iPhone 8 GPS problems

Hi Spacemnspiff

Glad to hear the SIM trick worked for you too. 🙂 If you pass on the advice, it might be a good idea to add a disclaimer that some sites rightly or wrongly advise against SIM removal/reinsertion while phone is on.

Apple's instructions as of today still do not mention turning the phone off here as far as I can see, although that may be their omission/sloppiness:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201337

https://help.apple.com/iphone/11/#/iph3f11fba92

And another discussion's thread as of today seems to say there shouldn't be a major problem.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7468878

I took the risk, if it is one, and had no problems, but people should decide for themselves.

William

Your anecdotal evidence is outweighed by the number of views of this (40,000) and the iOS11 & GPS thread (80,000). And there have been over 700 posts on each of these threads, which is way higher than on many other threads. If you want anecdotes, it is ironic to note that 2 or 3 new people with GPS problems have posted during our correspondence 😉

Anyway, we will just have to agree to disagree on whether this issue is common, compared to other Apple product issues.

As I mentioned before, I have been to the Genius Bar.

They insisted I factory reset the phone, which did actually fix the A-GPS system. They also gave me a replacement phone as I told them the problem would recur after a while.

I went back with the new phone, tried it without installing my old system (as they correctly told me that brings the old problem back) but the problem resurfaced anyway, and I had to do the SIM trick OR factory reset again.

I could try going back to the Genius Bar but they will just make me do the whole thing all over again - factory reset, test, find the GPS thing works for a while, then doesn’t.

It has happened with two phones, I don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a phone from scratch yet again - like Groundhog Day - to find the problem happens a third time.

I reported it via the Apple feedback forms and several times via the Tech helpline, visited the Genius Bar, posted here, and recommend other people do the same.

The bottom line is if you don't want to follow up with Genius Bar replacements if the issue recurs, there's nothing more Apple can do.

As stated before, this is far from a common issue, number of views of threads notwithstanding. Many people here helping others with issues view both these threads multiple times a day yet are not experiencing the issue, and some number of people with issues find they go away when they reenable Wi-FI or reset their phone.

Literally the only way this will ever get fixed is if Apple sees the issue occur on devices they get back for exchange or service.

Posting here is wonderful, but it is nowhere near the importance of Genius Bar exchanges in Apple's issue tracking systems.

JGostl,

Sorry, I have not tried CarPlay. I think there were various postings about issues with Bluetooth interference inside vehicles earlier in this or other threads (including GPS not working after update to IOS11). All I can suggest is you look through them. I seem to remember one person found a fix, but all I could find was this guy who had no luck Re: Why is my GPS not working on iPhone X?

I have had my iPhone 6s replaced twice for the same GPS issue, now that the phone is out of warranty, my only options are to restore as a new phone or do the SIM trick as suggested. I have done my part of going over to Genius bar and report my issue with iOS11 GPS performance, and also sending numerous feedback reports. And mind you, this issue didn't exist in my 6s that was replaced for iOS10.

The only connection one could make is that this is a software issue, if it were a hardware issue, the restore and SIM fixes wouldn't have worked. So the ball is in Apple's court for them resolve this issue.

In fact after less than a month of doing the SIM trick, the GPS on Waze and Strava is getting sloppy. I have to do the SIM trick again.

Thanks AppleQer for your help.

I wonder if anyone with GPS problems on an iPhone X or 8 has updated to iOS 12 and checked to see if the problems persist. I am one of those who bought an iPhone X soon after launch, but returned it because of poor GPS performance while walking and driving in the car (no mount used). Now I have an iPhone XS and have encountered no problems while walking. I haven't tested it in a car yet. I wonder if the improvement is due to a new hardware design or if iOS 12 has solved the problem for iPhone X owners as well.

Just to expand on that:

Rather than GPS accuracy, my problem is the TTFF (time-to-first-fix) on the iPhone X. That has not gotten worse with iOS12, and it seems to have improved slightly. However, some people on here say that their problems improve for the first few weeks after update and then get progressively worse thereafter. It is still early days for me. If things go horribly wrong, I will post here. Also, the TTFF is still longer than on my wife's iPhone 6S, which I tested in the same location with the same OS, carrier, and settings.

As GPS accuracy has always been fine for me, the TTFF issue is obviously not the end of the world. It just bothers me having paid all that money and yet having to stand totally stationary outside for 30 secs to 1 minute or more to get the first lock before I begin my jog. I confirm a GPS-based location rather than just a cellular/wifi-only one by looking for the blue/green spinning globe on Motion X, in my case, but you can also use the GPS Diagnostic app, which I use too.

In previous iOS, the TTFF gradually increased until it was well over a minute, at which time I did the "SIM trick" (see earlier in this tread, and the accompanying warning about it). That reduced the TTFF to about 15-30 seconds, but it started to creep up over many weeks, and after 6 months I had to do the SIM trick again. It is not that big a deal, but it seems odd that my wife's much older model has no problems at all.

Mine was from GPS Diagnostic - Satellite Test Tool & Coordinates on the App Store - haven't tried Motion X

Same issue here on any Maps app. All over the place and will randomly just hang and my gos says I wasnt moving. Got it replaced by Apple and same thing so there is a definite issue on the iphone 8

I know people how own an iPhone 7 and have the same experience since iOS 11 and people who own an iPhone 8 and don’t have problems with the GPS.

So I think it is an iOS 11 issue!

Here the problem with the GPS is solved with the iOS 11.1 update, so it was a software problem!

I have the Iphone X on IOS 11.1.1, and this sounds like the exact same problem I have. Waze and Apple Maps are useless. It constantly drops the GPS signal. Or keeps me frozen in one location.

My wife has an iPhone 7 so we will test them against each other tomorrow and see if they behave differently, if the fault is not apparent on the 7 then it points to hardware?

I have an iPhone 8 Plus with the problem. It has an Intel modem and was purchased on the release day so it was from an early production run.

Same exact thing here. Intel chipset early purchase.