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

Open the iOS Settings app → AnchorQueen.

Set Location to 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

The anchor must be set first — see

SafeAnchor → Anchor Watch.

Confirm the badge reads Armed.

Run Test Alarm in

Settings → Anchor Watch to confirm the

sound and volume.

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, and the Time Sensitive Notifications toggle must be

enabled so the alarm banner pierces Focus and Sleep modes.

Focus / Do Not Disturb. Drag alarms are sent as Time Sensitive

notifications, which break through scheduled Focus and Sleep modes by

default. If you have disabled Time Sensitive delivery 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 Time Sensitive

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.

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.

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.

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 → Anchor Watch → Instruments. Open

that screen and check the Live Diagnostics — a Failed connection state

names the reason.

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.

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).

Battery draining overnight

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.

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.

Still stuck?

Note your Version and build number from

Settings → App Info and contact support through

the AnchorQueen website.