Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
It's no longer a secret that Google Maps is the go-to replacement for Apple Maps, as many iPhone users turn to this application for things like offline maps and satellite navigation.
On the other hand, it's also not a secret that Google Maps sometimes misbehaves badly, causing all kinds of weird problems on Apple devices.
I've personally hit plenty of such problems lately, including sudden GPS signal errors and the application no longer being able to follow me on the map.
But the most recent problem on my iPhone (and then transferred to CarPlay) caused the smartphone to overheat, eventually leading to a massive battery drain. The first time I noticed the issue was in early May after installing version 6.65 (the bug might have been introduced in a previous release, but this is where I spotted the overheating).
The phone overheating started just a few minutes after launching Google Maps, leading to substantial drops in battery life. The same thing happened on CarPlay, despite the mobile device being connected to the head unit with a cable.
After a 30-minute trip for my daily commute from home to the office, I lost nearly 25 percent of my battery, once again, despite the phone being supposed to charge via a cable – my car only supports wired CarPlay anyway, so this is the only way to run the app.
I originally suspected a CarPlay glitch, but after disconnecting the phone and running Google Maps at the mobile device level, the overheating still occurred. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow users to downgrade to an earlier release, so I had to wait for Google to come up with a new Google Maps update to see if the navigation application was indeed the one to blame for the whole thing.
Running Waze or Apple Maps produced no overheating, both on the mobile device and on CarPlay, so all signs suggested that Google Maps was the one to blame for the whole thing.
A few hours ago, Google started the rollout of Google Maps 6.69, and as far as I can tell, the issue has finally been released. It's difficult to tell how many users encountered the same overheating problems, but I did come across occasional reports online suggesting I wasn’t the only one struggling with the error. On the other hand, Google has never acknowledged the glitch, and I couldn’t obtain confirmation from the company that a fix was in the works.
Fortunately, everything now appears to run problem, and instead of losing battery, my iPhone gets an extra charge whenever I run Google Maps on CarPlay for my daily commute. The new Google Maps version is available on the App Store, and if you configured your device to automatically install app updates, chances are the latest release is already installed.
I've personally hit plenty of such problems lately, including sudden GPS signal errors and the application no longer being able to follow me on the map.
But the most recent problem on my iPhone (and then transferred to CarPlay) caused the smartphone to overheat, eventually leading to a massive battery drain. The first time I noticed the issue was in early May after installing version 6.65 (the bug might have been introduced in a previous release, but this is where I spotted the overheating).
The phone overheating started just a few minutes after launching Google Maps, leading to substantial drops in battery life. The same thing happened on CarPlay, despite the mobile device being connected to the head unit with a cable.
After a 30-minute trip for my daily commute from home to the office, I lost nearly 25 percent of my battery, once again, despite the phone being supposed to charge via a cable – my car only supports wired CarPlay anyway, so this is the only way to run the app.
I originally suspected a CarPlay glitch, but after disconnecting the phone and running Google Maps at the mobile device level, the overheating still occurred. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow users to downgrade to an earlier release, so I had to wait for Google to come up with a new Google Maps update to see if the navigation application was indeed the one to blame for the whole thing.
Running Waze or Apple Maps produced no overheating, both on the mobile device and on CarPlay, so all signs suggested that Google Maps was the one to blame for the whole thing.
A few hours ago, Google started the rollout of Google Maps 6.69, and as far as I can tell, the issue has finally been released. It's difficult to tell how many users encountered the same overheating problems, but I did come across occasional reports online suggesting I wasn’t the only one struggling with the error. On the other hand, Google has never acknowledged the glitch, and I couldn’t obtain confirmation from the company that a fix was in the works.
Fortunately, everything now appears to run problem, and instead of losing battery, my iPhone gets an extra charge whenever I run Google Maps on CarPlay for my daily commute. The new Google Maps version is available on the App Store, and if you configured your device to automatically install app updates, chances are the latest release is already installed.
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