Apple CarPlay GPS wrong location issue

Thank you for the information. You were correct. I took my car back to where I purchased my HU and of course “this” was the first time they ever heard of this issue and was trying to blame my iPhone. I read back what you said and asked them move the HU’s GPS antenna to minimize interference. Come to find out that the antenna was connected and tucked behind the HU which is why it always gave the wrong location to my iPhone. After they installed the GPS antenna to the far right corner of the dash, as stipulated in the HU’s installation manual, CarPlay worked perfectly (wired and wireless).

Unbelievable!...that I had to go on this troubleshooting journey bc my installer didn’t install the HU per manufacture’s instructions.

All is well now and CarPlay maps is a great feature on my Pioneer AVH-W4500NEX. I can’t thank you enough.

Thats the issue...

Showroom guys have not connected CAN bus wire to head units. You don't need to set time manually, Head unit sync time and temperature using CAN bus.

CAR play and Head units needs VSS ( vehicle speed signal) to work correctly. VSS signal comes from BCM thru CAN bus wire. Ask showroom guys to connect CAN bus wire and scan full CAR, make sure error reported.

BTW how much did you pay ?

That's the tricky bit.

Once more, when using CarPlay via a cable, the head end tells your phone whether it is supplying it with GPS data or if the phone should supply itself. If the head end has any kind of connection for a GPS antenna, it is likely supplying data to your phone, and if no antenna is connected but it has a jack for one, it is likely supplying incorrect data.

Almost all factory automotive head ends that support wired CarPlay have GPS antennas and will supply the phone with location information even if the car has no native navigation system available.

When using wireless CarPlay, the head end is required to supply your phone with all GPS data, the phone never uses its on-board GPS unless disconnected from CarPlay.

My wireless CarPlay nav had exact issue that couldn’t easily be resolved and I tried everything.

Yesterday I took it to an audio install shop and they actually took the time to drive themselves with wireless CarPlay and saw for themselves. They played with the GPS antenna in several locations and it only worked when they exposed the antenna and stuck it to the dash. They used double sided 3M tape placed it far left side of dash where registration sticker is. If you didn’t know otherwise you would think it was placed there from factory.

All nav apps work as if using iPhone unpaired..

This fixed my issue. NOTHING else made any difference.

Hope this helps!

I had the same issue for quite a while, my car screen even goes pixelated with blur. However after 2 years I got a way round it.

Go to the location setting on your maps app (google maps or Waze) and change it to always allow. I did this and it solved the gps problem.

I have always had my location setting on “while using app” so when CarPlay is activated it sort of shuts the phone and gps stops working cos it assumes the app is not in use.

I got it fixed. Just go to dealers, ask them updates the software of the head. Everything will be done. It’s free

I have an Audi A4 B9 (~2017/18 version) with Navigation onboard and CarPlay is giving me similar issues in Singapore.

I connect my iPhone (iOS 13.3) via cable and everything works well except for all my navigation apps Apple Map, Google Maps and Waze.

After two months using CarPlay, the issue of my gps location being unable to lock or displaced about 50-100m from my actual location happened throughout clear weather to thunderstorms.

I thus thought it was a defective iPhone but then realised the navigation was always ok if I didn’t connect to CarPlay. I also noticed my car's navigation worked fine when the iPhone wasn’t connected too.

Fixes and semi fixes that worked for me on and off are listed below:

1. Most of the time - connecting my Iphone before starting the car. This has generally worked well so far 9 times out of 10.
2. disconnecting and reconnecting the cable has worked maybe 3 times out of 5.
3. Starting the car’s own navigation (you need to navigate to a location not just go to the map) and then returning to CarPlay and starting navigation again while the car’s navigation is still running. This works 5 times out of 10.
4. Powering iPhone on and off may initially increase the likelihood of the navigation apps on CarPlay working even if you turn the car on first, but it hasn’t been anywhere near reliable for me.

As you might have realised, it seems to very likely be some sort of sync error between iPhone and the car’s GPS system. Another poster in this thread mentioned that CarPlay may or may not use the car’s gps antenna when connected via cable. There could be something that is not syncing right if you connect while the car’s system has already initialised.

I don’t know if it’s an iOS 13.x issue or not. My iPhone was already on iOS 13.2 when I first used it with CarPlay.

