Location services not updating

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Level 4

1,467 points

Location services not updating

I frequently have a problem where location services shows me at home even when I am miles away and have been for quite some time and it should clearly have updated. I see this in Google maps, Pokemon Go, and Yelp -- maybe others, but those are the main location aware apps that I use.

For example I recently flew from Portland, Oregon to Oakland, California. When we landed I took it out of airplane mode and checked some emails, etc. I would think in the time it took to get from the airport to checked into my room (30 minutes or so) that it would have updated my location to Oakland, but when I tried to find some restaurants around my location it continued to show Portland.

I usually try toggling airplane mode off/on, turning location services off/on either completely or for the specific app. Neither of those tricks seems to work reliably. Often I have to restart my phone and other times it just fixes itself eventually.

I had these problems before I updated to 10.x too.

Any ideas?

iPhone 6s, iOS 10.1.1

Posted on Dec 8, 2016 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

Alexm87

Community Specialist

Dec 9, 2016 11:28 AM in response to Rothrock

Hey Rothrock,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. I can see from your post that you're having issues with location services on your iPhone 6s. Having an accurate reading of your location is important for many services and apps. I see that you've attempted a few great steps to try and resolve this with only temporary fixes. The link below provides further troubleshooting steps that should help.

About privacy and Location Services in iOS 8 and later

Specifically, use these steps:

If you would like to reset all of your location settings to the factory default, go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset Location & Privacy. When your location and privacy settings are reset, apps will stop using your location until you grant them permission.

Improve GPS accuracy

GPS accuracy depends on the number of visible GPS satellites. Locating all visible satellites can take several minutes, with accuracy gradually increasing over time. To improve GPS accuracy:

Make sure that you've set the date, time, and time zone correctly on the device in Settings > General > Date & Time. If possible, use Set Automatically.

Keep a clear view in several directions. Walls, vehicle roofs, tall buildings, mountains, and other obstructions can block line of sight to GPS satellites. When this happens, your device uses Wi-Fi or cellular networks to determine your position until the GPS satellites are visible again.

Let us know if this helps.
Take care!

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