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My iPhone isn't appearing in PinDrift's device list

1. Check your cable. Lots of cables only carry power (especially ones from cheap car chargers). Use the cable that came with your phone, or any Apple-supplied cable.
2. Unlock your phone. Look for a "Trust This Computer?" message. Tap Trust. The prompt only appears on an unlocked phone.
3. (Windows only) Install the free Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store. Windows needs Apple's drivers to talk to iPhones. Restart PinDrift after installing.
4. Turn on Developer Mode on the iPhone if you haven't. Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode → On → Restart phone.
5. Try a different USB port. Hubs and dock ports are unreliable - plug straight into the computer instead.
6. (Windows only) Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service. Press Win+R, type services.msc, find Apple Mobile Device Service, right-click → Restart.

I never get the "Trust This Computer?" message

1. Unlock the phone first. The Trust prompt only appears when the screen is on and unlocked.
2. Unplug, lock the phone, unlock it, plug it back in. Sometimes iOS just needs a reset.
3. (Windows) If you haven't, install Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store. Without it, the phone doesn't even know what to ask trust for.
4. Reset your trust list. On the iPhone: Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset → Reset Location & Privacy. The next time you plug into any computer, the Trust prompt appears fresh.
5. Make sure your phone has a passcode set. An iPhone with no passcode behaves oddly here.

My phone shows up in Finder / Apple Devices but NOT in PinDrift

This means the phone is paired and the drivers are fine - something is just stopping PinDrift from connecting to your iPhone. A restart almost always clears it.

1. Look at PinDrift's bottom-left corner. You should see a connection-status indicator. If it's missing or red, close PinDrift completely and reopen it. If that doesn't fix it, restart your computer.
2. Make sure Developer Mode is on. Finder works without it; PinDrift needs it. Settings → Privacy & Security on the iPhone.
3. Click Refresh devices at the top of PinDrift's Device tab.

My phones keep disconnecting through my USB hub or dock

USB hubs and dock-built-in USB ports cause more disconnects than anything else. PinDrift's connection to the phone is sensitive to the electrical noise that hubs add.

1. Plug phones straight into the computer, not through a hub.
2. If you really need a hub, buy a powered one - the kind with its own power brick. Cheap unpowered hubs starve phones of charging current when you've got three plugged in.
3. One cable per phone. Don't chain "phone → hub → computer → dock → display" - every extra link is one more place to fail.

I clicked Teleport but my phone still shows the real location

1. Wait 30 to 60 seconds. iOS can take up to a minute the first time you teleport to a far-away spot.
2. Force-quit Apple Maps and reopen it. Maps caches location aggressively. Swipe up to the app switcher, swipe Maps off the top, reopen.
3. Open the Compass app. If the coordinates at the bottom match the teleported location, the teleport is working - the other app you were checking just hasn't refreshed.
4. Check PinDrift's status pill. The phone in PinDrift's device list should say Teleporting in red. If it says Idle, the apply didn't take - look for an error message at the bottom.
5. Make sure the right phone is selected. If you have multiple phones connected, only the checked ones get the teleport.

Teleporting to a far-away place (like Tokyo) doesn't work

1. Open Apple Maps and the Compass app. If those show the new location, the teleport IS working - it's just that the time zone and some other parts of iOS combine GPS with the cell signal, so they fight you.
2. Turn on Airplane mode, then turn Wi-Fi back on. Settings → Airplane mode ON. Then swipe down from the top-right → tap the Wi-Fi icon back ON. Now iOS only has the GPS to go by, and the teleport fully takes hold.
3. Wait a minute. iOS checks if a jump is "plausible." A teleport from New York to Tokyo is faster than any plane, so iOS takes a couple minutes to accept it.

My teleport goes away the moment I unplug

That's iOS's design, not a PinDrift bug. The fake location only lives as long as the computer is connected; the second the connection drops, the phone goes back to its real GPS.

If you want teleporting to keep running without a PC attached, PinDrift's always-on mode is the answer - it keeps your phone's teleport running 24/7 on a machine you leave on.

My teleport slowly drifts back toward where I really am

1. iOS is fighting your jump. See "teleporting to far-away places" above - same fix (Airplane mode + Wi-Fi).
2. Something else is also setting a location on your phone. The usual cause is a second computer running PinDrift with a different pin. Close any other app or computer that's controlling your iPhone's location, then try again.

