Fix your iPhone 3G GPS problems – 3G network issues with iPhone GPS
By Will Park on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 PM PST In AT&T, Apple, iPhone, iPhone OS
The new GPS hardware in the iPhone 3G seems to be having some trouble when not connected to the AT&T (NYSE: T) 3G network. iPhone Atlas reports that some users are complaining of inaccurate GPS positioning when the 3G data setting (Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G) option is switched to “ON.”
The iPhone 3G uses aGPS (assisted GPS), which means that the cellular network aids in positioning the handset, giving the GPS hardware less number-crunching to deal with. That means you get super-fast GPS lock-on times. But, it seems that some iPhones are getting conflicting data from the 3G data network and their built-in GPS receivers, leading to incorrect GPS positioning.
So, for those of you with wonky GPS positioning on the iPhone 3G, try this fix:
- Navigate to Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G and toggle to “OFF”
- Locate yourself using the iPhone 3G’s GPS receiver
- Navigate to Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G and toggle to “ON”
You should now have accurate GPS positioning information. Leave a comment if this worked or didn’t work for you.
[Via: iPhoneAtlas]
what about if the gps cant find you regardless of what kind of signal your using? and regardless of signal strength?
I would suggest restarting your iPhone.
Even indoors you should get reasonably accurate position-lock through cell-tower triangulation.
If you’re underground or in a reinforced concrete building with absolutely no signal strength, then you’ll be out of luck for any location information. Otherwise, you should be getting some sort of positional data.
Did all that. Resetting network settings allows me to find my position twice then back to nowheresville. Have even stood in an open area outdoors and nada.
Think i’ll just wait for the inevitable software update from apple.
Afraid this won’t solve the problem I’m experiencing…
For the last two nights, my daughter and I (and at least two Apple employees @ the Washington Square Apple Store in Tigard, OR) have experienced a weird issue with our iPhone 3G’s. About the same time (som time around 5:00 pm and lasting from 1 1/2 to 3 hrs, our iPhones THINK they are in Houston, TX – although the four of us live in the Portland / Vancouver Metro area. All four of us (individually and seperately) experienced the SAME issue. No matter what Location Aware App you Open, it presents you with information for Houston; current traffic, Resturants, Coffee, anything. The ‘Where’, ‘Yelp!’, ‘Maps’, all of them. I’ve called Apple SEVERAL times, have tried ALL their suggested ‘fixes’ to no avail. Then suddenly, as invisibly as it started, my local area information is back.
I have as I said, called Apple SEVERAL times, have reported this to them via their ‘Feedback’ page on the web, have replied to their questionaire regarding me feelings about my call to their Tech Support, etc etc etc. THEY’RE not listening – at least in the first tier Support you normally get hold of in these situations. It’s REALLY frusterating when you need to get somewhere and need iPhones assistance to locate an address, phone number, map, or whatever and your iPhones off ‘playing’ in some other geographic location thousands of miles away from where YOU are.
Thanks… ( is there anybody out there?! Hello? H-e-l-l-o ? ? )
I think the google maps also uses known wifi hotspots to help locate phones. This can be problematic too.
Vic, that’s unfortunate. But, the WiFi hotspot location could be an issue. Are you in the same location at 5pm? If so, you could be locking on to the same WiFi hotspot with an incorrect location-tag in Skyhook’s database.
Otherwise, I’d call Apple support and demand to be elevated to the next level or speak to a supervisor.
I also live in Portland OR. (Houston TX) It is pretty consistent at my house in NE Portland for the gps to show me in SE Houston. At my house I’ve only been able to be correctly located once, for whatever reason. This is consistent both inside my house, in the backyard and the front yard. Pretty lame.
it worked like a charm! i just got my 3G iphone today (KC country club plaza store) and was having difficulty getting the GPS to work at all. it worked the first time i used it, kinda. it got me within a 20 block radius, not exactly helpful. good thing i can’t get lost in my office.
when i got home i tried it again, and it wouldn’t work at all. i tried the trick and it’s perfect now! great tip, thanks!!!
When in Oregon City, Or, the phone was locating me in Texas. Last week, I went to West Linn and it gave an accurate position. This past weekend we drove up into Eastern Washington and everywhere we went, it was accurate (Spokane, Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Yakima, Vancouver, etc). I am back in Oregon City and it tells me I’m in Austin, TX. This happens in other places in Oregon City, not just at my house.
However, when I turn off the 3g network and wi-fi, it places me correctly at my house. I can then turn wifi back on and it still is correct. Turning 3g on places me back in Texas. The 3g network wasn’t available in many of the smaller towns we drove through so maybe it is something to do with the 3g network?
