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I keep forgetting where I parked — how do I stop?

Stop trying to remember it and record it instead. Parking is routine and unremarkable, so your brain never encodes it strongly — and worse, every previous visit to the same car park competes with today's. This is normal memory behaviour, not a personal failing. The reliable fix is external: a saved location, plus a photo of the nearest permanent marker.

Why GPS alone is not enough

GPS needs line of sight to satellites. Concrete and steel block it, so in an underground level the error can be tens of metres — or the position may be frozen at the entrance, where your phone last had a signal.

More importantly, GPS is two-dimensional. It cannot tell you the floor, and in a multi-storey car park the floor is the entire problem.

Why a photo beats a note

A photo captures the level marker, the direction you were facing and the surrounding landmarks in one action, with no typing. Typing "level 3, section B" requires you to first notice level 3 and section B — which is exactly the attention you did not have when you parked.

Battery and privacy

Saving a single position when you press a button costs almost nothing. Continuous background tracking is what drains a battery. It is worth checking in Settings which apps hold Always location permission — most only need While Using, and that difference matters for both battery life and privacy.

Step by step

  1. Save the position as you leave the car
    One tap, before you walk away. Doing it later means guessing.
  2. Photograph the nearest fixed marker
    A pillar number, a section letter, a lift entrance — something that cannot move.
  3. Note the floor separately
    GPS has no idea which level you are on. This is the part coordinates cannot capture.
  4. Face the exit you will return through
    Large car parks look completely different from the other direction.
Parking Pin - Find My Car

Our iOS app for exactly this. Runs on your device — no account, no tracking.

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