iPhone 8 GPS problems

Lots of people affected but not everyone.

Had problems again yesterday where the gps thought I was in a road a few metres to my right. It’s like there’s been a reduction in sensitivity, perhaps something not noticeable in the wide spread out roads of the USA, but his accepted reduction has an outsized effect in the UK, where roads run close to eachother.

I doubt they tested the iPhone X in a European city and realised their changes had such a negative effect.

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.

I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed this, I don’t see anyone else with this problem in the forums. I went to the Apple store yesterday and swapped oot the phone for another 8 plus and it isn’t any better. I think the 11.0.1 update has improved it a bit but it’s still not as accurate as my old 6s.

Just got off with Tech support, while my GPS was located 3 buildings away from my office. This at least fixed that, but won't know for sure until I start driving later:

1. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region , change to a different location, (like UK)

2. Restart iPhone

3. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region and change back to original location (US)

Literally just got back from getting replacement, guess i need to test it off the magnetic mount for a length of time. It was having occasional issues when off the mount but much less than when on it. My 6 had no issues on the mount for the 2 years i had it.

I have the same problem, and have done many of the same things.

Upgraded from iPhone 6 to iPhone 8. Initially when I got the 8, just restored the phone from a backup of the 6. The GPS was essentially useless. Persisted with this for a few weeks trying various different things (that I never had to do with the iPhone 6), as well as talking to apple online support, to see if it would improve, including updating through 3 iOS updates (11.0.1 -> 11.0.3). Eventually I got sick of this and took it back to an apple shop.

The tech I was speaking too was scratching his head a bit, as he couldn't effectively reproduce the problem, sitting still, in an apple shop, in a shopping centre and said he'd try giving it a factory reset and mentioned something about firmware. He went back to talk to one of his managers, and then, after the discussion, just swapped the phone out for a new one.

This second phone, I set up as a new one, to see if restoring from backup had something to do with the initial problem as in the first iPhone 8. Nope, the GPS is still useless. I now have to stick with this second useless (GPS) phone until I get back from a work trip.

I now intend to return my iPhone 8 and downgrade.

I have the same problem on my iPhone 8 since the first day. GPS generally shows my location around 200m away. I think Apple needs to investigate and release an update.

Turning on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fixed my problem but I was in a building when I tried it. I don't think it'll work when I'm driving.

Hi damon291,

Just to get a clearer understanding of your situation, were you on Low Power mode when the GPS failed to work?

Also, did you try other GPS aps?

I had been having this issue with GPS while I'm on Low Power mode and playing Pokémon Go. My other GPS-utilising apps doesn't seem to have an issue though.

So far:

I've gone through 3 8 plus phones, with the third one ultimately being captured by Apple. I've logged data, answered every question asked of me, and been cold-called from this thread by some direct group of engineers who work on the software updates, etc.

I replaced it with an iPhone X which is showing signs of the same problem. Thus far, engineering has no solution. It's that simple. Every indication I've gotten is that they don't even know what's really the problem yet as originally it was thought to be a software problem, but capturing my device indicates they think it might equally be a hardware problem.

The new data point of it happening on a brand new X creates a whole new headache since it would appear to me as a layman that the issue is clearly hardware and some faulty design based on the glass back. That said, I know anecdotally of people who have had the issue on pre 8-series phones after upgrading to iOS 11.

Since this thread is followed by a ton of people at this point, I'd be curious to know where folks stand on what I think is the culprit, which is some combination of a very specific environmental factor and the hardware design of the phone. I say this because I cannot for the life of me recreate the issue in one of the two cars I own, while in the other I can't drive to the store and back without the issue (a Hyundai)

It would suggest to me that those of us who have been beating our head against the wall with this are in some bizarre small group of people who's cars, or something else that Apple didn't really vet, are interfering with the GPS signal. Could be a part of the car, maybe certain satellite radio antennas, maybe something you carry on your keychain like an RFID key. Whatever it is, it seems to me to be something environmentally specific that is like getting through to the device through the glass back in a way that was never intended.

Those are my thoughts after dealing with this for going on over a month and 4 phones with no real end in sight. The annoying thing about it is, for all the inconvenience and time spent on this, it would take me even more time and energy right now to spend literally moving everything over to a new OS, but that point is approaching.

I’ve had the Tom Tom app then the Tom Tom go app since they came out on the 3GS and have since used it on the 4 , 5 and 6 without any problems. Since getting the 8 it has been a nightmare. I’ve spoken to Apple support this morning and although they were very helpful I suspect that their advise won’t make a bit of difference.

I’ve attached a screengrab which was taken by my wife and it shows how bad it is.

I just returned my phone and took my $1400 back including the case and applecare. I'm a software engineer, which doesn't give me any special insight into this case but I think I do know in general what might be wrong based on experience and I think I can generalize.

Either a certain percentage of new iPhones have this issue or only a small percentage of people use GPS often.

Based on the comments above, it seems returning and getting a new phone doesn't work, Resetting doesn't work, and apple support doesn't work. That leads me to think it may be fairly widespread and that most people just haven't noticed or don't care or don't realize that is not normal.

In any case, the only practical solution for me was to get my money back. I'll keep monitoring this thread, and someday when I see the issue solved I'll buy back an X or maybe an "11" by then. In the meantime I'll keep my iPhone 7 and my Hyundai Sonata which work perfectly together.

I have no intention of changing to a different car or being an unpaid apple beta tester, or owning a $1400 device which doesn't do basic gps mode at least most of the time reliably.

I FOUND THE SOLUTION TO MY iPHONE 8 GPS ISSUE!!

I had issues with the gps right from the very start with the iphone 8. It couldn't pin down my location and would freeze up constantly on the way to a destination. I had the same problem in multiple apps including Apple and google maps, so it had to be an issue with the hardware or software of the phone itself. I called support and we tried multiple reboots and things, nothing worked.

I found a post way down in the thread where someone mentioned the GPS not working specifically in their Hyundai Sonata. I drive a 2011 Hyundai Sonata so I decided to do a test. I couldn't believe it, but sure enough the GPS didn't work in the Sonata but it did in other cars! More specifically, if you mount the phone near the center console of the vehicle the gps would be thrown off. The interference occurred whether or not the radio was on.

To sum it up, something from the Sonata's center console was messing with the GPS. My hypothesis is that due to the new wireless charging capabilities some form of EM interference was picked up by the phone and threw of the navigation.

Please try your iphone 8 in different cars if you can, that might be the issue. I finally decided to trade mine in and get a 7 as i needed navigation ASAP.

Wow you just solved my problem! Issues with the GPS were driving me crazy. I drive a 2011 Sonata. I did some tests after I read what you wrote.

Sure enough the Sonata was 100% interfering with the iPhone 8. It’s something from the center console, and it happens if the radio is on or off. I’m thinking that due to wireless charging capabilities EM is interfering with the phone.

I need good gps so I exchanged the phone for a 7 and it works great with the car.

Indeed, but this would be relevant if I hadn't tested this with an iPhone 6S Plus next to the X with the exact same software (iOS11) and 6S Plus is 100% accurate.

It's only the X which has the GPS problems. Luckily, I own enough Apple devices to prove this even to the tech support.

Well, I have the iPhone 8 Plus, 64GB. Was pretty happy with everything, but playing games that use the GPS is just garbage. Frustrating to see my son rocking my old 6S and having a better experience than me on my brand new phone.

I went ahead and installed the beta of iOS 11.2.5, but there is no improvement. The GPS is off by a good 40-50 meters, which in the case of games like Pokemon Go and Ingress can be infuriating.

I've made feedback posts, I was hoping someone would have a fix, but alas. 😟