iPhone 8 GPS problems

I HAD the same problem with my new iPhone 8 in my car. I live in Brazil and I had to trial and error because I bought it in US and it would be impossible to exchange it. One of my "must have" app is Speedometer 55 and it was not work properly because of the failure on GPS in my iPhone 8.

The GPS failed only when in the Air Vent Mount Holder on a dashboard in my car. It didn't fail when I held it in my hand in the car or in another position in my car. I also realized it failed less in horizontal orientation when in that holder!

After cracking my head I just tried to unplugged the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System, a display showing the tire pressure by 433 MHz frequency connection to tires and this display was positioned just behind the Air Vent Mount Holder !!).

Eureka! By unplugging the TPMS I had no more GPS failure on my iPhone 8 anymore! My GPS apps works flawlessly.

Actually I realized when I use the horizontal orientation in that holder the iPhone was a little bit further away from the TPMS and it explain why I saw less failure in horizontal orientation.

Now I finally have my iPhone 8 works perfectly, no more GPS failure and all the GPS apps works flawlessly. And I just install the TPMS display in another configuration in the car dashboard (I put the TPMS somewhere else, 50 cm far away from the iPhone holder).

Hope it helps you guys. In your shoes I would search if your car has any equipment using any frequency connection of the type of this TPMS. The TPMS I use in my car is this one here: Amazon.com: Orange Electronic P409S Retrofit Tire Pressure Monitoring System: Automotive

I agree that this is a hardware issue, but I'm hoping that it can be fixed with a software update. Very similar with how the iPhone X screen wouldn't respond in cold weather, and they were able to push a software update that was able to fix that. It did't matter how many iPhone X's you would trade in to fix the issue in the cold weather, it would never properly work without a software update. I've been hoping that we can get a solution like that for this issue.

This is the exact reason why I returned the phone back as I didn't want to live with a device ( that expensive) to even have a remote change of having a hardware issue. Remember the earlier 6 plus bend gate issue.

Few points I have noticed.

1. Issue is mainly happening with devices which has the new glass back body, i,e X and the 8.

2. Issues on the earlier models were mostly fixed with iOS update that was released last Oct.

I have a feeling this could be some design issue because of the glass usage. I don't really know the architecture of these devices so can't pin point things. So may be some with more knowledge about these devices can check and see if there is something which might be causing this.

Everyone should download the GPS Diagnostic app from the App Store. It’s $3 and has been super super enlightening about this situation.

I have an iPhone X and a cellular iPad Pro 10.5, so it makes for a great comparison. Having them in the same location, the iPad Pro shows consistently green bars (above 75% accuracy) from 4 or more satellites, is locked in at +-33 feet accuracy (which is as close as it’ll get) and the signal is very consistent. By contrast, the iPhone X’s bars are barely above 50% accuracy if ever, has never gone below +-53 feet is accuracy (but most of the time stays around +-109 feet, which ain’t great), and loses the satellite signal CONSTANTLY. And most importantly, I can reliably make it lose GPS signal just by putting my hand around the rear camera/the top antenna line. Covering the antenna line on the iPad Pro doesn’t do a thing to the signal strength or accuracy.

I’m going to do a full restore through iTunes and set up as new, load the app, and see what happens. If it does the same thing I’m gonna take both my phone and my iPad to my local store and see what a replacement does.

All of this lines up with what I was noticing, by the way: I usually map when I drive with my phone in my pocket (since I have a Watch for turn-by-turn directions) and the accuracy was significantly and noticeably worse when I left it in my pocket versus when I had it out and was looking at it. But now I can also confirm that the signal never actually gets good, only bad to worse.

Spend the $3 and get some confirmation.

Hello thanks for the update. Many people have a different car or have issues with the gps walking though. I too have a sonata and returned my X for a full refund. While maybe it would work elsewhere in the car, 4 previous phones (3 androids and an iPhone 7) all worked fine on the center console, so my takeaway is that the X gps is grossly inferior to the one in my iPhone 7.

