Q: Airplane Mode...Will GPS work???

no.  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1355

I've just spent a week in Berlin with airplane mode on and Maps was able to track my position (assuming by GPS)...

If you read the article that was included in the post above, you would have noticed that GPS is defeat when in Airplane mode.

Most likely what you were seeing was possition by cell tower data instead of GPS.

Allan

Airplane Mode turns off the GPS radio so you were able to use Maps based upon known cell tower and/or wifi router locations.  It does this pretty well, as you can see.

How can you position by cell tower data if the cellular radio is disabled? It has to be WiFi positioning only.

Airplane mode will prevent you from using GPS and cell tower location, since both the GPS chip and the cellular radio are deactivated. As Jason pointed out, if you turn on wifi while on airplane mode, the phone may use wifi point locations.

While abroad, you should turn off data roaming (I also turn off cell data altogether to be extra sure). That way you will be able to use GPS location and cell tower location.

Keep in mind that the Maps app needs a data connection to download the maps, otherwise you will get a position but the map view will be blank. To prevent this, you should browse the area you are visiting while you have your hotel wifi connection. That way the map data will be cached in your device (cell position data required for cell location will be cached as well)

An alternative is using an app that allows to download maps for offline use. Mapswithme is a good option

Hope this helps and have a nice trip

paulcb wrote:

 

Airplane Mode turns off the GPS radio so you were able to use Maps based upon known cell tower and/or wifi router locations.  It does this pretty well, as you can see.

Here is a workaround. Once in airplane mode open the Compass app. The Compass app turns on the GPS, and you can now use the GPS in the Google and Apple maps apps as well. This works for my iPhone 5S with ios7.

and... Wifi must be on for the Compass app to turn on the GPS. 

I'm not sure why but with my 5S, in airplane mode, far from anywifi, google maps was still able to position me with the gps.

any ideas how?!

JonathanHuie wrote:

 

Here is a workaround. Once in airplane mode open the Compass app. The Compass app turns on the GPS, and you can now use the GPS in the Google and Apple maps apps as well. This works for my iPhone 5S with ios7.

Unfortunately this doesn't appear to work with my iPhone 5s running ios8.0.2. 

This is a huge drawback compared to my former Motorola Razr HD which did let me turn on the GPS when in airplane mode.  This was a great way to save battery when using location services such as Strava for extended periods of time, like 9hrs.  It sounds like there are plenty of backpackers who would also appreciate having this feature on the iPhone.

I confirm your findings: iPhone 5, iOS8.0.2 no GPS in airplane mode even with wifi and compass

Hopefully apple will fix this and is not intentional... Very stupid otherwise!

I Was smart enough not to update to iOS 8 so on my iPhone 5S the GPS works in airplane mode, but it takes time to get a lock as AGPS isnt available anymore

Actually, I was using my brother in laws phone without service for awhile, and I found that as long as I had WiF, I could drive 300 miles (even though the map layer would sometimes disappear, the route was made obvious). It's a good feature if you're really ever stuck, you just need to find internet to connect at the start. I'm sure it works abroad. The note 4 works with GLONASS.

So yes, did you find it was possible?