Route mode is jumpy - my phone teleports between waypoints

1. Check the speed. If your route is set to "Driving" but the points are 200 feet apart, the apparent "jumps" are just how short the travel times are at high speed.
2. Add more waypoints to long stretches. Route mode draws straight lines between waypoints. Add a few in the middle of straight roads so curves look natural.
3. Make sure no other PinDrift session is writing to the same phone - that causes the position to flicker.

PinDrift can't find my iPhone over Wi-Fi

1. iCloud Private Relay is on. Turn it off: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Private Relay → Off. (Or set it to "Use Country and Time Zone" - that keeps Safari's privacy but lets local-network discovery work.)
2. A VPN is running on the phone. Proton VPN, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Mullvad, Cloudflare WARP (1.1.1.1) - any of them. Either turn the VPN off or enable its "Allow Local Network" / "Bypass for local network" option.

If those aren't it, check these too:

1. Same Wi-Fi network. The phone and the computer have to be on the same network. Guest networks are usually isolated from the main one.
2. Phone is awake (or charging). iOS powers Wi-Fi way down when the phone is asleep and unplugged. Plug it in or just tap the screen to keep it awake.
3. You did the one-time USB pairing first. Wireless needs an initial USB connection to establish trust. PinDrift will tell you if it hasn't seen your phone over USB yet.

Wireless keeps dropping every couple of minutes

1. Pick one Wi-Fi band. Many routers and mesh systems shuffle phones between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; each shuffle is a reconnect. If your router has a "band steering" toggle, turn it off.
2. Keep the phone from sleeping. Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never (while you teleport). Plugged in is even better.
3. Turn off Low Power Mode. It cuts background Wi-Fi to save juice.

Wireless feels slower than the cable

It is - Wi-Fi has about four times the round-trip delay of USB. You won't notice on static teleports (a pin sits still). On routes at driving speed you might see the phone's position on PinDrift's map lag the visual by a fraction of a second. The phone is still receiving everything, it's just drawn a moment later.

For anything timing-sensitive (like demos where you're showing the phone screen live), plug in.

Find My / Apple Family Sharing

Works exactly as you'd hope. Find My reads what your phone reports. Your circle sees the teleported spot as your live location. "[Name] arrived at home" alerts fire on the fake coordinate. Nothing special to do.

Life360

Works the same as Find My. Life360 reads what iOS reports. The only wrinkle: Life360's Driving feature watches speed - if you teleport from your bedroom to a freeway, your timeline shows a gap. Use route mode at driving speed instead of a static pin, and the timeline shows a normal drive.

Full step-by-step: Life360 location teleporter guide. If what you actually want is to not be noticed, the guide to hiding on Life360 covers which methods alert the circle.

Snapchat / Snap Map

Mostly works. Snap Map reads location when you open the app, plus every few minutes in the background. Teleport first, then open Snapchat from scratch - your Bitmoji shows up at the teleported spot. If you teleport while Snapchat is already open, swipe it away and reopen so it refreshes.

Pokémon Go

• Teleporting too far, too fast = 12-hour softban. You can't catch or spin during the cooldown. Wait the official cooldown chart time after a big jump.
• iOS marks every teleported coordinate as "simulated." Niantic reads that. Some accounts get shadowbanned, some don't - it's a roll of the dice. We can't suppress the flag without jailbreaking, which we don't do.
• Use a throwaway account if Pokémon Go matters to you.

Tinder / Bumble / Hinge

Works. Dating apps read location when you open them. Teleport first, open the app, and your shown distance reflects the teleported location. Bumble's "Travel" feature also writes a hint server-side, so jumping continents repeatedly might prompt extra verification - but no app on the list actively checks the iOS simulated flag.

Banking apps, Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal

Uber / Lyft / DoorDash

Teleporting the pickup location works fine. Teleporting while in transit (to "arrive" faster than you really are) usually trips their fraud heuristics and risks your account. The legitimate use case is requesting from a different city before you start the trip.

Strava and other fitness apps

Strava records the GPS stream your phone reports. PinDrift's route mode at realistic speeds produces a track Strava accepts. That said, Strava staff manually flag suspicious activities (e.g., beating a KOM by 30 seconds with a 200 mph drive). Fitness fraud isn't a use case we encourage.

Apple Maps weather, App Store storefront, Safari "near me" results

These don't change. They read your Apple ID country or your IP address, not GPS. Teleporting the iPhone's GPS doesn't move you between US/UK/JP storefronts; you'd need to change your Apple ID country in Settings, and you'd need a VPN for IP-based "near me" features.

