GPS not working after update to IOS11

it's the same for me. Anyway keeping the wifi always on, even when there are no wifi networks around, actually did the trick for me.. but only after trying everything else for two months, including a full reset.

I can only imagine this is this because the wifi and gps antenna are the same piece of hardware, but before updating to ios11 I never left the wifi on unless I was at home and gps always worked perfectly, even when the phone was on aeroplane mode (it recorded the perfect location of every photo I have taken form a plane, including very remote places of central asia)

Seeing that Apple has closed my support case (they are aware of > iPhone 8 problems but not older models), I have no other choice than to try replacing the F-shaped cable.
Who knows, it might work.

The cable is maybe not broken as some say that moving the sticker back in its position solved the problem. Another possibility is some dust or some bad connection "solved" by replacing the cable.

I guess that for 15$ for a kit on iFixit and 2 hours of my time might be worth it considering I have spent much more time searching for answers on this forum and with Apple Support.

Google "ifixit gps antenna iphone 6".

I had been told by an independent repair shop that this flex cable replacement fix would not work. Maybe they were also trying to scam me or they were just incompetent. Or maybe it's because I also replaced the Wifi antenna? Or maybe as I decided to do things myself I did it better than them? I also tried to clean gently everything I thought could be problematic, such as dust and also the flex cable gold connectors, just in case. Hard to say.

It is doable if you get the proper tools, follow the ifixit instructions closely (read the comments) and make sure to label every little screw when taking them off. It took me 3 hours but my problem is finally solved after months of "searching" with Apple.

Even though I suspect iOS11 with its battery modification to have overheated the GPS antenna which would explain why so many people have this issue right after iOS11 if you google "iphone gps not working ios 10 site:discussions.apple.com" you'll notice that this has been going on for a much longer time and with other updates.

Does the update process make the phone overheat?

Maybe it's all just a coincidence.

What if, and this is a big if, Apple turned off the GPS receiver on older iPhones as part of its battery preservation program. The GPS receiver is turned on only if an app specifically requests GPS level accuracy in a location services API call. (This is part of the location services API. If the app doesn’t request GPS level accuracy then it just gets Bluetooth/Cellular/WiFi accuracy.)

I’ve found that I can fairly reliably force the GPS receiver ON by opening the Apple Maps app and starting a navigation.

I used this technique this morning to get the Strava app to record a cycling workout. The GPS receiver stayed on for the entire ride.

Dear Team

In our case it was definitely a software issue. Otherwise how can my phone and my wife’s one got the hardware failure at the same time once updates OS?

I too did allbos things on the internet to do bee On my overcome this bulb t need t succeeded.

One of my friend had done hard reset with complete wiped out data but still not succeeded. I almost buying a new phone.

Suddenly this setting reset worked. This worked for me, wife and for my friend. I do not know how setting reset worked when hard reset doesn’t.

This is all my experience and GPS still works on my phone.

When GPS signals are received, the lighter blue circles around the dark blue center start to radiate outward from the center, like the ripples you see when a stone is thrown into a pond (forget about the radar screen analogy - that was a poor comparison on my part - sorry!)

If you only see a stationary light blue circle around the dark blue center that means you have positioning based on cell towers and Wifi signals but not a GPS signal. That is what I saw, even when in the park, until I replaced my phone.

Don’t trust Tech Support. I find they are often useless. One person on the Tech helpline tried telling me that the GPS chip must be working because the diagnostic test gave me an okay for the gyroscope, which is nonsense as far as I know. The Genius Bar people seem more on the ball though. They told me that the diagnostic test does not really test the functioning of the GPS chip. Also, I doubt they could test your GPS chip remotely if your phone was inside your home at the time and it had no direct view of the sky.

Even if you think Apple Maps is working for you, it might be relying on cell towers and Wifi for positioning as in my case. If I were you, I would get a GPS tester from the App Store and use that to test. It costs nothing or next to nothing and will only take you a couple of minutes to download and try out…

PS: if it is actually a software issue, resetting and then restoring won't help, as you will merely be reinstalling the faulty software, unless you have a backup of your phone before all your troubles began.

Moonbase7,

Please see my reply to you above before reading this.

