to, in a problem report.

iPhoneiPhone with ChromeAndroidStill stuck?

iPhone or iPad (Safari)

There are three switches, and all three have to be on. Most trouble comes from the third: if you ever tapped Don’t Allow, Safari remembers it and stops asking.

  1. Location for the phone. Open Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services and turn Location Services on.
  2. Location for websites. On that same screen, scroll down to Safari Websites. Choose While Using the App (or Ask Next Time Or When I Share), and turn on Precise Location. Without Precise Location, the phone only shares a rough area, and the map will think you’re nowhere near the trails.
  3. Location for this site. Open the map in Safari. Tap the aA button (or the small page icon) at the left end of the address bar, then Website Settings › Location, and choose Allow or Ask.
    Or for every site at once: Settings › Apps › Safari › Location (on older iPhones, Settings › Safari › Location), and choose Ask or Allow.
  4. Try it. Reload the map and tap the locate button (the circle with a cross, at the top right). If the phone asks, tap Allow.
Using the map from its home-screen icon? It asks for location separately from Safari. If you once told it no, open the map in Safari, allow location there as above, then try the icon again. If the icon still won’t ask, remove it from the home screen and add it again: in Safari, tap Share › Add to Home Screen.

The names of these settings move around a little between iPhone updates; if a step doesn’t match what you see, look for the closest wording.

iPhone with Chrome (or another browser)

  1. Open Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services and make sure Location Services is on.
  2. On that screen, find Chrome (or your browser) in the list, choose While Using the App, and turn on Precise Location.
  3. Back in the browser, reload the map, tap the locate button, and tap Allow when asked.

Android (Chrome)

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen and make sure Location is on. In the phone’s Settings › Location, turn on Use precise location (or Google Location Accuracy) if you see it.
  2. In Chrome, open the map and tap the icon at the left end of the address bar, then Permissions › Location (or Site settings › Location), and choose Allow.
    Or: Chrome menu › Settings › Site settings › Location, and remove this site from the Blocked list.
  3. Reload the map, tap the locate button, and tap Allow when asked.

Still stuck?

Out in the woods, the first location can take a minute: give it time with a view of the sky. If it still won’t work, let us know what kind of phone you have and what you see: email us.

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