iPhone 8 GPS problems

I found an online guide to the How to fix GPS or Location Services Not Working in iOS 11 and it worked for me.
Source:https://www.howtoisolve.com/gps-location-services-not-working-ios-11-iphone-ipad /

Just as a quick update, now that I've had IOS 11.2 for a week, I can comment that Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps are performing better. Not perfect or to the levels I had with an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6, but to a "usable" level. I still have my fair share of GPS losing connection, but not to the previous levels that made it useless. It definitely needs some more work on Apple's part.

I have an iPhone X with 11.2 and I have the same issue. GPS drifting or lagging a few tens of meters away. You can easily miss with this behaviour. When pedestrian, it drifts so much to the point that it shows me not only on the wrong side of the street but far deep inside a building.

My iPhone 6s Plus also runs 11.2 and has zero problems. I afraid it could be a hardware issue. Been on the phone with Apple several times, after they asked me to do a number of annoying resets and wiping of my phone they suggested I go for a replacement. But seeing so many people here not having joy with this either I am wondering if I should go for a refund instead. This is a £1200 phone after all. Problems like these are unacceptable.

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.

Finalizer wrote:

Glad it worked for you.

Unfortunately, for many people here, the problem exists even when you are a pedestrian.

So apps like Uber, Google Maps, CityMapper etc don't work.

I also spoke with a senior before Xmas and I am waiting for follow-up up. Will keep you posted.

I tried everything possible, i even went ahead and bought a new wifi/GPS antina as a replacement 😢.

The beta program was my last try, if this was not worked i would have changed the antina 😝.

Just try your luck with the public beta program and enroll your device 🙂, Hope it will work for you too! .

The below given links will be useful.

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/guide#ios

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/redemption#ios

Best Regards,

Jithesh

I’ve trad through 20 of the 40 pages of posts and can add my iPhone X to the list with the exact same problem. I’m an IT professional with development experience and extensive mobility training now being used to support over 1,000 iOS devices for our users.

We bought 6 iPhone X’s through Verizon on the release day. They showed up just before Thanksgiving. Mine had the GPS problem on day one. Setup as a restore from a 6Plus. Four seem to be working fine while the sixth (a spare device) is exhibiting the problem right out of the box. I have the two problem X’s and have tested with an iPhone 7 next to them and a 6. The 6 & 7 are not impacted by the problem even though all are running iOS 11.2.2.

I’ve duplicated the car mount problem mentioned previously. Magnet free windshield mount but GPS freezes in mount and works in hand but not lying on the dash. Car is a Hyundai Sonata: someone earlier called out there’s as a Hyundai as well. No problem in our Kia Sorrento but we don’t have a mount in it.

I’ve ruled out the EZPass by removing it from the vehicle. Satellite isn’t an active subscription nor is BlueLink but I think both stay active just disable the features when you aren’t a subscriber.

My theory is a combo of items previously posted here:

New design and/or chipset in the 8 & X models. Maybe it’s antenna placement or an unexpected result of the glass back or wireless charging coil. No way I know of to tell without taking the phone apart to isolate components.

Result is weak GPS signals at best combined with standard interference factors (vehicle construction, weather, number of satellites visible, etc) creates a combination of factors that yields signal levels below the minimum threshold. We all know the results.

I’m opening a ticket with Apple tomorrow and will contact our Verizon and Apple business account reps.

My best guess at the moment is the charging coils are causing interference but I’m not an engineer so who knows.

Rob

I have had exactly the same GPS problems (+ poor WiFi and GSM signal) on my iPhone 6 as reported by all (non-Hyundai Sonata issues) in this thread - and it started before IOS 11 came out, so my experience is different from brice_in_brussels'

After some head-scratching I decided on a new iPhone 8 - and voila! GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and conversation is perfect again! (at least a week into the new phone...) Findings are supported by the GPS Diagnostic app, which "never" could find satellites on my iPhone6, on iPhone 8 it finds satellites even when I am inside my office in the middle of the building!

I belive the problem is hardware related - probably poor component quality/tolerance (antenna/cable/connection/..) paired with sloppy assembly/manufacturing procedure in one or multiple factories. As a result, the GPS can be malfunctioning right out of the box, or after some time due to phone being knocked around, or work perfect until phone EOL

As it happens (or is dicovered) to only a tiny fraction of the phones being pushed out on the market, Apple cover up by replacing faulty phones (while they hopefully try to improve component quality and assembly procedures (hah!))

Acceptable? Of course not on a premium product costing this amount of money! But profit hunt often leaves this type of skeletons in their track.

The problems is not isolated to iPhones. Google Samsung Galaxy GPS problems, or Microsoft Lumia, or Sony Xperia...

Hi! I have the same problem on an iphone x with ios 11.2.5. a curious fact, I made a hard reset by resetting it from iTunes and the problem did not happen anymore. I recently made another restoration but this time from the dfu mode, and now it happened again, so I guess it is a software error and not hardware because the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have the same problem. It is unfortunate that Apple is not interested in solving this problem, perhaps if several people complain about this, give importance as they did with the problem of batteries.

