Troubleshooting

Fixes for the most common problems, by symptom.

App will not load past the splash

Force-quit and reopen. iOS keeps the splash visible for a moment while

the chart and services warm up.

If it still hangs, confirm the device has enough free storage — chart

tiles need room to decompress.

Permission prompts did not appear

Location is asked for twice — once on the first-run explainer, once when you

first drop the anchor — and each prompt appears only once. If you tapped Not

now, or Don't Allow in the iOS dialog, nothing will ask again. Set it

yourself:

Open the iOS Settings app → AnchorQueen.

Set Location to Always (While Using the App is enough for the

chart; the anchor watch needs Always).

Turn on Notifications and Background App Refresh.

Reopen AnchorQueen.

The same status is shown inside the app on the

Captain and Settings tabs.

The alarm did not arm

Drop the anchor first — tap Drop Anchor in

SafeAnchor → Anchor Watch. The watch arms

itself once the anchor commits; there is no separate Arm button.

Confirm the scope chip reads Alarm On — tapping it to Alarm Off

pauses the drag alarm while keeping the anchor and rings.

Run Test Alarm Sound in

Settings → Safe Anchor to confirm the

sound and volume.

Drop Anchor is stuck on "Locking GPS…"

After you tap Drop Anchor, the watch averages a few accurate fixes

before committing the anchor position — the button reads Locking GPS…

until it does. If it does not clear:

Move the device to a clear view of the sky; the gate waits for a tight

fix and a noisy position keeps it open.

Check Location precision is on (iOS *Settings → AnchorQueen →

Location → Precise Location*).

It clears on its own once the fixes converge — you do not need to retap.

Alarm did not fire after I closed the app

The Anchor Watch is designed to keep guarding even after iOS terminates

the app or you accidentally swipe it out of the multitasking switcher —

see Force-quit safety net. If you came back

to a dragged boat and no alarm sounded, walk through this list:

Always permission missing. Open iOS *Settings → AnchorQueen →

Location and confirm it is set to Always. While Using* is not

enough — iOS will not relaunch the app on a geofence crossing

without Always.

Notifications disabled. Settings → AnchorQueen → Notifications

must be on. For the strongest delivery keep Critical Alerts enabled

there too — a Critical Alert sounds even with the phone muted, the

ringer volume at zero, or a Focus active. With Critical Alerts off,

keep at least the Time Sensitive Notifications toggle enabled so the

alarm banner still pierces Focus and Sleep modes.

Phone muted / ringer volume down. With Critical Alerts enabled

(the default if you accepted the permission dialog) the drag alarm

ignores the mute switch and ringer volume — this is the setting to

check first if an alarm banner arrived silently. Without it, the

notification sound follows the ringer like any other app's.

Focus / Do Not Disturb. Drag alarms are sent as Critical Alerts

(or Time Sensitive when Critical Alerts are off), which break through

scheduled Focus and Sleep modes by default. If you have disabled both

for AnchorQueen, add the app to your Focus mode's allowed apps

instead. Note the siren itself is app audio — while the app is open

in the foreground it sounds regardless of Focus, the silent switch,

or ringer volume. With the app backgrounded or the screen locked, the

notification (and its 30-second repeats) is the audible channel;

opening the app resumes the siren.

Phone was offline / in Airplane mode. The geofence relies on

CoreLocation, which needs at least GPS. Airplane mode without

Bluetooth+Wi-Fi will defeat both watch layers — leave Airplane mode

off overnight at anchor.

Battery died. Check the device was on a charger; a phone that

shuts down cannot trigger an alarm.

If all of the above check out, file a report with the time and the

anchorage from the contact link below; we can pull the watch trail

from your iCloud session.

False alarms while properly anchored

The alarm radius is too small for your scope and normal swing. Increase

it and watch one tide cycle.

Switch GPS tracking to Moving Average in

Settings → Anchor Watch to smooth out

GPS jitter.

Extend gave me a smaller margin than expected

The Extend action has two sizes depending on where you tap it:

The full-screen in-app alert's Extend Safe Zone grows the radius by

+25% (or +25 m, whichever is larger).

The lock-screen / banner notification's Extend is a fixed +10 m.

