iOS 8.3 Update and Bad Elf Issues

“Reports came in last week that there were issues post iOS 8.3 update.  Our engineers investigated and were able to determine that there are some underlying problems with this update. External receivers regardless of manufacturer using an older accessory protocol are not passing data forward correctly.

Specifically this protocol is used by all 30 pin devices on Apple side (i.e. iPad2, ipod4, iPhone 4) and by the BE-GPS-1000 (direct connect 30 pin) and the BE-GPS-2200 (Pro) from ours.”

I will post information about the solution to this issue as soon as it becomes available to me.

Update (09-June):  During Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote yesterday, Apple announced several new services that will be included in iOS 8.4 and available by June 30th.  This release is expected to fix the open iOS bugs affecting external GPS receiver accessories. Although we had hoped for a 8.3.1 update or 8.4 release to launch much sooner than this, at least we now have a firm date.

Update (28-April): Apple released an iOS 8.4 beta 2 update to developers and beta testers yesterday.  Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality requirements of these programs, we’re not allowed to disclose any non-public information about this beta software — including how it affects the iOS 8.3 bug affecting external GPS receivers like ours.

Several sources including iLounge and MacRumors have posted articles about this release.

Update (Monday 27-April):  Good news. According to https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-8.4/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40015246-CH1-SW3   The Bluetooth GPS issue is fixed in the 8.4 beta 2 update.  Now, the question is… When will it be release

Update (Saturday 25-April):  As of this morning, we still don’t have any official updates re: the iOS 8.3 issue with external GPS receivers.  As we’ve said before: please do not upgrade to iOS 8.3 if possible! We have heard rumors the issue has been fixed internally by Apple, but don’t know when this fix will be released to the public.  We’re hoping for a 8.3.1 release, although it could also be released as part of the iOS 8.4 beta program.

Update (Thursday 23-April):  Still no updates from Apple, so we don’t have much to report. We do know that the issue is being worked internally, and assume it will be fixed soon. Many commercial and military pilots are being affected by this issue.  We will post any updates we get ASAP via the blog, email, and Twitter. Thanks for your patience.

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.