How to check for obstructions before you buy Starlink

What the app check is (and isn’t)

Starlink’s app-store listing names two jobs for the app that matter here: “Identify the install location that will ensure the best quality of service” and “Check for obstructions that can interfere with service”. Starlink’s install guides tell you to use the obstruction tool to confirm a spot before you mount anything, and its V5 Home Mount guide repeats it: make sure the spot sees open sky first.

• It is a preview of one spot, from your phone, at one moment. It’s the closest thing to a real test you can do without a dish.
• It isn’t our fit check. Ours is eight questions that tell you whether scanning is worth it, and it never asks where you live.
• It isn’t the dish’s own map. After setup, Starlink says the app shows a live obstruction map of where blockages actually happen. That map, built over hours and days, is the final word.

Before you scan: pick your spots

Walk around the house first and list every place a dish could realistically go. For each one, ask three questions: can someone reach it safely, can a cable get from there into the house, and are you allowed to put a dish there? Typical candidates:

Run the check, step by step

1. 01

   Step 1: Install the Starlink app and open its obstruction tool

   Download the Starlink app from the App Store or Google Play. Starlink says the app helps you find the best location. Look for the obstruction check; Starlink’s help article used to call it “Check for Obstructions.” If it asks you to sign in, follow the prompts.

   2 minutesPhone
2. 02

   Step 2: Get your phone to the height the dish will be

   This is the step most people get wrong. For a roof install, the safest way is an upstairs window on that side, opened wide, with the phone held outside (not through the glass) and both feet on the floor. If you use a ladder, have someone hold it, keep one hand on it, and don’t twist around: scan the part of the sky you face, then climb down and move the ladder. For a pole, get as high as you safely can. For a yard install, stand on the spot. Never stand on the roof just to scan.

   LadderHelper
3. 03

   Step 3: Sweep the sky slowly and follow the prompts

   Hold the phone where the dish would sit and move it slowly across the sky as the app asks. Keep going all the way around: trees behind you count as much as the ones in front.

   3–5 minutes

4. 04

   Step 4: Save the result

   Screenshot the result before you move. In a notes app, write the spot (“north gable, ladder top”), the height, the date and whether the leafy trees were bare or full. You’ll want this when you compare spots, and again if you ever ask an installer, landlord or HOA about a location.

   Screenshot
5. 05

   Step 5: Repeat at every spot you could use

   Scan two to four spots, and the best spot at a second height if a taller mount is possible. Results can differ a lot over a few feet: the other side of a chimney or the far end of a roof ridge can be a different story.

6. 06

   Step 6: Compare the results and pick a spot

   Pick the spot with the least blocked sky that you can mount safely, run a cable from, and are allowed to use. If none looks good, see how much obstruction is too much before deciding.

Why the phone’s height changes the answer

Here’s one 50 ft tree 40 ft from the house, scanned from three heights. Same tree, three different answers:

Verdicts use the site’s lines: under 20° is Starlink’s clear-sky line for business installs, over 35° is our reading of the edge of the dish’s 110° view. Raising the phone 17 ft took this tree from inside the view to the edge of it. That’s also why a scan from the wrong height can talk you out of a spot that would work, or into one that won’t.

Reading the result

Starlink doesn’t explain the result screen in its help center, and it doesn’t publish a pass mark for home dishes. It does say the dish does best with open sky and can often get by with part of it. Our rule of thumb for a scan: small blocked patches low near the edge are usually fine; blocked areas that reach high into the sky, or appear on several sides, mean regular dropouts. Our three-band reading, with what Starlink does publish.

When the phone scan and the dish disagree

They’re measuring different things. Your phone takes one picture of the sky in a few minutes. Once installed, Starlink says the dish keeps learning where the blockages are, and that it can detect most obstructions in less than a day, and the map keeps updating. So a clear scan followed by an “Obstructed” alert in the first day usually means the dish found something the sweep missed, or is still learning. Give it a day before you move anything. If you already have the dish and it says obstructed, read how to read the map and fix it.

If the scan won’t start or looks wrong

These are general phone tips, not Starlink instructions:

• Scan in daylight, so you can see what you’re pointing at and the phone can too.
• Allow the permissions the app asks for, then try again.
• Update the app and restart your phone if the tool won’t open.
• Move slowly and steadily. Fast sweeps miss branches.
• Never scan from a spot you couldn’t safely mount the dish. Starlink’s terms say if you can’t install safely, don’t.