to not be able to find places wit google maps? A cheapish sat nav?

[Ceci03]

So another totally stressful morning trying to get DS to his football match. I studied the route before I went, I wrote it all out from google maps. I had my phone. But still got totally lost and in the end had to abandon the match and come home.

I feel like such an effing failure. Google maps always glitches on my phone when it's in the car. There was a sat nav in the car but it's not working. I need to 'up my game and get sorted. I seem to be the only person who cant find the football games :( I'm so stressed about it. I've looked up sat navs but they seem so dear, so I'm wondering is anyone like me, useless at directions, who has gotten one that works?

It's got to the point where I'm thinking I will go and suss out the away games the day before. It was nearly an hour's drive away, (each way) but I can't risk not finding the match again.

Have you got your location or GPS turned off?

I have quite a basic phone and use Google maps all the time and never have any problems.

Or if you use Waze and have the map downloaded, you don't even need to use data if you don't have it, because it works off the map and your phone's GPS.

download the route before setting off so it won't glitch

Sadly only way.
I've had good-enough experiences with built-in car satnav, bad experiences with independent devices (eg. TomTom) and best experiences with Google Maps. I don't get reception in half the places I go.

@GrandDesignHouse

1. Why not get a paper map (can your son map read?)

1. Why not pull over and stop, then recalculate from where you are.

1. Why not do a couple of trial runs?

1. Can you update the SatNav in your car. (I recently had to do this, having experienced exactly the same problem as you).

You aren’t an effing failure, but there are lots of positive actions you can take.

1. I've just bought a paper map, I'll try and teach him, he will probably be better than me as I am a bit hopeless at knowing which way round it should be.

1. Yep have done that LOADS AND LOADS of times, pulled over. Often it says I'm somewhere I'm not though - usually somewhere I've come from and it tries to tell me to go through roundabouts etc that I've already gone through ages ago.

1. Yeah that's my next plan. This place was over an hour away though and just the petrol and time it would take, but yeah, this is my next plan.

1. Yeah would a garage do that for me would you say.

I always download the route before I go, but the trouble happens when I go wrong. Then I cant work out where I am.

I didn't go to the match as I was so mortified. It happened last year, I was about 45 mins late, as I just couldnt find it. Everyone was laughing at me. It is funny, but it isnt. IUKWIM

I'm struggling to understand this. I've been using Google maps as my Sat nav for years. I bought a cradle for it so I can see the map and my progress among the route as well as listening to the voice. And I've never had any problems. I don't download it first, I don't write anything down (that would just confuse me). Just put in the destination, press start and go.

Did you have the postcode for the location? Do you have anyone who could go for a short drive with you and ensure that you're using it in the best way?

@saraclara

I'm struggling to understand this. I've been using Google maps as my Sat nav for years. I bought a cradle for it so I can see the map and my progress among the route as well as listening to the voice. And I've never had any problems. I don't download it first, I don't write anything down (that would just confuse me). Just put in the destination, press start and go.

Did you have the postcode for the location? Do you have anyone who could go for a short drive with you and ensure that you're using it in the best way?

I agree with this- I just get in the car, put in the post code and press start. I drive in lots of rural, out of network areas and it works fine.

Is it a really old phone? Do you have enough data?

Another vote for Waze here too

Waze here too, I prefer on over my inbuilt Sat Nav because I can often get their quicker via a faster route. I use use Waze via car play so it's on my car screen. Waze constantly re-calculates and is good at detecting traffic jams etc

Definitely use the Google map app. Are you actually going through your browser? that's a recipe for disaster.

Download your local area map before you start.

Go through the directions virtually in Streetview before you go.

@saraclara

I'm struggling to understand this. I've been using Google maps as my Sat nav for years. I bought a cradle for it so I can see the map and my progress among the route as well as listening to the voice. And I've never had any problems. I don't download it first, I don't write anything down (that would just confuse me). Just put in the destination, press start and go.

Did you have the postcode for the location? Do you have anyone who could go for a short drive with you and ensure that you're using it in the best way?

Yes I don't know. I wish it would work properly.

I've done everything I can think of to get it to work.

My son wondered would it be anything to do with it 'clashing' with the sat nav in the car?

I've allowed location, I use the app not the browser, I just don't know.

I have the 'maps' icon on my iphone. Is that different to google maps. I never use it. Is that my mistake.

With the car sat nav I never had any problem

Oh god, are you using Apple Maps? Download Google Maps immediately!

If you're driving an hour each way the day before, as well as on the day, then before long you're going to spend as much in petrol as you would have spent on a sat nav.

@MaryMcCarthy yeah that's what I thought as well.

No I never used the 'maps' app, only google maps in the App. Just saw it on my phone and wondered what it was lol

Defo get a phone cradle too, it’s always much harder if someone is holding it for you.

I tend to memorise a route before I go out, but Google Maps can be very helpful for the very last section of a route. But I think sometimes it just can't cope, and it might be that a lot of football match venues fall into that category. Years ago my son had a race at an athletics stadium in Milton Keynes and I could tell before we went that the route would go haywire. And it did. Fortunately there was a small shopping centre nearby so we parked there and walked. That's probably the best thing to do if you can't find a pitch. You should also be given directions, though, and if not, you can also download those from Google Maps.

Download HERE Maps to your phone. Can download the whole of england so no need for signal.

HERE make the maps in BMW, AUDI, Mercedes and are owned by them too.

Name of the app is Herewego

well i downloaded Waze and it's pants....even with the volume set to max in the app and onmy phone I can barely hear him...google lady is soooo loud she make my phone rattle at same volume settings.

And it's like someone with no grasp of english is reading the directions, even I could not work out what he meant when he was says Arbroath, and it does that idiot thing that says "A" as a sound not as a letter name, so when he says A92 it's not ay, it's "uh".

So uninstalled!

THanks everyone I downloaded Waze last night and used it to bring ds home from training. It was the same problem. It just didn't 'update'. It started giving instructions for roundabouts that we were way past.

I think I worked out it's a GPS problem. Not sure if that is my phone or what's going on. Could it be 'fighting' with the sat nav already installed in the car? As I used google maps when I'm out walking and stuff and it works fine.

Honestly it sounds like your 3G just isn't working quickly enough to keep up when you're driving.

I agree it sounds like a problem getting a good GPS signal. It could either be a problem with the phone’s GPS or a problem getting a GPS signal in the car. If you can, try using Google Maps/Waze on a different phone in your car and if that’s fine you can rule out the car causing the problem. Make sure your phone is on the latest iOS version and as a last resort try a factory reset. Failing that it sounds like a new phone.

@mumsiedarlingrevolta

I also came on to this thread to suggest Waze.

Also-put it on boyband voice setting. DD and I laughed for 2 hours
we are easily amused

Ooh I didn't know it was possible to change the voice...

OP I don't get on with Google maps either. I use Waze all the time. You can put the details in before and look at the different route options. It is way better for alerting traffic issues than Google maps

@Neilsfavouritechilli

Another vote for Waze, its free and its brilliant.

It won't be brilliant on 3G.

OP, you need to get with the 21st century and upgrade your phone! Or buy a sat nav.

What sort of phone do you have? Sometimes you can change the accuracy of location services and also calibrate the phone so that it can tell it's own direction better.

E.g. in my phone I can switch "Google location accuracy" on - see screenshot. In an old phone I could change location accuracy to "high" if I wanted.

I have 4G not 3G

I checked it