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iPhone X GPS location not updating

J

jwzimm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2017
106
37
Hey all,

I picked up a launch day iPhone X and it has been working well as far as I can tell. Unfortunately I seem to have encountered a defect. I was traveling for the holidays and I had issues with the GPS location not updating. I was using the phone for navigation but it was like the location would not keep up with the car. My fiance's iphone 6 (my old phone) was working perfect so we had to switch to it. I also noticed that when I would take the phone out of airplane mode following a flight it would not update its location. It would show me still at the departure airport. I had good cell signal so you would think the phone would realize it had moved but it took a reboot of the phone for it to figure out it had relocated.

I am running iOS 11.2.1 (as is my fiance's phone) so it shouldn't be a software issue.

Anyone have any suggestions? I have made a genius bar appointment for tomorrow but I am worried they will not do anything. It will likely show the location fine there and the only way to demonstrate the issue is to go for a drive (I doubt the genius would be willing to do that).
 
Try a restore before doing anything. Sometimes drivers might not work properly.

If that doesn’t solve the problem then there could very well be a hardware issue with the GPS receiver. You might just get a replacement but if everything else is working fine then I’d definitely try a restore. Just in case.
 
akash.nu said:
Try a restore before doing anything. Sometimes drivers might not work properly.

If that doesn’t solve the problem then there could very well be a hardware issue with the GPS receiver. You might just get a replacement but if everything else is working fine then I’d definitely try a restore. Just in case.
Click to expand...

Do you mean like erasing the phone and setting it up as new? I would really rather not do that as it will be a pain to get the phone set up the way I like it after that.

If you mean restoring from a backup I do not see how that would solve anything. I did go in to Reset > Reset Location and Privacy but that did not do anything.
 
jwzimm said:
Do you mean like erasing the phone and setting it up as new? I would really rather not do that as it will be a pain to get the phone set up the way I like it after that.

If you mean restoring from a backup I do not see how that would solve anything. I did go in to Reset > Reset Location and Privacy but that did not do anything.
Click to expand...

Yeah I mean setting it up as new. You kind of need to isolate if it’s a software or hardware related. Even if you go to an Apple store, this will be there first point of action.
 
akash.nu said:
Yeah I mean setting it up as new. You kind of need to isolate if it’s a software or hardware related. Even if you go to an Apple store, this will be there first point of action.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that isn't really a solution though. Asking a user to go through the hassle of fully setting up their phone again isn't really workable. If this issue is caused by the restoration of a backup then it is still on Apple for messing up the backup in the first place.

I also sincerely doubt that this is caused by a backup issue. My iPhone 6 worked flawlessly for navigation and I restored the backup of that phone to this one when I got it. This really has the hallmarks of a hardware issue. Another odd thing I noticed that may be related, the compass does not point north properly. It is about 15 degrees off from the correct direction.
 
jwzimm said:
Yeah, that isn't really a solution though. Asking a user to go through the hassle of fully setting up their phone again isn't really workable. If this issue is caused by the restoration of a backup then it is still on Apple for messing up the backup in the first place.

I also sincerely doubt that this is caused by a backup issue. My iPhone 6 worked flawlessly for navigation and I restored the backup of that phone to this one when I got it. This really has the hallmarks of a hardware issue. Another odd thing I noticed that may be related, the compass does not point north properly. It is about 15 degrees off from the correct direction.
Click to expand...

They will make you do it either way. Better try it yourself first. A software corruption can happen at any point. Although you can hold Apple responsible for it but that’s the normal process. They’ll not just give you a new phone without determining it is definitely a hardware issue.
 
akash.nu said:
They will make you do it either way. Better try it yourself first. A software corruption can happen at any point. Although you can hold Apple responsible for it but that’s the normal process. They’ll not just give you a new phone without determining it is definitely a hardware issue.
Click to expand...

I guess the question is, how will they verify it ether way? Unless they accompany me on a drive they will not be able to witness the behavior. They could very well ask me to do a factory reset and see if it recurs but they would have no way of validating that it did (other than me stating so). What is to stop me just telling them I have already tried a factory reset and it did not resolve the issue? In any case, would they deny me a replacement if their diagnostics turn up no issue despite my experience to the contrary?
 
jwzimm said:
I guess the question is, how will they verify it ether way? Unless they accompany me on a drive they will not be able to witness the behavior. They could very well ask me to do a factory reset and see if it recurs but they would have no way of validating that it did (other than me stating so). What is to stop me just telling them I have already tried a factory reset and it did not resolve the issue? In any case, would they deny me a replacement if their diagnostics turn up no issue despite my experience to the contrary?
Click to expand...

