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# isMagnetometerActive

A Boolean value that determines whether magnetometer updates are currently happening.

```
var isMagnetometerActive: Bool { get }
```

## Discussion

This property indicates whether the [`startMagnetometerUpdates(to:withHandler:)`](/documentation/CoreMotion/CMMotionManager/startMagnetometerUpdates(to:withHandler:)) or [`startMagnetometerUpdates()`](/documentation/CoreMotion/CMMotionManager/startMagnetometerUpdates()) method has been called since the last time the [`stopMagnetometerUpdates()`](/documentation/CoreMotion/CMMotionManager/stopMagnetometerUpdates()) method was called. (If the start methods hadn’t been called, the app could be getting updates from the magnetometer after calling, for example, [`startDeviceMotionUpdates()`](/documentation/CoreMotion/CMMotionManager/startDeviceMotionUpdates()), but this property would return <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/false>.)

## See Also

[`isMagnetometerAvailable`](/documentation/CoreMotion/CMMotionManager/isMagnetometerAvailable)

A Boolean value that indicates whether a magnetometer is available on the device.



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