How To Fix Pokémon GO Character Not Moving / Walking

Pokémon GO has millions of fans worldwide even after 4 years of its release dating back to 2016. This AR-based game relies on GPS navigation and requires players to walk in the real world in order to make progress. However, like most other popular games out there, it does have its own issues and bugs which might annoy its users every now and then.

One such problem you might have encountered while playing is where your Pokémon GO character won’t move even when you do. Sometimes you might also experience rubber banding where the avatar lags behind and hops from place-to-place as you move. If this Pokémon GO moving glitch is ruining your gameplay then we’ll show you a couple of ways to get rid of it.

5 Ways to fix Pokémon GO Character Not Moving/Walking Error:

So, you’ve checked the network and GPS to be perfectly working on other apps but still your avatar in Pokémon GO can’t move with you. It might be due to server connectivity issues or junk cache data that’s messing with your Location settings. Follow these 5 simple steps in the same order and hopefully one of them might fix it for you:

Solution 1: Force Quit Pokémon GO

More often than not restarting the app simply does the trick. Remember to Force Stop the app and not just minimize it by pressing the home button, since smartphones tend to keep the app running in the background if you just press the home button. Open the Recent Apps screen on your iOS or Android Smartphone and swipe close the running Pokémon GO app.

If you’re using Android, another way to do it is by going to Settings > Apps > Pokémon GO and click the Force Stop button. While you’re at it we also recommend clearing the cache so that the game loads afresh when you relaunch it. Remember to clear the cache only and not the data because you’ll find both options in the Pokémon GO settings menu. Launch the app again and see if anything’s been fixed.

Solution 2: Toggle Adventure Sync in Pokémon GO

Niantic added the Adventure Sync feature to Pokémon GO this year, which enables players to sync the game with Google Fit or Apple Health app to track and import walking distances even when the app is not running. Most players like to leave this feature turned on all the time, but there is a chance it might be the reason your character in Pokémon GO can’t move and you should check if that’s the case.

5. Open Pokémon GO.
6. Tap the Main Menu (Poké Ball icon at the bottom of the screen).
7. Tap the Settings option (top right corner).
8. Find the Adventure Sync option, checked indicates that it’s on. Uncheck it to turn it OFF.

   

9. Check it again to turn it ON.

If your Apple Health/Google Fit app is not showing any steps count then read this article on Devsjournal to fix Adventure Sync. See if the problem persists and if yes, move on to the steps below.

Solution 3: Set location to high accuracy

Pokémon GO requires you to give complete Location access to be able to work properly. But sometimes you take utmost care to ensure the GPS to be working only to be disappointed at your avatar in Pokémon GO not walking. What a lot of people don’t realize is that they have the Location set to either the ‘Battery saving’ or ‘Device only’ mode. This is a problem, especially for a game like Pokémon GO. Setting it to ‘High accuracy’ will at least ensure that the GPS provides the most accurate data. Here’s how to do that on your Android device:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Location.
3. Toggle on the location.
4. Tap on Mode > High accuracy.

Solution 4: Disable mock locations in developer options

If you have mock locations enabled in your device, it might be messing with the server connections in Pokémon GO. You shouldn’t be bothered about enabling it you plan to play the game normally, as it can interfere with the GPS data on your device.

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap on Developer Options (If you don’t see this option, go to About phone and tap on the Build number seven times, after this you can access Developer Options). You can also locate Developer Options under Settings > System > Developer Options.
3. Scroll down to the Allow mock locations option.

   

4. Toggle OFF this button to disable mock locations.

Solution 5: Re-Install Pokémon GO

If all of the above steps seem out of luck, try restarting your phone or checking app updates for the latest version of the game. If you’ve tried everything but your Pokémon GO character still won’t move, there might be issues with corrupted or buggy data files and you might have to reinstall the app.

Simply uninstall Pokémon GO from either the home screen or settings. Then re-install Pokémon GO from the App Store or Play Store depending on your device platform. This will clean your device of any broken game files and will install fresh data for the latest version of the game. After this, check to see if the pokemon go character not moving issue is fixed.

Conclusion:

Walk around to see if your Pokémon GO avatar is walking with you or not! Chances are that it does, and you can once again enjoy catching your favorite Pokémon. Let us know if this guide helped you fix the Pokémon GO moving glitch. If you are having any troubles or need more guides like this, feel free to reach out to us in the comments section below. And as always, thanks for reading.

Hopefully, the issue must have been resolved by now but if you need further assistance, contact here.