Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone XS GPS locking on iPhone XS?

kkh786

kkh786

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 25, 2013
736
817
United Kingdom
I haven’t had a successful lock of my GPS location on my iPhone XS since I activated it last night. I have tried the usual tricks without success.

Anyone else having the same issue on their XS or XS Max?

Is it likely a software issue as exchanging is going to be a hassle!
 
Apologies for lack of clarity in original post and after further testing see my comments below.

I know of people having major issues with GPS last year on the X when Apple exchanged phones no questions asked.

Thus yesterday I was testing my XS GPS and it would not lock indoors about 4 meters away from the external walls on LTE mode (on WiFi it is fine as its assisted).

For comparison, my Galaxy S9 had no issues nor did the wife’s iPhone 8 Plus from same location indoors. However getting closer to windows/walls etc gained a lock.

Just seems the GPS chips is weaker this year than previous years or have I got a dud? I really don’t fancy an exchange as the handset is pretty flawless.
 
My X is not as accurate as my 6s. I was hoping they figured it out as I’m due for an Xs in December. Please update the thread if you decide to get a replacement
 
Used Google Maps to work today.. it all worked fine.

However, when I am in a building my XS struggles to lock my location when compared to other phones (e.g. colleagues Huawei P10).

Do the X/XS line iPhones have a weak GPS in general or am I dealing with a faulty GPS module?

The trouble is it locks fine near the windows and outside.

Any XS users test this for me? You need to turn WiFi off and try locking GPS on LTE mode indoors.. preferably a few feet away from an external wall/window.
 
So went to Apple Store yesterday and they verified the GPS was the issue.

Although the genius wasn't 100% sure, he was leaning towards a hardware fault so I decided to take a refund and move on as hardware faults can take a long time to fix in the production line.

It's a shame really as the handset was lovely otherwise.
 
Last edited:
Same here. If I put the XS into Airplane mode to test the GPS it will never show my location. At all. Side by side the X works fine. Also, using the GPSdiagnostic app the XS shows no satellites being picked up but with the X it gets a strong signal.
 
1984 said:
Same here. If I put the XS into Airplane mode to test the GPS it will never show my location. At all. Side by side the X works fine. Also, using the GPSdiagnostic app the XS shows no satellites being picked up but with the X it gets a strong signal.
Click to expand...
Return it my friend.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be an uncommon thing so exchange may not help.

The key thing you did was to rest GPS without the influence of Wi-Fi. This is what I would suggest others try to see how they fare.

Nevertheless, I need an accurate GPS with me all the time due to my lifestyle so I couldn't compromise.. so back it went.
 
Have you ever noticed if your GPS stops working after some time of use/when the iphone is hot?


I had a 6s and once in a while, I used it with Waze and Spotify at the same time, in areas without wifi networks. In the beginning, everything worked ok, but after ±5 times the iphone started to lost GPS signal when hot.

A few more time and the problem was getting worse but I didn't use the GPS a lot and I didn't care.

In the end, after some months I used the iphone half a day in low battery mode in a hot ambient and the phone stopped to get carrier service and gps at all.

Now, the iphone is 1,5 years old and the price of repair is like to buy a new one. I would like to give another opportunity to Apple, but reading your statements it's very difficult.
 
kkh786 said:
I haven’t had a successful lock of my GPS location on my iPhone XS since I activated it last night. I have tried the usual tricks without success.

Anyone else having the same issue on their XS or XS Max?

Is it likely a software issue as exchanging is going to be a hassle!
Click to expand...

Same issue here. The GPS is highly unstable and unreliable. Sometimes 20m wrong, sometimes 200m wrong, rarely right.
 
kkh786 said:
Used Google Maps to work today.. it all worked fine.

However, when I am in a building my XS struggles to lock my location when compared to other phones (e.g. colleagues Huawei P10).

Do the X/XS line iPhones have a weak GPS in general or am I dealing with a faulty GPS module?

The trouble is it locks fine near the windows and outside.

Any XS users test this for me? You need to turn WiFi off and try locking GPS on LTE mode indoors.. preferably a few feet away from an external wall/window.
Click to expand...

I'm having this issue as well.
 
Anyone else having any GPS issues? GPS faster to get location or slower Co,pared to iPhone 8 Plus?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back