iPhone 8 GPS problems

Hey so I just wanted to give everyone my story about this and a solution I found. My fiance and I had Verizon with iphone 7's up until December 28, 2017. We jumped ship for Sprint (probably the worst decision we ever made) for an iphone 8 (me) and an iphone X (for her). We got our phones in Virginia while visiting family and drove back to South Carolina. We had taken my car (2012 honda civic) and i usually rely on google maps for traffic/gps. No issues whatsoever.

When we get back to South Carolina, the fiance had to go to work (she's an EMT for the county) and that evening she called me panicking out on her way to work that google maps wasn't working at all. Couldn't locate her, kept jumping around, etc. I tell her we will call Apple about it. I get online after and i find this thread and hows its a pretty big issue.

I called apple support the next day and the guy acts like he has never heard of this. Walks me through resetting everything, gets remote access to my phone to check some stuff. Tells us to try it again. We go out in her car to make sure we test all the variables. Still acting up. I try my phone...that worked perfectly...and i get the same issue. Makes me think it's something in the car. Noisy power supply on the radio interfering with the phone, etc..something.

She goes to work that evening, same thing. By this time she's furious that we paid $1000 for a phone and its totally unusable. The iphone 7 worked flawlessly in the car. She needs gps to help with finding people's houses/traffic updates. I pull out an old iphone 4, download an offline google map to help her out. No traffic updates, but she gets directions now. That works.

Flash forward a couple weeks. We go to the Apple store downtown (Charleston) and of course the guy wants to replace it...not with a brand new phone, but a "manufacturer refurbished" phone, which i was blown away. But whatever. I took video from my phone showing the issue on her phone all the way to the store.

He tells us its going to work now for sure, blah blah blah. We get out to the car, plug in our home address on google maps. Still messed up. It's ridiculous. By this time I'm getting furious. So i decide we are going to kill power to the radio to test it. We get home and i pull out the owner's manual for the diagram for the fuse box.

I'm looking at the diagram and i see there's a fuse for OnStar. I begin thinking that maybe the OnStar is interferring with it (it has gps, calling, etc..) So i decide i'm going to start with that. I pull the fuse, we start the car and i verify the OnStar module on the ceiling isn't lit up with an led.

We decide to go for a test drive. It follow us the entire way, no issues whatsoever. I tried it on my phone that screwed up too, flawless.

TL;DR Pull the fuse for the OnStar module in your car if it has this. Worked for my issue.

The issue I had was actually localized to my Subaru Infotainment unit (2015 Subaru with Nav). Since it has a built-in GPS (albeit somewhat less than desirable) it disables the GPS on the iPhone when plugged into the USB port on the radio. The problem is that the only way for the Subaru unit to fully control the Pandora App is to be plugged into USB on the radio. I validated this behavior is happening across any and all iOS devices. Android is able to control all of it via Bluetooth. Short answer, I will be shopping for a CarPlay Certified aftermarket unit.

To prove the point there is a great $2.99 app called GPS Diagnostic. Shows the Satellite coverage and communications between location services. Helped me narrow it all down. I just came back from the Subaru dealer and tried a couple different cars on the lot with the same radio, with the exact same result.

Hey there! Are you using any sort of metal/magnetic mounts or cases? Apple has stated that with the iPhone 8/X, since there is a pretty large magnet under the rear glass for wireless charging, to stay away from any and all metal casings or car mounts as it can permanently or temporarily throw off the compasses calibration. If you’re not, I would definitely make sure there is no metal around the device while in your pocket/purse or at home, and under location services->system services, make sure your compass calibration, WiFi and cellular networking, routing and traffic, and even setting time zone are turned to “On” as all of these features contribute to successful navigation via Apple Maps and other third party navigation apps.

I started experiencing the issue shortly after the upgrade to iOS11

I tried everything suggested on this and many other forums, including slapping the phone against my palm to "reset the accelerators". Strangely enough this did seem to work consistently, but the issue would re-appear a few minutes later.

One day while driving, I asked my wife to slap the phone because I could not, and she then made an (now obvious) comment. "It seems to work the moment we take it away from the car's center console.

I tested this, and as long as my wife holds the phone in her hand in the middle of the car, it keeps working without issues. When we place it back in the cradle mounted on the dash (and tested windscreen) it looses GPS connectivity. This is also the case for other navigation app like Google Maps.

Hope this helps

I just wanted to chime in here as I had success in solving this over the past few days.

I've been following this thread for a few weeks now and having experienced this issue with my iPhone 8 Plus since day 1 back in September 2017, I didn't hold out much hope in seeing it resolved as several people have mentioned that they're on their fourth of fifth iPhone 8/8 Plus/X replacement. I don't have a Sonata and have this issue when walking around, in an open field, on a clear day, with nothing between me and the sky. I did use the GPS Diagnostics app that was suggested and it was very interesting to see that my phone rarely ever used GPS - it always was using Cellular/Bluetooth/Wifi to locate me. When it did use GPS, it wouldn't last for a second before reverting back to the latter again.

Anyway, I made a Genius Bar appointment, showed the results from the app along with two videos - one from my iPhone 8 Plus and one from my wife's iPhone SE. Both were screen recordings and adequately showed the issue whilst we were on a walk - my wife's position was excellent whilst mine was drifting up to 2 miles away!

I was given a replacement phone which I set up and I'm happy to say that the problem is now resolved. The GPS Diagnostics app says I'm using GPS most of the time and satellite coverage is almost always excellent. Any map app can get an near instant lock on me and I've been able to use Waze without issue for the first time since being an iPhone 8 Plus owner.

