iOS12 GPS Accuracy is off?

pandahill wrote:

I have logged a support call with apple, they were lovely to deal with. They went through their diagnostic tests over the phone. No issues came up from their end, they are now escalating the issue to their engineers to follow through.

They may be lovely to deal with but they are utterly powerless in respect of these GPS issues. I've now been dealing with "Senior Customer Advisors" for 3 weeks, I have had to start keeping logs and names - 5 different senior advisors and over 10 hours solid spent trying to resolve this issue - with zero admission of an issue and no resolution.

As "AppleQer" says, the diagnostic is meaningless. I did that and uploaded about 300mb of data to them and none of it counted for anything (I was also asked to do a screen recording of maps while walking outside). The engineers followed up with inane questions and eventually tried to palm it off as a hardware issue, which Apple won't address.

I've been off this thread for a week because it's all too depressing. I even had to send an 8 page slide deck containing all my evidence of this issue - I included lots of GPS tracked maps from before and after iOS 12 update, which clearly showed the problem. I even included a load of tweets and linked to this thread. Still Apple are "investigating".

They have no interest in resolving or acknowledging. In the meantime out of desperation I had to buy a GPS watch. It has been an education as GPS accuracy is clearly volatile even on other devices, but after several tests, it is obviously only the iPhone that is permanently out of whack - the watch has some tricky spots, iPhone GPS is always off.

It is pitiful. And to add salt into the wound, people on these forums, including myself get our posts removed on specious grounds.

My advice to most people is to attempt the standard remedies i.e. network reset, restart, set compass to True North, toggle LTE on off, turn off all other apps, turn off GPS permissions for all unnecessary apps, stand stationary and give the phone extra time to get the first location fix, use only one GPS app at a time, use GPS Diagnostic to tell difference between GPS-based location and Wifi/Cellular-only based location. And then do the following:

1) try the SIM trick, which worked for me, possibly by forcing my phone to re-register with cell towers (do this at your own risk; see earlier posts by me and others on this)

2) if that fails do a complete factory reset, test the native Maps app before adding anything else, and if that works set up all your apps and settings etc on the phone from scratch

3) if that fails, get the phone repaired or replaced

4) if that fails buy an Android

AppleQer wrote:

It is pitiful.

To complicate matters, this morning, out of the blue, I got a perfectly tracked 10km run on iPhone GPS. Like accurate every step of the way, as good as it ever got a month ago before iOS 12. I'm very confused. Phone was onto 12.01 and still been way out, so I don't know what changed today or if this is a fluke or what. Need more runs to see if it holds.

In parallel no progress with Apple - for what I am convinced is/was a software issue - and a letter had already gone into Apple Distribution to escalate, but am going to look very stupid if this is now fixed (though will be very happy).

Funny you should say that. I am now using iOS12.0.1 too.

Yesterday evening, I got an initial location fix that took way less time than usual. And I think the day before was pretty good too- certainly not bad enough for me to get irritated and remember.

(My accuracy after first fix has always been good, except for a one or two occasions when the issue first started.)

This may be yet another fluke or false dawn.

Time will tell.

BTW, I now update iOS via iTunes and USB instead of via Wifi. iTunes downloads the full package and does a self-validation before installing. The Wifi method doesn't according to these and other sites.

https://www.gottabemobile.com/ios-updates-over-the-air-vs-itunes-update-whats-th e-difference/

Updating iOS using OTA vs updating through Itunes | AppleVis

My iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 12.01 has same problem. I found if the gps is not working, the update of gps signal is about 6 seconds. When the gps works properly the signal drops to around 1 seconds.

Also sometime if you toggle the location service on/off or turn off wifi would help the update rate.

AppleQer wrote:

This may be yet another fluke or false dawn.

Time will tell.

So I've now run 5 x 10km since I had my "false dawn" and something (in my opinion) definitely changed.

Out of 5 runs, all 5 show markedly better tracking than I had so far experienced since updating to iOS 12.

3 of the 5 runs are perfect - identical to the route/accuracy before iOS 12. This includes my last two runs.

2 of the 5 runs have GPS issues only in specific locations, worse than before iOS 12 but better than after.

I have responded to the Apple Senior folks who don't seem to know if anything has changed on their side.

I don't actually think engineers had done anything on my issue anyway, even when it barely worked at all!

My one remaining test is with an Apple Watch paired to the iPhone, as this was where my issues started..

Glad to hear your good news.

Mine has certainly not worsened.

On most days it seems better, as long as I stay motionless at the very start to get the first location fix.

My issue was never with accuracy, as long as I got the initial fix.

The problem was with the time to first fix.

The iPhone X still seems far more fussy about me remaining motionless initially, compared with my previous models, but I think the initial fix time has shortened on average since 12.0 or 12.0.1

AppleQer wrote:

My issue was never with accuracy, as long as I got the initial fix.

The problem was with the time to first fix.

The iPhone X still seems far more fussy about me remaining motionless initially

Interesting - there really could be something to that.

I was always on the move when I hit go, either walking during a warm up countdown, or literally starting to run and hitting go - I didn't even know if I had a GPS lock (and didn't need to check before iOS 12 as never had problems).

It's only been in the past 2 weeks carrying another GPS device for comparison, that (due to IT'S requirement) I am consciously standing still watching for IT to report a GPS lock, more than enough time for the iPhone to be happy.

