iphone 13 pro max gps problems

Phone: iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB

GPS not always accurate, most of the time it’s half a road / one road away which would cause navigation chaos. I was meeting someone and sent them my location on WhatsApp, it said I’m in the river! Restarting the phone would fix the issue but it was very frustrating I had to keep doing this.

Logged a ticket with Apple and the technician suggested resetting location & privacy settings. This did not resolve the issue.

The next step was to connect my phone to a computer, in my case I have a MacBook running Big Sur, restore my iPhone using the MacBook. You can find your iPhone in Finder once connected, for older versions of iOS you’ll need to check the link below:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201252

I was told to use this method as wiping the phone via settings and restoring from backup could potentially put the corrupt software back on. 

Right so I restored the phone using the MacBook and selected manual setup (once again was told not to restore from backup, reason mentioned above). Go through the setup process and once on Home Screen, go to settings and login into iCloud. This will download all your pics, vids, notes, messages etc depending on what you have backed up. So please ensure to backup to iCloud or iTunes/Apple computer before restoring phone, you can either do this via settings >your name >iCloud >Backup or connect to a Apple computer, click on Finder >select phone >backup 

Tip: Double check to make sure WhatsApp is backed up, go to iCloud and scroll down to make sure WhatsApp is selected. Thereafter go into WhatsApp >Settings >Chats >Chat Backup >Backup now

Tip: Take screenshots of your Home Screen pages, so you can refer back to what apps you have etc

I was told to use the link below to see what apps I’ve purchased, it was a bit useless to be honest:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204088

Downside to this method:

• You’ll have to download all your apps again from AppStore 
• Sign back into all your apps
• Set wallpaper & lock screen
• Setup personalisation for phone calls etc
• Mail settings / personalisation 
• I had to reset my Apple Watch to reconnect it

Along with the GPS issue I was experiencing issues with calendar not updating properly, certain software seemed laggy and not smooth, Instagram as an example used to have laggy reels. My new AirPods Pro were cutting out intermittently for a split second from time to time.

It’s been 3 days now and I can confirm the issues above seem to be resolved, GPS seems to be spot on I went on a few drives. AirPods seem to work fine now too and software in general seems to be working properly.

I’ll report back after another week to let you know if I’m experiencing any issues but so far it seems to be fine. It could be down to corrupt software on the base build of the phone (iPhone 13 Pro Max)

Hope this helps others out there with the same issues. If you need any help with the methods above please feel free to reach out.

Cheers

I'm near 100% certain at this point it's an issue between phone and watch. I have an apple watch series 2 and have been doing a number of tests. I use strava almost daily, whether walking dog or bike rides. Watch only (phone not with me/off), GPS map in strava is a big jagged, but route is otherwise on target and where it should be. Phone only (watch off/not with me) GPS map in strava is fine, not even jagged like watch. However, recording on either of them while having the other with me, messed up 100% of the time. This goes for apple/google maps as well. watch off/not with me, GPS works simply fine on the phone itself. as soon as watch is on and connected, gps stutters, is imprecise and slow to update. I have tried disconnecting/reconnecting/resetting my watch and still has issues.

You've probably read some of my posts in this thread, and I've read it all too. I'm glad some people had luck, but I never had permanent luck until I got my phone replaced by Apple.

I've completely wiped my phone 2+ times through iTunes connected to a computer. Restored nothing except iCloud. Sometimes it worked good for a day or two, but the issue always came back. I have a Series 5 Apple Watch. I tried wiping my phone and not even pair my Apple Watch to it and the issue still came back.

For me, I would even notice my cellular data would drop while using GPS. It would start looking for service for 5-30 seconds then get a full signal.

In the end, I think its an issue between GPS and the ultra wideband antenna which is used for 5G and devices like the Apple Watch, AirPods, etc.

When I got my replacement iPhone, I set it up as new. I have my Apple Watch paired, manually reinstalled all of my apps, and everything has been working perfectly for 2 months.

Getting the replacement was a pain. I had a ticket open where I was sending logs to an Apple Engineer and did screen recordings of the issue. I sent it in for repair and they couldn't even find an issue. Finally the Apple Store helped me out and performed an exchange/replacement for me. At this point, I still think it is a hardware issue unfortunately.

I did troubleshooting with Apple’s Senior support and had some interesting findings. At my house, if I completely disable cellular data and wait for it to drop and only use WiFi then Maps zooms in on my precise location.

If I turn off WiFi and only use cellular data then I get a large .25mi - 2mi radius circle and it never zooms in.