Generally they would deny a replacement but a lot of the times they just replace based on goodwill gesture. Really depends on individuals and circumstances.
 
akash.nu said:
Generally they would deny a replacement but a lot of the times they just replace based on goodwill gesture. Really depends on individuals and circumstances.
Click to expand...
That would really be a slap in the face (if they denied the replacement). I can't imagine them standing there demanding I figure out a way to prove to them that I am experiencing the issues I am. The only way I can imagine doing that would be to try and record a video of the phone while driving showing it not updating. That would be ridiculous. I am all for making sure that the issue is present but, at the end of the day, the customer is standing there with a $1100+ phone that is not functioning for them. It is their responsibility to rectify the situation.

btw, thanks for replying and the help. I do appreciate it. :)
 
jwzimm said:
That would really be a slap in the face (if they denied the replacement). I can't imagine them standing there demanding I figure out a way to prove to them that I am experiencing the issues I am. The only way I can imagine doing that would be to try and record a video of the phone while driving showing it not updating. That would be ridiculous. I am all for making sure that the issue is present but, at the end of the day, the customer is standing there with a $1100+ phone that is not functioning for them. It is their responsibility to rectify the situation.

btw, thanks for replying and the help. I do appreciate it. :)
Click to expand...

No worries. All the best.
 
akash.nu said:
No worries. All the best.
Click to expand...
Well, knock me over with a feather. A factory reset seems to have fixed the GPS issue. Now my issue becomes, can I restore the backup I did of the phone last night and prevent it from returning? If not this is really going to suck. :(
 
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Well the restore appears to have only lasted a month. Yesterday it started having the same behavior. It is like the GPS gets stuck for a while and then jumps when it gets a reading again.

Another interesting thing I noted (may be completely unrelated though). When I got home I found that my Apple watch battery had dropped to around 10% charge. This is not normal behavior as it is normally around 50% charge by the end of the day. Is it possible the phone is switching over to trying to use the watch GPS for some strange reason? That would explain the watch charge issue as well as the position update lag (it takes a while for data to travel between the watch and the phone). For reference, my watch is a SBSS Series 2. Everything is running the latest iOS's.

I am going to schedule a Genius Bar appointment and at least have them run diagnostics. Doing a factory reset every month to keep a basic function of this phone working is not a solution.
 
@jwzimm don’t book an appointment just to run a test. Apple can do that online. Get hold of them over chat.
 
jwzimm said:
This was while I was out and about. Also, my fiance's iPhone 6 had zero issues navigating when mine failed.
Click to expand...

GPS is not the same for everyone. The thing is, if you start your phone and you haven't been using location services, the GPS lock will start from a "cold" state.

It means it either has to achieve two things:

  • Get general lock via Assistance (aGPS part) from cell towers
  • Get specific lock via GPS/GLONASS/Galileo satellites
That last one takes a while as the iPhone for GPS requires 3 satellite signals to lock you in. For GLONASS it's also 3 and Galileo requries 4 (not sure if this was changed).
 
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jav6454 said:
GPS is not the same for everyone. The thing is, if you start your phone and you haven't been using location services, the GPS lock will start from a "cold" state.

It means it either has to achieve two things:

  • Get general lock via Assistance (aGPS part) from cell towers
  • Get specific lock via GPS/GLONASS/Galileo satellites
That last one takes a while as the iPhone for GPS requires 3 satellite signals to lock you in. For GLONASS it's also 3 and Galileo requries 4 (not sure if this was changed).
Click to expand...

I understand that there is a delay in achieving a GPS lock but that is not what I am seeing. The behavior I am seeing is more like the location is getting stuck and then jumping in intervals.

I just had a call with Apple. They ran remote diagnostics and did not find any issues with the phone. They only thing he could suggest was to reinstall iOS which is basically what I did back in January. This seems like a software issue but I have no idea what to do about it. It worries me that my phone can suddenly just not have the GPS navigation work for me at random.

One other thing I noted is that the compass is constantly off by about 5 degrees. I have tried changing the "True North" setting but it has little effect. Not knowing the hardware arrangement I cannot say if the compass module is on the same board as the GPS.
 
