Q: iPhone 4s location wrong... Why?

Aaaaand I'm back to my correct location. Guess it's just a waiting game now till it settles down. If this continues I'll be on the blower and lodging feedback again.

Mines backs as well. Problems solved? Hope so! Anyone else have it back to normal or is it still haywire for you?

Struth, I'm back to the right location again in the UK too but I can't help but wonder for how long.

You are very lucky. After a break in russia this morning I am finally going back to china^^

Nope now I am still in the middle of sme fields in china, I hope it does not turn out to be some diplomatic row between India and china...lol.. This is $hit, location not working, automatic time setting not working and the battery drain issue.. Apple has hit the jackpot of problems with iPhone 4S and Steve has been gone only for a couple of month.. God save us all who own apple products.. Haaa

My location its ok since i made the update to ios 501(yesterday) but now the baterry its not so good 36% i have 3h usage and 9 standby

And befote the update was better 6-7 h of usage at 10%

Same with me. China. 100 km from my position away. China. . . .

iPhone 4S

iOS 5.0.1

Danmark

Back again to Kyrgyzstan wheeeee :p I have to say the topography around Osh International Airport is an interesting pattern 8-)

same here. I am in Poland but my location shows Mexico City...

needed to turn off to set time automatically as this was changing my time to -6... almost got late to work because of that (alarm clock didn't ring...)

Further thoughts to my previous post.  If it is as I think the edge / GPRS triangulation that is wrong and this this

all started on the 14 dec then it is possible that a widespread soft / firm ware update of the cellular stations went wrong.   The stations are built by various companies, Nokia being a major player in this area.  For the edge / GPRS system triangulation to work each station needs to know where it is. However if this is wrong then it will give a wrong location.  I am not sure what part the iOS has to play in this calculation, but I don't think the problem is the iOS as some seem to be on earlier version do iOS 5 and this would still not account for all these going wrong on the same day.  The only other aspect that I am not aware is if the iPhone uses the apple servers to help it with the triangulation calculation, I would suspect that this is not the case.  Very interested does anyone have this problem when able to access 3G?  Also does anyone have this problem when using a non O2 network? Given that the problem is widespread but not entirely universal I think this is the update of a type / model of cellular station and only on the GPRS / edge system.  I would think that the stations use the same triangulation software regardless of what transmission system is being utilised.  I have noticed that my false location changes depending on where I am in a 1k square, either China the other being Texas.  So I suspect that at one side of this area I am working off a different station to that on the other side of the 1k square. Interesting but annoying.

I had this issue & it too started on Wednesday 14th December 2011. Happened around 22:00 UK time when I looked at my phone & it was 02:00 or something like that. That day I was in Moscow.

It happened again so I disabled auto time setting. Solved... until my friend asked me why I was in Russia this evening so I did a bit of searching & found this thread. I've just returned home from an unplanned trip to 'Izberbash, Dagestan, Russia (Izberbash)' back to the UK now though... hopefully it will stay correct but it did the same a couple of days ago, not quite sure.

It's a bit of fun checking in on Facebook & tricking mates into thinking I took a weekend break to Russia

Sort it out Apple! Please...

I thought of a problem with the cell phone broadcast stations before:

The phenomenon of traveling around the world only appeared near (respectively in) my house and nowhere else, neither on the street nor in other buildings. So the broadcast station(s) next to my house might be the reason.

2 iPhone 4S with O2 Germany got the correct location all the time, also in my house.

1 iPhone 4S with Telekom Germany traveled (Spain, Czech Republic, but mostly the same place in China near Shanghai), but only when I was in my house (no GPS-fix). Right location came back when going down to cellar (no cell phone net but WIFI-connection to my own router).

So the issue is location- and net- but NOT O2-dependent.

The problem appeared to me suddenly on Dec, 14th and is gone since Dec, 16th, without changing anything by myself, Finding location in maps is even working very faster and more precise than before.

traceyfozz mentioned before in this thread: Apple said, that they are "sending out updates to all network providers to solve this issue" and that "they are sorting settings with network providers".

This also suggests an error in the broadcast stations.

If this was really said by Apple, than it sounds good, but why can't Apple release an official statement?!

From what I am reading here, it looks like a world wide problem with different mobile carriers from different countries, I really doubt if it is the problem with mobile carriers, seems to be some problem with the way iPhone gets the location, it has to be software problem as I did not have any problem with the same for the last 3 weeks since I bought the phone. I have tried all the tips and tricks given by various users but to no avail. I just read there is a new build of 5.0.1 from apple servers which can be got by restoring the iPhone from iTunes, it is primarily supposed to fix issues related to sim, but what the heck I will give it a shot.

If this is a hardware issue will apple replace the faulty handsets, I am not sure about India as they don't have any apple stores here, they have resellers who are called a premium resellers. I feel like a dodo going out and buying such an expensive phone (16GB for 45K INR) and the most important features works with a mind of its own.

Surprisingly though I have an iPad 2 64 GB WI-FI with the latest updates and the location thingy seems to work just fine...

Will let you guys know if things work after the restore of my iPhone.

Thank you.

I just did a restore of the iPhone by downloading the latest build of ios 5.0.1 (9A406) and google maps is working just fine, as previously I had done an OTA from the phone. I think apple should have released the new build as 5.0.2 so that everyone could have got it.

Good luck fellas.

This is an update to my earlier post...

Since the late evening of the 16th, my 4S started behaving on its own. Since then it has consistently shown the correct time & time zone, correct location. Something has certainly happened out there, since around that time I also noticed that my iPhone 4 showed my location far faster and more accurately than before. I do think something was fixed, either by the Serivce Providers or something else, since several users have reported that their phones also started behaving after the 16th.

For those users who are still having problems, I really do feel sorry for you since I know how frustrating it can be. I suggest you try the procedure recommended by Apple to traceyfozz (see several posts above). Or just wait a couple of days, maybe things will settle down on their own.

On another note, I today upgraded my 4S firmware from iOS 5.0.1 build (9A405) to (9A496). Although I never had a "No SIM" or "Invalid SIM" issue, I did notice that, for example, when I exited an Elveator, my phone would take a while to lock on to a signal again. Now it seems a bit faster. It's not a big difference but it is there.

I don't think the (9A406) firmware will resolve the wrong location or time zone issue but as a last resort, there is no harm in upgrading. If you are already on 5.0.1 then iTunes won't automatically download the new build. So you will have to manually download the new build from here:

http://appldnld.apple.com/iPhone4//041-3417.20111215.Slnt4/iPhone4,1_5.0.1_9A406 _Restore.ipsw

Once downloaded, Option-click on the Restore button in iTunes and select this new file.

Hope this helps.