GPS Problems - iPhone 7 or iOS10?

[off_piste]

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UPDATE 1: A friend also uses a iPhone 7 Plus, 10.3.1, EU and sent me some of his recorded runs (Runtastic) and they *looked* good, really good. He's an experienced runner and would have noticed a +45% distance.

Reason enough to give a Apple a call and ask for a replacement. To my surprise, not much talking/explaining was needed until I could pull my AMEX to block the fee for the exchange unit. I assume, that they know that somethings stinks but would not say so officially.

Looks good
View attachment 699003

Looks crap
View attachment 699002
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No. iPhone 7 Plus, 10.3.1, EU.

Reference: Garmin Fenix 5, Polar V800 (1,3% difference)

RunKeeper, Strava, Runmeter: up to +20% distance
Runtastic: up to +45% distance

Came to 3 conclusions:

1) Never buy another Apple Product. Ever.

2) All the sports tracking portals that allow data from smartphones are crap. Yes, crap. All their data is worth **** and unusable, when they allow data from devices that are way off in recording distance.

3) The Apple Watch Series 2 with GPS was released around the same time the iPhone 7 (Plus) was released. I'm sure that this is just coincidence and not "If you want to track sports with your shiny new iPhone, go buy an Apple Watch Series 2".

Has anybody been lucky in getting a replacement iPhone 7 from Apple that actually works?

I had a similar problem on my 6s+ with MapMyRun where my runs looked like a saw blade. Switched to the Nike run app and it smoothed my routes.

 

[ghamphy]

I ran NYC Marathon. Iphone 7 + shows I ran 35.3 miles in strava

[doublepost=1499270577][/doublepost]I run the exact same run . I run the same side of the road too, in most cases for the 3.25 mile run, most mornings. What distance the GPS on iphone 7 Plus will show each day is a surprise

[doublepost=1499270791][/doublepost]I run in the street, not even in the sidewalk, my iphone 7+ shows i Ran through buildings and trees. I started and stopped in the exact same spot. Iphone 7 + thinks different.

[doublepost=1499271038][/doublepost]Have any of you got a replacement iphone 7 plus . Apple is reluctant to provide a replacement, inspite of working with them for a month, sending them all kinds of proof showing the iphone GPS is crap

 

[Resqu2]

I run track one day a week, it's a high school track, 400m and to do 3 laps with Runkeeper it's .81 miles every time where it should be dead on .75 miles. Strange thing is the first lap always comes up at .24 miles. And I always run right at the edge of the grass on the inside lane. Makes pacing using any app on the phone not reliable at all. Sad that with all I payed for a 7+ and an Apple Watch S2 I'm carrying around a stopwatch to time each lap.

 

[gazonk]

Have any of you got a replacement iphone 7 plus . Apple is reluctant to provide a replacement, inspite of working with them for a month, sending them all kinds of proof showing the iphone GPS is crap

Yes, I got my iPhone 7 (regular, not plus) replaced, even 3 times. I eventually gave up, kept the fourth one despite still-crappy GPS, and bought a Garmin 735XT.

 

[Adrianna190585]

Well at least I'm not alone!! Thanks for commenting.

I'm hoping others will chime in. And also hoping a software update will address it.

[doublepost=1504296728][/doublepost]Hi all, I am having the same issue using Google Maps and Waze in my Iphone 7 plus, does anybody can fix it?

 

[Merkie]

I noticed worse GPS behavior on my recently acquired iPhone 7 as well. I compared it to my iPhone SE, this is what I found:

• SE accuracy readings: 5m, 10m, 15m, 25m
• 7 accuracy readings: 4m, 6m, 8m, 12m, 16m, 24m

I used them side by side and the 7 always got a slightly lower accuracy (i.e. 8m vs 5m or 12m vs 10m). It also seems easier to lose the signal and it takes slightly longer to (re)acquire the fix. Doing some meta research, I found that replacing the phone never "fixed" this. The only evidence I found in which replacing the phone helped was when the GPS was clearly faulty.

Based on this, I've concluded that the 7 has a different GPS chip which seems to be slightly less accurate. It also could be the case that simply the accuracy readings are different, using the phones side-by-side the center of the position radius never seemed worse than that of the SE.

 

[gazonk]

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the GPS in iPhone 8 and/or iPhone X to the one in iPhone 7 yet? And btw the GPS in my son's Google Pixel is not much better than the iPhone 7 GPS, probably same lousy chipset...

 

[spacemnspiff]

I have had the same issue with the 6s and also happened with a replacement 6s that I received from Apple. I don’t think that two devices would have the same problem, I think it’s a software issue.

With directions using GPS, once locked the directions with Apple maps, Waze work fine. It’s getting a GPS lock is what takes time.

I was hoping that buying an iPhone 7 would get rid of the issue, but doesn’t seem likely. Funny thing is before iOS 11 came along, GPS worked just fine.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the GPS in iPhone 8 and/or iPhone X to the one in iPhone 7 yet? And btw the GPS in my son's Google Pixel is not much better than the iPhone 7 GPS, probably same lousy chipset...

The GPS on my X is not nearly as accurate as my 6S. It seems to be random though, sometimes it shows correctly sometimes it is several hundred feet off. My 6S is always spot on even though all settings are identical

 

[spacemnspiff]

This is what has worked for me on my 6S for the past day or so to get GPS behaving well, it's called 'the Sim trick'.

1. Close all apps on your phone
   
2. Remove the SIM
   
3. Reset Location and Privacy
   
4. Reset Network Settings
   
5. Power off
   
6. Go outside to an area with good cellular signal strength
   
7. Power on
   
8. Reinsert the SIM
9. Test the Maps app or whatever you use

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8081112?page=46

I also bought the GPS Diagnostic app to get a better idea of how the GPS is behaving.