Location services went crazy

Question

Level 1

4 points

Location services went crazy

Hello there.

So, since yesterday, out of the blue, my iPhone and my wife's iPhone, both running the latest iOS, started to get wrong locations. I noticed when i took a picture in my house and instead of displaying my house zone or street, it displayed a random street of my city. Every time i tried to access a location service, the result would vary between 7-8 zones in my city. It looks like he doesn't know where he is and it's displaying old places he has been.

Same is happening with my wife's iPhone. Tried a home-on button reset of both iPhone, and on mine i reseted the privacy and location settings.

Here is a sample of both mine and my wife's iphone locations. Both phones were side by side when this screen was taken.

Any ideas?

Thank you

Posted on May 4, 2015 2:16 PM

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Answer 1

Itzatez Author

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2015 2:28 PM in response to Itzatez

Forgot to mention that both iPhones have, all the time, cellular network and most of the times they have WiFi.

Since Saturday we're having a very bad weather. Not sure if that's important, but... 🙂

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Answer 2

May 4, 2015 2:41 PM in response to Itzatez

Bad weather can definitely effect cell towers and GPS readings in the area. If it's been stormy there's a chance that lines have gone down in the area which is causing your phones to lock onto (and get bad readings from) different towers that are still up.

In any case, to make sure it's not your devices (I'm pretty sure it's the weather sadly), go to

Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings

Your phone's will reboot and require the WiFi password to be input again. If it's still occurring, I'd say wait for the storm to pass.

Keep an eye on local news to see if any towers went down and see if the problem is solved after the storm. (When the day has been sunny to moderately overcast for at least 5 hours) If it's still happening after the storm, reset network settings again and check back in here or the local apple store if the issue is still occurring.

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Answer 3

Itzatez Author

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2015 3:04 PM in response to Minibytefli

Thanks for your help.

I'll wait for the storm to pass and check again. This problem completely rends GPS apps useless. 😟

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Answer 4

Itzatez Author

Level 1

4 points

May 5, 2015 7:27 AM in response to Minibytefli

So, the storm has ended and outside my house the location services work again. But, when i'm connected to my WiFi, it remains crazy. It seems that something, between Saturday and today, messed up with my routers. :/

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Answer 5

May 6, 2015 3:41 PM in response to Itzatez

Glad to hear that they're working outside the house!

While I'm not a cable troubleshooter, try unplugging your router for 30 seconds to 1 minute and plug it back in. You may want to reset your network settings again while the router is unplugged and reconnect when it comes back up.

If the problem still persists than the router might have shorted or been damaged somehow by the storm. It's also possible that the lines your ISP are using are still storm-damaged, while the cellular ones are fine.

If it's still occurring you might want to call your ISP and head from there 🙂

Hope it helps!

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Answer 6

Itzatez Author

Level 1

4 points

May 6, 2015 3:51 PM in response to Minibytefli

Again, thank you for your help.

The stupid thing is that my house is 3 stories high and on the first two i have bad cellular reception (i still get cellular but very weak) but i have good WiFi coverage in the entire house. On those 2 floors with bad cellular coverage my location is all spread around the city completely random. If go to the upper floor, where the cellular connection is good, the location is right on the spot in my house. Its like, one second before i was 2 Km's away from home and i climb 3-4 steps and *zuuup*, i'm home... lol 😀

I've already tried to reset the 2 routers (I have 2 routers sharing the same WiFi so i can cover the entire house) and still the same. I looks like something happened that made the Apple location database to forget where my WiFi is.

This is no biiiiiig deal, since the GPS will work outside, but it's stupid because every picture i take at home it will be labeled as if i was at random places in town. :/

I'll contact my ISP to see what they say about it, but probably i will get some random guy that doesn't even know what i'm referring to...

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