My iPhone 6 since upgrading can’t find GPS

Honestly if I didn’t have to travel an hour to get to the nearest Genius Bar I would give them a shot. The last time I visited a “genius” for a bad battery they told me I had to replace the entire phone because the battery was bulging and had separated the glass so the cost of a new battery and display wouldn’t be worth a replacement. So I went home and bought a new battery and opened it myself to find a battery that wasn’t bulging even a little bit, and what was just a bent case. Replaced the battery and haven’t had a single issue with my phone until upgrading to iOS 11.

All I am asking is how I can have literally used a gps app the day before an upgrade and it navigates perfectly for a 2 hour drive, then I upgrade to iOS 11 and it literally can’t even get me out of my neighborhood without thinking I am 6 miles away. That’s the only question I have. Literally nothing else changed.

I have had this problem with my iPhone 6 as well, all of my software is up to date, location services are one, everything in my phone is correct. I have not been able to see any turn by turn directions due to the lack of GPS and as I am living in a new area it has become hazardous while I am driving. This is obviously not a hardware issue and I hope Apple resolves the issue soon as I am not up for an upgrade until next August.

Apple has been very disappointing and I am considering switching to Samsung.

I also visited an Apple Store "genius bar". But the "export helper" there seem to be pretty clueless about it. They don't have a diagnostic to check if the GPS hardware is working or not. All the guy can suggest was:

1. reinstall factory OS, or

2. replace the phone.

After that,I decided to a little more testing myself.

So I started the compass app that comes with iPhone, because it gives me the coordinate reading down to the seconds.

Here's what I have observed so far:

(I turned off the WiFi so my phone would have to use the hardware GPS chip ONLY to get its location info)

1. The Compass will give me the correct GPS reading each time after I restart it, i.e. swipe it upward to exit the app, and click it again to relaunch it. When I am walking, each time I relaunch the Compass app, I will get a fresh reading in the coordinates. This shows that the GPS may need to be initialized for it to work properly, as it would be what an app would do when it is first started.

2. However, if I just keep on walking, my GPS location would NOT update anymore, UNTIL a few minutes after I stop walking. After a few minutes (I used a timer and it turned out to be around 4 min), the reading is updated again.

It almost seems that the motion sensor disabled the GPS service from updating the apps, until it detects the any motion has stopped.

I am going to do more testings and try to replicate my findings.

I know for sure that #1 is definitive, meaning it can be consistently reproduced. #2 needs more tests. However, so far it appears that it would take me about 4 min after I stopped walking for the GPS location to be updated.

**I hope other readers who experienced similar problem with GPS can do these tests and report their findings to this thread so to give Apple engineers some clue to debug this problem.

My experience has been similar to what's been reported. Since upgrading my iPhone 6 to iOS 11, the GPS has not worked properly. Apple Maps is the only GPS-requiring app that I routinely use and have tested.

When I open Maps, the "blue dot" always comes up in the correct place. I enter my destination, and the unit maps out the route(s) like always. But once I tell it to "GO" to the turn-by-turn instructions, and begin to move, the GPS does not keep up with my actual progress. The "blue arrow" is always aimed up now - it used to aim differently depending on the direction of the car - it now always stays in the 90 degree up direction. This happens in the car, and it also happens when walking. Then the blue dot will move - sluggishly - for the first couple hundred yards of travel, after which it freezes, and will move no longer. Sometimes I have been able to exit the app (completely), and when I open it up again, it will find me in my new location, and continue to trip. Other times, it remains in the location where it got stuck.

Verizon had me reset the phone and restore fro backup. Made no difference.

wyt168's test was interesting - what good is a GPS if it turns itself off whenever you move???

That doesn't work, either.

Things tried (and failed) so far:

- turn location services off, restart phone, turn loc services back on - nothing

- reset location services (different process than above) - nothing

- remove and reinstall Waze (primary map app) - nothing

- turn ALL signals off - cellular, wifi, bluetooth, location - restart, turn back on - nothing

- install iOS 11 updates as soon as available so far - nothing Currently on 11.1.1

I have a solution, of sorts. I visited the Genius Bar, and the fellow there concluded that my hardware is damaged. The upgrade to iOS 11 did not "cause the problem" - it merely exposed an underlying hardware problem. They have no diagnostic tool to look at the GPS only. The conclusion is reached by trying every possible "reset" combination, to wipe the phone back down to nothing, and reload factory settings. It still did not work.

So the answer, as reported elsewhere, is to replace the phone... either with another iPhone 6 (a "special price" of $299) or upgrade to a newer model (more money). I now have an iPhone 8, and it works fine.

Do I believe the explanation that the software update did not cause the problem? No, I don't. Apple could have and should have offered more $$ help for our problems.

As usual Apple's "best" solution is "best" for your pocket.

Try to hit the back side of the phone against your leg while a navigation app is running. Hit should be strong enough. Sometimes it fixes the problem for me. Maybe antenna connection went loose or an apple's software bug fixes itself when an accelerometer gets a good boost =)

thx wyt168, that is exactly my problem after OS11 update on 6s.

it initially finds GPS in google maps, apple maps and strava, but then fails to get updated reading until after 4 min or so.

*** apple?

fix it.

L

My iphone 6 has exactly the same problem, I went to an Apple authorized repair store, they ran a diagnostic but everything pass, they did a hard reinstall the os, it work for once after that then GPSstop working again.

I downloaded an app which will show how many satellites you are connect to using gps, it keep showing none except that one time right after I re-install the ios. The other phone shows good connection to satellites.

IOS: 11.2.1

I've posted probable solution here but apple has removed it.

We removed your post “My iPhone 6 since upgrading can’t find GPS” because it discussed inappropriate activities.

So this is wrong place to discuss a fix here.

PS: I have my GPS working again.

what was the fix in broad terms? my daughter's phone has the EXACT same issues as being discussed here...and their fix is to wipe her phone and then setup as new phone and bring back the data (not the apps)

I have tha same problem and it's super annoying. I wish Apple tested these updates before launching them. this is my last Apple product. Tired of all the BS updates that never work and slows my apple products down. Done with Apple.

I’m having the same problem, I strongly believe it’s SW related issues due to fact that I was using my phone for traveling on road with my car on the day, I was showing my phone’s location exactly and was working fine until it started happens when I updated my phone to iOS11.2.1

I have been having same problems. Done everything mentioned here to no avail. Also totally reset phone to factory settings. Went to Verizon store and they just said hardware can’t keep up with software upgrades and new phone is only answer. Iphone 6 is 3 years old. Had Iphones for a lot of years but going over to androids this time, i have had it.

This is an issue related to the IOS verison, please take a look on the comments, it was triggered after upgrade to IOS 11, before that GPS was working perfectly, I don't know why you cannot understand that