Why is my GPS not working on iPhone X?

Several of us have exchanged our phones for another phone. Several have replaced the SIM cards. I'm on Verizon and you're on ATT. It's clearly not caused by any of these nor can it be corrected by resetting the phone, switching on and off WIFI etc.

My educated guess is that either Apple used a different GPS chip and antenna in the iPhone X that's more prone to interference, or as JLLKK said, the glass back allows more electronic interference from the instrument panel area to get into the iPhone X and essentially jam the receiving of GPS satellite signals.

I do have a case open with Apple support. I recently sent some videos of my app not working for lack of GPS and I've forwarded a synopsis of the comments on this thread.

I don't expect they will formally acknowledge the problem but maybe they'll be able to define a fix such as a back cover that electrically shields the phone better from the interference source.

I have a 2013 Hyundai Sonata and experience the same issue with my iPhone 8. Something about the car stereo interferes with the iPhone's GPS signal. Prior to buying my iPhone 8, I had a Galaxy S8 Edge and did not have this issue. This tells me it's specific to the GPS on the iPhone and I have tested this theory with an LG, and 2 different S7 Edge phones. The GPS functioned correctly on all of the Android-based phones while mounted to the dash. Time for Apple to fix this issue.

Is WiFi on?

Take it back to the Apple Store.

The make of the car wih the interference is a Land Rover. The Lexus presents no issue when mounted on the dash.

I have the exact same problem. I did reset location services and I end up resetting the whole phone and The issue is still there: the gps just doesn’t know where I am. The gps just doesn’t work in any usable way neither on Maps nor Google Maps. My iPhone X has 11.2.1. I’m taking it to the Apple store tomorrow.

That's my understanding based on all the troubleshooting I've done. Today I decided to check the Compass app, which I never do, and I notice that North was pointing to three different location within the hour. It's like the compass it self is broken. I'm wondering if this somehow affects the GPS. I suspect it does.

The only thing that I can think off that could affect my phone so badly is the magnetic car mount I have on my car. And before everyone starts to freak out about this, I want to let you guys know that is the same car mount I've been using for years with a 6s, 7 and now X. And when I got the iPhone x, it worked great until after I updated to 11.2. Which is interesting, since I read that 11.2 was supposed to correct an issue people where complaining about regarding the GPS in 8 and X. Perhaps it was the same issue we're having but instead of fix it it broke the phones that were not experiencing the issue?

For me it has something to do with my vehicle. Holding the phone close to the dashboard and the GPS doesn’t work but if i move it away it does. I had my phone on a windshield mount that wasn’t magnetic but either way if I took it off the mount and just held it close to where the radio is the gps goes all wacky. I’ve tested this in other cars too and it’s something specific with my Hyundai Sonata.

Hi everyone,

I solved the problem. To make your GPS work fine, improve the live of battery and iOS speed you must download the iOS Global version from ipsw.me for you iX and install the Global version.

Negative to both. Quiet suburban area. I got the X on Nov 3rd. No issues until Dec 25. Since that time gps still works great when not moving. It fails to work when moving in any vehicle I’ve tried. My wife’s car, friends cars, my car, my motorcyle, my bike. Today I did the following. I was in my car and I turned off location services. I started driving and turned location services back on. Then I opened maps and clicked on a destination to navigate to. I got the error no god available. When I stopped at the next intersection gps was available and it started calculating a route. I began driving again while it was calculating and it gave me a 600 mike route via another state to get to the school 2 miles down the road. It’s becoming almost entertaining. I’ve updated the maps on my Garmin so I have gps when my wife and son are not with me using their phones.

So, here is my strange update to my gps not working while moving. Like I said before, it was still not working after the 11.2.5 upgrade. Yesterday on 1/24 I was taking my kids to dinner and they asked if I could turn on my WiFi hotspot so they could use their tablets in the car. I turned it on and decided to check maps again while I drove. To my surprise it was working perfectly. I turned off my WiFi hotspot and tried again. It’s still working perfectly after 20 hours. I’ve been using the wireless charging pad also. I seriously doubt turning on my WiFi hotspot did anything to resolve this but it’s what I was doing when everything started working again. Absolutely no clue why it’s back to normal again.

It definitely helped regarding you enabling the WiFi hotspot, as location services is dependent on WiFi, cellular, and Bluetooth to determine your location. Thus, how, when and where you activate these plays a vital role continuously in performance of and correct GPS behavior:

Location Services uses GPS and Bluetooth (where they're available), along with crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular towers to determine the approximate location of your device.

Regarding you enabling your hotspot in that area, It's essentially analogous to you resetting location services via settings on your iPhone, except you went through a different method unknowingly. As a result, it reset them properly. Nicely done!

- One other thing I'd add is to check in settings - Do Not Disturb, just to make sure your settings while driving are set properly and "MANUALLY" is selected, even if you have DND disabled. I know someone in which this was affecting their GPS and cell usage in particular. This fixed it.

After updates, it's common for this setting to default to DND while driving and via "Bluetooth"; users are completely unaware that this occurred, naturally. So, I'd just check to prevent any issues initiating from there, via putting DND while driving setting to Manual.

Hope your GPS stays on track! :)

I too have problems with GPS on golf apps. If I switch phone off and back on it clears error and works until next time I use the app then I have to do the same all over again. There is still a fault on iPhone X GPS.

Here’s my take on the problem. I have a 2012 Hyundai Sonata and my iPhone 5 and 7 worked great for navigation. I traded my iPhone 7 for the X last week. My GPS seems to work everywhere but under the Hyundai front windshield. Using the GPS Diagnostics app I get strong green signals; but, when I put it in my non magnetic clip attached to my vent or, place it on the dash the display goes to “can’t find satellites”. As soon as I pull it out of the windshield, I get all green again. I traded my first iPhone X for a replacement and without restoring anything I tested it with Apple maps and had the same results. My wife’s iPhone 7 works great in my Hyundai.

My conclusions:

Since many people who are reporting this problem also state they have Hyundai’s the auto maker must be using something in their windshield, perhaps the shading material which adsorbs some of the GPS signal.

The GPS chip or antenna in the iPhone X must be less sensitive than the GPS/antenna in earlier iPhones thus it cannot receive minimum satellite signals.

Seems very odd that one gets better GPS signals when the phone is under the metal automobile roof than under the glass windshield.

Perhaps some iPhone X GPS chips are better than others but clearly the windshield is cutting the satellite signals below minimums.

Imsent this data to Apple support but didn’t get a reply.

I have exchange the iPhone X two times, and all of these three iPhones x have the same issue. Recently, I try to use gps diagnose app to tell what the gps signal differences between iPhone X and my old iphone se which gps performs very well.

I found that even outside, the signal strength of iPhone X was never greater than 80% while the signal on iphone se could reache 95% to 100 %.

That is, the signal on iPhone X is less 1/4- 1/5 strength on iphone se. no matter outside or in car.