Do not do this. Phone was working fine, now when I enable 3G it says…No Service. I have to disable 3G now to get the phone to work at all. How do I reverse this?
I too live in the portland/vancouver area. My iphone says that I am in Texas everytime I am connected to the 3g network. I turn off 3g, in vancouver. turn on 3g, in texas. rather dissappointing.
> some trouble when not connected to the
> AT&T 3G network
I thought the problem happened when we *WERE* connected
to 3G.
I bought it today and GPS worked well but when I got home and tried to locate my position, its showing different location like 60 miles from where I’m at. Called Apple and spoke to them for like 1hr and then finally works. Hang-up, took a break and boom..it happened again..But the trick to turn-off the 3g worked for me…I wonder when Apple will release the update for the this 3G phone..
crazy I’m in west Houston and it keeps telling me I am in Portland
It also only happens when I’m at home
I have a similar problem.
WIth 3G on, using the GPS from my home, I am placed on the Washington DC/Maryland border somewhere. Without 3G on, it locates me perfectly at my home in Boston.
However, this problem only occurs when I am in my apartment, thus in the vicinity of MANY different Wifi signals. So far, I’ve decided the amount of interference in must be the cause. Sometimes, with the 3G on, if I move to the far side of my apartment, facing the city, and near a window, the 3G GPS is again correct.
**Also, the Wifi on my phone has always been off.
Hey man, it works in my case, i was stuck showing some stupid location after this fix it worked…
apple is cheating so many of us giving gps but it is not really gps..all traps..
Thanks, We are travelling now in Denmark and both our iPhones did not find gps position at all, even it worked fine at home in Finland,
After using this fix (3G off ) map find our position correctly.
This is serious bug, as you probably neet your maps and gps aboard.
I too live in Portland and sometimes it says I’m in Houston, sometimes in Portland. It knows me at home, but elsewhere in town I’m suddenly in Houston. My friend has the same problem too.
My GPS seems to be locating me but it’s so inaccurate I’m not sure it is using GPS at all. I work in Leeds UK, and the map tells me I’m in Leeds, if I was visiting how is this useful for getting me to my destination. The circle around my location stays large however long I leave it.
I know GPS isn’t hugely accurate especially in a small device but it could at least tell me the street I’m on rather than the city I’m in.
I got my 3G iPhone about three days ago and I’ve tried the GPS several times. So far, about 70% of the time the phone locates me at Myrtle Beach even though I live in WV. I have found this trick to work but it is very frustrating and I hope they push out an update to fix this soon.
Worked for me. It for some reason was way off when I turned it on at first and this seemed to reset it.
Thanks
Chad
I live in Portland Or and I am getting this Houston location problem too. It is kind of frustrating that this issue was not corrected in the latest update. I also find it very frustrating that Apple has not clearly addressed this bug on the web site since so many seem to be having it. I have 30 days….might just take it back.
I live in Santa Barbara, CA and my iPhone says I’m in Syracuse, NY. If I turn off the 3G, my phone finds my location without a problems but normally when I switch back to 3G “my location” changes back to Syracuse. I called Apple and was told that this is because the phone is getting conflicting data from its three sources (wifi, GPS, and 3G) and that when AT&T fixes their problems with 3G the GPS location function will work correctly.
My GPS stopped working completely. It was fine out of the store (well lame, but working) and long story short, I ended up having to restore it. Now no combination of sitting in a field in the sun (plenty of satillite access), towers, or 3G on/off, bluetooth on/off, location services on/off, or anything else I can think of works.
This is my first apple product and I hate to say that this 3G has had more quirks than I expected for an expensive device… Oh well, I’ll keep digging and post if I find anything new…
I am having the same problem with the 3G iPhone.
And I’m also having the same wall of silence from Apple. I am frustrated by the fact that Apple relies on people like us having to trawl through the web to find solutions to these problem rather than them being proactive and posting anything useful at apple.com.
The person that I spoke with at support yesterday referred me to the skyhook website for support.
Er, no. If the camshaft to my new BMW went, I would not expect BMW to ask me to get in contact with the manufacturer of the part.
If Apple wants to continue pushing the iPhone and – more importantly – wants users to recommend it to other people, then it needs to grow up and take some ownership of material and serious defects in a product bearing the Apple name.
Apple continues to rely the goodwill of its customers, something which is in very short supply in my neck of the woods right now.
If this problem carries on, I’ll be handing my iPhone back to Apple and demanding a refund.
I live in Portland, and my iPhone always has me in Houston
I just moved from Louisville to Cincinnati.
Get this… The Iphone still thinks I’m in Louisville at my old address when I’m on my wifi network at home, but is accurate when I’m on 3G.
