Pokémon Go: How to fix “we’re not detecting your phone’s orientation” and other bugs

Curtis Moldrich Read more July 13, 2016

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Pokémon Go is out in the US now, and also available in the UK if you’re prepared to tinker a bit. Although catching Pokémon is always fun – even if it’s on a blurry LCD screen – one of the best things about Pokémon Go is its clever use of augmented reality (AR). Essentially, this allows Pokémon to walk the streets, and uses your phone’s camera to superimpose them on the real world.

However, it doesn’t appear to work on all phones, so many people are reporting an error that reads “we’re not detecting your phone’s orientation”. Annoyingly that error means it’s not possible to play the game in AR mode – which is easily one of the best things about the game, but there are a few fixes that might help. There’s also an error that forces you to login everytime you open the app, and we’ve got a fix for that, too.

1. You’re using iOS 10

If you’ve have an iPhone and you’re always keen to stay at the forefront of new technology, you’ve probably downloaded iOS 10. Unfortunately, that isn’t great for your Pokémon Go career. Many people with iOS 10 have reported the same AR issue, while it appears to be pretty much non-existent on iPhones running the normal, stable iOS 9 operating system. If you’re using iOS 10 and really want to use the AR feature of Pokémon Go, it’s probably worth rolling back to iOS 9.

2. Your phone might not have a gyro sensor

okémon Go needs to know the orientation of your phone, so it can map Pokémon onto the real world. However, to do this your phone will need to have a gyroscope, and if it’s a budget handset or a few years old, it might not. If you’re so desperate to play Pokémon Go that you’re prepared to buy a new phone, then why not check out our best smartphones of 2016 here.

3. Update the Pokémon Go app

Pokémon Go is still relatively new, and that means a lot of problems could be fixed in an app update. However, if you’re in the UK and you’ve already used our guides to download Pokémon Go, you’ll soon find the US app doesn’t update automatically.

To update Pokémon Go on your iPhone, you’ll need sign back into the US-based Apple ID you made to download the game, and then to go the App Store and Updates. If there’s a newer version of Pokémon Go, it will appear here, and once it’s downloaded, just sign back into your usual account. Although updating the app didn’t fix the issue for me – as I also have iOS 10 – it did stop me having to log in every time I wanted to play the game.

Now Pokémon Go is available on the UK App Store, your best bet is to delete the US app and download the UK one. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll find all your Pokemon and items restored. Now you’re using the offical UK version of Pokémon Go you’ll find it updates automatically too.

On Android, the process is relatively painless. Now the app is available on the UK Google Play Store, the original APK you downloaded should automatically update if you have automatic updates switched on.