IPhone 14 Pro - Severe GPS Drift Across All Navigation Apps

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IPhone 14 Pro - Severe GPS Drift Across All Navigation Apps

I have had my iPhone 14 Pro for a little over a year, and up until a few days ago, never had issues with navigation apps. I drive a lot for work, which includes 3 markets with varying styles of architecture (no skyscrapers, I have seen this mentioned in other threads). Just a little over a week ago, I took a 12 hour trip to visit family and a return journey with no issues.

On Thursday of last week, I noticed my GPS stopped behaving. It couldn’t seem to find me and started showing me driving through houses a quarter mile+ away from the road I was on.

I tried a couple of hard restarts, I’ve reset Network as well as Location and Privacy settings, updated my OS, reinstalled apps, etc. the problem continues. I never turn off Wifi, but tried to see if that was the issue. It was not. I usually run the GPS on CarPlay, but tried having it open and running when a friend was driving this weekend. The issue remains.

I have opened my navigation apps while at home on my WiFi and watch my dot hover between my neighbors’ and my houses.

iPhone 14 Pro

iOS 17.6.1

iPhone 14 Pro

Posted on Aug 27, 2024 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

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thaddeuskane Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 29, 2024 3:42 AM in response to MrHoffman

I do not have Qi wireless in my vehicle, and have not had an issue like this before in the few years I have lived here, but would like to post an update:

I called Apple support and ran them through all of the troubleshooting I did. I was told that would have been all of the steps they would’ve taken with me over the phone, so they set an appointment up for me at my local store.

They ran diagnostics on my hardware to see if that was the issue (it was not). Then, diagnostics were run on my network services (also did not show any issue). I had a VPN service installed on the phone, but I hadn’t used it in roughly a year. It was explained to me that, while it shows I had not connected to it in some time, that these apps can sometimes get caught in a loop of trying to connect even when the service isn’t being used. I did not back up my phone as the appointment was in the middle of my workday, so the process of wiping the OS and starting fresh was delayed to another day, but to give it a shot, I had them delete the VPN app, and my GPS services have worked just fine since.

It could have been that removing the app did the trick. Maybe simply running the diagnostics as well. Sometimes my TV will tell me it isn’t connected to the internet in my house, and when I go to see what the issue is, it actually is connected to the internet and it works fine after that.

Hope this helps anyone that may also have the issue!

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Answer 2

MrHoffman

Level 10

151,509 points

Aug 27, 2024 7:39 AM in response to thaddeuskane

Global navigation satellite system positioning signals are very weak.

Locations off by several hundred meters is not particularly unusual even when everything is working too, particularly in locations when reception is degraded or satellite coverage is unavailable for any reason.

I’ve occasionally seen positioning persistently off by several kilometers.

Are you possibly located in an area with GPS issues or jamming, or inside a vehicle or inside buildings, in rugged terrain, or under tree canopies?

For reports of jamming: https://gpsjam.org/

If your vehicle has a built-in Qi wireless charging system, have you tested your iPhone placed in that? In some vehicles, those Qi chargers can also have external antennae connections; signal boosters.

It’s also possible the GPS/Galileo GNSS receiver in your iPhone is failing, and that’s a discussion best had directly with Apple Support.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,683 points

Aug 29, 2024 5:39 AM in response to thaddeuskane

👍 Very likely VPN.

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Answer 4

MrHoffman

Level 10

151,509 points

Aug 29, 2024 7:35 AM in response to thaddeuskane

VPNs are overhyped hot garbage too often run by sketchy vendors, solving a problem that hasn’t existed for a decade, but badly solving it in a way that is perfect for personally-identified metadata collection and metadata resale.

Outside of geo-shifting for website testing or CDN testing or such, and outside of connecting into the internal networks of affiliated organizations, best avoid VPNs. And if you really need geo-shifting or such, look at running the Algo VPN server or such, as you’ll better control the metadata that gets collected.

And if you really, really, really want a VPN, recognize that those inherently mess with network routing.

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IPhone 14 Pro - Severe GPS Drift Across All Navigation Apps

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