Pokémon GO/Technical Issues

In the game there are and were several more and less known technical issues such as bugs and glitches.

Known issues
These are currently some minor issues acknowledged by Niantic on their support page. They offer some possible solutions to these issues.

Localisation issues
Occasionally, there are several issues with localisation service which happen to be inaccurate, unavailable (despite the Location/GPS is turned on in the mobile device) or drifts (moves player around the nearby area despite them not moving).

Due to such localisation issues, players might have difficulties with some basic in-game actions, as:
 * PokéStops and Gyms can't be reached due to inaccuracy of GPS, causing player not to spun Photo Disc, deploy defender Pokémon or battle in Gyms or Raids,
 * Pokémon happens to disappear or being wrongly stated by the game as "too far",
 * PokéStops, Gyms cannot be interacted despite of being in close distance, as the game wrongly states that player exceeds the speed limits,
 * Pokémon don't appear at all and nearby Pokémon happen to disappear, as the game wrongly states that player exceeds the speed limits,
 * walked distance sometimes happens to be wrongly tracked or not tracked at all, once again because game can wrongly assess the speed of player, thus distance for incubated Eggs and Buddy Pokémon might not be counted correctly.

GPS drifting is rather annoying for player as it causes the speed limit exceeded notice to appear while player is moving within limit or even not moving at all. This issue became a meme in the player community for its ridiculousness of exceeding speed limit while sitting or laying with no actual movement. However, some players find a advantage of this issue, because when player does not move (e.g. staying home) and the game is on with GPS drifting, there is sometimes distance for Buddy Pokémon and incubated Eggs counted as if it was walked, which can lead to Egg hatching or Buddy finding a candy without player getting from home at all.

In general, GPS accuracy largely depends on the device players are using and the signal/connection strength. Following settings are suggested to be reviewed by players to improve the device's location:
 * Pokémon GO has location permissions enabled
 * Internet connectivity is enabled (3G, 4G, Wi-Fi)
 * Device location/GPS is enabled
 * Location/GPS set to high-accuracy mode

Pokémon in the wild issues
There happen to be various issues and bugs with Pokémon tracking and catching in both Map View screen and encounter screen. Most of these issues is caused by either not completely synchronised data between game client and Niantic servers or client-sided not-responding.

Following issues, might occur:
 * tapped Pokémon in the Map View disappears and the red error notice is displayed (most times notice says "Pokémon cannot be found"),
 * tapped Pokémon in the Map View does not do anything and to access the encounter of such Pokémon either game has to be restarted or other in-game action performed,
 * tapped Pokémon in the Map View happens to be completely other Pokémon in the encounter screen, or Pokémon being caught in the encounter eventually turns out to be completely other Pokémon in the Pokémon summary page and Pokémon collection,
 * this applies to Shiny status of Pokémon that occurs mainly when the Shiny Pokémon is encounter before end of the event during which there is increased chance to encounter Shiny variant of Pokémon and it is successfully captured after the end of the such event, which causes it to be eventually not-shiny in trainer's collection,
 * while Pokémon being captured to the PokéBall the game freezes while PokéBall with captured Pokémon is in mid-air or on the ground, rarely game unfreezes after few seconds but most of the time player has to restart the game to continue playing,
 * inconsistency in range within which Pokémon that appeared in the Map View can be tapped and encountered, as sometimes Pokémon is stated as "the Pokémon is too far" when it actually is bit further than players interaction ring reaches, while other time Pokémon that is seen to be nearly on the horizon can be easily tapped and encountered like it was nearby,
 * it might be caused by localisation issues,

PokéStop related issues
There are some issues with PokéStops spinning and receiving items from them as well.

One of which is that player that is moving below speed limit, when spinning active PokéStop, may get notice "Try again later." as if there was still cooldown on PokéStop or player exceeded speed limit, however items are received (can be seen in Items bag and Journal) and PokéStop turn purple after the game client updates data – most of the time after player performs any other action in the game or simply restarts the game itself.

Battery issues
Some devices may experience battery drain while playing Pokémon GO for prolonged periods of time, due to use of GPS and 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi.

Historical issues
 Settings and then select "Sign out."
 * If that does not resolve the issue, try powering off your device and restarting.

Receive 'You already own this item' error message (Android only)
If your device loses internet connectivity while purchasing PokéCoins from the shop, you may receive the “You already own this item” error message. Please power off and restart your device to resolve this issue.

Trainer progress temporarily resets to Level 1
You may have inadvertently created two Pokémon GO accounts: one account using Google and one using Pokémon Trainer Club. If you create an account with one login method and later attempt to use the other login method, a second account is created. To resolve this issue, log out of your account via the Settings menu and then log back in with your original login method.

Distorted audio
In some situations, music and sound effects within Pokémon GO app may become distorted or delayed. This issue often occurs while connected to Bluetooth audio. Niantic stands that they are aware of the issue and we are actively working on a solution.