The Developer Mode toggle isn't in my iPhone settings

Apple hides it on purpose until something developer-y has happened. PinDrift can trigger that for you:

1. Plug your iPhone into your computer.
2. In PinDrift's Device tab, click Reveal Developer Mode. PinDrift only shows that button when it detects the toggle is hidden.
3. On the iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down. The Developer Mode entry should now be there.

PinDrift says it can't turn on Developer Mode - "passcode error"

1. iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode.
2. Toggle ON. Tap Restart when it prompts.
3. After the phone reboots, it asks: "Turn On Developer Mode?" → tap Turn On → enter your passcode.

Developer Mode keeps turning itself off

iOS sometimes disables it after:

• A small iOS update (like 17.4 → 17.4.1)
• Time spent in Lockdown Mode
• Restoring a backup onto a different iPhone

It's expected. Just toggle it back on (Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode → Restart), and re-pair with PinDrift if asked.

macOS will not open PinDrift

1. Open PinDrift from Applications, then close the warning.
2. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security. Scroll down, click Open Anyway, then Open. The button stays there for about an hour after the warning.
3. If macOS says PinDrift is damaged: some PinDrift downloads carried a faulty signature, which was our mistake. Open Terminal, paste xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/PinDrift.app, press Return, and open PinDrift again.
4. You only do this once. Later launches open normally.

macOS asks "PinDrift would like to find devices on your local network"

Tap Allow. PinDrift needs this to find your iPhone over Wi-Fi after the first USB pairing. You can grant or revoke it later in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.

PinDrift wants Full Disk Access

To connect to your iPhone, PinDrift needs to read files that macOS keeps in a protected folder. Granting Full Disk Access is the cleanest way:

1. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.
2. Click +, navigate to /Applications/PinDrift.app, add it.
3. Toggle the entry On. Restart PinDrift.

My Mac falls asleep and the teleport drops

Mac USB ports stop powering devices when the Mac sleeps. Three options:

1. System Settings → Battery (or Energy Saver) → Options → Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off.
2. Use Terminal's caffeinate: open Terminal, type caffeinate -dis, press Return. The Mac stays awake until you hit Ctrl-C.
3. Use always-on mode if you want teleporting without keeping the Mac running as the host.

After updating my iPhone, PinDrift on Mac won't connect anymore

1. Unplug, lock the phone, unlock it, plug back in.
2. If the Trust prompt re-appears, accept it. If macOS shows a "Trust this Mac" reminder, follow it.
3. If that still doesn't work: PinDrift → Settings → Devices → Forget this iPhone, then plug back in for a clean pair.

Windows SmartScreen blocked the installer

1. Double-check the URL. Pirated copies of PinDrift exist on shady download sites and some carry malware. Only download from pindrift.app.
2. Click More info, then Run anyway on the SmartScreen warning.
3. For more detail with screenshots: SmartScreen walkthrough.

My antivirus is blocking PinDrift

GPS-teleporting apps as a category trip antivirus heuristics. The PinDrift installer is not code-signed yet, which is part of why: an unsigned binary from a small publisher has no reputation for a scanner to lean on. Verify your download against the published SHA-256 checksum, which proves the file is the one we built far better than a signature would. If yours still flags, send us the antivirus name and the exact message via the contact form - we work with vendors to clear false positives.

I can't install Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store

1. Make sure you're on Windows 10 (newer build) or Windows 11. Apple Devices doesn't ship for older Windows.
2. Sign into the Microsoft Store with a Microsoft account. Anonymous installs sometimes fail.
3. Backup: install iTunes from apple.com/itunes instead. It bundles the same drivers. iTunes can sit closed - you just need the drivers installed.

Windows Defender put PinDrift in quarantine

1. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history.
2. Find the PinDrift entry, click Allow → restore.
3. Add the PinDrift folder to Exclusions so it doesn't re-flag on the next update.

"License activation says Invalid"

1. Copy-paste the key, don't retype. The characters O vs 0 and I vs 1 vs l are easy to mix up, and the key is case-sensitive.
2. Make sure you're using the most recent key. If you bought, refunded, then bought again, only the most recent key works.
3. Check your network. Activation needs to reach our license server once. Corporate networks sometimes block it - if you're on a work network, try a personal connection or a hotspot for the activation.
4. If none of that fixes it: the contact form with your order ID and the error. Usually fixed same day.

