iPhone 8 GPS problems

just last weekend I did a test with an old iPhone 6

I find use Waze is the best way to get this problem shown as Waze will actually tell you if it can get GPS.

when you open Waze from cold start (i.e. swipe Waze off in your multi task windows), the location circle will turn into an arrow when it get PS.

Both indoors:

iPhone 6 can get GPS

iPhone X can't

Both indoors but hold outside window:

iPhone 6 can get GPS in 6s

iPhone X can get GPS in 16s

I feel more like this is a hardware design issue that iPhone X/8 has a weaker GPS antenna design compare to previous generations.

@AppleQer, yeah we mean the same thing by those pulsating circles.

I actually don't know what happens exactly from a technical standpoint when it's pulsating, I'm just good at observing I suppose. Both phones (as in my faulty 8+ and the properly working 6S) pulsate sometimes so I assume what you say is correct and expected behaviour. Would also explain why sometimes the 6S would not pulsate if it can get a GPS lock and the 8+ couldn't (more on that below).

The main difference is how they pulsate. A good phone like the 6S will have a relatively stable radius around your location (the main circle you always see) and you could see the inner circle pulsing within it. It may change and that's ok but it's generally not shrinking/expanding many times or extremely once it gets a lock. A faulty phone will behave the same initially but when it "triggers" the main circle often shrinks down and then expands massively and repeats that very often. Feels like you're getting a pretty good lock (small radius), then a very bad, large radius, then a precise lock again, etc. It just feels more wild and out of control and gravitates more and more towards larger sizes.

What probably happens from a technical standpoint is that you're waiting for this: iPhone X GPS problems - YouTube

Exactly at 3:00 in this video, as with my 8+ you can see it catching the GPS signal and then dropping it repeatedly and also the accuracy value changing from 30 to 200 for example. I think this translates visually to Apple Maps as the shrinking/expanding radius of the main circle (very different from just pulsating within a stable radius). It probably gets a coarse lock on you somewhere around and then instantly loses it and the phone gets everything mixed up and behaves as described in my previous post.

Also, the phone in this video is placed on the desk without much movement, but if you hold the phone in your hand and just ever so slightly move it around it will trigger that behaviour much faster and very consistently in my experience. You can even swing/swirl the phone around and then when you look back at it, often the location just catapults somewhere wildly. I have never successfully "confused" a properly working phone like the 6S by swinging it around like that. It's also one of the things unique to the faulty phones.

As for the iOS version, unfortunately I haven't paid attention to that until recently when I couldn't replicate the issue in one of the stores (those phones had 11.3). I also messed up by not taking a screenshot of the version that came with my new iPhone X. I know it was 11.2.something (and the GPS worked correctly on it) but I can't remember exactly. In any case, I think it's safe to say that if this was caused by iOS then a late 11.2 or the newly released 11.3 solves it, but somehow I don't think that's the case. I'll be visiting other stores in the upcoming weeks and will definitely give the phones a check. I am very much interested whether I find 11.3 phones with the same old issues.

Hi all,

i have the same issue from new. it came with 11. somewhat, i don't remember. the first time i war sure this iphone 8 has no gps receiver at all. but chat with technician showed me, there is one and is working properly. (at least it is inside).

so i hoped this issue get fixed trough ios updates, searching new ios every day, but no solution. 11.3 is better than before, but still not as good as on iphone 6.

when i start the apple map app, my position is quite good (within 5m), then after a while (approx 1 minute) my position ist flying arround, up to 5kmh speed and distance of approx 500m!

sometimes i'm not eaven in the big blue circle, very bad.

what if i loose my iphone and try to find with "find my iphone"? i would not be able to locate it.

same spot with my "old" iphone 6, rock steady! same ios (11.3 at the moment).

i think it has to do with the different location systems, iphone 6 uses Assisted GPS and GLONASS, iphone SE uses GPS and GLONASS while from iphone 6s onwards GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS is in use.

apple shows a received positioning system just as GPS.

Does Galileo and/or QZSS distort the accuracy of the location?

if i could be sure a swap of the phone will solve this problem, i would do it. but...

Yeah, I was also wondering about the introduction of the Galileo and/or QZSS services.

Might be a hardware flaw that emerged when those capabilities were included in the iPhone 8 and X.

Or the software can't handle different satellites properly.

Would be interesting to compare with an Android that used the same satellites...

I replaced my iPhone X a couple of weeks ago and did no restore it from my old backup just to be safe.

It was okay until today when the xxxx thing started acting up again.

