Windows 10 Mobile Update Breaks GPS For Runtastic, Others

In an ideal world, all that software updates do should be to improve users' experience, either by adding new features or removing erroneous ones. In the real world, however, some bugs manage to creep in. And in some cases, they can be so terrible that they deserve more than just silence from software vendors. That's the position the remaining few Windows 10 Mobile users are finding themselves in. The latest update to the nearly abandoned mobile platform apparently broke GPS tracking in some apps, including popular fitness apps like Runtastic.

That update, Build 15063.540 specifically for those on the Creators Update already, was pretty innocent looking. It was the usual weekly update from Microsoft that didn't seem to include anything even remotely related to location features. But as they say, looks can be deceiving and Windows 10 Mobile owners got more than just improvements.

Certain apps crashed the moment you opened them. The one immediately evident thing common about these app were their use of location data via GPS. That included Runtastic, Run the Map, and GPS Calculator Pro, among others reported. Turning GPS off before launching them seemed to be the only way to run them without crashing.

There was, however, another common trait among these apps. Apparently, they are originally Windows Phone 8.1 that never saw an update even after the Windows 10 release. And they most likely never will. Some developers like Runtastic have already announced the abandonment of Microsoft's mobile platform and might not even bother to look at matter.

This leaves users in a pinch and, as always, rather helpless. And despite how critical and widespread the issue seems to be, Microsoft is keeping silent. It's entirely possible that the update introduced a change that deprecated how Windows Phone 8 apps formerly accessed GPS data, in which case it might have been nice for Microsoft to give developers or users a heads up.

VIA: WindowsArea