I am on a cruise with my family. We are currently somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean. I am using Starlink internet. When I use Google Maps it says I am in Hamburg.
How do I fix that?
In addition, my phone is in airplane mode with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled. Dunno if that makes a difference.
GPS should still work in airplane mode. You could check how many GPS satellites you are receiving. I use Physics Toolbox to do that.
Download offline maps for the area you’re in, then disable wifi and enable location services.
My assumption is that your wifi is using a relay or an ip address that is typically found in Hamburg.
Since I am somewhere on the ocean I don’t think this is possible.
Two days ago, I used my Android phone in airplane mode, while on an airplane, to watch the approach of our flight over water toward the airport.
It does this entirely by default, no fiddling or special settings required. I would expect your phone to do the same.
I do this too. GPS is not disabled by Airplane Mode.
You should be able to manually move maps to your approximate location, download the map, then turn off WiFi and just use GPS.
You should also be able to accomplish this by going into Settings->Location Services and disabling WiFi and BT – although you’ll want to enable them when you’re back on land. I think this should just use GPS for location, but still pull map data from WiFi. I haven’t verified this though.
It is absolutely possible, per CaveMike’s advice. I assume you set sail from a known port with a known destination, so you should have some idea of the area you are in. Zoom out until you are very sure it will cover your area, then download the map for it over wi-fi. Then use the steps that CaveMike mentioned to make sure location services is only using GPS and not Wifi.
Where exactly are you in/on the ship when this is happening? Big ships are made of pretty much entirely steel plate, which is effective at blocking the extremely weak GPS signals. Outside on an upper deck with a full view of the sky should work, and probably exterior balconies as well. Anywhere on the interior and you can pretty much forget it.
I routinely use GPS on airplanes with my phone in airplane mode, but it’s slow to connect to the satellites unless I hold the phone near a window. I think the two most important points are to get the phone out of the big floating Faraday cage (that is, use it on an upper deck), and turn off wifi so it’s not using the wifi access point as a location clue.
I don’t think there’s any need to turn WiFi off, just make sure you have a good GPS signal, and Google Maps will use it to override location information from your IP address or WiFi location.
If you’re out on deck the map may initially have the wrong position, and then when GPS gets a fix it will move to your actual position. When I’m on an airplane or somewhere else with a poor GPS signal I’ll open my GPS app and wait for it to get a fix, and then go look at maps.
GPS is receive only, so it shouldn’t be turned off by airplane mode.
This worked.
I did as suggested and, as others mentioned, I went outside to the top of the ship (outside) and got a clear signal and it worked well.
I hope I remember all the steps to reverse this once I get home (I’m sure I’ll manage).
Thanks to all for the advice!
I’m glad it worked. I’m picturing you at the bow of the ship with your arms out wide ala DiCaprio and Winslet – just trying to get a good signal.