iPhone 8 GPS problems

For the sake of being thorough, and having the inventory to work with. I tested the GPS on the iPhone X, 8, 7 Plus, and 6 in my car. I have the X and have had consistent issues, I had a brand new iPhone 8 to work with, and right out of the box, the GPS would not work. The GPS worked fine on the 7 Plus and the 6. It is extremely clear that certain cars are interfering with the GPS on the X and 8. There is no hardware issue, it is software based, and it won't be fixed until a proper update addressing the issue is released.

Another 2013 Sonata driver here.

I thought I was crazy or at least customer support talked to me as if I was. After several hours of chat and phone calls, I too zeroed in on proximity to my radio head unit. I’m on my 2nd replacement X and I have a new Sprint sim, phone setup as new not from backup.

On my last call, Apple said if the phone is working ok in my hand then it is functioning as intended. They suggested asking Hyundai for info on their frequencies emitted by radio/gps. I’m glad I didn’t wreck driving around trying to take screen shots when the GPS signal dropped. No issues at all with my 6S still in use or my 7+ immediately before upgrading to X. No issues with my X while driving my wife’s VW. 11.2 seems to work a little better but it still happens frequently.

Finalizer wrote:

Hi guys, don’t know if I am the bearer of bad news but I visited an Apple store today. I placed my iPhone X and a demo iPhone X next to each other. The demo iPhone X had a sharp GPS location and mine was drifting for 1 minute to the point where it stopped showing me inside a hotel nearby (40-50 meters away. Please see photo .

Don’t know what that means but it looks to me that there is a hardware issue rather than a software one. I showed the person who was helping me the issue on my iPhone X and also tried my iPhone 6S Plus next to them running iOS 11. Razor sharp gps location as well.

I am going to wait for the new update but I start to believe that this is something to do with the chipset or a batch of iPhones .

And yes, I also tried with the case off.

Why didn't you get it repaired/replaced under warranty?

Mlaukhuf wrote:

I am having the same issue in a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. When the phone is in the cup holder it goes wacky, and as soon as I take it out and away it picks back up and works fine. Crazy.

Actually, that makes sense. The cup holder is likely the worst location for picking up radio signals.

I'm having the same problem with the same car.

I actually swapped out my original X after troubleshooting quite a bit with Apple. Also thought it was my magnetic dash mount (connected to the CD slot), but replaced that with no luck. Today started searching the forums again and came across this post where another person mentioned the '13 Sonata and iPhone X GPS issue:

Re: Why is my GPS not working on iPhone X?

As you can see, that person was able to find some success mounting it to the left side of the dash. Not a great solution, but some evidence that something around the center console must be causing interference. I'm going to play around a bit this week. Discouraging, but at least I'm not crazy?

I have been through the exact same thing with a senior adviser in the UK. I sent them a video it was referred to engineers. He eventually came back to me, the engineers confirming it was not expected behaviour but could give no estimate of when this would be fixed. It’s just left open ended. So they know all about it.

As I opened my case within the initial remorse period and the case remains open they have said if I want to swap for a different device I can go to a store and ask the sales team and give them the case number. I will do that shortly and try my luck with an iPhone 7 but not impressed that I’ll have to probably re-explain everything.

L

I wouldn’t wait to publish your video. This has been an issue since the 8 and X were released.

Yes, I hope this issue gets more coverage. The only "news" article I could find was this one. So much for the "software fix coming in iOS 11.2"!

https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/11/09/some-iphone-8-iphone-x-users-sufferin g-from-gps-issues-software-fix-appears-to-be-coming-in-ios-112

BTW, the link below has a reasonable list of suggestions that may also apply to other GPS apps, including:

Restart phone,

Rest Location Settings,

Reset GPS (airline mode on, reset network, restart, location/system services/timezone OFF

etc.

(nothing that new, although I hadn't thought about the timezone issue)

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917247-Troubleshooting-GPS-issue s

Ok so I have been doing more testing having gone right through tech support to the point where I had the hardware test done with no faults reported. I have had my 8 plus next to my wifes 7 with more test software I have just purchased. There is a difference between the phones with regard to the signal strengths from the satelites. The 7 is fairly steady in the green zone for signal strength occasionly dropping to the orange zone however the 8 plus hits the same levels in the green but frequentely drops to the orange zone I would say about 75 percent more drops than the 7. It seems that the 8 plus is really struggling to hold on to a good satalite signal. Interstingly against my Ipad pro, the pro is rock steady in the green all the time. All phones have latest ios and set up with the same software, the phones purchased on the same day. I will try and do some more testing at the week end when I can get my wifes phone off her.

I had a couple of chat sessions with AppleCare. They had me reset privacy permissions on the Location Services. That didn't help. According to the tech, the diagnostics they ran showed no problems. Their next suggestion is to do factory wipe and setup as new phone. After reading this thread, it looks like this may be pointless.

Running Waze last night on the NJ turnpike, out in the middle of nowhere at highway speed, the app kept "recalculating" as it showed my vehicle traveling in the exact opposite direction, as if I had thrown it into reverse. Restarting the phone seemed to help. It seems to occur without rhyme or reason regardless of nav app in use (Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps).

I am going to try to change all permissions to "while using app" to see if one of the other location service apps is somehow interfering or locking things. Its a hail-Mary for sure, but seems less intrusive than setting up as new.

Brko91

Are you sure the app is basing your location on GPS, not just Wifi and cell-tower triangulation?

Relying on Wifi and cell-towers would be more accurate than just cell-towers.

To be sure, test with GPS Diagnostics, which costs next to nothing on the App Store. A bunch of people on here, including me, like it.

Alternatively use Apple Maps, making sure that you get the "ping effect" I attempted to describe above, not just a light blue circle around a dark blue center.

Joyd, Good luck with that. You may want to try removing the SIM card as I described above (at your own risk).

Apple's instructions as of today do not mention turning the phone off here, although that may be their omission:

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

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

And another discussion's thread seem to say there shouldn't be a major problem.

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

Another option would be to 1) remove the SIM card when phone is off, 2) restart the phone without a SIM card in, and 3) insert the SIM once the phone has restarted. Again, do so at your own risk.

Anyway, my iPhone was fine after doing the six steps I listed in my earlier post above. I have had no GPS problem for three days and counting now...

So, you would have to backup your phone to iTunes, factory reset the phone, and then only re-install the GPS app you need (leaving the rest of the phone in its initial state for testing purposes), test the GPS app, and then restore your entire backup if the test fails.

Before that, you might want to to try to the "SIM trick"- it worked for me (do so at your own risk; see warning about doing it while phone is left on).

Also, look in this and the other GPS threads for posts by people who had issues with Bluetooth systems and/or magnetic holders within their vehicles.

It would work much better if you have WiFi and Bluetooth ON. That makes it easier to acquire the satellites.

Just reported on the other thread discussing the issue.

With iPhone 6+ had lost all GPS, installed 11.2 last night and now all is working correctly.

May not resolve for all, but certainly worth a try.

I am having the same issue in a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. When the phone is in the cup holder it goes wacky, and as soon as I take it out and away it picks back up and works fine. Crazy.