I too own an Iphone X and a Hyundai Sonata 2013. Was having all sorts of GPS issues with phone mounted on the vent right side of steering (Left Hand Drive - US). After going through this forum , I decided to mount it to the left vent. No issues after a few short drives (couple miles). I am inclined to confirm the interference theory. Now should I get rid of the car or the phone or just live with it. I mean 1300 dollars later , this is not what I was expecting. I usually stick with Samsung but always hated android mostly because its a tool for Google to collect user data, otherwise from pure engineering perspective , nothing beats Samsung devices.

I just spent 45 minutes on the phone with a kind, competent and understanding senior Apple technician who has forwarded my case to the engineering team. It seems that I am finally getting somewhere.

If you guys can do the same then maybe our problem can become better known and thus better addressed.

The steps I went through are:

• support conversation with @AppleSupport that downloaded a diagnostic,
• got called by Apple Support low level technician that downloaded another diagnostic,
• got a support appointment at the Apple Store to talk to a Genius who downloaded another diagnostic and reset my phone via iTunes

brice_in_brussels wrote:

The GPS issue is also on iPhone 6, so nothing to do with the new models.

It's extremely unlikely that we're only dealing with a single issue here. This thread is littered with people (including myself) that upgraded from an earlier iPhone and even ran them in parallel on the same OS version, with the older iPhone having no issues and the new model exhibiting problems. So statements like "nothing to do with the new models" are more than likely not true across the board.

My guess is there are at least 3 problems here:

1. Interference problems on iPhone 8/8 Plus/X, experienced by a lot of users here, particularly in certain models of car
2. Problems on iPhone 8/8 Plus/X that cannot be attributed to interference, experienced by many users here even when walking in open-air areas with plenty of sky visible (I'm in this group)
3. Problems that first manifested in iOS11 across older devices. These are discussed at length elsewhere, and I would not like to see them incorrectly conflated with the two above.

It's impossible to say if there are any underlying causes that are common to some or all of the above, including potentially Galileo support (in fact I raised this possibility in this same thread 4 months ago) in hardware and/or software, and we will probably never know. But we cannot and should not rule out the possibility that there are hardware issues with iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X.

Indeed we might be in front of many problems. I still would not rule out the main problem to be related to iOS11.

1. Indeed with some cars or with some magnetic holders or next to a certain type of radio or in some other circumstances there could be something interfering with the GPS chip.
2. and 3. can be grouped by the following facts:

• GPS signal was lost on old phones the moment iOS11 was installed
• iPhone 8/8 Plus/X ship with iOS11
• iOS11 added Galileo on top of GPS

Bugs in an OS upgrade could become very complicated if you have to deal with a new satellite positioning system which maybe itself has bugs. As AppleQer said it could very well be that iOS11 brought Galileo to new iPhones and messed up GPS on all models.

Laying a 6 and an 8 next to each other on the same iOS11 version and having the GPS work on the 6 and not on the 8 does not rule out the possibility of the problem coming from iOS11 as many people have had their 8 replaced by another 8 and still having the same problem. You could lay 100 iPhone 8 next to each other, on the same iOS11 version and have half of them show GPS problems.

JiangZemin wrote:

P.S.: I am talking about GPS from satellite, with cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth all turned off.

Which is the biggest issue.

Location services is most accurate when Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are turned on to assist GPS in finding locations, especially where GPS reception is spotty, blocked or GPS just doesn't provide a very accurate result; by definition the US Government says:

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

GPS.gov: GPS Accuracy

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

Turn Location Services and GPS on or off on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

CupawnTae wrote:

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.

The key here is if you're in the middle of a rural area with a view of the open sky, that's true.

If you're in a city with buildings that GPS signals can bounce off of, not so much.

It all depends on where you are.

Navigation devices work somewhat differently, and I can tell you as the owner of several Garmin GPS units used for hiking the saved location points can be quite a bit off of where you actually are, and this is in the wilderness.

The bottom line is the combination of technologies is what makes assisted GPS work as well as it does.

This is unsurprising.

As I related in earlier posts, Apple Executive Relations has already confirmed to me about 2 months ago that:

1. They can find nothing wrong with the performance of their phone after 3-4 data loggings and numerous screen records clearly documenting the issue and reproducing it for their data logging. (CYA much???)

2. What is going on is the result of third-party interference that they are taking no responsibility for.

3. It's not their problem, it may get fixed, it may not, but they bear no responsibility for whether or not your car/wearable/RFID, etc. interferes with their otherwise working phone. They'll offer you a full refund if you wish to take advantage of it within 30 days of notifying them you have the problem.

That's basically it in a nutshell, straight from the horse's mouth at the Executive level, folks. I put in for my refund a few weeks ago, and should have a check within 30 days (Why the self-styled most advanced tech company in the world takes 30 days to send out a check, your guess is as good as mine.... 😕)