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GPS Not working?

patseguin

patseguin

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 28, 2003
1,728
532
Just got my iPhone 3G. I am in the Maps app and hit the locate button and nothing happens. It just shows working, but does not pinpoint my location. My old iPhone did this no matter where I was, inside or outside. Anyone else finding the GPS to not be working?
 
GPS needs a good view of the satellites (basically outdoors, or at least next to a window) to work otherwise it falls back on triangulation. It should work at least as well as the 2G though.

Have you switched Location Services off?
 
patseguin said:
Just got my iPhone 3G. I am in the Maps app and hit the locate button and nothing happens. It just shows working, but does not pinpoint my location. My old iPhone did this no matter where I was, inside or outside. Anyone else finding the GPS to not be working?
Click to expand...

How much time did you give it. GPS (regardless of who makes the device or what they promise) has to time in and get a track from the sats. The cell/wifi addition is supposed to make it faster to compensate for this but if you can't get GPS track you won't see where you are.

If you just walk outside, turn on the maps and go "It's broken" well then can't help you because you might have to wait. The triangulation with the additional services should pick it up, otherwise give it a few so the GPS (when it does track in) at least will know your last known location which in the future does make it quicker if it knows that so it knows where to look for sats.
 
TonyHoyle said:
GPS needs a good view of the satellites (basically outdoors, or at least next to a window) to work otherwise it falls back on triangulation. It should work at least as well as the 2G though.

Have you switched Location Services off?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was aware of that. My old iphone worked just fine indoors with tower triangulation. This phone is not doing that at all. It's been about an hour and still no location.

And yes, location services is turned on.

UPDATE: Wel,, I walked outside and tried again and thought it was not going to work again. After a minute or two, it finally located me and gave me the flashing blue circle. I am still not sure why it is not triangulating indoors though.
 
I had the same problem initially with my 3G.

I downloaded "where" from AppStore and that triangulated my position and after that Maps worked.

But it does seem a bit hit and miss even for me - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

When it does work its brilliant!

How GPS should be - it takes about 10 seconds to get a lock even when walking and puts every other GPS phone to shame!
 
patseguin said:
Yeah, I was aware of that. My old iphone worked just fine indoors with tower triangulation. This phone is not doing that at all. It's been about an hour and still no location.
Click to expand...

Cell tower triangulation is very different to GPS. Cell towers are on the earth's surface, where Sattelites are way up in orbit. Hence you generally need a half decent view to the sky for GPS to get a lock on.

Ed
 
hi, i have the same probelms - but it never seems to find me

where seems to, but no map data is shown
gmaps doesnt either - not even with triangulation

and i literally held my iphone out the window for 2 mintues
 
I downloaded "where" from AppStore and that triangulated my position and after that Maps worked.
 
Markleshark said:
Mine thinks I'm in America... I'm not.
Click to expand...

Take it outdoors, and let the GPS figure out where it is. It may take 5-10 minutes or more for it to get enough satellites in view. Once it's figured out where it is, subsequent acquisitions will be much faster.

This is no different from any other GPS. Some will do this faster than others. I have a handheld Aviation GPS, and even starting it up only 30 miles from where it was last shut down affects the position acquisition time.

:apple::apple:
 
Try entering your town on maps.

Then try "Where"

I have to be honest 2.0 seems a bit buggy to me... I wonder if itunes wants us to upgrade to the latest version - if we can get it to connect!
 
viggen61 said:
Take it outdoors, and let the GPS figure out where it is. It may take 5-10 minutes or more for it to get enough satellites in view. Once it's figured out where it is, subsequent acquisitions will be much faster.

This is no different from any other GPS. Some will do this faster than others. I have a handheld Aviation GPS, and even starting it up only 30 miles from where it was last shut down affects the position acquisition time.

:apple::apple:
Click to expand...

Cool, shall do. Thanks. :)
 
I'm frustrated, i got an iphone 3G but i can't get GPS to work. "where" ist not an option for me, because it isn't available in the austrian itunes store. I think the GPS chip is defect, i'll bring back the phone tomorrow. Fu*** sh***
 
xpla said:
I'm frustrated, i got an iphone 3G but i can't get GPS to work. "where" ist not an option for me, because it isn't available in the austrian itunes store. I think the GPS chip is defect, i'll bring back the phone tomorrow. Fu*** sh***
Click to expand...
wait 5 minutes while the iphone locates itself using gps - with power save off
i did, and now it takes seconds to find me exactly
 
Mine's triangulating and getting a GPS lock from within my house - haven't touched the default settings. Got the GPS lock within a minute, too.
 
philgilder said:
wait 5 minutes while the iphone locates itself using gps - with power save off
i did, and now it takes seconds to find me exactly
Click to expand...

I can't find power safe off and what should i do? Just wait after opening maps?
 
I got it to work! I deactivated automatic lock, opened maps and put my iphone outside, after ten minutes i went back and there was it, a circle/point showing where it is and navigation works awesome, i went a few meters and the point moved (i mean just a few, moving away from my house)
 
I was having the same problem. But I think I've solved it :). Well it works for me at least. You have to turn wifi on even if you don't have anything to connect to. I've turned it on and off a few times now and it seems to work for me. Could you guys and girls try it out and see if it works for you?

Djdohboy
 
This fixed it for me: Do a full restore from iTunes and don't use any backups from previous syncs. When I first activated my 3G, I imported settings from my 2G and I could never get GPS to work properly. Now that I'm starting from scratch it works without a hitch. :)
 
djdohboy said:
I was having the same problem. But I think I've solved it :). Well it works for me at least. You have to turn wifi on even if you don't have anything to connect to. I've turned it on and off a few times now and it seems to work for me. Could you guys and girls try it out and see if it works for you?

Djdohboy
Click to expand...

thanks for this... i forgot i had wifi turned off.. solved my triangulation indoors problem
 
spinstorm said:
Try entering your town on maps.

Then try "Where"

I have to be honest 2.0 seems a bit buggy to me... I wonder if itunes wants us to upgrade to the latest version - if we can get it to connect!
Click to expand...

I'm using an old 3G, jailbroken and unlocked. recently had to reload iOS and the maps app hasn't been able to find me for weeks even after a few more restore attempts and other mucking around. I downloaded "where" and for whatever reason it solved all my maps problems. kind of "whered" but whatever works. Thanks for the tip!
 
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