I'm aware that a lot of people have found that solving this issue isn't as straight forward as simple getting a replacement phone however, I wanted to chime in to say that if there are people watching or reading this thread and thinking that they don't have a chance of it being resolved, please don't give up yet! If you haven't already, book a Genius Bar appointment and see if you can get a replacement unit. If possible, take evidence with you as I'm sure it expedited the process I went through.

Good luck to everyone in seeing this fixed.

Mikeluca67

Don't trust the Tech diagnostics - I don't see how they can test your GPS chips if the phone is indoors at the time.

Backup your phone to iTunes, do a factory reset while plugged into iTunes for the latest iOS (not through the phones internal settings, which will reset you to whatever iOS was installed at the factory), and test out the GPS using Apple Maps. It won't take you long and you would have your entire phone backed up to iTunes anyway. If that test fails, take the phone in that initialized state to a Genius Bar, and get a replacement phone or replace the GPS chip. You may have to demonstrate the GPS failure outside, but I doubt it (I didn't have to). I am not sure, but the Genius Bar people seem aware there is a hardware problem. Good luck!

Testing and replacement are discussed on page 38 of this thread: Re: GPS not working after update to IOS11

After a phone swap (same result as you) I did a little more digging and downloaded an app called "GPS Diagnostic". It shows how many satellites and how good your reception is. My problem seems to be my car (2015 Subaru Legacy). When plugged into USB so I can use Pandora, the GPS completely loses Satellite reception. Its immediate and total. I think it relies on tower triangulation only at that point. Waze behaves as you describe...Apple Maps never reroutes and just says "proceed to route". The app is the best $2.99 I have spent and it helped me narrow down the possible culprit. I have a call opened with Subaru now.

@ashamansky.

Nake sure it isn't a software issue, by

1) reset network settings, turn location settings on/off/on, make sure only essential apps have locations settings on, restart phone, test it

2) if that fails, back up to iTunes,

3) use the "restore iPhone" (not "restore from backup") function on iTunes to reset your phone to the latest iOS (don't use the internal settings on your iPhone to reset as that will just reset your iOS to the one installed at the factory).

4) after doing the above to initialize your iPhone, test its GPS by using Apple Maps (the blue circles should be constantly pulsating/radiating outward if you have a GPS signal. If not, you will just get a stationary blue circle around a dark blue center).

5) after that you could try installing the GPS Diagnostic app and use it to see how weak your signal reception is.

6) If none of that works, it is probably a hardware issue. See posts earlier in this thread and other threads by people who resolved their problems after replacing faulty chips in older iPhones.

[Edited by Host]

Are you sure it is pulsating - a dark blue center, with light blue circles constantly moving outward?

It should look like ripples on a pond after you throw a stone in.

If you only see a light blue circle that is not moving, it means you have Wifi and Cellular but not GPS.

Also, just to confirm: did you reset the phone to factory settings and not restore your old backup?

If the answer is yes to both, check the following:

Double-check that your Wifi and cellular data/mobile data are on

Set compass to True North (Settings, Compass)

Open Compass and try calibrating it by opening it, swiping left to get the "second page" of the app, and playing around with it until it is centered properly. I read somewhere that this might help.

Also download the GPS Diagnostics app from App Store and test GPS on that (give it a 10-15 seconds to find the signal without refreshing). Do this outside, of course, where you have a direct line to the sky.

If that doesn't work, take your phone in its initialized state to Apple, show them the GPS is not working, and ask for a repair/replacement.

Don't let them give you any B.S. with their diagnostic test, either remotely or in the store. It cannot test GPS chip function, especially when inside a store. If necessary, take the "Genius" outside the store with you to show how your phone is not picking up a GPS signal in Apple Maps and/or GPS Diagnostics.

Having the same issue with my Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps. Three separate iPhones (6s Plus, 7 Plus, and my 7 Plus was just replaced for a different issue).

If folks are plugging their phones into their car's USB port, this may be an issue. When I navigated with my phone NOT plugged into the USB port - it was locked on. To test, I plugged it back in and the erratic behavior started again (for me it's a heading issue and my navigation is constantly trying to reroute). Some folks (http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/138-gen-5-2015-present/407266-actual-fix-iph one-6s-gps-erratic-behavior.html) are reporting that when they do this, their car's navigation software may be interfering in some manner.

Just a thought but it is probably not your phone if it's being replicated on several phones.

Okay, I solved my problem. It was my car's Starlink navigation system. Somehow it prevents the GPS signal on my phone from working. If you're having difficulty in the car - try your GPS with the phone unplugged. That's a dead giveaway. Then search for a solution for your specific car make and model. Good luck!

Hey there! Are you using any sort of metal/magnetic mounts or cases? Apple has stated that with the iPhone 8/X, since there is a pretty large magnet under the rear glass for wireless charging, to stay away from any and all metal casings or car mounts as it can permanently or temporarily throw off the compasses calibration.

This worked for me. I have been able to use my GPS apps since I fixed the problem in May.

However, do it at your own risk; some sites advise against removing/inserting SIM cards while your phone is on:

Close all apps on your phone, remove the SIM, power off, power on, reinsert the SIM.

Then go outside and test the Maps app or whatever you use.

I still have to wait 10-30 seconds to get my first "fix" (it helps if I am stationary), but it works fine after that. Before I did this solution, I had no luck no matter how long I waited.

This may be irrelevant, but just in case, I try to avoid using location apps simultaneously and I have no apps with location services set to Always On.

You can also try resetting network settings.

If all that fails, backup your phone, do a factory reset, and then test the native Apple Maps App outside BEFORE restoring your backup. When you do so, don’t confuse the stationary blue circle (which indicates location based on Wifi and Cellular only) with the moving blue circles, which radiate out from their center, indicating you have an A-GPS-based location.

If that fails, take it into an Apple Store for replacement/repair.

I just wanted to report back that it’s been several weeks since I have refrained from using the magnetic mount and I have not had any gps issues.