Pokemon Go is a very well-known game all over the world, the most important reason for this is that it was the first phone to bring things like virtual reality and can use current GPS location into its game. After the release of the game, people liked it a lot and even today there are many hardcore fans of this game, it is very unique and interesting. Players encountered lots of bugs and glitches since its release, rather it has also been fixed those errors in every update but the “Pokemon Go error 12: Failed to detect location” error which is quite common is still a headache for many players.
The main cause of Pokemon go failed to detect the location
There are several theories behind this error but the main culprit is Location service, so the whole story revolves around it.
- The first reason may be that you are in a place where your phone is not receiving GPS signals properly.
- “Pokemon go failed to detect location” error might be displayed on your screen if your mock location is enabled.
- Corrupted data and cache also interrupted between you and the game server, which can also cause a “Pokemon go failed to detect location” error.
1-Check your location service.
In most cases, you may have encountered this “Pokemon Go error 12: Failed to detect location” error due to the disabled location service or a particular Pokemon app might be disallowed to access the location option. Whenever you face this error, first of all, check your location services whether it is enabled or not.
- Go to “setting” and scroll down until you find the Location option, now click it-
- Now check whether location access is enabled or not, if not then enable it.
- If the still game showing the same error, then go to the “App permission” option.
- Find the Pokemon Go game and next click on the “Allow all the time” option.
- Now, open your game again.
2-Clear Pokemon Go cache and data.
If the earlier step did not resolve Pokemon Go error 12: Failed to detect location, then you might go-ahead to clear cache and data of Pokemon game.
As you all know, cache and data play a very vital role for any application to run, but in some case, if data and cache get corrupted somehow, then it is seen that corrupted cache and data causes many errors to generate.
To fix this error, clear your application’s cache and data-
- First of all, click on setting, then find the “App” option by scrolling down.
- Then click on manage apps, and search for Pokemon Go.
- Now click it, next you will find the “clear data” option.
- Tap on “clear all data” and “clear cache”.
- I hope it might help you to fix the “Pokemon Go error 12: Failed to detect location” error, if not then move on to our next step.
3-Turn off the “Find My Location” option.
Most players are playing Pokémon Go by creating their fake GPS address, perhaps for a good location where more Pokémon can be found but most players forget to disable their “find device” option, which is why the Pokémon GO server can easily track your original location.
By this, you will easily be caught by them, this results in the “Pokemon go failed to detect location” error appears on your smartphone screen.
Follow easy steps to disable/turn off your “Find device”, so that you can easily hide from their server.
- Go to the setting option.
- Scroll down and click the “Security status” option.
- If the “Find device” option is already disabled then leave it, otherwise, disable it.
4-Disable mock location.
Mock location is such a type of service that allows using a fake location for the phone, which is only available in the developer option. Even you will face this “Pokemon Go error 12: Failed to detect location” error if the mock location is enabled at that time.
It would be better if you check the mock location whether it is enabled or not.
- Go to the setting menu and click on the About Phone option.
- Now go to the Build number or Mobile version and click multiple time until this “you are now a developer” message appears on your screen.
- Go back to the setting menu, scroll down to find the Developer option, or instead of scrolling you can directly search for the Developer option.
- Now in the Developer option, navigate to the mock location in the debugging section.
- Next, check that you have selected the “nothing” option.
- Restart your device and open Pokemon Go again.
5-Roll back your Google Play service to the previous version.
Google Play service plays a very important role when any apps that work on location-based then it helps to automatically synchronize higher quality, lower-powered location-based services.
If you are facing this error on your screen, then maybe the current version of the Play Store might be the reason, then it would be better to roll back to the previous version.
- Open the setting menu and scroll down until you find the Apps option.
- Click on “manage apps” and search for “Google Play Store” in the search bar and click it.
- Now look at the bottom, Disable option appears on your screen, and just click it.
- Now download the previous version of the Play store.
6-Re-install Pokemon Go-
What if your game only causes the “Pokemon go failed to detect location” error, it may be because of some bugs or corrupted files that are real culprits.
All bugs and files will be automatically deleted by uninstalling Pokémon Go, and then re-install it so, that everything remains fresh.