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jwzimm said:
I understand that there is a delay in achieving a GPS lock but that is not what I am seeing. The behavior I am seeing is more like the location is getting stuck and then jumping in intervals.

I just had a call with Apple. They ran remote diagnostics and did not find any issues with the phone. They only thing he could suggest was to reinstall iOS which is basically what I did back in January. This seems like a software issue but I have no idea what to do about it. It worries me that my phone can suddenly just not have the GPS navigation work for me at random.

One other thing I noted is that the compass is constantly off by about 5 degrees. I have tried changing the "True North" setting but it has little effect. Not knowing the hardware arrangement I cannot say if the compass module is on the same board as the GPS.
Click to expand...

Actually what you are describing is exactly that. You are not allowing the iPhone to lock on. Because you are constantly moving it is havign a hard time triangulating your exact position. Granted, it should happen eventually nonetheless.

My suggest would be to go outside with nothing over you (clear skies work best). Hit the triagnulate in Apple Maps and see how long it takes on a still point. Walk/Run or take a bike to see if the GPS can follow you, then eventually try with your car. If it can, then its just signal acquisition. If not, this is a valid experiment to show Apple the GPS is faulty.
 
jav6454 said:
Actually what you are describing is exactly that. You are not allowing the iPhone to lock on. Because you are constantly moving it is havign a hard time triangulating your exact position. Granted, it should happen eventually nonetheless.

My suggest would be to go outside with nothing over you (clear skies work best). Hit the triagnulate in Apple Maps and see how long it takes on a still point. Walk/Run or take a bike to see if the GPS can follow you, then eventually try with your car. If it can, then its just signal acquisition. If not, this is a valid experiment to show Apple the GPS is faulty.
Click to expand...

I do understand what you are saying but this is not normal behavior. I have had many iPhones (since the iPhone 4) and have never had this kind of issue with GPS. Location acquisition normally only takes about 5-10 seconds and is indicated by the large blue circle reducing to a small one and blinking. When this was occuring it was at the small circle state indicating it had a fix on my location, it just would not update.

Further points:

I have my Weather app set to always update my location so the weather on my watch is accurate which should mean the phone maintains constant location lock.

My fiance's iPhone 6 had ZERO issue locking on and updating as we drove. We had them sitting side by side and hers would scroll along the road smoothly and accurately. Mine would "stick" at a point and then after about 10 seconds it would jump to a point further down the road.
 
Weather app only using Assistance (Cell Towers) to know your general location.

However, like I said, you need to do that exercise I described to go back to Apple. That will show them that your device is indeed failing.
 
jav6454 said:
Weather app only using Assistance (Cell Towers) to know your general location.

However, like I said, you need to do that exercise I described to go back to Apple. That will show them that your device is indeed failing.
Click to expand...

I can try the exercise but there are a couple issues with it.

1. This behavior is intermittent. Sometimes the GPS will function OK and then (seemingly just when I really need it) it will get stuck.

2. How do you suggest I "show" them the results if I do it? Are you suggesting I have someone record me performing this?

Honestly, for a $1100+ device, I should not have to put up with this. It is not performing as advertised, period. Why is it on me to provide proof of the failure before they believe me (the customer)?
 
jwzimm said:
I can try the exercise but there are a couple issues with it.

1. This behavior is intermittent. Sometimes the GPS will function OK and then (seemingly just when I really need it) it will get stuck.

2. How do you suggest I "show" them the results if I do it? Are you suggesting I have someone record me performing this?

Honestly, for a $1100+ device, I should not have to put up with this. It is not performing as advertised, period. Why is it on me to provide proof of the failure before they believe me (the customer)?
Click to expand...

1. Intermitent or not, you need to be sure of the result. Also, Apple will still work on it even if its intermitent.

2. You won't be able to show your results obviously. However, you will be able to clearly explain the steps you took to diagnose your device. Basically, you'll let them know you have tried to work it out before coming to them. Furthermore, it shows that your gave them steps to take should they need to replicate the issue. Genius' (almost 95% of them) will take this and roll with it for a replacement. You showed a strong case for it.


I would say you shouldn't, but for GPS it is better to have everything documented as it's one of the things they can't replicate in store. Hence, it will be tougher to prove. You need to make it easier for them and you.
 
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