So I'll stick with that (my old iPhone 7) for now. Back in the day it was normal for gps to be very sensitive to where you held it and I don't want to go back to that.

I had this issue many times a while back on my 6S Plus, but it seemed to have resolved itself. No problems for a couple of weeks. This morning out of the blue the problem returned. Maps apps (Waze, GMaps, Here Maps) could not determine my location accurately, placing me 100m away or so, and not updating regularly.

Fwiw, this is in a Mazda CX5, connected to Bluetooth, I had Wifi on but (obviously) not connected. Nothing changed about my setup for the past months, so not sure how interference could suddenly be a problem, all the way along my route to work.

I saw that my time was set manually, so I switched back to automatic. No change.

I hard-reset my iPhone 6S Plus (home+power for 15? seconds). No change.

I shook the phone, changed screen orientation a few times. No change.

This is a pretty big problem, I use my phone for navigation all the time, and this bug makes that impossible. 😟

I have contacted @bgr @techradar @9to5mac @engadget @pocketlint @gizmodo @wired about this, sent them a link to this thread but none have shown any interest. Can I suggest others also contact them and any others and maybe then they’ll listen and publish something?

The escalation was made a few days ago when I went to the Covent Garden store. My iphone X was replaced but I ended up speaking to a very nice person, who actually cared to know whether the new phone solves the issue. There was an Apple engineer on-site, who was doing some training, who ended up looking into the issue.

The new phone had the exact same issue as the one I brought in. I kept my current phone as I saw no point in having to deal with a new device when it does exhibit the very same problem. I will keep you guys posted, should be getting feedback from engineering through the Apple store within two weeks at the latest.

I was informed that escalations made by Apple stores are looked at on a priority basis so let's see what they come back with.

Best,

Nick

I agree to an extent. The iPhone 8 has been available since September and it seems this has been an issue from the start, that’s over 4 months! Also presumably Tim Cook, Apple execs, advisers and engineers also use iPhones themselves. I find it hard to believe they all have iPhones that are unaffected by this issue. I have been quite happy to provide them with the data logs and testing they have asked for because I want this resolved but it is ridiculous that they can’t work it out for themselves from their own devices.

I'm sure they need a larger sampling from a diverse group oif users.

Any type of testing of such a broad nature requires such, naturally.

They're not going to stop working on it regardless.

Mine hasn't had any issues other than minor ones I was able to resolve with a few settings changes in the apps and settings.

Just thought I'd ask about a few issues that I've noticed users have concerns with on here, while I had him on the line for those who are encountering issues ~

Hi mideon,

You can ask to be escalated to a senior advisor. Ask the sr advisor what steps are being taken to help resolve this issue and how you can assist.

I cannot recall the detailed steps as I asked about a few things, but I recall having customers drop pins from a variety of locations as well as take screenshots of the GPS status as the user's location changes, but I know I don't have the correct steps by all means nor the timeframe they're measuring within. It seems to track the person and device as they literally move with their device and under certain conditions, more thoroughly than basic troubleshooting. In doing so, it can provide specific user info, behaviors, feedback, and related to GPS, much more accurately and it gives more specific info per user. which is always needed.

They are using the data acquired to assess multiple variables, cross-reference, etc to continue to isolate the issue to a specific point in order to find the cause and in turn, the resolution for those with this issue.

They hope to find one asap.

They had similar GPS issues on the 6 in the past but troubleshooting for it usually only required basic steps most of you've taken already to no avail. Thus, level one tech support could resolve.

This needs more intense assessment and troubleshooting as well as consistent updates and follow up for affected users, which level 1 techs cannot provide support for and must escalate. One big reason for escalating is so the information collected stays with one, assigned advisor (or other advisors at the senior level, if necessary) per customer to provide the best and most true results. The Sr advisor won't drop a case until it's resolved or per the customer's request.