It still relates to a change in iOS 12 but your point is well made, standing still obviously seems to help it out (not great with the UK temperatures tumbling at this time of year). Will do more tests before allowing Apple to close my case.

I hope neither the new devices nor IOS are going to permanently require a still period or longer time to register the GPS signal--my use is primarily in driving and not infrequently my wife, who is not very computer confident, is asked to start the device as we are driving along. I had thought my recent problems were over after a software reset followed by several trips of +/- 50 miles with good accuracy and several walks with apparently good accuracy (I don't use a tracker). GPS diagnostic was showing ~75% indoors and near 100% outdoors on 3, slightly less on 4th satellite.

However, I then made a 7-8 mile drive into an area strange to me, and on exiting my driveway, location seemed about 20-30 yards off the road, with arrow indicator pointing off to side. This continued for about a mile, with arrow direction meandering around rather aimlessly. Then, luckily before I entered "unknown territory", the problem cleared up and the map (Google) worked well for the rest of the trip and return. Finally, yesterday I checked GPS diagnostic and got NO satellite either indoors or indoors and both map programs were 1-2 blocks off in indicating my home location with WiFi off. At that point, I figured OS 12.1 couldn't make things worse, so upgraded--unfortunately, hadn't noted the comments regarding using WiFi vs iTunes. In any case, now get ~75% on "4 or more" satellites indoors, near 100% outdoors. Google maps accuracy so far seems good, GPS D says 17 feet outdoors, 33 feet indoors. Takes ~2-3 seconds for GPS D to register outdoors, 5-6 indoors. General operation of phone seems a bit crisper overall with 12.1, but that's hard to judge for certain.

I'm hoping this will last until I'm ready to trade--will need good accuracy to walk around foreign cities, use for "Uber-like" transit, etc in late March and will need to make decision on going from 6s+ to either 8+ or XR before then. Still remember the rather incredible accuracy I got in walking around London in June before all this started, but suspect density of WiFi there probably helped.

Update on this.

After awful GPS accuracy with iPhone X under iOS 12, as reported I got a small improvement in October but certainly not back to the accuracy I experienced before iOS 12, and only on certain days (implying it could well be an acquiring GPS signal issue).

Since then I have tried (for running GPS purposes) the Fitbit Ionic and Garmin 635 (both standalone GPS watches that don't require a smartphone) and had poor GPS and other issues on both. I then held my nose after all Apple's problems and got a Watch 4.

The AW4 has been flawless for GPS - I'm amazed. Not one mistake the past 3 weeks, and I'm not spending any time to acquire a signal either (it's often 5.30am and 3 degrees so I don't hang about). So it's all the more unusual that GPS in the iPhone X is way off.

Surely GPS tech is comparative between AW4 and iPhoneX and if anything more high powered in the smart phone. This leads me to be more certain this was a software issue introduced with iOS 12 on the phone (although Apple continue to refuse to address it).

Anyway, since then I've continued to do a few more tests with the iPhone X as I still get hopeless GPS even with local search apps or things like Citymapper. I use a standalone GPS tracking app ("TrackMe") and the tracking, anywhere in London, is a mess.

Finally, today for separate reasons, I carried my iPhone during an AW4 run. Amazingly, first 1km on the watch reverted to the awful accuracy (c.10-15% out). I guess if the phone is near it uses its GPS. I turned the phone to Airplane mode and GPS was fine.

What more can I do to prove to Apple that GPS issues occurring on the iPhone relate to its software, and its software alone....??!!

In your case the problem could have been introduced by upgrading to iOS12 as you say.

Other people on these forums have had problems with GPS after upgrading to iOS11.

I replaced an iPhone X for another one but still had problems, even after installing as a fresh phone - it started okay but the GPS location function eventually started failing after a week or two. This initially led me to believe it was probably due to a flaw in the iOS, assuming I didn't get two dud phones in a row, which is possible.

However, my wife's old iPhone 6S has the same iOS, same carrier, and was tested for GPS in the same locations, and yet always gets first location fix faster than my newer iPhone X, which suggests it could be a hardware problem, or a problem with how the software works with the newer chips.

I also upgraded my iOS using Ethernet and iTunes rather than Wifi to be safe but that didn't help or prevent problems.

If you want to know whether your location is based on GPS + cellular/wifi or just cellular/wifi, you could try GPS Diagnostic, which is my go-to app whenever I want to know what is going on with my phone. It shows you how many satellites you are connected to and gives quality of signal.

I had the same issue and finally I solved it.

In my car there is fm transmitter that connect the iphone through the bluetooth to car speakers.

I had noticed that every time that the phone was away from the fm transmitter the GPS signal was fine.

So in my case its not software or hardware issue but Collision between frequencies.

Its a good idea to check the GPS signal without any other devices around.

Since mapping in iOS 12 works fine for most, please be more specific as to what issues you are having and what you have tried to resolve them.

I use Waze daily and have used both Apple Maps and Google Maps on recent trips with my Xs Max and have seen no issues.

It is unacceptable for a flagship apple device in 2018 to be experiencing these issues. I instantly regret getting my first iPhone. After the bogo promotion has fully been applied, I will be promptly switching back to pure android, which will never have these issues.

I will be promptly switching back to pure android, which will never have these issues.

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