Be careful with MagSafe and PhotoPills AR

Wednesday 21 January 2026, 17:17 by Nando Harmsen | 1,390 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

With PhotoPills, you can use AR to find the position of the sun, moon, Milky Way and other celestial objects. A magnet can affect its accuracy. So be careful with MagSafe and Qi2 too.

If you don't know already, MagSafe is a magnetic system built into modern iPhones. It lets you charge wirelessly or attach accessories magnetically. A power bank, external storage or phone cases.

MagSafe case and a MagSafe external hard drive. All those magnets can affect PhotoPills working properly.
For non-iPhones, the system is called Qi2. Although the name is different, it is almost the same. It is important to know that it uses magnets. MagSafe and Qi2 are handy because you can use them in many ways.

Do you use PhotoPills to plan your photography? Then be careful with MagSafe and Qi2. The magnets in the accessories can affect PhotoPills working properly. A phone case that is compatible with MagSafe or Qi2 is included too.

Make sure you remove everything with magnets before using PhotoPills Augmented Reality. That is important.
If you use Augmented Reality, abbreviated to AR, to find the position of the sun, moon or Milky Way in PhotoPills, it will probably go wrong if something with MagSafe or Qi2 is connected. The position shown will no longer be correct.

If you want to use AR in PhotoPills, always make sure you remove a phone case that is compatible with MagSafe or Qi2. Take off a power bank that uses this system, or an external drive, or anything else.

You also need to take large metal structures into account, as they can interfere with the compass in your smartphone. Don't forget that large concrete structures also contain metal. Keep a respectable distance for it to work properly.

This will make PhotoPills much more accurate. It makes planning on location easier, especially when you use AR.

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