iPhone 8 GPS problems

@William

How is this helpful? My iPhone 6S Plus easily outperforms my iPhone 8 Plus in terms of accuracy.

This is while being afoot on open field; no trees, no buildings.

6s Plus has all satellite accuracy bars above 75% constantly while the 8 Plus has drops to below 75% again and again - for no obvious reason. That's when the lagging happens.

We are talking about determining location solely by GPS satellite signal, not anything else. Bluetooth / Cellular / WiFi is uncorrelated to this issue.

Bluetooth / Cellular / WiFi is not only uncorrelated, it complicates the debugging of the issue, because locating by Bluetooth / Cellular / WiFi (gives a somewhat approximate location) tend to hide the failure of GPS (inaccurate / outdated location).

Also I have been doing controlled experiments where all related devices are configured to rely solely on GPS satellite signal to determine location. Within these experiments, only iPhone X has the issue, not iPhone 7/7+, not Samsung Galaxy J. In other words, the signal strength is considered to be the same, while different models behaved very differently as mentioned above.

I had my iPhone X replaced by Apple.

Here I am waiting for an Uber, iPhone X showing me 30m away from where I actually am and GPS dot jumping around. My iPhone 6S Plus on the other hand is spot on. I used that instead to find the correct location for the Uber.

Don’t know if it’s software or hardware but as many people have already said, replacing the phone won’t solve this.

Either it’s a widespread problem or a combination of iOS 11 and the X that causes it. iOS 11 works fine with my 6S Plus. Always talking pedestrian mode. Don’t even talk about cars, this can be pretty dangerous.

Well, I've opened a support case and it's still on-going. I have just received a replacement iPhone 8+, and sadly it has the exact same behavior. Easy test, out of the box, no accounts no nothing, open maps, stand on street corner and watch the blue circle get bigger and smaller, moving my position erratically when the blue circle grows.

I've been using my old iPhone 5S, even replaced the battery because it was so bad, and it's working like you would expect. I'm going to do some more testing and write up a summary of everything and the several sources online stating it would be due to the wireless charging and interference because of it.

I'm super sad. This is my 5th iPhone, and it's a real letdown. For the first time I feel it was a bad choice getting this. I might even contact my cell company, don't know if I can unbind the contract because of the poor quality of the iPhone 8+.

Hi,

Yes I installed Non-Apple parts.

The strange thing with this GPS issue is that many people have been complaining about it since forever:

• "gps not working properly after iOS 9.3 update"
• "Wi-Fi and GPS not working after iOS 10.3 update"
• "GPS not working after update to IOS11"

What's different for you guys (and for "iPhone X GPS not working") is that you even encounter the problem with (supposedly) "brand new" replacemement iPhones.

What we all have in common is:

1. Our GPS is not working
2. Our iPhones have not been called back for meticulous scrutiny by a curious, surprised and inquiring engineering team.
3. To my knowledge the only known fix I have ever seen on "GPS not working" threads, apart from an exchange with another (if you're lucky functioning) iPhone is, at least on previous models where it's possible to do so, the replacement of the GPS and Wifi hardware for 15$.

PS: the GPS app is GPS Diagnostic, it will probably show you, as it did for me, that the GPS hardware is "installed" but will also display "No satellites".

I finally had enough and replaced my iPhone X.

On my previous iPhone X, the GPS function worked some days and not others.

When I factory reset it on the day I took it in, it was working, but I explained to the "Genius" that the GPS function had a habit of working for short period and then breaking, so there was no guarantee the reset was the solution. I also mentioned user experiences on these forums. Apple agreed that on balance it would be better to replace it - they could see my phone was otherwise in perfect condition and I had no incentive to go all the way into town and go through all this hassle. The new phone is working okay so far, but just to be safe I didn't restore it from my old back-up to avoid transferring any bug that might have occurred from previous iOS upgrades. Another reason for not restoring from the backup was to avoid any risk of overheating the GPS/Qualcomm chip due to installing a 45GB backup on one go. I wonder whether these GPS chips are too delicate or get overheated, or are badly connected. One GPS app developer told me he thought it could be a chip defect or poor connection. I also noticed people discussing heat issues here

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/7ed9vu/overheating_might_cause_gp s_error_in_iphone_x_and/

Perhaps the chip does get overheated when left running in the background on some apps. I never used my GPS apps for car navigation, but I imagine that might create a risk.

The overheating is the only solid explanation for the problem we have in the (36 pages - 2600 I have this question too) "GPS not working after update to IOS11" thread.

