iPhone 8 GPS problems

Jhoncarter01

Sorry, but your link doesn't work. Ah you just removed it!

Your theory about a dodgy batch may or may not be valid, but I had an early-batch phone and replaced it several months later, and then had the problem again.

Also some people have actually found solutions other than replacement e.g. moving away from magnetic holders in vehicles, fixing Bluetooth systems in vehicles, factory resets.

My SIM card solution (see earlier and disclaimer) worked for me.

iOS11.3.1 is already available, why are you referencing 11.2? (edit: You are referencing an old article?)

Hey there! Are you using any sort of metal/magnetic mounts or cases? Apple has stated that with the iPhone 8/X, since there is a pretty large magnet under the rear glass for wireless charging, to stay away from any and all metal casings or car mounts as it can permanently or temporarily throw off the compasses calibration.

Hey there! Are you using any sort of metal/magnetic mounts or cases? Apple has stated that with the iPhone 8/X, since there is a pretty large magnet under the rear glass for wireless charging, to stay away from any and all metal casings or car mounts as it can permanently or temporarily throw off the compasses calibration. If you’re not, I would definitely make sure there is no metal around the device while in your pocket/purse or at home, and under location services->system services, make sure your compass calibration, WiFi and cellular networking, routing and traffic, and even setting time zone are turned to “On” as all of these features contribute to successful navigation via Apple Maps and other third party navigation apps.

If you have problems with your compass. Try setting your compass to True North (go to Settings, Compass).

Also make sure Compass Calibration is on. See here

https://support.pointer-app.com/support/activate-compass-calibration-in-the-syst em-services/

This might be a better explanation

https://www.getdroidtips.com/proper-compass-calibration-iphone-x/

If that doesn't work, it is probably another issue.

My iPhone 8+ purchased in March from an Apple store was terrible with GPS. It was basically an $800 phone without useable GPS. On an international trip I had to rely on my fellow traveler with an iPhone 7 to actually get any GPS signal. Thanks to this thread I discovered the GPS Diagnostic app which was key to understanding when I was getting satellite GPS and when I wasn’t.

I would lose satellite coverage in multiple situations – walking, standing, driving, mounts, no mounts, charging, not charging, everything – it would fail randomly. I even have a nice screen recording video of it picking up a satellite signal for about 10 minutes, then dying and losing all satellite GPS – out in the wide open. Every time I lost satellite GPS signal it would stay dead, but I could always get it back simply restarting my phone (but not by flipping airplane mode). I tried a lot of the tricks in this thread to no avail. On my first visit to the Apple store the tech wanted to do a iTunes reset, basically setting it up as a new phone (which required me to lose all my messages) instead of using an iCloud backup. However, this did not work, and starting the next day the GPS repeatedly failed until I restarted the phone.

After another visit to the Apple store and two awful hours of things going wrong due to tech mistakes, I finally received a replacement phone. They had trouble getting my old SIM card into the new phone, so I got a new one of those as well. I opted to set it up as a new phone again. Everything was new: new hardware, new SIM card, plus setting up as a new phone.

It’s been about 10 days and everything seems great. Interestingly, my GPS signals in the same location as my old phone are higher on the replacment… 100% vs. 75% in GPS diagnostic. The new phone also goes down to 17ft accuracy, when the old phone never went below 33ft accuracy. The old phone I purchased was model MQ8D2LL/A, and the replacement I have now that’s working is model NQ962LL/A (replacement models start with N instead of M, evidently).

I’m now convinced the original 8+ I purchased was bad hardware. Beyond that, I can only speculate. From what I understand, the GPS is part of the modem chip, and Apple used a mix of Qualcomm and Intel modem chips in the 8 and X due to supply issues. Maybe the problem lies there.

Did you try setting up your previous phone as a new phone?

If not, you cannot be certain whether it was the setting up as a new phone (software) or the physical replacement (hardware) that fixed your problem.

I was in a similar situation to you, and resolved my problem by getting a replacement iPhone, but the GPS failed again a few weeks later.

