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iPhone 4s location wrong... Why?

My location on my 4s is completely out, it says I'm about 30 miles away from where I actually am. It does this 90% of the time! And I'm not sure what I can do to fix it. My iPad 2 and other family members iPhone 4 on the same wifi etc. doesn't have any prOblems with this.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Nov 4, 2011 2:47 AM

Reply
369 replies

Dec 15, 2011 2:32 AM in response to richardfrommatlock

I have had some serious location problems, I am in South of France but my pin locates me in China, or Russia!!

The idea that if GPS or 3G are not working this can cause the problem, makes sense to me, I dont have 3G or GPS services right here at home. But I am in my wifi range and the problem persists.

If I restart the phone location is correct for a few, up to 20 minutes, then relocates to China..

Weather acts the same way.

Your fix is good for me but I dont know how long it will last.

I reset all settings before and this helped temporarily, the only other thing is to turn the phone off and then on again, - also only works temporarily.

Dec 15, 2011 2:45 AM in response to richardfrommatlock

Got the same Location issue since yesterday. Location service was working excellent 1-2 weeks before.

Living in Germany my iPhone 4S locates me in Shanghai (always the same place).

After turning off and restarting iPhone the right location is found but after several minutes or sometimes hours I'm back in Shanghai again.

So I removed several new installed apps using location service - no difference.

The problem also occurred when I turned of WIFI or connected to another Router in my LAN, so I don't think it's a router problem.

Going to cellar, where is no phone network service (Telekom) or GPS-signal but only a WIFI-Connection to my LAN, location stays correct. Going upstairs and get connected to Telekom network service the location gets wrong again.

My kids got 2 new iPhone 4S too but have another provider (O2). They are located correctly and never had this issue.


So I believe the problem is the local cell broadcast information of the service provider!


Today I tried resetting network settings and ... now location service works correctly for 4 hours. But as I read in this discussion it can happen again.


I'll feedback this to Apple, too.

Dec 15, 2011 2:51 AM in response to ChrisHLA

Hi ChrisHLA, the problem is definitely with iPhone 4S, as I said before I have done testing with Apple seond line support, the testing included swapping sims with an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS... only the iPhone 4S exhibits this problem when connected to the cellular network with no 3G and no GPS. We all use Vodafone but only the 4S get the location wrong, the other iPhones get it correctly all the time.

Dec 15, 2011 3:18 AM in response to ChrisHLA

I tested the issue again and here's my result:


Resetted network settings.

Right location for about 4 hours.

When using maps iPhone 4S located me in China (living in Germany) again.

Turned off cellular network service by choosing the wrong service provider.

Turned off location service and on again only using WIFI-connection --> right location found

Turnes on cellular network service with correct provider.

Location service works good (but how long will it last ...)

iPhone 4s location wrong... Why?

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