iphone 6 plus gps very inaccurate

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Level 1

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iphone 6 plus gps very inaccurate

I have an iPhone 6+, iOS 8.4 (12H143), model MGCR2LL/A using both Google Maps and Maps. Verizon is my carrier.

I am currently in Bangladesh, where I put my phone on airplane mode to avoid roaming and just use the wifi. I was using Google Maps to get around (using the offline feature), and while I was looking for something on Google Maps, my blue dot showing my location switched to a building in Shanghai, China. This happened in the past hour. I have never been to Shanghai. I was in Guangzhou for a long layover a week ago though.

I tried turning off location services and wifi, restarting my phone, and forgetting my network and then reconnecting in a bunch of different arrangements. The forgetting my network, turning it off and then turning it back on and logging into the wifi network worked for about a minute and then I went straight back to China. Also, I turned on roaming and that worked too. It also says from time to time that I was sharing my location with friends and family and I've never done that. It seems like it's being turned back on. And then I looked at frequent locations and nothing weird there.

Can anyone help?

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.4

Posted on Aug 2, 2015 9:18 AM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,387 points

Aug 2, 2015 9:49 AM in response to inostranets

Location services uses 'assisted' GPS. Turn on WiFi (you can do that while still in Airplane mode. See if that helps.

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Answer 2

Rudegar

Level 10

170,724 points

Aug 2, 2015 12:38 PM in response to inostranets

GPs require a line of sight to the satelites try going outside

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Answer 3

inostranets Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 2, 2015 12:53 PM in response to KiltedTim

THe leap happens while i am connected to wifi, and other people's devices do not have this problem when connected to this particular wifi router.

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Answer 4

inostranets Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 2, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Rudegar

i did within reach of the wifi, my location is the same Chinese building

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Aug 2, 2015 1:27 PM in response to inostranets

It does not have to be the single router you are connected to that is causing the problem - it could be any of the other wifi access points that your iPhone can see.

Location services is not 'just one thing'. It uses many sources to get a location - each has it's own issues & flaws…

Bluetooth, Wifi, Cellular and GPS are all used in some form to get a location, if one is not available iOS will try to use another source. How these sources are combined is only known to Apple's engineers.

Wifi geolocation uses a scan of all local wifi access points and compares it to a database on Apple servers. Sometimes this data is confused when an access point moves (such as a portable 3G/4G router like a MyFi). Routers that also use incorrect MAC addresses can also cause problems (some routers are misconfigured or are simply breaking the standards that have been setup).

GPS can take 12.5 minutes to get an actual fix (it can take that long for enough satellites to be visible), so other sources are used when GPS is not visible (or is reporting that it has a poor level of accuracy).

You can read more background info at …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

If you keep the app running it may eventually get a full GPS lock on & start being more accurate. GPS does reduce battery life. That is why other less accurate methods are also used for a general location.

If you need better accuracy you will need to buy a dedicated GPS device, it should keep track better unless you have a poor line of sight to the sky. Knowing that it takes a while to get a true fix should allow you to workaround this issue.

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