Fix a Qibla compass that is not working

First decide which of these is wrong: the starting place, the bearing number, the live arrow or the map. The number comes from your selected point and needs no sensor. Only the live arrow depends on your phone's heading.

The bearing number shows the starting direction of the shortest route over a spherical Earth, measured clockwise from true north. In North-up view, the arrow shows that bearing with north at the top of the screen and stays still when you turn. This is expected. A still arrow does not mean your phone is facing the Qibla.

Common signs of a heading problem include:

• You selected Enable live compass and the status shows no usable reading.
• The arrow jumps or drifts while the phone rests still.

If the number changes after you pick a different place, that is expected.

These are suggested checks. Neither this table nor the symptom chooser above tests your device.

You can get a bearing straight away without sharing your device location. You may see one of these messages:

• “Location permission is off. Search for a city or enter coordinates instead.”
• “Your device could not determine its location. Choose a city, enter coordinates or try again.”
• “Location took too long. Choose a city, enter coordinates or try again.”

1. Choose a place yourself. Type in Search city presets and pick a suggestion. Alternatively, open Enter coordinates instead and type a decimal Latitude and Longitude, such as 43.6532 and -79.3832. Then select Find my Qibla. A city preset is a fixed, approximate city centre, not your building. If your city is not in the list, its coordinates still work. You can try the finder with manual coordinates.
2. Review the permission. Check this site's location setting in your browser. Also check any separate location setting on your phone or computer. If the page opened inside another app, open it in a normal browser tab instead. Browsers offer location only on secure pages, and policy settings can block it. Menu names vary between browsers.
3. Try again if you want to. Each press of Use my location makes one position request, and the finder does not keep tracking you. A later attempt may give a different result if conditions change. Allowing permission or trying again does not guarantee a more accurate result.

With a position, the browser also reports an uncertainty in metres. This is a radius at a 95% confidence level around where you might be. It is not the number of degrees the arrow might be off. A value you type in Position uncertainty (metres, optional) is your own estimate. A blank field does not mean the position is exact. Read more about what location accuracy means.

Why is the compass not working when the location is fine? Location permission does not cover the live arrow. Start with three checks: compass permission, a usable heading from the device and a suitable phone position. Any one of these can stop the arrow. Live alignment also needs a valid magnetic correction for your place and date, as explained under different result. A valid bearing number works without any of them.

1. Turn on the live compass. Select Enable live compass. If your browser asks for motion or orientation access, it asks only after you tap something on the page. The message “Compass permission is off. Continue with the bearing or map.” means the request was declined. You can change this in your browser settings.
2. Check whether a heading is available. Many desktop computers, and some phones and browsers, cannot provide a heading measured from north. In that case you will see “This browser does not provide a phone compass. Use the true-north bearing and map.” or “No usable compass reading arrived. This device may lack a supported sensor; use the bearing or map.” Some devices report only how far they have turned from an unknown starting direction. The finder does not treat that as true north, so it shows no live alignment rather than guessing.
3. Read the status, not the arrow. While the compass is off, the finder notes: “Compass off. The arrow is a north-up bearing, not a live device heading.” A still arrow never confirms that your phone faces the Qibla.

You can find the direction without a phone compass. Get the bearing from a city or coordinates. Then line it up using a map or a trusted true-north reference. The step-by-step guide shows how to use a map or separate compass.

Live guidance appears only when two conditions are met. The phone must lie flat or nearly level, with the front-to-back tilt and the side-to-side tilt each within about 5°. The screen must also be in normal portrait orientation. Small tilts within that range are fine.

• Do rest the phone face up on your palm or a table, as you would hold a map.
• Do turn slowly, keeping the phone level as you turn.
• Don't stand the phone up in front of you. Portrait describes the screen layout, not a phone held upright.
• Don't use landscape. Live alignment pauses in landscape and when the phone tilts beyond that range. The finder then shows “Use portrait and hold level”.

If the status keeps asking you to hold the phone level, use the bearing number with a map instead.

Why does the Qibla direction keep changing? The calculated bearing changes only when the selected point changes. If the number stays the same but the live arrow swings, the cause is one of three things:

• the phone's heading
• the way you are holding the phone
• something nearby disturbing its magnetic sensor

Some movement is normal while you turn. Look further if the arrow jumps while the phone rests still, or if each room gives a different reading. Keep the same selected point, then work through this list:

• Rest the phone flat on a steady surface that is not metal, with the screen in portrait.
• Remove any magnetic case or mount, and keep wallets with magnetic clasps away from the phone.
• Move away from speakers, computers, appliances, vehicles, and large metal objects such as steel beams, radiators or metal furniture.
• Compare readings in a few spots, each a few steps apart. If they still disagree widely, rely on the bearing and a map.