When that happened, I fixed it by removing and reinserting the SIM card, which seemed to re-register the phone with cell towers, fixing an assisted-GPS problem (see my post further back in this thread, and note the disclaimer). Rollier had a similar theory about cell network issues. I don't know if the explanation is correct, but my GPS works okay now, although it takes significantly longer than my old iPhone 6 to pick up the signal initially.

This worked for me. Brutal GPS searching problems with the iPhone X with Waze, Apple Maps, Google Maps, Motion X, etc. closed the apps, removed the SIM, Powered Off, Powered On, Inserted SIM. No problems since.

Glad it worked for you too. I have had no problems with my iPhone X since I did the SIM swap out trick. The only issue is that it takes about 20 seconds initially to find the GPS signal, but I think it was fairly slow to do that before all my problem began.

Philly_Phan,

Where did you hear such WRONG information?? Why would Wifi and Bluetooth affect the ability of an iPhone to acquire GPS radio signals being transmitted from satellites orbiting the earth? That makes absolutely no logical sense. Bluetooth has a reliable signal distance of about 30 feet (10 meters), so that obviously wouldn't make any difference in acquiring a signal from satellites orbiting over one hundred MILES above the earth.

When Apple (or others) state that wifi, bluetooth, or cellular should be enabled, it is because some of these terrestrial transmitters are known and retained, either by your iPhone or by Apple, and can help with geo-location by terrestrial means. It has nothing to do with acquiring GPS signals from satellites.

Otherwise, how would Garmin (and other) pure GPS units, which have no wifi or cellular capabilities, be able to function properly?

RBNetEngr

Thanks for reminding us of the distinction between acquiring a satellite signal, which does not require cellular/wifi etc, and acquiring an accurate satellite-based location quickly (TTFF), which does.

Go easy on Philly Phan. This isn't stackoverflow. This is the blind leading the blind 😉

A lot of non-experts, and even the Apple Store Geniuses, who have no excuse, get confused about A-GPS.

This worked for me. I have been able to use my GPS apps since I fixed the problem in May.

However, do it at your own risk; some sites advise against removing/inserting SIM cards while your phone is on:

Close all apps on your phone, remove the SIM, power off, power on, reinsert the SIM.

Then go outside and test the Maps app or whatever you use.

I still have to wait 10-30 seconds to get my first "fix" (it helps if I am stationary), but it works fine after that. Before I did this solution, I had no luck no matter how long I waited.

This may be irrelevant, but just in case, I try to avoid using location apps simultaneously and I have no apps with location services set to Always On.

You can also try resetting network settings.

If all that fails, backup your phone, do a factory reset, and then test the native Apple Maps App outside BEFORE restoring your backup. When you do so, don’t confuse the stationary blue circle (which indicates location based on Wifi and Cellular only) with the moving blue circles, which radiate out from their center, indicating you have an A-GPS-based location.

If that fails, take it into an Apple Store for replacement/repair.

I have this same problem with my iPhone 8. I just got my phone replaced with new one but nothing changed. At first the gps get an accurate fix but soon it loses it no matter how open spot I’m on. If I lock the screen for about 10 seconds and then open the screen again gps gets an accurate fix again. Sadly, it keeps the fix only for a minute or so and then I will have to lock the screen again to get fix.

100% my experience. Turning the phone on its side fixes the problem ... Made me think maybe the metal in the top of the heated windshield or the metal around the rear view mirror are "blocking" the signal. However when I move the phone away from its cradle, it will reacquire the signal from the vertical position so I'm still not sure what the root cause is. Of note, this happened with my last iphone 6s in the same car (Land Rover LR4)

Akuphon,

During that 1.1km walk did you check at regular intervals that you had a GPS-based location rather than one based on Wifi and Cellular only, which is going to be inaccurate? I advise you to stop walking when checking it to avoid accidents!

Other options are to try the SIM trick (at your own risk; see above) and/or factory reset your phone (backit up first, factory reset it, and test it using the native Apple Maps app BEFORE restoring your backup).

Yes, I have been using gps, not only wifi, cellular or bluetooth based location.

I tried your ”trick” before writing on this forum. Didn’t help. This has to be something that Apple needs to fix. Hopefully software related so it can be fixed.