The GPS worked eventually but it couldn't find my location for about 10 minutes!

I will test it again tomorrow if possible.

@Corangar: When GPS is working (GPS Diagnostics app shows satellite signals), Apple Maps shows those pulses/ripples coming constantly out of the darker blue center. There is constant movement. If the movement on the phones you tested is intermittent, I guess they are catching and losing the GPS signal.

I replaced my iPhone X about two weeks ago but it started playing up again today.

Took about 10-15mins to get a GPS signal. It seemed fine after that, but then took time to find the signal again once it had lost it at the end of the run.

I wonder if Digelec is onto something with the new satellite systems. Other have mentioned that (although iPhone 6 users seem to have their own problems, be they hardware or software ones).

I even tried removing my silicone case and holding the phone with just finger tips to see if that made a difference, and I mailed myself from within the GPS Diagnostic app, just in case the cellular connection was sleeping.

Totally grasping at straws here. I feel like I am kicking an old TV set to see if it starts working again. And yet this piece of XXXX is supposed to be a premium phone.

Have you monitored battery level on yours when problems occur? Is your iPhone X issue constant?

I wonder if there is some hidden task killer/battery-saving shenanigans going on again...

I have only one app with Location Services set to Always, and seven set to While using.

Could it be that the web archive shows the old iPhone 6S specs without Galileo because the old models didn't have Gallileo compatible chips?

I can't tell whether this is referring to hardware or software.

https://blog.francis-fustier.fr/en/apple-embarque-enfin-galileo/

Were the 6S models you tested the new models made after September 2017 or the older ones ?

I see, didn't know that there's a relatively new series of 6S phones and not a software update. That would be very interesting to test.

Say I go to an Apple Store, any ideas on what would be the easiest way to find out whether an iPhone 6S on display is part of the new lineup and supports Galileo?

Sorry, I spoke too soon (sorry, I edited my previous reply to you). It might just be a software upgrade, as I read that later GPS chips can also handle Galileo. I dunno. If it is hardware, you would need a phone made after December 2017 according to that link I put above. If it is just software, I imagine none of the phones in the store would have iOS four months old, but I could be wrong. I haven't followed the iOS update schedule.

You can put your phone's IMEI or serial number into these

http://iphoneimei.info/?imei=

http://www.imei.info/

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

But I agree with you, the Galileo compatibility may have been introduced via a software upgrade, as long as the chips handling with GPS in the 6S were advanced enough to be back-compatible with Galileo .

@Corangar PS: still experimenting with my iPhone X and GPS Diagnostic.

I started with no GPS signal but when I turned Wifi off, while leaving Cellular Data on, the GPS Diagnostic app found the signal. I then turned Wifi on again, and the app lost the GPS signal. I did this several times and got the same result. The battery was 41%. Does turning Wifi off help you get a GPS signal on your iPhone X? If you can, could you try that too. I think you have the same app.

Still testing. That Wifi trick no longer works. Was probably a fluke.

I also compared my wife's iPhone 6S with my iPhone X side by side. Same results as yours, I think. The phones use the same cellular provider, same Wifi, in the same location. She gets green bars on the GPS Diagnostic app while I get orange and red ones, and lose the signal much more often. Also the iPhone 6S shows different altitude (about 10m in difference). I think the altitude reading is linked to GPS and the barometer. I also set Compass to While Sharing and True North which made no difference.

Yeah I've tried all sorts of on/off variations with cellular, wifi and SIM cards but I got nothing conclusive there. To my best knowledge it doesn't make much difference as it always comes down to GPS messing things up eventually. If anything, cellular and wifi seem to be the only thing working correctly here.

Thanks.

I am in a similar situation to you - an iPhone 6S and iPhone X, both on same cellular network, same Wifi, same iOS 11.3. The 6S has good GPS but the X doesn't. Do you or anyone else know the name of the chips handling GPS in each model?

corangar wrote:

I have never not experienced this location issue on a 6S device, not once. And this goes for our personal 6S and all of the store tested ones.

I've never seen or experienced it on an iPhone 8+ or iPhone X, so there still seems to be some other factor involved.

Wait a minute, Corangar's "I have never not experienced this location issue on a 6S device," surely means "I have always experienced this location issue on a 6S device"..??

But Corangar also said "Both phones (as in my faulty 8+ and the properly working 6S) pulsate sometimes so I assume what you say is correct and expected behaviour." and "I have never successfully "confused" a properly working phone like the 6S by swinging it around like that. It's also one of the things unique to the faulty phones."

Corangar, which of your phones has the GPS problem?