why doesn't gps work without phone signal

If you want something more sophisticated than the Compass app there is an app called GPS Diagnostic. In addition to your position, it will tell you how many satellites are being received, their signal strength, and, most important, the accuracy of the reported position.

What's OP? Anybody knows whether I can find coordinates on the ground with I Phone Plus? I have the coordinates of a tract of land in Texas. I need to pinpoint these coordinates on the ground. (Or at least one of them). Can the I Phone be of help?

Jalisco15 wrote:

What's OP? Anybody knows whether I can find coordinates on the ground with I Phone Plus? I have the coordinates of a tract of land in Texas. I need to pinpoint these coordinates on the ground. (Or at least one of them). Can the I Phone be of help?

You will get more and better help if you start your own thread rather than adding on to an old one about a somewhat different issue.

OP = original poster, the person who started the thread.

The Compass app displays the GPS coordinates of the phone's location. This is good enough for casual use, but is not considered a legal description of real property. For that you need to hire a licensed surveyor.

I was quoted $5,000 for a surveyor... cannot afford it. Legal description of the property is on the purchase documents. My issue is to match as close as possible the coordinates on these documents with the coordinates on the ground. From there, I will assume 50 feet of possible error when building my house. Moreover, with the approximate ccoordinates, I will have a chance to locate the original survey markers. If I find one of the many, I will be even more reassured. I was to acquire a Garmin device, but Apple compass might save me money. (I read that apple can read GPS and GLO satellites, giving more precision to the readings).

Thank you for your comment.

Jalisco15 wrote:

Thaank you for telling me. By the way, Apple chat has helped me to find a solution for my querry.. just download the Compass.

Compass is not an app that you download (unless you had deleted it from your phone in the past). It's one of the pre-installed apps. I hope you didn't download anything you had to pay for.

You scared me.. Apple technician told me to write 'compass' on search and a yellow black thing came on. It said: Install, I did; no payment was mentioned. Apple tech told me on a chat that's the thing... It looked like a real compass and the coordinates were underneath...

I am not sure. I guess I wrote Compas (as asvised by apple agent) and got this yellowish thing on brown background.

I got the chat case number so, in case ot trouble, I can go back to them). Thank you Sir. I will drive now some ten miles and see my coordinates there...

Thaank you for telling me. By the way, Apple chat has helped me to find a solution for my querry.. just download the Compass.

Thank you so much. I will get this app, as I know satellites' position determines the precision of the readings.

By "Search" do you mean search on the phone or in the App Store? Don't be scared. If you didn't have to pay for anything I doubt it matters whether you have the preinstalled one or a different one.

Best of luck!

Thank you very much

What app were you using? I'm thinking that the app you were using requires a data connection to refresh the maps and that when it is unable to load maps it stops working. The GPS should work without a data connection.

this seems to be the normal operating mode on the iphone.

with airplane mode on i cannot get my gps position from maps, tomtom iphone software or navigon iphone software.

with wifi turned off and the 3g data turned off i am able to get a gps lock

so it seems to be normal that you need a valid phone signal in order to get a gps lock