I hope this helps somebody out there who may be as frustrated with it as I was. This is the first time I switched back to iPhone since the 5S, and it’s been a great experience so far save for CarPlay’s gps issues. I resisted coming back to iOS for so long largely because android auto was so much more useful than CarPlay up till recently.

I really hope Apple manages to fix this issue in the next update.

Yes - when connected via CarPlay, the phone believes whatever GPS information is sent to it by the car's head unit.

If the car isn't providing proper location information, you will see issues like you describe.

Note that cars may or may not have a GPS antenna; many head units that do not provide GPS services still have an antenna because of CarPlay.

If you connect to CarPlay with a cable your vehicle may or may not provide GPS data to your phone; if your head end supports Wireless CarPlay, it must provide GPS information to your phone.

Hi, and thank you both for your replies. However, both I and Apple disagree. Yes, I read the whole thread, so I saw the replies where it was suggested that the car manufacturer is at fault. However, if you read the entire thread, you will see people have this identical issue with Fords, Porches, Subarus, GMCs, and others. If it is an issue with Ford's system, it is apparently an issue with every car maker mentioned in this (and the other, numerous) threads. That alone suggests strongly the problem is Apple's, not the various car makers.

Second, yes, I and most in this thread know that CarPlay derives its GPS from the car when on USB, not the phone. So, it is mysterious that, as I specifically wrote (and have others) the GPS in the vehicle is completely accurate using its own navigation screen. It is only when interfacing with CarPlay that things run amok. This factor alone is not indicative of whose system is at fault in corrupting the transfer of data from the car's GPS to the iPhone, but it shows that CarPlay is the conduit for the fault.

Third, posts in this and the other numerous threads, in this and other forums, suggest the problem is intermittent. Mine is no different. I took three car trips yesterday around my city. I posted after the first. The second trip yielded perfect results on CarPlay--exact/correct locations found on each map app. The third trip had the issue again. My one trip so far this morning had no issue at all.

Finally, and maybe what I should have led with, yesterday evening, I went to the Genius Bar at my Apple Store and asked about the issue. The Apple Store employee stated, unequivocally, that this is a known issue with CarPlay, and is being worked on at Apple.

I probably should have just gone straight to the Apple Store before posting here, but, I'd just done a Google search, and thought I'd add my similar experience. I've owned Apple products for 34 years. I find it frustrating when they don't acknowledge a problem that seems widely reported on Internet forums, but, since the Apple employee last night fully acknowledged that this was an Apple problem, and that they are working on it, that's good enough for me; I wanted to pass that on to others in this thread who have been having this problem crop up. Thanks.

I fixed the issue in my Genesis by doing a hard reboot of the car's head unit (main entertainment and navigation screen). There was a secret button I used a pen tip to press and hold in for ten seconds. After the reboot, everything was fine.

Not really - you have to get your vehicle to report proper location information to the phone.

In some cases the issue has been resolved with an auto maker firmware update.

For third party head-ends, some home users and car stereo installers never bothered to install the GPS antenna the unit came with because they were "going to use their phone for navigation."

The bottom line is CarPlay is setup to get the location information from the car whenever possible (since the car presumably has better placed GPS antennae) and if the car is feeding the phone bad information, there's not much the phone can do about it.

So, I now longer have the problem. Two things I’ve done. 1) changed OBD setting to “on demand,” 2) switched back to aftermarket GPS antenna included with the Alpine ILX107 and relocated far away from head unit. After chatting with Alpine and catching the note in the install instructions about placing antenna far from the HU.

crosscannan wrote:

My wireless CarPlay nav had exact issue that couldn’t easily be resolved and I tried everything.

Yesterday I took it to an audio install shop and they actually took the time to drive themselves with wireless CarPlay and saw for themselves. They played with the GPS antenna in several locations and it only worked when they exposed the antenna and stuck it to the dash. They used double sided 3M tape placed it far left side of dash where registration sticker is. If you didn’t know otherwise you would think it was placed there from factory.

All nav apps work as if using iPhone unpaired..

This fixed my issue. NOTHING else made any difference.

Hope this helps!

This is because, as I have mentioned before, wireless CarPlay dictates that the phone receive all GPS information from the vehicle; the on-board GPS chip is completely ignored.

I just got my issue fixed today. Apparently my car has an in-built camera embedded with GPS antenna causing the interference. Changing the camera helps.

What if you reset Location & Privacy?

From the Home screen, tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy

Some other tips are here: https://appletoolbox.com/gps-issues-iphone-latest-ios-upgrade/