iPhone 8 GPS problems

I have just purchased a “beam electronics” cradle mount from Amazon and it seems to work fine. I am on my 2nd iphone 8 and both had an issue with the magnetic mount i had been using for 2 years with my iphone 6. Something is not right, either ios 11 or the new gps unit they are using, or the glass back.....theres an issue that needs addressed. I miss the ease of use of my magnet mount.

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.

OK so I have kind of an insane update to report. I've continued to test my iPhone 8 in hopes of isolating what the problem is, and I think I may have finally found it. Initially I was suspicious of my car mount, and whether it was somehow blocking the GPS chip's signal, but ultimately this made no sense.

Still, I couldn't help but wonder whether it had something to do with my car, or the positioning of my mount and/or phone, considering that GPS seemed to work fine so long as the phone wasn't being cradled in the mount.

In the middle of a yet another dropped GPS signal, I decided to turn the phone on its side to landscape -- BOOM it IMMEDIATELY picked the signal back up and held it for the entire rest of my trip. Tried it again this morning -- continued to drop the signal while positioned upright, but turn the phone on its side, and GPS works perfectly.

I would LOVE to know if anyone else has this experience. If this is an issue on more than my phone, it would appear Apple has a serious gyroscope/accelerometer issue on its hands with the iPhone 8 and the GPS chipset.

Same issue. Gps location get stuck and stops updating. I’ve noticed it happens WAY more frequently when my phone is in lower power mode. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve had the issue when not in low power mode. Super annoying. I just switched from Android for the first time in many years and this issue is not inspiring confidence in Apple. Gps is one of the core feature of a smart phone these days. This has to be addressed ASAP.

I had another call with an Apple Engineer today. We installed a profile on my phone called "Location and Motion Logging" They want me to leave it installed today and later this evening they will pull the log files to analyze. I'm starting to see more people online complaining about this so there is something going on. If you are having this issue you need to call Apple support and open a ticket.

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,

I had similar issues with the iPhone GPS and now it's a 5th day that this finally works (I'm travelling a lot and using different maps all the time).

this is what I did:

- turn off location services: settings - privacy - location services (wait 20 seconds),

- turn location services on again

- turn off bluetooth: settings - bluetooth (wait 20 seconds)

- turn bluetooth on again

- go to settings - mobile data - mobile data options - enable 4G - select 'off' - go back - go to enable 4G again - select 'voice&data', go back to settings

- go to settings - general - reset - reset Network settings

I hope this will help you too.

HI kchamp do you have any update?
i already installed ios 11.1 beta 5 and the result is none..
i still have GPS issue with the maps still stuck while you're driving..
But the location info is fine...
Make my day dizzy lol..

Nothing new to report. I sent the log files to Apple last week and an Engineer called me on Saturday morning to ask a few questions and he said they are still investigating the issue. I will report back as soon as I get any information.

Fed up with Apple’s response to this. Been dealing with them for over a month, escalated to Executive Relations a week ago and have been told in no uncertain terms:

They are aware of the problem.

They have no idea what is causing it.

They have no timeline for solving it.

That’s direct from the horses mouth this afternoon. I was politely told to go pound sand or return my phone (8 plus) and leave them alone. Hands down, the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had with any product ever. Figuring out my next steps now since Apple has indicated they will do absolutely nothing. I was literally told, “the engineers say to just keep up with the software updates if you choose not to return your phone.”

Update from last.

I've attempted the troubleshooting suggested in this thread, and I've also discussed it with apple support again. They've said to go into the apple shop to swap over the phone (to be on my third iPhone 8).

This morning I also updated to iOS 11.1

I went for a drive, and with an iPhone 6 sitting right next to the iPhone 8 recorded a couple of videos showing that the GPS on the iPhone 8 is still unacceptable.

Thus so far, the new iOS update, and all the trouble shooting suggested in this thread, and by apple, does not fix the GPS problems. I can't help but think that due to being an early adopter, there was a dodgy batch of GPS chips put into the phones.

I'm going to the apple store in an hour to get ANOTHER swap out - or just a refund, I'm sick of this in a premium device.

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.

No offense, but there’s no rhyme or reason. I’ve read people “solve” this by putting the phone in landscape mode. I’ve literally recreated it by putting it in landscape mode.

They are clueless, save yourself the aggravation of trying to figure it out. They don’t even know if it’s hardware or software.

Interestingly, the iOS 11.1 release notes mention a fix for "some 3rd-party GPS accessories" that "caused inaccuracies in location data".

I'm not using a 3rd-party GPS accessory, but after updating to 11.1 this morning, GPS did seem markedly improved. Of course, it could just be coincidence as the issue is quite unpredictable, but would be interesting to see if anyone else has a similar experience.