iPhone 2.0 - Can't locate me in Google Maps

Some more info would be good, where are you, has it always worked, or has it just started working?

Phone is on O2 and I am just outside Andover in Hampshire.

It has been a bit problematic but certainly seems to have worked okay for a few days.

to be honest I use my 3G iPhone now but thought I would give the old one a try again this morning.

Bot with WIFI on and off it locates itself every time!

Robin

Thanks for the info, which would add credence to the theory that it's some (most!) towers that aren't working, rather than blanket fail!

Just come back from France and Spain where I had absolutely no issues with LocateMe. Back in the UK, it doesn't work on GPRS (not tried EDGE yet) but works with Wifi.

This is definitely a network issue and firmware updates/restores will do diddly squat.

A

I think you are slightly mistaken in saying that it works in other apps. My impression is that other apps will cache your location based on the last successful locate me that you did, and so if you've managed to locate yourself once on wifi but then turned wifi off, it might appear that the other apps can still find you but in fact they are using the cached location.

_Its definitely something to do with 2.0 and O2_

I am in Madrid this week and although I don't normally have data roaming turned on, I thought I would turn it on just to test the locate me function. Like many of you, since upgrading to 2.0 my original iPhone on O2 in the UK hasn't been able to locate me via edge / gsm - only WIFI worked.

So anyway, I turned data roaming on (making sure WIFI was off), launched google maps, hit 'locate me' and within 20 seconds it managed to find my (almost) exact location.

I've turned data roaming off again, of course, but in a way its reassuring to know that the issue is limited to the UK/O2 and therefore shouldn't be too difficult to fix (hopefully).

It's not specifically O2 though, as my friends unlocked 1st Gen iPhone also doesn't now work on 2.0, and I think it actually bases it on all the towers not just o2s. (but I could be wrong).

Perhaps the solution will be to emigrate 🙂

I might be able to point some light one this. I was using my iPhone 2G v2.0 on July 29th at 12pm to navigate through London very successfully. Then all of a sudden it stopped working. I figured I'd crashed my phone. But after that I have tried repeatedly and on 4 different phones and have since not managed to get it working. This thread seems to indicate that it isn't just me. This is one of the most used features of the iPhone so I hope they fix it soon.

2.0.2 has suddenly fixed my first gen iPhone and it locates me pretty much exactly.

Quite happy now.

Sounds promising. Can anyone else corroborate this?

Same as usual, upgraded (2.0.2) and still no cell triangulation!

I've tried it various places in London and Kent. Only works with WiFi on which is useless in the middle of nowhere!

Oops, it appears to be working with wifi location only. My bad.
Sorry for getting everyone's hopes up but at least it's a step in the right direction 🙂

(2.0.1 was telling me i was living deep in the heart of Germany!)

Ok, so I'm getting sick of this...I'm having the same problem, (8gig 3g) however... I can get my phone to locate me by tricking it. It's like you have to jump start it. First, I turn off 3g and turn on wifi from the off position next switch 3g back on and turn wifi off. It'll work for a few hours then I have to do it again. And no, you don't have to be connected to a wifi network while switching it on and off. This is sort of a solution for me, but I know that I shouldn't have to go through all of this just to get maps to work... Someone else should give this a shot and see if it works for them...

Okay, more information:

It definitely seems to be location specific (ironically), where I live in Surrey, it doesn't work, when I'm in London I have various successes and failures depending on where I am, outside London Bridge tube station works. On the weekend I was on the Isle of Wight and it worked on the Island!!! It worked in Portsmouth as well when waiting for the ferry.

However it does not work at home, and interestingly enough enough 3G iphones GPS doesn't work here either, it's like it needs the triangulation or something before it can work, so it seems to be certain towers etc are not functioning (or are not listed in the 2.0 upgrade).

And again so we don't have any confusion this is not using WIFI on a 2G iphone.

After a week or so of mucking about and reading up on the problem, I think I know what causes it and how to fix it. I have resolved the issue on my 2g iPhone running the 2.02 software.

From what I think I know:

Version 2 of the iPhone software uses a system called Skyhook to locate you as its primary method. In order for Skyhook to function properly, wi-fi must be turned on in your iphone settings. Contrary to what I orginally believed, you do not need to be connected to any wi-fi network, it just needs to be turned on. The iphone will then have a look around and find the wifi base stations local to you, and use the data connection in your iPhone to contact Skyhook and get the location of those wi-fi stations. Once the data has been returned to your iphone, you wail have a faux gps fix. If no wi-fi stations are available in the area, it will simply fall-back to the original cell phone triangulation method on the 2g iPhone to find you. But the whole think falls apart if wi-fi is not turned on. Remember you do not need to be connected or joined to someone elses network, the wi-fi on your iphone just needs to be turned on.

I think the bug is that if wi-fi is off, the Skyhook function doesnt get called, and the iPhone never falls back to EDGE/GPRS triangulation.

I have tested this with the my wi-fi router turned off in my home. The iPhone located me in about a minute on the 2g version with no connection other than edge. This also seems to match with the you-tube video.