iOS 14, the most recent update from Apple for iPhones and iPads, adds some nice new features, but also includes a new Privacy feature called “Local Network”. Basically, any app on the iOS device must now display a warning to users that it wants to take data from a Local Network device.
Similar to allowing an app to use “Location Services” or the “Camera” this new feature creates another potential barrier to your apps accessing the wireless data from our AIS and NMEA devices.
All apps that have been approved can be found in the iOS Settings>Privacy>Local Network page and if they are switched on, they can receive data.
We discovered this “new hurdle” yesterday, onboard a customer’s boat in the Hamble. Previously, his iOS devices had been working perfectly, but then after updating to iOS 14 he could no longer access the wireless data from his AIT5000 in UDP or TCP modes.
After searching online and finding some very recent posts from developers on various forums, it became clear that this could catch out a lot of customers and so we decided to publish this article.
Don’t be put off updating to iOS 14, as it is always good practice to keep your devices updated for the latest security and feature releases, but be aware that you will now have this new setting that you need to switch on.
After the update, run your navigation apps as you would normally do and you should see a pop-up warning appear (see left hand image above). Simply click “Allow” and that will enable the app to receive the wireless data. NOTE – You will need to do this for each of the navigation apps you wish to use.
If for any reason your apps stop receiving data after the update and no warning pop-up appears, as was the case yesterday, you may find that your app is disabled from using the Local Network data. In this case, go to the Settings>Privacy>Local Network page (as per the right hand image above) and make sure your app is listed and that the switch is ON (enabled).
It should also be noted that you may need to authorise your web browser app to connect to “Local Network” devices, if you wish to display the configuration web page of our latest wireless AIS and NMEA products. This does not happen in every case, but whilst we were compiling this article, we saw this pop-up appear when we tried to access the web page of our WLN10SM from Chrome…