You mentioned "reset and restore", I took that to mean "restore back-up".

If you attempt a factory reset via iTunes on your computer to bypass iOS upgrade issues, then you should click "restore iPhone" (which means reset) not "restore backup". Of course, backup your phone to iTunes first, and make sure you have the latest iTunes installed. You might as well give it a try to rule out software issues.

See here for instructions

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support

To Kalumpa,

I am not sure about your 1% claim. You might want to check out this link below, which is to an iPhone 8 thread, but also discusses iPhone 6S. I don't have an iPhone 6S and haven't been following issues with those models so much.

Re: iPhone 8 GPS problems - scroll up a bit to the post starting "The overheating is the only solid explanation for the problem..."

Either way, the best option if all the other tricks including "reset network settings", "reset all settings" fail, is probably to backup the phone on iTunes, completely reset it via iTunes (not through the iPhone's internal settings), and test the GPS while the phone is in its initialized state as mentioned above. If that fails, get it replaced.

It seems like 11.3 fixed it for me.

After upgrading I stood at my window and started the GPS diagnostics app. All satellites level went green in like 3-4 seconds.

I’ll keep testing in the next few days.

I have been watching over this forum for last couple of months and have tried all possible combinations of reset, toggle between wi-fi / bluetoon / location, etc., and nothing worked; my last resort was to wait for 11.3 update and that didn’t help either.

As suggested in the posts here, post 11.3 update, I was certain that this couldn’t be solved through software and need a hardware replacement.. here goes my journey:

• 1. Ordered GPS & Wi-Fi antenna from Amazon (although my wi-fi was working fine, I just went ahead in ordering both of it per the posts here)
  • GPS: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZK9720M/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1 &smid=A1JAD7GUO6WFL0
  • Wi-Fi: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQQJUKG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1 &smid=A15Z68T2UBFTN0
• 2. Preparing for the surgery (first time ever to DIY on the phone); the three links below was of great help.
  • Video 1: A good short one with clear explanation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqbZRwuvUbs
  • Video 2: A detailed one that shows how to organize your phone screws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yd-ZaIxOao
  • IFIXIT Instructions 1: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Antenna+Flex+Cable+Replacement/90317
• 3. Surgery: It took roughly 30 mins to unscrew and put it all back; please make sure that you store your micro-screws in a proper way so you can re-assemble at ease.
• 4. Post Surgery: It took couple of times to get it right;
  • a) first time after re-assembly, the touch became little less sensitive and I had to press hard; had to unscrew the battery & display connectors and put it back again
  • b) second time after re-assembly, the phone didn’t turn on :-( ; but luckily after connecting to the computer through USB cable, it turned on.. however it had ‘white bars’ on top of the screen, for which this link helped me understand why it happened (https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/459629/Black+and+white+barcode+type+bars+acr oss+top+of+screen) and those bars faded away over night.

Well, I see a completely working GPS now after changing the antenna(s); just out of curiosity, I tried to replace again with the old GPS antenna to recheck and it didn’t work.. (something for sure happened to the GPS antenna post ios 11 update)...

Most frustrating part in this journey is when Apple Genius diagnostic says, your phone is all fine and nothing wrong, but your most basic GPS don’t work..

To Apple service team (if at all they read this), this is a serious trust & reliability issue with not acknowleding the issue; I have been a loyal fan of all Apple products so far, but this incident is least expected out of a premium phone provider and making me think of should I upgrade to iPhone X or move over to android…

Thanks to all the suggestions in this forum and the hardware fix instructions...

What I meant by GPS navigation is that arrow in the map should follow me when I turn/move around. When I meant by GPS only is that understanding where I am in the map. I was able to do both when I was using iOS 10 but after iOS 11, it does not recognize my movement in the map so that you end up seeing my position jumping every 15-30 second.

Here is what I did for trouble shooting.

• Reset network/gps/wifi/cellular/ etc
• Restore from my backup
• Back to Factory setting without backup and using gps navigation as a fresh phone.

All of them above did not solve the issue.

You guys can the instruction below quickly to see the problem.

1. Get a new iPhone 6
2. Make sure this iPhone 6 has iOS 11.3 installed
3. Open the apple map and search any destination
4. Hit go and start navigation
5. Rotate the iphone 6 if the point follows the direction of the phone.