A note on calibration. If your phone maker gives calibration instructions, follow them. This site does not calibrate sensors. No single movement fixes every phone, and none can add a missing sensor. The finder uses a magnetic model of Earth's main magnetic field. It cannot remove local disturbance from metal or electronics. A second compass app on the same phone reads the same sensor, so it can repeat the same error.

If the arrow still won't settle, select Stop compass. Then use the number with a map or a separate compass.

Compare results fairly by checking three things in order: the starting place, the north reference, then the map and special locations.

1. Check the place. Read the origin label and the coordinates shown with the result. Several mistakes can move the starting point a long way: a similar place name in another country, a missing minus sign, or latitude and longitude typed into the wrong fields. For example, Toronto's longitude is -79.3832. Without the minus sign, the point lands in Asia. A city preset is an approximate city centre, so it can differ slightly from your building.
2. Check the north reference. The bearing is measured clockwise from true north. A magnetic compass points to magnetic north. The angle between the two is the magnetic declination, which depends on your location and the date. The live compass treats your phone's heading as magnetic and corrects it once: true heading = magnetic heading + declination, with east declination counted as positive. This finder's built-in WMM2025 model runs from 1 January 2025 until 13 November 2029, 03:00 UTC. That end date is slightly earlier than the general end date NOAA publishes for the model. Outside that window, or where the horizontal magnetic field is too weak, the finder cannot correct the heading, so no live true-north alignment is shown. If the phone is otherwise giving a usable, level reading, you may see “A valid magnetic correction is unavailable here. No live true-north alignment is shown.” This is separate from the pose pause and from the places where no bearing is shown at all. If your point has a valid bearing, the number and North-up view remain usable with another north reference.
3. Using a separate compass? If it reads magnetic north and has not been adjusted, aim for the bearing minus the declination. Then add or subtract 360° if needed to keep the result between 0° and 360°. If the compass is already set to true north, use the bearing exactly as shown. Make only one conversion. Hypothetical example: suppose the true bearing is 60° and the declination is 10° west (−10°). An unadjusted magnetic compass should then read 60 − (−10) = 70°.
4. Check the map and special places. On common flat maps such as Web Mercator, the shortest route over the globe can look curved. A straight line drawn across the screen may therefore point in a different direction. Compare the starting direction at the same origin. The finder shows no bearing near the target reference point, or near the point directly opposite it on the globe. Near means within 25 metres or within the supplied position uncertainty, whichever is larger. The finder also shows no bearing at a geographic pole. These are calculation limits, not religious boundaries.

The target reference is 21.4225241, 39.8261818. It is a published reference point that falls inside the mapped Kaaba footprint. This site has not surveyed the point independently. Another app may use a different point, model or north reference, so small differences between apps are possible. You can understand north references and model limits in more detail.

Which Qibla compass is most accurate? No tool can promise a perfect result. Accuracy depends on a correct starting point and a heading reference you can trust. Compare your result with something you can check independently, such as a known true-north line. Another app on the same phone is not an independent check.

Is the finder opening on a place you did not choose? Read the origin label first. The starting point can come from three sources, and the finder checks them in this order:

1. Shared link. A city or coordinates in a shared link load first. If the link is malformed, the finder shows an error such as “This shared link needs one latitude and one longitude. Choose a location below.” It does not load older numbers instead.
2. City page. A city page starts the finder at the approximate centre of that city. It does not save the city or tick Remember.
3. Saved location. A remembered point is restored only on the ordinary homepage.

Remember this location on this device is off when you first use the finder. If you ticked it on an earlier visit, it can come back already ticked. Reset finder and Clear saved location do different things:

• Reset finder clears the active point but keeps the stored one.
• Clear saved location, or unticking Remember, removes the stored point when your browser allows it.

If you see “This browser could not remove the saved location. Clear this site’s data in browser settings.”, follow that instruction. Clearing site data does not recall links you have sent. It also does not erase your browser history or copies kept elsewhere.

A coordinate link contains the coordinates, the label and any uncertainty you supplied. A city link contains only the city name and country. Anyone who receives either link can see its contents. So can your browser history and the sharing service. If a city-level reference is enough, select a city preset and use Share city instead. The recipient then sees an approximate city centre, not your precise position.

Once the origin label shows the place you want, use the bearing for that place. You can use it with a map or a separate compass.

The bearing does not need the map. Map tiles load only after you select Open map. They come from an external OpenStreetMap tile service, which receives your IP address and the area you view. Content blockers, a weak connection or network filters can stop the tiles from loading. The calculation runs on your device, so the number is still valid. Keep using it with a separate compass or a trusted true-north reference.

If a problem keeps returning, the contact page explains how to report a reproducible problem. A useful report includes:

• your device model and operating system version
• your browser and its version
• the steps you took, in order
• the exact message shown, copied word for word
• a city or rounded coordinates, if the place matters

You do not need to send a home address or a precise GPS position.