GPS and Maps not working after 3.0 upgrade

I have small hope that the next update will make GPS work—which it hasn’t for most of the time I’ve owned my iPhone. VERY small, since the problem has survived through a number of updates already.

I used to think the GPS was intermittent and sometimes did work. Maybe that used to be the case. But I never see the blue dot pulse, so I think what’s really happening is that as I drive, Skyhook located me (more or less), causing the dot to move—and then freeze, and move again. This only works in an area dense with WiFi signals of course. It’s amazing how many networks you can pick up (briefly) just driving through an area at full speed.

hello frnds,
i have tried ething given in these forums but to no success!! pls help me get a corrrect location on my gps maps!! Also i found the problem after upgrading to 3.1.2 only!!

No luck here either.
Mine worked fine on OS2.x and 3.0 for a long time. Suddenly (still running 3.0), the GPS stopped working. Triangulation is fine, but no GPS (no pulsing blue dot in Maps, no GPS fix in xGPS, Navigon, Waze, Nav4All etc.) The blue dot in Maps keeps jumping between a few positions depending on the WiFi setting on or off. But never pulses.

Tried all tricks I could find on the internet:
Resetting Network Settings (this one worked once, GPS worked for about 5 minutes)
Resetting All settings (this one also worked once, also GPS back for 5 minutes or so)
Delete Locations Cache
Combinations of 3G/WiFi/BT/SIMcard in/out.
Restart and/or different resets between different settings
Restore without backup
Trying all above again
Putting backup back on iPhone
Trying all above again
Update to 3.1.2
Trying all above again
Tried the trick mentioned here about different location/timezone
As a last chance, tried all tricks I could find which I cannot mention here.

Still, after all this I'm still convinced it's not a hardware problem (mainly because the resets did work 2 times in total). I'm about to bring my iPhone to the shop for repair, but i'm afraid the problem will come back again. So, if anyone has more ideas?? I'm willing to try everything, have to restore anyway if I want to go back to the shop.

Greetings,
IcMn.

Hello everyone, I bought Iphone 3GS a week ago and when I launched the google maps for the first time everything was ok. A day ago I changed my carrier and now it keeps on showing me in a wrong location - 1, 2 miles off :/. Dunno if it is the carrier problem (I doubt it, maybe I just didnt notice it earlier since I wasnt using this aplication too often), but its kinda annoing (I live in Poland). I doubt it is a hardware problem, since my phone has just couple of days and I didnt drop it or anything, but it was working like a charm... so frustraiting. Tried already restoring/reseting settings with/without backup, and the only difference was that when I launched it for the first time it showed my location like 10 miles away, after restart, it kept on showing me 1,2 miles away, same spot all the time.

Edit.
Just downloaded Google earth to check it there. First, it shooted me miles away. At the 2nd try, it showed the spot 1,2 miles away from me just like google maps and now it has fixed on that location, showing it all the time... sigh

Message was edited by: Skwarek

Forget it, like what i have. I gave up and went external, along with RoqyBT GPS. some degree of inconvenience but it works well, better accuracy also.

Well, it "was" working earlier... since its a quite new phone, it has to be working. I usually dont buy a half-eaten bread for the price of a whole one 😉. Gonna hit my local store tomorrow and see if they can come up with the solution, if not, then Im gonna bug them to give me a new one and if that wont work... Im gonna unleash my nerd rage!

Well, I got a new phone under warranty, so my GPS is back again.

My advice: pay attention to the end of your warranty—and if you have a swap unit already, it has its own 90 days warranty, so be aware of that deadline too (and remember that some months have 31 days).

I have been 95% sure this was a 3.x software glitch, possibly some data that gets corrupted and then backed up, surviving even a wipe-and-restore. That seems less likely to me now: I wiped my phone and set it up as a new device. GPS STILL did not work. That sounds like hardware.

Then I restored my backup onto this new phone I just got, and GPS still WORKS 🙂 Of course, I know sometimes the GPS works at first and then degrades, so I’ll report back in a few weeks. Fingers crossed.

So I did I really get TWO phones with GPS hardware problems? Maybe so. The timing of 3.x update could have been coincidence. Very hard to say.

The phone GPS feature works great out of the box. I think the problem begins when you start upgrading the iphone software.

Most of the users here have expressed that their GPS only failed to work after an upgrade, so my advice is to NOT upgrade the software unless the upgrade has features that you really want (e.g. cut and paste function from 2.x to 3.x). Maybe upgrading using a Mac works better than doing it on a PC, I don't know.

I'm still on 3.1 that came with my 3GS and the GPS works well. I'm not going to upgrade my software anytime soon for fear that doing so will screw up my GPS feature.

Guys, is your GPS working when you are at home (flat or house)? Or maybe only when you are outside?

Message was edited by: Skwarek

GPS will never work indoors.

Remember, the iPhone’s “Location Services” is what pinpoints you on a map, but that includes more than just GPS. Location Services uses three location methods, relying on the best available at a given moment:

#1 Cell tower triangulation. Very poor accuracy, but works anywhere with cell coverage, even indoors.

#2 Skyhook (detection of nearby WiFi signals, even locked ones—this is all the iPod Touch has). Accuracy is not bad, and will often work indoors, but is not suitable for driving, and only works in populated areas with WiFi traffic in the air. The dot won’t move smoothly, but will jump suddenly as you enter a new WiFi region.

#3 GPS. This is the truly accurate (within a few feet) satellite navigation system. When GPS is working, you see a pulsing blue “water droplet” effect around the blue location dot, and the dot will animate fairly smoothly as you travel, especially when moving fast. This doesn’t work indoors except occasionally near a window, because it relies on “seeing” multiple satellites in the sky. But in your car (if mounted high) or walking outside it’s very accurate. When it works.

It’s #3 that has failed for people in this thread.

Guys, a question: has anybody tried solving this GPS issue in car with buying Tom Tom car kit which has in-built GPS unit? I was thinking of that, but do not want to waste another money just for nothing. Anyway any GPS problem solving method has not worked for me - after upgrading from 2.1 to 3.X, I cannot help myself, and I really tried everything posted here.
Apple, I am very disappointed with not acknowledging this issue.

Hi,

I'm using OS 3.1.2 and I've been with the same problems since I updated to this version. But... yesterday Itunes notified me about a carrier settings update available for Claro Argentina. I've updated and... MAGIC! GPS & Maps working like a charm now.

May I blame Apple, Claro or both for this issue?

Any news on this?....or are we all doomed?

mark

I think the staff APPLE ignore our comments. (34 pages only!). Now my iphone also lost WIFI. Sad .. very sad people!!!!

Well after many months of trying to fix this GPS problem, and even trying to go to Apple to get a replacement handset. Nothing seems to work.

I don't know if this has worked, but has anyone tried to "Completely erase" the iPhone data off the hard drive. I don't know if this would make a difference but apparently even after restoring an iPhone some data remains on the phone, it's quite possible that it keeps some GPS data and this conflicts with finding GPS lock-on. I don't know if it's worth doing and it is quite a lengthy and dangerous procedure to do, but it might just work.