GPS and Maps not working after 3.0 upgrade

OK, now I've tried EVERYTHING! Restored to new phone, placed under a open sky for 45 minutes, tested turning on/off BT, WiFi, 3G. Restored settings and restarted in different order. Nothing works! Now I'm replacing this unit.

But. Is there anyone out there who knows if the iPhone OS 3.1 beta 2 solves this?

I went back to the carrier's store where I purchased this iPhone here in Brazil (Claro) to get a replacement. They didn't have it in stock the first time I went there. This time they did. They asked me what happened and I told them about no blinking blue dots, meaning no gps lock and how I could only get cell triangulation info. The guy filled out the forms, and gave me a new one. They didn't check any moisture sensors nor minded the cracked glass on the bottom. I liked that! I got home, upgraded it to 3.0, restored from the backup and now I have an iphone that can get gps reception again.

Yes, I am having exactly the same problem. The GPS on maps is way way off, by 1/4 mile or so. Apps that depend on GPS such as iMapMyRide never get a location fix at all -- so they have stopped working entirely. Maps shows a fix, but it useless in the city because it may show 8 blocks away, or someplace on the other side of the lake.

I understand GPS once worked pretty well. I am not sure if GPS is working at all or if the location just comming off the known wifi hotspats and cell-phone tower triangulation. E.g. I turn on the wifi and location locks right in. That tells me location in. But away from known wifi it is broken.

So my guess is that GPS is entirely broken and location is being inferred from the other sources with much lower precision.

The same at my mobile. After upgrading to 3.0 for a week GPS module work great and then stop locating by GPS (only network triangulation).
Restoring doesn't fix problem 😟

Brand new 3g s 32g purchased via Apple Store online in Hong Kong. Battery life seems sub
-par. Could not figure out why GPS was not working on local hilltop or at sea. I had the phone in airplane
mode because of the poor battery life. It turns out if you have the phone in airplane mode even with location services on, the GPS is turned off. You must have airplane mode off and location services on to turn on the GPS. Funny thing is this works with the SIM removed, so apparently the ephemeris data is coming in properly via the GPS chip and the phone is geolocating without use of wifi or GSM cell tower data.

I wish Apple would fix this and let the user turn on just the GPS without wifi or GSM on (let us run the GPS in airplane mode on and location services on, wifi off). It might help with the dismal battery life. Anyway with airplane mode off and SIM removed Motion-X is pretty much spot on in the few tests I tried. Wonder if I get a check or thank you from Apple for being a defacto beta tester of their software. And I used to say bad things a out Microsoft software quality. No more!

OK. I know this makes no sense whatsoever, but my husband's 3G iPhone with 3.0 software has perfect GPS, as always. It saved our life when we needed to navigate Tampa Bay, Florida, on Christmas Day without maps or native guides.

My brand new 3GS phone HAS NEVER HAD accurate GPS. It is usually off by 1 - 5 MILES. So I started trying some of these suggestions, WiFi on and off, 3G on and off, and amazingly, when I turned 3G OFF, I got the first accurate reading of the GPS since I bought this darned thing. Do I now have to live without 3G?

I cant compare to pre-3.0, since I never used my 3GS with anything but 3.0. However, my iPhone EDGE would sometimes be more accurate using just triangulation.

I have noticed that If I leave the map on for a couple of minutes, it usually gets itself straightened out. This obviously has its drawbacks though.

The people who complain about inaccuracy... I totally agree, the blue dot can be very far away from your actual location. But how many of you wait a few minutes to give it a chance to narrow itself down? Im not making excuses for a shoddy implementation of GPS – just trying to see if everyone has the same results.

to the last poster. I can assure you that most of the people who post here has had devices with non functioning satellite assisted GPS, and I think most of us tried everything - including waiting for many minutes, in my case hours!

I'm now getting a new phone from Apple. I dont think they would give me a new one if it was a matter of patience...

Right. What makes it so clear-cut is that we can compare how the GPS worked before the 3.0 update, and after. It used to be quick and precise most of the time. Now, in identical situations, it's 60 seconds delayed and off by miles.

Be sure to report the issue at apple.com/feedback 🙂

What I find most annoying (since I dont really use the GPS for traveling that much right now) is that it really screws up the whole point of having locations tagged to photos in iPhoto. I can take 3 pictures within a minute and the locations will be marked miles apart. In some cases, I have 20 location pins all over a 2 mile radius for an event that took place in one spot. So frustrating, as the whole tagging feature is pointless now.

I'll leave feedback for sure.

Message was edited by: Frozo

svantet:

Since this is obviously a software issue to me (everyone seems to have the problem after installing 3.0), why do you expect a new phone to fix your problem? Or dont you?

Just for the record, I restored twice, first using my backup and the second I set up as a new iPhone. Both cases there was no GPS fix after even 15 minutes, only triangulation.

A new phone COULD fix the problem, since it seems not everyone has this problem. But it could easily NOT fix the problem too. So, while I see the temptation to try (especially if you really depend on GPS), getting a new phone seems awfully wasteful. As you say, what is really needed is a software fix, and then your old phone will be fine again.

(Same is true for the WiFi loss some of us have--but in that case, a new phone probably WILL help, at least for a short time: because WiFi seems not to fail until until a phone's very first 3.0 installation has "aged" a few days. Still a waste, though, to get a new phone just to have WiFi back when it might only last a few days.)

I've seen two other iPhone 3Gs running 3.0 get the blue blinking dot after a few seconds at the same location where I never ever got it. So yes, I think it's hardware. But it can also be that 3.0 has a negative effect on some devices hardware...? Maybe.

I have a 16gb 3G and only getting triangulation after upgrading to version 3.0... Two of my friends have brand new 3Gs's and both of them fail to get a GPS fix. I think it's a joke on Apples part. Why bother with beta's when they can't even get it right after that! Roll on 3.1 and sort this out!