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Q: GPS problem iPhone 6S

I have problems with my iPhones gps to locate satellites using Waze, NAVIGO and maps all having the same problem. Use to have a 4, 4s, 5, 5s, 6 now 6S and during the same line of travel I have never lost contact with satellites. I'm currently running iOS 9.1. I have restarted, re installed, re booted. But get the same result. Do you have any good tips on what to do?

 

BR

 

E

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.1

Posted on Oct 21, 2015 11:24 PM

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Q: GPS problem iPhone 6S

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  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jan 2, 2016 8:09 AM in response to RJH8
    Level 8 (38,039 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 2, 2016 8:09 AM in response to RJH8

    That is great info, and the first time I've seen that troubleshooting step. So it sounds like the head unit was causing interference to the GPS reception.

  • by pakos210,

    pakos210 pakos210 Jan 2, 2016 8:15 AM in response to RJH8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 8:15 AM in response to RJH8

    What is the head unit ? (sorry i'm french)

  • by RJH8,

    RJH8 RJH8 Jan 2, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Yes, I'm 99.999% sure. Just did another flawless test drive.

  • by RJH8,

    RJH8 RJH8 Jan 2, 2016 9:00 AM in response to pakos210
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 9:00 AM in response to pakos210

    The head unit is the built-in dashboard navigation, radio, phone, heating/AC systems etc.

     

    I'm assuming something was interfering with the iPhone's GPS reception.

  • by ALEXANDER DESSAU,

    ALEXANDER DESSAU ALEXANDER DESSAU Jan 2, 2016 2:35 PM in response to RJH8
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 2:35 PM in response to RJH8

    I'm definitely sure that it's not the head unit causing the GPS problems in my phone. As I tested it any possible way: in and out the car. Those mumble jamble map my run pictures I posted previously were taken then I tested it just doing short straight line walk around the neighborhood just holding the phone in my hands. So it was for sure no interference there from anything. Also strange thing that the GPS problem didn't start from the beginning: the first 2-3 weeks after I just got the phone it was working fine and then it started being slightly off and progressively got worse. Now it's completely useless. Just tried it again on the hike and lucky we had other iPhone 6 with us to navigate us thru hiking trails. If we'd followed this 6s iPhone we'd ended up in different state. So Monday is another trip to Apple Store to get new phone. Hoping that it wouldn't be another lemon like this one.

  • by RJH8,

    RJH8 RJH8 Jan 2, 2016 4:41 PM in response to ALEXANDER DESSAU
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 4:41 PM in response to ALEXANDER DESSAU

    Alexander, I still have my fingers crossed that this fixed my problem as I did several more test drives today with absolutely no GPS accuracy issues.

     

    I commute about 500 miles a week so if next week has no issues, I''ll assume my GPS is working as designed.

  • by RJH8,

    RJH8 RJH8 Jan 6, 2016 4:16 PM in response to RJH8
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 4:16 PM in response to RJH8

    I'm officially saying my issue is fixed. Moving the phone about 8" away from the car's head unit solved my issue.

     

    I'd suggest that anybody who has this issue in a car tries moving the phone away from the center console to see if it changes the phones behavior.

     

    Good luck!

  • by herlow,

    herlow herlow Jan 6, 2016 10:34 PM in response to RJH8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 10:34 PM in response to RJH8

    Congratulations! But it's probably not the same issue as others in this thread. You are experiencing ordinary radio interference with your car, but that's not the description so many others made, including myself.

    Regards

  • by vegitill,

    vegitill vegitill Jan 6, 2016 10:52 PM in response to herlow
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 10:52 PM in response to herlow

    I do have this problem with my Iphone 6 since one month. it started on dez 1st. one month after the warranty has ended. verry frustrating. no matter if i use a case or not. at about 1% of the time, the phone finds a gps signal, and sooses it right away. some navigation apps don't work at all. some try to get the approximate location via the lte transmitter mast. I have used some old version (8.x) when it started and updated it to 9.2 for a short time I thought that would be fixed, but now it is even worse. since a week I have no signal at all. I am realy frustrated. cause everytime I get a new iphone, short after teh warranty ends, something like that happens. with the iphone 5 I had some serious battery problems (turning off because of "empty battery" at more than 70% of batty...) I hope, but I don't beleave to finde a solution here...

  • by vegitill,

    vegitill vegitill Jan 6, 2016 10:59 PM in response to vegitill
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 10:59 PM in response to vegitill

    I have checked the GPS signal with a gps check app. It sais, that the phone has 4/5 signal for the vertical position, the hight, but 1/5 (that is the lowest, there is no 0) for the horizontal postition, so the actual position on the map.