Do the same with iphone X. You will see the difference.

I highly recommend to let iphone 6 and earlier phone users to downgrade back to iOS 10.3.3 for the moment until you guys fix this issue.

I hope this article let you understand the glitch and find a way to fix the issue.

Thank you.

Shehabology wrote:

FINALLY SOLVED AND MY GPS IS BACK ON.... It is a hardware issue. The connection between the GPS/WiFi flex cable and the motherboard was disconnected. It was fixed and I paid $25.

Thank you for your input.

I was already suspecting that what solved my problem was not necessarily replacing the parts themselves but maybe more the process of unplugging and unscrewing everything and putting everything back together. Maybe my problem was also that cable which was disconnected.

Anyways: another confirmed hardware problem.

A bad connection could well explain why some people have GPS from time to time only.

I am aware of the difference in location data. Cellular location data will give a general idea of your location within miles or blocks, however cellular location data will not provide a fixed location that can be used for navigation. Most users on this forum (and other forums complaining of the same issue) are specifically looking for GPS location data in order to navigate. GPS location data is required to provide a source course and speed.

Cellular location data = big circle in Apple Maps/Google Maps (and will not indicate heading)

GPS location data = small circle in Apple Maps/Google Maps (and will indicate heading and speed depending on the app)

As for the argument "this can't be a software problem because all iPhones are the same and if it were a real software problem Apple would know about it and have fixed it already". That argument is false from many perspectives. Software bugs even on similar hardware do not manifest themselves in identical ways. Because I manage a fleet of devices I can see patterns that are not visible to the average end user.

In 2013 our fleet of iPhone 5S devices began to experience an issue where the iPhone would not roam to the next cellular tower. If you rebooted the phone and stayed in a fixed location the phone would work. If you moved such that the phone had to move to another tower the phone would get "stuck" on the original tower and it would take a reboot to reset. In our fleet of several hundred devices only about 40% experienced the issue. This problem was confirmed in neighboring organizations. I also confirmed the symptoms in many forum posts from individuals who could not see the pattern (since they were dealing with a single device). When I took this to Apple I received the same retort "this can't possible by our issue because we would know about it". Three months later an iOS update specifically mentioned this carrier bug in its release notes and the problem was fixed.

Your problem may have been a hardware issue, however I am not dealing with a hardware issue and based on other posts in this thread others have seen the problem come and go. At this moment after loading iOS 11.3.1 and uninstalling and re-installing Apple Maps and Google Maps several times my location data is working again. I did not perform a good test (by doing both corrective actions at once) so I cannot pinpoint what might have had an impact. I will continue to monitor.

This is my situation and my provisional solution.

GPS failed on my iPhone X.

I tried resetting networks, restarting, fiddling with Location Settings etc etc but nothing worked.

So, I factory reset it, took it to the Apple Store, and got a replacement.

That resolved my problem.

However, I was never sure whether it was the factory reset or the phone replacement that fixed the problem.

Yesterday, GPS failed again.

Today, I tried something different. This may prove to be my personal eureka moment (please note: I fully accept that other people can have hardware problems). If this solution works, it would back up Rollier's theory that the issue —in our particular cases at least— concerns Cellular Networks. Anyway, this is what I did:

1. Turn all apps off.

2. Remove SIM card while phone on.

3. Shut down phone (volume button and sleep button for iPhone X).

4. Restart phone while SIM card out.

5. After phone restarts, push SIM card in.

6. Open GPS Diagnostics, or any other GPS app to test, and Hey Presto, it works!

I will let you know if this is just a fluke.

When you say factory reset, did you reset the phone and then NOT restore your backup i.e. did you try to test the Map app or GPS diagnostic app when your phone was in its initialized state BEFORE restoring your backup?

You could also try the SIM removal and reinsertion (at your own risk; see my instructions and disclaimer earlier in this post). That worked for me. My GPS is still working several weeks since that fix. Of course, I cannot guarantee anything for you.

Also have you tested it when walking around outside versus in your vehicle. Are both a problem ?

If that doesn't work, and you have done everything else you listed, you may need to replace the GPS & Wifi chip/antenna.