GPS accuracy iOS 13 and/or 11 Pro Max

Wi-Fi is absolutely essential for GPS accuracy. GPS by itself only works with a very clear view of the sky; no tall buildings, no trees, no overpasses, etc. And GPS by itself can take several minutes to get an accurate fix.

All apps that I have tried have bad tracking with iphones.

I bought GPS Diagnostics today: my brand new iPhone 11Max Pro has an accuracy of... 214 feet!

The position moves from one side of the street to the other. Then onto buildings and it goes all over the place. I don’t get these results with Android phones who have dual frequency GPS chips. I get then a precision under 1m (3 feet). The information isn’t available online but I wonder if iphones ever have any GPS hardware chip.

I have a 14 days return policy. Please Apple don’t make me go through this. I really like your company.

I have checked my iPhone 6s too: accuracy (based on the measurements of the GPS diagnostic App) is slightly better on the iPhone 11 Pro:

+/- 16 feet iPhone 11Pro versus +/- 17 feet on the 6S.

The big difference is the sensitivity. If I only move my upper body 45° to the left (or right), the Altitude and Longitude are changing fast on the 11 Pro while the 6s GPS data is stable (like it should be). I guess that’s the main problem at the GPS tracking issue: the Signal changes too fast while I am not really moving. You will not realise this problem if you are standing still without any movement. But it will cause deviations in tracking as soon as you move.

I'm using Alltrails Pro. Have been in touch with their support people and they say they have had other reports of erratic results from iPhone 11. I have been on hikes with people using the same app with iPhone 8 Plus and they do not have the same problem. As far as I know the Alltrails app does not have GPS filtering but will have a look in the settings again.

Thanks for the tip... will check out Guru Maps Pro.

Try the app GPSdiagnostic to see the real strength of the GPS signal. Mine does degrade a little in the car, but I have never had a problem with Google Maps. The car is kind of a Faraday cage...

I also actually go into the Bluetooth settings and make sure the watch is disconnected, just turning Bluetooth off from control centre doesn’t do this. It’s a faff but my runs are now more accurate.

Well, in my case updating my iPhone 11 to 13.3 fixed my mentioned issues: No jumping position in Google Maps anymore, same with TomTom Go. This seems to be a strange bug.

But another old bug returned: Splitted albums in my music app. So, this is another story.

And that's the problem support said there is a problem somewhere because they have a lot of reports of this even with 4 good satellites it will jump all over strava issued a statement saying that their app is off because the iPhone 11 is not tracking horizontal data accurately

So I downloaded Strava and GPX Tracker on my iPhone 11 Pro. Strava has an option for background app refresh under general settings, but GPX Tracker does not. So I am not sure if that would be a problem for GPX Tracker. For Strava make sure that is turned on. But more importantly, neither app seems to have GPS filtering. I am not sure what the scale is of the tracks that people have posted, but if it is zoomed way in then it could be because of GPS inaccuracy - it is never gonna be perfect. In my house now GPSdiagnostic says +- 30 feet. So zoomed in it jumps all around.

redmonk78 I would suggest trying different hiking apps. I use Guru Maps Pro and like it a lot, but there is AllTrails, Trails, and others. I didn't suggest google maps as a long term solution, just an experiment to try once or twice.

Windymi, did you have location services turned on for GPS Diagnostics? Because + - 214 feet is what it comes up with when you first launch it. Are you getting any satellites? Inside my house it varies between + - 50 feet and then it settled out at + - 16 feet for an iPhone 11 Pro. All satellites are green. If location services is on then it is really a defective phone.

Make sure location services is on.

Which is exactly what the US Government states the accuracy of GPS in a smartphone will be:

For example, GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.) radius under open sky. However, their accuracy worsens near buildings, bridges, and trees.

https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/

kerrybtx, if that happens go to Apple and insist on a phone replacement. Mine does not do that. See my step 1 above. I assume that google maps is in the foreground right? And that in settings-general-background app refresh that google maps is turned on?

redmonk78 wrote:

Maybe you didn‘t know that iPhone is using GLONASS and GALILEO too.

And even land surveyor, which are using GPS, are working with a much higher accuracy.

Yes, standalone GPS receivers use various techniques such as dual frequency receivers to establish more precise positioning that phones, due to limited real estate inside, cannot.

GLONASS is even less accurate:

GPS: ± 3 to 4m

GLONASS: ± 7 to 10m

Gailileo has a higher accuracy of ±1m, but isn't suitable for navigation at the moment and has a much higher out of service rate.

Here is more information:

About privacy and Location Services in iOS and iPadOS - Apple Support