Open the app and use the on-screen control for the larger jump. See

SafeAnchor → Drag alarm.

Grounding alarm keeps firing in a known-safe berth

It's reading shallow charted/NavGrid depth for a spot that's actually

fine at your draft. Tap Silence on the red banner to mute it for

30 minutes, or lower the safety margin in

Settings → Anchor Watch.

Dismiss (✕) only clears the current banner — it returns if the

water reads shallower. Use Silence for a known thin-water berth.

A live depth sounder (NMEA) overrides chart estimates and is the most

accurate source; see [instrument feed](#instrument-feed-lost).

When the water deepens again the alarm clears itself — the banner

switches to a brief "back in safe water" notice and disappears on its own

after about 10 seconds. A live alarm is never auto-hidden.

A traffic-scheme (TSS) alarm keeps firing

You are near a Traffic Separation Scheme:

An amber banner (approach / crossing angle) is advisory — review

which way the lane runs and aim to cross near a right angle. It clears once

you are past the scheme or on a good angle.

A red banner (wrong way / anchored in zone) is a COLREGS Rule 10

violation — alter course off the lane, or weigh anchor and move clear of

the separation zone.

To stop the alarms entirely (the chart layer stays on), turn off TSS

Alarms in Settings → Nav → Safety Alarms.

The 3D button is missing from the anchor watch

The 3D button beside the forecast clock appears only while a watch is

armed and the 3D feature is switched on for your app. If the anchor is set

and it still does not show, force-quit and reopen the app once so the

feature flags refresh, and make sure you are online — the 3D scene, like

Replay in 3D, needs a connection. If the scene

opens but the weather strip reads "not loaded", open the Meteo tab once

and come back. See Anchor watch in 3D.

Position looks jumpy or wrong

Keep the device where it has a clear view of the sky — under deck or

near tall structures GPS is weak.

Moving Average mode produces a steadier position than Real Time.

Boat is stuck in the wrong place

If the vessel sits at a spot you placed by hand — or will not follow your

real movement — Simulator Mode is probably still on. It overrides your

GPS app-wide until you turn it off. Either tap the ✕ on the chart's

Simulator panel, or switch it off in

Settings → Nav → Simulator Mode. Your compass

heading is never affected by Simulator Mode, so a correct heading with a

frozen position is the tell-tale sign.

Connected, but no Signal K position

A green connection proves that the WebSocket is open; it does not prove the

server has sent the boat's position. AnchorQueen draws the named vessel only

after a fresh, valid Signal K self navigation.position arrives.

Open Settings → NMEA and compare Feed Status, Connection, and

Position under Live Diagnostics. A connected row with no Position

isolates the problem to the data being published, not the network link.

Confirm the Signal K server's own-vessel identity (self) is set to your

boat and that its GPS source is publishing navigation.position.

Return to the chart and expand the GPS HUD. A valid fix adds the vessel

name, coordinate, HDG/COG/SOG, accuracy, and DEVICE↔SK separation. Tap

that row to fly to the boat.

To use it as the app's live position, switch on Signal K Position under

Signal K Stream, then tap Apply & Connect.

If the fix later becomes stale for 30 seconds, the app falls back to device

GPS. LIVE SK only describes the instrument feed; REC appears separately

and only while a Voyage is recording.

Instrument feed lost — switched to phone GPS

A red banner saying the instrument feed was lost means the anchor watch

stopped receiving fixes from your NMEA gateway or Bluetooth pod for 30 seconds

and fell back to the device's built-in GPS, so the watch keeps running. Common

causes:

The boat's Wi-Fi gateway lost power or you moved out of its range.

A wrong host or port in

Settings → NMEA. Open that screen and check the

Live Diagnostics — a Failed connection state names the reason. Compare

the endpoint with the model table in

Connect boat instruments.

NMEA over UDP is configured against a gateway that only broadcasts

datagrams. The app connects to a specific gateway address; use TCP if

your gateway supports it.

A Signal K server that stopped or restarted, or the wrong port — a Signal

K server usually listens on 3000, not 10110. The Activity Log on the

same screen names the exact event (Lost link, Connection failed, or a

retry countdown).