Give it a go. Sr tech I got ahold of was very aware of this issue and a couple of other issues that users have reported and had steps to assist, so that was reassuring.

I would counter with the fact that most companies wouldn't care enough to ask if you wanted to do data logging. I can't say for sure, but I know people who have tried to reach someone at Samsung when they found issues with their Android phone and failed miserably, but perhaps that was their fault, not Samsung's.

Data logging is not an indicator of a widespread problem, but rather a sign that your issue is unique enough that the engineers need data to find out more as it isn't something they've seen before. Certainly though many users here report issues, the vast majority of owners (including myself) have had absolutely zero issues with GPS; for me Maps, Google Maps and Waze all work beautifully as is the case with most; however that knowledge doesn't help you, thus the logs.

It's unfortunately true in the tech world that if you have a problem that only affects a very small number of customers, you are going to have to do most of the leg work to help the manufacturer help you. That's not a defense of Apple per se but just reality in having dealt with many companies on many technical issues over time.

Perhaps the best brush-off I've ever received was from Fujitsu several years ago, who, when faced with data showing there was a firmware issue in one of their disk drives, responded with "It is up to our customers to determine the suitability of our products for their application" - or "If it breaks in your application, go fish." 😁

As far as the return window, that's always going to be the case in a large corporation. If the engineers you are working with have the capability to pull strings at that level to ensure you can return your device that's wonderful, but engineers don't always have a path to be able to do that.

Apple store Regent St London offered a replacement X which I declined on the basis that I’ve already done that and it made no difference. They said that as my replacement was issued so soon after my first X they may have been the same batch and a replacement now might be from a different batch and may be better. I said that as it’s apparently the first they’ve heard of the issue, then why would a newer batch be any different? The other “solution” was to refer it the sales support team. I was unable to glean the dictinction between this support and the Apple senior adviser and engineering dept I’m already waiting for a response from. Anyway I begrudgingly agreed and they said I should hear within the next week. They anticipate the advice will be to swap it for another X. Oh and as I purchased the X via the Apple payment programme, they will not refund it so I can get myself a 7. They are all very nice and polite, but it’s a brick wall.

The strange thing is that this is also happening to people buying the new phones.

It seems related to iOS11, it could be related to Galileo or to many other things, intentional or not.

Apple Support and Genius have the possibility to check your battery. I know mine was close to the point where Apple considers that all the functions can't work properly. The Genius showed me a neat graph where it was very clear how close my battery was to being problematic.

Could a bad battery prevent proper GPS functionning? As this problem also impacts people with new phones it seems not. But who knows, iOS11 has been proven to have modified something with the battery management.

I installed an app called Battery Life Doctor which shows that my battery is at 50% of the design capacity (900/1810 mAh). I'm waiting for the new 29$ battery to arrive at the Apple Store and hope it will help.

i'm ready to try anything at this point.

Which is the biggest issue.

No, it's not.

For greatest accuracy, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi must be turned on.

People keep saying this, and it's really a red herring.

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cell towers are primarily used to get an *approximate* location *quickly* when GPS is not available or the signal is poor.

When a strong GPS signal is available its accuracy is far greater than the other mechanisms and it should take priority. If you're in an area where you can see plenty of sky and you've been there for more than a minute (really far less than this but I'm being generous) and your phone is having to rely on anything other than GPS to locate itself, there is something wrong with your GPS system (whether it's hardware or software).

Most stretches of open road won't have any nearby Wi-Fi or fixed location Bluetooth devices anyway, so having those enabled would make no difference in these circumstances.

For example, GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.) radius under open sky

Which should be plenty accurate for satnav purposes. And it *is* - look at all the actual satnav devices that have no Bluetooth, Cell radios or Wi-Fi and never have any issue figuring out where you are just from GPS signals.

I'm not saying that people with the GPS issues shouldn't turn on Bluetooth and Wi-fi in order to get the best possible performance from their location services, but if they do and it helps, it's only masking the problem rather that solving it in any way.