X-Plane for Android Troubleshooting

This page describes a few issues you might encounter when using X-Plane on an Android device.

“My preferences are not being saved”

X-Plane’s preferences get saved when you quit the application gracefully. To do this, hit the menu button on your phone and select “Exit.” Merely returning to your home screen will sometimes result in the application getting killed by the Android operating system (which it does to recover system memory), and your preferences will not be saved when this happens.

“I cannot control the aircraft properly!”

The Samsung Epic phones have a bug that was introduced in Android 2.2 (Froyo) where the horizontal accelerometer axis is reversed. You’ll know this is the case if you open X-Plane and go to the menu and then the “Set” tab and see that your pitch is always negative. The solution is to recalibrate your device by going to Settings>Display>Horizontal Calibration. Then hold your Epic upside down, over your head while looking up at the screen. Then tap the Calibration again.

Other known devices with similar accelerometer issues: Huawei Ideos S7

“Why does X-Plane require an internet connection for licensing?”

X-Plane uses a licensing server to verify ownership. In order to do this, it needs an internet connection for a brief moment. It does NOT require an internet connection every time you open the application however. It checks periodically over several days/weeks so you should not have any issues using X-Plane on an airplane or in a subway where you have no connection

“I’m using a Motorola Xoom or similar tablet device and the plane won’t fly properly/all of the controls are backward”

It is recommended that you hold your tablet device in the horizontal orientation prior to launching X-Plane. This should correct this issue.

“My app crashes on startup”

Please go to Settings > Manage Applications and find the version number for the application called “Market”. You may have to click on the tab to show you ALL applications, not just the ones you’ve downloaded.

The market version should be appropriate for your device. If your device is running Android 2.3 or earlier, the market version should be 3.x.x. If your device is running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or later, your market version should be 1.x.x. If this is not the case or if you know you’ve changed the market on your phone, you must put it back to the way Google intended it to be for X-Plane to run properly.

Other problems

Problems purchasing, downloading, or installing

For issues regarding the purchase or download of X-Plane for Android, please see the X-Plane for Android Market Issues page.

Reporting other issues

To report problems not addressed on this page or on the Market Issues page, please provide the following information to our tech support:

1. Carrier
2. Phone Model
3. Android Version
4. Build Number *
5. Whether you’re running a custom ROM or not **
6. The exact amount of both internal and external available memory (found in Settings –> SD Card & Phone Store)

* This information can be found by going to Settings > About Phone on your device.

** Because Android is an open source operating system, there are a lot of custom builds of the operating system out there that are not stock builds from your carrier. Basically, if you don’t know what a custom ROM is, the answer to this is no, you are not running a custom ROM.

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