  • by ALEXANDER DESSAU,

    ALEXANDER DESSAU ALEXANDER DESSAU Jan 7, 2016 10:54 AM in response to vegitill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 10:54 AM in response to vegitill

    GPS ScreenShot1.6.16.jpgGPS ScreenShot11.11.15.jpg

    I'm for sure is with everyone else on all the frustrations. Just change my phone on the warranty on Monday and started to check the GPS work. At first it looked ok, however the Google maps were running slightly funny: just like loosing your location for a bit getting an arrow off the road then finding it again. Then tried the MapQuest app and it looked like was running better then google. It surely wasn't as bad as on my old phone that i just replaced, but i remembered that the problem on that phone stated later and progressively got worse. But not till yesterday i could fully test it with Map My Run app. I can tell how accurate the GPS is only by running that app because I used it for a few years and know my usual pace of running and also you can record it when finished.

    That's how first problem started about 3 weeks after i got my new phone: i got it on November 13, and first time the map my run app was slightly off was on December 6 when it recorded me running over a minute and a half less my usual pace, and in 2 days it was recording over 4 min less then usual. but at that time i though that it was something wrong with this app, until all the navigation apps totally stop working. Now with the new replaced phone it looked like started from very beginning the same way like the other phone, just being off slightly. At this point i don't keep my hopes up. I'm almost sure that it would get worse in the short time just like the other phone did, unless Apple will acknowledge the problem and fix it. So far i wasn't able to get anything out of them with all the phone calls and Apple Store visits. They all said that the new phone would fix the problem but i wasn't so optimistic based  what i read on this forum. Yesterday i got the actual mile read was 0.8 miles when the Map My Run called it a mile of my run. So it's definitely is off. i'll follow it for another couple of days and see if it would get worse as before. I downloaded the GPS checker up and it reads 3/5 on both vertical and horizontal accuracy. I bet that old phone if i would've tested it before trading it in, would be much less then it. It reads 4/5 on our other regular iPhone 6. The included is the screen shot of my yesterday's run. it's not as horrible as the photos i previously posted but you can definitely tell the difference from normal run recordings when the GPS was operating well. (the second one is from normal GPS)

  • by ALEXANDER DESSAU,

    ALEXANDER DESSAU ALEXANDER DESSAU Jan 7, 2016 11:20 AM in response to vegitill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 11:20 AM in response to vegitill

    Also I suspect that there are more people are having this problem and not just this forum users. I know that not everybody uses the GPS and apps that rely on it a lot. I bet that some people don't even realize that it's not working correctly. I spoke to one friend that have 6s model asking if he had problem, and he said he didn't know, just noticed couple of times that Google Maps was funny and sent him to wrong place. So if you not relying on using those types of Apps lots of people don't catch the problem. Other then GPS the phone works fine. I'm my case it took me over 3 weeks to realize that it was the problem with the phone. In the beginning i was blaming inaccuracy on specific app until neither one of them worked on my phone 6s and they all worked perfectly fine on our other iPhone 6.

  • by djprotex,

    djprotex djprotex Jan 9, 2016 2:10 AM in response to Dfinder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 2:10 AM in response to Dfinder

    My GPS issue has been "fixed" now by a mix of workarounds mentioned here in this thread.
    These settings worked for me on my iPhone 6S with iOS 9.2.

     

    - 4G/LTE Turned OFF (I now use 3G)

    - WIFI ON (Always)
    - Bluetooth ON* (Always) *Though this makes no scence at all, it worked for me.

     

    All routes/workouts etc is now completely stable and it has not been drifting ever since.

  • by ALEXANDER DESSAU,

    ALEXANDER DESSAU ALEXANDER DESSAU Jan 12, 2016 9:49 AM in response to vegitill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 9:49 AM in response to vegitill

    I think my GPS mystery may have been solved: last week a while talking about the GPS problem a friend after looking at my phone just made a suggestion that maybe my phone cover may have interfering with GPS signal in some way. I had a metal plate on my cover. So i decided to take it off and put some simple plastic phone cover and them began my tests again. I did 3 tests so far: one with Google map navigation while driving, one with Ski Track app and yesterday to make sure tried Map My Run app. All 3 looked like were running pretty accurately unlike it was before with that cover on. It looks like the mystery was solved (keeping my fingers crossed). Very strange that my phone has been seeing by 4 different Apple Store genius bar reps and yet neither one of them even suggested that it could be cover interference. And yet a friend that doesn't really know much about phones just made that suggestions that looks like fixed the problem. I guess some Apple Store reps not that genius after all. Just thought this could be helpful info for all the people that were having the same problem: take a look at your phone covers and make sure it's no metal in it, or try to test it without that cover for the heck of it. I'll still yet to be testing more but so far for 4 days after i took that cover off i didn't notice any issues. 

  • by RJH8,

    RJH8 RJH8 Jan 12, 2016 3:33 PM in response to ALEXANDER DESSAU
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 3:33 PM in response to ALEXANDER DESSAU

    Great news! With your solution and mine, maybe we are on to something, things that cause interference with GPS?

     

    Since I moved my phone only "a few" inches away from my car's head unit, no more issues. I suggest all users with GPS problems look at their phone's environment and try different things.

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