The server needs an access token and none was supplied. Signal K version 2

servers have security switched on by default: the connection is accepted and

then the data stream is refused. Create a token on the server under

Security → Access Requests and paste it into the Access Token field.

Use TLS (wss) is switched on for a server that only speaks plain

connections — the usual case on a boat network. Turn it off.

The phone dropped off the boat's Wi-Fi onto mobile data. The status line says

No answer when nothing responds inside eight seconds; check the Wi-Fi first.

The watch is still protecting you on phone GPS. Fix the link and the

Instruments badge returns to green on its own (auto-reconnect is on by

default).

Gateway connects, but AIS vessels do not appear

The current release can connect to NMEA TCP/UDP equipment and read supported

GPS, heading, speed, depth, wind, and water-temperature sentences, but it does

not yet decode direct NMEA 0183 VDM/VDO AIS sentences. Signal K AIS and

the chart's internet AIS sources remain supported.

If you have Signal K, select Signal K, enable Stream Other Vessels

(AIS), and reconnect.

If you connected B&G GoFree, Vesper, Garmin Signal VHF, em-trak, Actisense,

Yacht Devices, or Digital Yacht directly, instrument values may work while

local AIS remains absent. This is expected until the direct-AIS decoder

ships.

Do not change ports repeatedly when Connection is green and Last

Sentence is updating; that proves the network path is alive.

See the status and device-specific limitations in

Connect boat instruments.

Battery draining overnight

An armed watch, a voyage recording and active navigation all keep the GPS

running in the background, and continued use of GPS running in the background

can dramatically decrease battery life. To limit the drain:

Use Balanced power consumption in

Settings → Anchor Watch.

Turn off the radar pulse animation in the same sheet.

Keep the device on a charger for long overnight watches.

Do not disable Background App Refresh — that stops monitoring without

meaningful battery savings.

AIS ships vanish for a moment after panning

The feed re-subscribes to the new area each time the chart settles after a

pan or zoom. Ships already on screen now stay put and refresh in place, so

you should no longer see the whole fleet blink off and reappear.

A brief gap is still normal the first time you move into a fresh area, or

when the connection re-establishes — the ships return within a second or two.

If the chart stays empty, check that AIS is enabled in the chart's

layer panel and that you have a network connection;

the live feed needs one.

No AIS ships at all, or "Shared key full"

Live traffic comes from aisstream.io over a key built into the app and shared

by every copy of AnchorQueen. aisstream.io allows only three connections per

account at a time, so when the shared key's three are taken the service turns

new connections away — no ships appear, and the AIS row in

Chart Layers → AIS reads Shared key full in amber.

Fix it for good: open Chart Layers → AIS → Your own AIS key and add

a free aisstream.io key of your own (you need a GitHub account to get one).

Full walkthrough in Using your own AIS key. You

then have three connections nobody else is using, and the shared key's

traffic stops affecting you.

Or wait it out: the app tries again on its own every ten minutes.

Own key, and the row says "your key is full": all three of your

connections are taken — another device on the same key, or a connection

that dropped without closing and that aisstream.io has not released yet.

Close AnchorQueen on your other devices and give it a while; dropped

connections are released slowly. AnchorQueen itself closes its connection

properly whenever you leave the app, so its own slot comes straight back.

Nothing else is affected. Charts, the anchor watch, your tracks and routes

do not depend on this feed.

Auto Route says there are no depth charts

Route planning reads the depth grid inside a chart region, so it needs one

installed for the water you are planning in.

The message "No depth charts for this area — download a chart region to

plan routes" comes with a Get Charts button — it opens

Store → Charts at the region list. The chart's

Charts button shows the region covering

where you are looking.

Already installed a region? Check

Settings → Installed Regions. "Depth data

missing from this chart region" or "Chart region couldn't be

opened" under a row means the download is incomplete or damaged —

reinstall that region.

"Chart subscription expired" is a different message with a different

fix — see When a chart subscription expires.

Full detail: [When no chart region covers this

water](chart.html#no-chart-region).

Chart will not load offline

The area is outside any installed chart region.

Install the matching region from the Store before you sail.

Alternatively, cache tiles for the area in advance from the chart's

Cache sheet — see Chart → Offline tiles.