PinDrift says "License unverified"

PinDrift checks in with our license server roughly once a day. If it can't reach us for an extended period, you'll see that warning. PinDrift continues to work in this state - it's just a "we couldn't phone home" notice. If it persists for more than a few hours, check your internet connection, or ask in our Discord if others are seeing the same thing.

"Move to a new PC" says the cooldown hasn't elapsed

Every Lifetime license has a 180-day cooldown between transfers. This stops the license from being passed around as a roving entitlement.

1. The message tells you the exact date the next transfer becomes available - just wait until then.
2. Need to migrate now because of theft or a dead PC? Contact us with documentation and we'll expedite.
3. Just need a temporary install on a friend's PC? Don't transfer the license - use the free trial there, or sign into pindrift.app/account from any browser.

Restore Access says my license is on another PC

Restore Access pulls a license back from whichever computer holds it. If a different PC has the active slot, Restore Access releases it first - with a short cooldown - then re-issues to your current machine. The error message tells you when the next try will succeed.

Don't keep retrying - it'll only extend the cooldown. If the other PC is lost or dead and you need to bypass: the contact form with your order ID.

PinDrift feels slow

1. Close and reopen PinDrift. Long-running sessions can pile up state - a restart helps.
2. Disconnect any iPhone you are not actively using. Every connected phone is work PinDrift is doing whether you need it or not.
3. Switch from Satellite to Standard map. Settings → Map. Satellite tiles are heavier on the graphics card.
4. Update your graphics drivers. The map uses hardware acceleration - outdated drivers cause stutter.

My phone's battery drains fast while teleporting

iOS keeps the location subsystem running continuously while a teleport is applied - that alone is 5-10% per hour. Add an app that polls GPS constantly (Pokémon Go, Strava, Life360) and you might see 15-20% per hour.

1. Keep the phone plugged in during long sessions. Any 5W USB charger keeps up.
2. Quit GPS-hungry apps when you're not actively using them teleported.
3. For fitness apps: instead of leaving Strava open on the phone, use PinDrift's GPX export and upload the track manually after.

The map is gray or tiles take forever to load

1. Check your internet. Map tiles come from a public server; rate-limiting or temporary outages happen.
2. Switch tile providers. Settings → Map → Tile provider.
3. Clear the cached tiles. Settings → Map → Clear cached tiles.

I updated iOS and PinDrift stopped working

Major iOS releases occasionally break compatibility with PinDrift. We usually ship a fix within a week of a major release.

1. Check for a PinDrift update. PinDrift → Settings → Check for updates. Install if there's one.
2. If no update yet: watch our Discord for the fix, or check your email - we send a notice to active customers when compatibility ships.
3. Stuck and need to use PinDrift right now? Contact us - if a beta build is ready, we'll get it to you.

PinDrift won't auto-update

1. Check your network. Auto-update downloads from GitHub - corporate networks blocking github.com will fail silently.
2. Check free disk space. The update needs ~250 MB free.
3. Download manually. Quit PinDrift, grab the latest installer from pindrift.app, run it. Your existing license and settings carry over.

What to include in your message

The more of these you can include, the faster we can help:

1. PinDrift version (Settings → About).
2. Phone model + iOS version (Settings → General → About on the iPhone).
3. Computer OS (Windows 11 23H2, macOS 15.3, etc.).
4. What you did - three or four bullet points of the exact actions.
5. What happened, including any error message word-for-word.
6. What you expected to happen.
7. Screenshot if anything's visual.
8. Error code if PinDrift showed one (like PND-9001).
9. The last ~50 lines of the logs (path below). Optional but speeds things up.

Send it via the contact form. We reply within one business day, usually faster.

Where to find PinDrift's logs

Easiest way: PinDrift → Settings → Diagnostics → Show logs in Explorer / Finder. That opens the folder for you.

Or find them manually:

Windows:

• App log: %LocalAppData%\PinDrift\logs\pindrift.log

Mac:

• App log: ~/Library/Logs/PinDrift/pindrift.log

Nothing's working - I want to start fresh

If nothing else fixes it, reset PinDrift's local state:

1. PinDrift → Settings → Advanced → Reset PinDrift. This clears favorites, saved routes, and tutorial state. Your license stays.
2. Restart PinDrift.
3. Re-enter your license key if prompted.

For a fully clean reinstall (rare):

1. Uninstall PinDrift the normal way.
2. Delete the PinDrift folder: %LocalAppData%\PinDrift on Windows, or ~/Library/Application Support/PinDrift on Mac.
3. Reinstall from pindrift.app.
4. Re-pair your iPhone and re-enter your license.