In this modern age of connectivity where personal data is considered a currency, security is of utmost importance for many users.

Users are growing ever more privacy-conscious, becoming more and more careful about the services they use and who’s watching.

OnePlus-7-Pro-Inline
OnePlus 7 Pro

It is therefore, alarming to discover that your device’s location services are, and remain active even when you are not using it.

This is the situation that a number of OnePlus users are finding themselves in. These OnePlus users are expressing concern over the always-on location (GPS) icon on their devices.

location icon is always on reddit
Source

Ive been noticing that since Today morning the location icon is showing up on my phone even when location vis turned off. I don’t know what’s causing this, usually the icon would show up only when an app was using location or when location was turned on. But now it’s just constantly there… Any ideas how to get rid of it or check which app is causing this.

Source

location icon always shows on at the notification bar despite the location is off .pls resolve the issue .
Source

A quick scroll through the community forum and you’ll come through threads like this, full of OnePlus users trying to figure out why their devices’ GPS stays on.

Some users even suggest that not using Shelf services like parking location could be the solution. But, as it turns out, this issue could have been caused by an update of the OnePlus launcher, at least according to user reports.

location icon reddit report oneplus always-on location
Source

Since 2 days ago after I updated the OP launcher and ever since then the location icon on the status bar is appearing even when the location is turned off.

And indeed, this issue is caused by a feature of the OnePlus launcher.

The culprit seems to be OnePlus’ proactive search agent dubbed OnePlus Scout. Some users note that you can get rid of this issue by disabling location access for OnePlus Scout.

The scout feature in OnePlus launcher introduced with the new update is causing this. You need to go to scout settings from launcher search bar and disable location from there…

oneplus always-on location issue fix
Source

This always-on location on OnePlus devices might be as a result of the OnePlus Scout trying to be on top of things so you don’t have to search for info when it is invoked. This might, therefor, be pretty harmless.

Of course, there is going to be conspiracy behind such trivial matters and maybe that is a good thing as a people on edge is a vigilant people.

Should any more info on this issue come to light, we shall be on hand to bring it to you so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb.

NOTE: We have these and many more OnePlus stories in our dedicated OnePlus section.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Clinton Madegwa
1110 Posts

A cybernaut grasping at all things tech. Lover of Android, Linux, and custom ROMS. A nerd, a writer, an avid reader.

Next article View Article

[Update: Aug. 14] Google Maps starred/saved places disappear issue on iOS still not fixed

New updates are being added to the bottom of the story… Original story (from April 26, 2019) follows: Google's popular mapping software Google Maps offers a navigation service that...
Aug 14, 2021 0 Min Read