Why? Because the only lasting solution ever found to the iPhone 6 GPS problem was to replace the GPS antenna ("flex cable"). You can see two pictures of the antenna here in that same thread (one is the one I replaced).

The mesh seems to be the antenna. It seems to have moved from its connector which would explain a bad reception.

It seems obvious that it is glued to the part under it. If for some reason the phone overheated it could have made the glue melt and the antenna move slightly enough to create the satellite connection problems we all know.

If iOS11 toyed with the battery as it has been demonstrated to have done maybe upgrading made the battery overheat and disconnected the antenna.

These success stories are for the iPhone 6 only as it seems we are the only ones that can buy the part and replace it. I'm letting you guys know because it might be related to your problem.

If this overheating-melts-the-glue-and-disconnects-the-GPS-antenna is what is causing our issues then it means our phones can be broken remotely. . . . . .

Corangar,

Thanks. Just to clarify, by "pulsating" in Apple Maps, do you mean light blue circles that constantly radiate outwards from a dark blue center, like ripples in a pond after you throw a stone into it? I was told that a light blue circle that doesn't move outward from the center means you only have location based on Wifi/cellular rather than GPS. I think you know this, but I want to be certain.

Were you able to tell what iOS versions were installed at the store where nearly all phones had issues, and at the two stores where you couldn't reproduce the problem recently?

@Corangar PS: still experimenting with my iPhone X and GPS Diagnostic.

I started with no GPS signal but when I turned Wifi off, while leaving Cellular Data on, the GPS Diagnostic app found the signal. I then turned Wifi on again, and the app lost the GPS signal. I did this several times and got the same result. The battery was 41%. Does turning Wifi off help you get a GPS signal on your iPhone X? If you can, could you try that too. I think you have the same app.

OK, just to repeat: if you do that "factory reset", remember to backup first and reset via iTunes/USB to restart with iOS11.3 (if you reset from the iPhone's internal settings, you will probably get the old iOS installed at the factory).

DISCLAIMER: do the above at your own risk. You may want to try removing and re-inserting the SIM card while the phone is shut down. I don't know if the solution works using that alternative method, though.

I have this issue too. After multiple attempts at solving the issue with phone support, I went to Genius Bar. Genius ran diagnostics etc. and ultimately replaced my phone. He reinstalled the iOS from iCloud Backup but told me that if I continued to encounter the same issue, I should try reinstalling from as a new phone because it was likely a software issue. The GPS worked fine for a day or so, and then it started getting lost again. I have noticed that if I turn the phone side to side it resets and finds its way again, but I'm not willing to take that as a solution because it's not the safest thing to do while driving. My next step is to do a clean reinstall as a new phone without using the iCloud Backup. I will post the results here.

I also bought a map. For the digital natives among us, we used to have these paper maps. Some of them are large pieces of paper folded up accordion-style, so that you would have to either have a passenger reading the map and navigating for you, or you would have to pull over, unfold the map on the hood of your car, and figure out where to go from there. Then you would have to either remember the instructions or write down directions for yourself. So that's where I'm at now. It's kind of fun, actually.

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.

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, twice. My phone is offered by the company I work for and we have quite good customer service for phones.

About gps satellites. To get a fix three satellites is bare minimum and then the accuracy won’t be very good. Four satellites is the minimum for three dimensional positioning. The more satellites the better accuracy.

The app GPS Diagnostic sadly doesn’t specify how many satellites it is connected to. >4 has only one bar in the diagram. In my case that bar is usually very low or even 0 %. Also the first three satellites have many times low signal qualities.

The accuracy for modern phones with gps and glonass chips should be well under 10 m. I don’t consider 16 m accurate at all. I am a geocacher and 16 m accuracy makes finding caches very difficult. On open terrain the accuracy should be more like 6 m (which my previous iPhone 6s was able to get). For comparison my dedicated Garmin gps is able to obtain 3 m accuracy.

Then the other matters:

- SIM trick didn’t do anything.

- Compass should have nothing to do with getting an accurate location. It is only for getting a heading. Anyways, it is calibrated.

- I have iOS 11.4.1. It doesn’t help.

- Turning off location services for all other apps cannot be the solution. I need location services on multiple apps.

- This issue isn’t limited only to my neighbourhood. I experience it everywhere anytime.

- My carrier has its own network of base stations.

I am pretty sure this is a software bug that Apple needs to fix asap. Sadly it seems that Apple hasn’t even confirmed this bug.