Receive 'This item is not available in your country' error when trying to download the app.
Please check your Google Wallet settings to ensure your address is based in the proper country. If this doesn't work, you could also try reaching out to the Google Play support team via their Help Center.

Lucky pokemon IV floor
Immediately after the release of lucky pokemon on July 25, 2018 12:00PM PST traded pokemon that became lucky had no IV floor, and 0-IV lucky pokemon were obtained. This was surprising since these trades were ignoring the IV floor from friendship level. This bug was resolved around 2:00PM PST the same day, and lucky pokemon obtained after this point in time have an IV floor of 10/10/10.

Ghost Pokémon
From time to time, random Pokémon will show up as invisible, though you can still interact with them. This can happen in gyms, in the Pokédex, in storage, or while battling. This is generally fixed by exiting the screen and coming back, or in the case of gym battles, switching your Pokémon out for another one on your team or running and coming back.

Late hatchers
Due to the games slowness to update, an egg may show up as ready to hatch but still won't hatch. This is generally fixed by walking a little bit until the egg decides to hatch.

Changing Pokémon
Back in August their was an update that brought this glitch, in this glitch the Pokémon you capture could wind up changing to something else in your bag. For example, your 52 CP Poliwag could become a 52 CP Rattata. The Pokémon would keep it's stats and CP after it changes.

Landscape glitch
While playing, some roads just won't appear on the screen. The only known fix for this is to reload the game.

Rattata Poké Ball
At one time, there was a glitch where you could switch out your Poké Balls for a Rattata, but it has since been patched out.

Ninja
In this glitch the Pokémon's body will show up black, and only there eyes will be normal.

A glitch in unity that isn't loading the body material associated with the model. They have separate materials for body and eyes so they can animate the eyes. The glitch can happen to both already captured Pokemon and wild Pokemon.

This glitch may also happen to a trainer, with only their belt showing up, as it is on a separate layer. It will generally happen if you leave the app, but don't close it, when you reopen you'll be a Ninja for a few seconds.

Persistent Pokémon
When a Pokémon despawns, sometimes it doesn’t get removed from your nearby Pokémon list and will permanently appear to be 3 steps away. To clear out the phantoms and leave only the real Pokémon on your tracker, close the app and reopen it.

1 HP
Sometimes when fighting an enemy gym, the opposing Pokémon cannot be reduced below 1HP and continues to damage your Pokémon. If you run away or are defeated, all of your Pokémon are at full life as if they had never entered the combat.

Legs
This giant leg glitch shows the leg of your character with the customize character option on the right side. The game will still continue working but the giant leg will be annoying in the screen. If your character walks or run, the giant character will also run and will result to covering of the areas where you are in. According to the players who have experienced the glitch, the only way to get rid of the giant leg glitch is to restart the game.

Gym eggs
There used to be a glitch where you could get an egg in a gym, it had 0 HP and dealt no damage, however, it was impossible to defeat. This is still in the game, however you'll be banned for doing it.

Tiny Pokémon
If you tap a Pokémon on the map right as it disappears, it would turn into a miniature version of itself, playing animations in the capture screen (moving around, jumping, attacking) while you stay in the map screen and cannot act.

May 15
After introducing information about the place and time of obtained Pokémon Eggs to the screen with detail view, for a short time period it was showing the date "May 15, 2016". Only the date was glitched as the area of PokéStop that the egg came from was right.

Moreover, Pokémon GO came out on July 6, 2016, two months after May 15.

Substitute
There was a glitch that made a Substitute appear on top of a Gym. There was no reasoning behind why this was happening. Multiple users have reported seeing the Substitute appear, and when they clicked on it &mdash; it caused their game to crash.

A Substitute appears in the main series of the Pokémon games, when a Pokémon uses the move by the same name.

Berry bugs
Sometimes when interacting with a wild Pokémon, it will appear that a berry has been already used on the Pokémon. The berry that appears is a hang-over from the last usage of a berry on a prior Pokémon interaction. This was reportedly fixed on Aug 7, 2018 (version 0.111.4.)

Starting on Aug 7, 2018 (version 0.111.4,) a different berry bug could occur that results in a game crash. To replicate the bug, the player needs to run from a berried pokemon and then interact with the pokemon again.

Other Issues
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 * Occasional game freezes when catching Pokémon after the Pokémon enters the Poké Ball.
 * If you open the items menu while a Pokémon is running away, the game will freeze and must be restarted.
 * Activating Battery Saver mode seems to cause an increase in game freezes on some phones.
 * Pressing on a Gym far away to you sometimes causes a freeze.
 * When leveling up, the game will sometimes not display the "Level up!" animation or list the items received. The player seems to still receive those items though.
 * When throwing a Poké Ball, it will sometimes curve without you meaning to. This is mostly seen when using a Razz Berry. To counter this, intentionally throw a curveball.
 * When you are logged out, and you have your account‘s password and username right, the game will say that you have your account’s username or password wrong. But if you do not change anything, and press okay, it will soon log you in.