Features behave oddly offline

AnchorQueen runs the anchor watch and the chart offline. Some tabs need

a connection:

Meteo — weather and tides need to be fetched; the

last values are kept until you reconnect.

Jules — new questions need a connection; Saved Reports

stay readable.

Remote and connected Store

features pause when offline and resume automatically when you reconnect.

This manual is fully offline and always available.

A purchase did not unlock

In the Store, tap Restore Purchases.

Confirm you are signed in with the same Apple ID used to buy.

If the issue persists, sign out and back in on the

Captain tab.

No free trial appears at checkout

This is expected — no plan currently carries an introductory trial, so the

subscribe button reads Start Pro / Start Max (with Cancel anytime)

rather than Try N days Free. See Store.

Wind, Waves or Tide graphs are locked

During Active Navigation, only the Depth

graph is free. Wind, Waves, and Tide are a PRO forecast

feature and show a locked upsell on the free tier — unlock them in the

Store. The same applies to the Meteogram's

3-day and 7-day ranges.

SafeAnchor → History shows a lock

History is part of Pro, Max and Remote. On a Free account the pill

carries a lock and the sub-mode shows a single card with your diary counts

and Start Pro / See Max and yearly plans;

your anchorages are still being recorded and still appear as badges on the

Anchor Watch chart and in the Past Anchorages rail. If you do subscribe and

the lock stays: open Store → Subscriptions → Restore Purchases, and make

sure you are signed in to the account that bought the plan — charts and

plans follow the account, not the device (see [A purchase did not

unlock](#purchase)). The screen unlocks by itself once the entitlement lands.

The Merconi fishing layer is empty

The Merconi fishing heatmap streams live tiles:

It needs a configured GFW token; without one the panel shows an

API Key Required state.

With a token, check you are zoomed in to a covered area, the time window

is not too short, and you have a network connection.

The marine-life and ocean-data layers are also live services — on an

un-cached region with no network they come back empty.

"Rent a boat" shows no boats

The charter sheet lists only boats whose

charter base is genuinely near the place you tapped — within about 5 km

of a marina, 15 km of an anchorage. If it comes back empty:

There is no charter base in range. Common outside the main charter

grounds. Use Search Boataround ▸ to see the wider area.

Your dates are the problem. A fully booked week returns nothing.

Shift Pick-up / Return by a week and look again.

A category chip is on. All is the honest view; a single category can

legitimately be empty at a small base.

No network. The list comes from our server, which asks the partner.

Offline you get the last answer for that place if it is still fresh, and

nothing otherwise.

The capsule is missing entirely. It is hidden while the anchor alarm

is sounding, while a drift warning is up, and whenever you are making way

at more than 2 knots — and it never appears on marks that are not a

marina, harbour or anchorage.

Jules cannot see my chart

When you ask Jules to look at my chart, the chart

screen must be open — the capture tool errors otherwise. Switch to the

SeaTracker, Capt's Notebook, or Merconi tab and ask again. Route planning

likewise needs the covering chart region installed.

Jules stopped before finishing

On a request that needs many steps at once — look up several places, plan a

route, and move the chart — Jules could previously stop partway

through without finishing his reply. This is fixed: he now completes long

multi-step requests, and if one is genuinely enormous he wraps up with a

short summary instead of going quiet. If a reply still ends early, it is

almost always connectivity — check your signal and ask again (see

[Features behave oddly offline](#offline)).

Where is Backup & Sync?

It is not under the Settings Data tab. Open

Settings → Safe Anchor → Backup & Sync.

How do I sign out?

There is no Sign Out on the Captain's Dashboard. Tap the pencil to open

Edit Profile; Sign Out is at the bottom. AnchorQueen has no in-app

password change or two-factor setup — accounts use Apple, Google, or the

sign-in screen's Forgot Password reset. See Captain.

How do I delete a saved pin?

The Pin Carousel pills have no delete control. Tap the count badge at

the leading edge to open the Pin Manager, then swipe a row, or use

Edit to multi-select and delete. The carousel also re-sorts

nearest-first as you pan — that reordering is normal. See

Capt's Notebook.

Still stuck?

Note your Version and build number from

Settings → App Info and contact support through

the AnchorQueen website.