I’m on AT&T and I did the same test between 5G and LTE and that didn’t seem to make a difference.

After sending them diagnostic data, they’re saying it’s a carrier issue.

Shut down the phone and restart. That works for my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

I was convinced it was a h/w issue before I figured out the restart method to (temporarily) remedy this. I have an open support ticket with Apple. I’m sending them a screen recording of the issue so they can send to their engineers. I’ll keep you posted.

So today I was running Strava, a tracking app while riding my bike. I looked about 1/2 mile down the trail and it was all messed up. I toggled location services on and off, and poof, my location instantly snapped into the correct location and worked the rest of the ride.

Update 12/27

I just returned from a 1500-mile trip where I heavily used GPS and turn-by-turn on the Google Maps app. I can confirm that my GPS issues remain resolved after my reset to factory settings on my iPhone 13 Pro Max on December 17.

Looks like I'm GPS recovered for 10-days and 1500 miles now! Thank you, GPS Anonymous and Slick1987, for your help!

Since 15.2 update my GPS now seems to work consistently . It takes a few seconds and locks in well, it never did that before the update.

I have the same issue on my 13 pro and my wife's 13 pro max. Both running the latest 15.1.1 ios. GPS is not accurate and moves around, makes using the phone for navigation impossible. The problem seems to clear after a reboot. If the phone has been on for a while it will show up. I was sitting still on my front porch watching my location dot move around about a 1/4 mile in different directions even though I was not moving.

I am having the same issue with my iPhone 13 256 MB.  Using Google maps or Apple Maps to navigate, my location sometimes appears as about 1 block from my current location.  Often that is in the middle of a field or on a different street.  The Apple Genius tested the GPS of the phone and it is “working normally”.  So far, the best help I have had from Apple was advice from one of their agents who said she was having the same problem.  She believes that somehow our phones are being confused when they are aided by WiFi location and/or cell tower location (handoff issues).  She suggested shutting off WiFi before starting navigation (as I often set my destination while I am still in the house) and this usually works well.  Also toggling location services on and off before setting the destination seems to help.  Unfortunately, I still get random inaccurate readings every couple of weeks.  I will follow this topic eagerly to see if someone comes up with a definitive solution other than resetting your phone as new. 

Well, i have the same issue…. just bought my new iPhone 13 pro yesterday and I cant play Pokemon Go or see my excact location on snapchat or anything else that uses the gps!

After trying everything the internet says, restart, reboot, delete the phone and start over, i’d spoke to apple support and they told me to go meet an autorised apple mechanic and get the phone connected to some kind of devices.

Also i happend to know a Apple mechanic, he says its the gps antenna that has a “born” problem.

This is not good enough Apple.

Very frustrating that I need to go to your repair shop with my new 1000$ iPhone that i bought yesterday…

This is actually something I had wondered about in following this discussion. Doing a hard restart on my phone fixes the incorrect location every time it happens, but it hasn’t happened for me often since I initially ran into this problem. The first time it happened to me was the first time I had fully charged my watch and wore it out after I got my 13 Pro. I had plans to go hiking that weekend, and that weekend was when I had the most trouble with GPS. I had to restart my phone at least once a day during that trip to get GPS to work properly. I hardly ever wear my watch on a regular basis because it’s bothersome while I’m sitting at a computer all day for work. But I also haven’t dealt with the GPS issue for over a month at this point. My Apple Watch is a Series 4 with GPS + cellular, but I haven’t had cell service set up on it for over two years now.

iCloud kept my contacts/photos/etc. but otherwise yes. clean wipe of the phone, did not restore from backup.

the crazy thing? MANY of the apps I reinstalled manually looked/behaved COMPLETELY different than the versions prior to restore. This leads me to another issue in their code that likely somewhere device model is being saved and not ported correctly when people transfer to a new phone via a backup. So besides being a phone + watch issue, imo, there's something also jacked with their backup/restore to newer devices. I'm not talking simply preferences changes in how they looked/behaved either, but FUNDAMENTAL layouts and user experiences were ENTIRELY different in apps I use regularly as if they were stuck in "iPhone X version" until I restored. **** I saw/got prompted for features on my 13 (camera "style" for example) that I had NEVER seen in having the phone for 3+ months!

Not that I would recommend it, but I performed a factory reset, and it has been better since. Hopefully it stays that way.

Upgrading to 15.2 worked to correct the problems on both the phones in our house. Did not do the full reset described above and our have worked successfully for the last two weeks or so.