How’s that!??!
Yeah that worked for me but that’s not exactly a “fix”. I don’t want to have to go through that every time. When I turn the 3G back on and check it it places me at the exact same intersection outside of Philadelphia somewhere…a place I’ve NEVER been
Turning off 3G reliably allows my phone to do a cell tower fix pretty quick (
I consider google maps as well uses known wifi hotspots to help locate phones.
Thanks for the GPS work-around!
I live in the US, but I’m currently traveling in Okinawa, Japan. I was wondering why I couldn’t get my GPS to work, even after rebooting my iPhone.
After turning off 3G, it acquired my location within 3-4 minutes. I then turned 3G back on. It kept my location for the rest of the day. Though I had to do it again the next day (I might have rebooted the phone in between).
same problem …here in Portland and it ALMOST always ‘finds’ me in Houston. All AT&T had me do was power cycle my phone…which of course worked while I was on the phone with them…now I’m back in Houston!
I was in Portland last week and I too had the GPS tell me numerous times that I was in texas. Then I got back to Utah where I live and now my GPS won’t tell me where I am unless I turn off 3G and then it only tells me within a couple mile radius.
I live in México and my GPS is not workin with or without the 3G
I have also had the same problem. I purchased the phone at noon yesterday at the SLC, UT apple store and when I got back to work (In Salt Lake as well), it told me I am in Minneapolis. I took the phone back and they gave me another one. The “Genius” told me that replacing the phone might not fix the problem because he said he had 5 other customers with the same problem and some of them are on their 5th phone. It happened again on the new phone and went back this morning. The “Genius” told me this time that it is a “known issue” and that I should probably come back in a month or two to see if they have figured it out.
Pretty lame.
Thanks for the post fixed my problem right away.
Again with the Portland/ Houston issue. Anyone found a fix?
I was having the problem of my gps not locating my exact location. It would narrow down to the smaller circle, but never to the ball. Then I turned 3g and wifi off and it narrowed to the ball. Then I turned them both back on and it seems to be working now. Thanks!
My GPS will not lock on me regardless of settings. I can get the big cirle and then the little one but no little blue dot that follows me. I told apple and then they made me do some setting changes but to no resolution. They said they would speak to there engineers and get back to me in three days. Three days are up and now I’m getting a new iphone. If it doesn’t work I will be pissed. I have exchanged my girlfriends iphone 3g twice now because of no wifi and the home button being broken. not happy.
From the 3G tower I get while at work in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, MN, my phone shows me being near Philadelphia. Anyone else?
I am in PDX today & my phone shows me in Houston. I hate Houston: it is a giant soul-dead parking lot. Why does my phone tell me I have 2987 miles to drive to make my appointment at 0900? I dont think I’ll make it in time.
ATT, hello, stop spending all your time tapping all our calls & spend some time fixing your 3g network!
Thanks so much – whoever found this fix!!! It kept pointing my location as Seattle, which i roughly 3600 miles from NYC where I actually am … so, um … finding the nearest Loews was a bit of a problem!!
Thanks soooo much!!!! This worked perfectly
i live in southwest Portland and my phone says I’m in Austin, TX.
I guess that’s better than Houston, right?
The fix worked for me. Have to give it a minute before it fixes itself.
My gps worked fine until this evening, when I found that I’m somewhere in North Carolina, 711 miles from where I actually am. I tried shutting of the 3G as suggested, and got the correct location. Turning it back on got me back in North Carolina. Rebooting with 3G off got me to within 2.8 miles, but not home. I’m trying to reboot a second time. Result: back to North Carolina, which I’ve never even visited, though I have nothing in principle against it. What gives?
are GPS and maps working in Mexico city? (Mexico republic)
A lot of the problems described here could be because of Wi-fi and not because of 3g. The iPhone is using triangulation of cell towers and wi-fi to position you. If someone had wi-fi in Houston and then relocated to Portland, their wi-fi is still going to identify them as being in Houston and map you at that location. I’ve seen this happen frequently in vacation spots where people might be bringing along their routers. For example, when vacationing on block island, there was a router next door that was obviously brought to the island from Massachusetts, so the map would initially locate me there, but eventually resolve with cell tower triangulation & gps as being on block island.
All that aside, 3G seems to impair the iPhone’s ability to lock in since the upgrade to 2.0.2. I have to turn it off to get a fix with Edge.
I turned on GPS tracker (free app) on my way to work this morning. It took 14 minutes to locate me using the 60ft accuracy setting. By that time I was almost at work. I bought this phone so I could have a solid portable web appliance, and GPS unit. It fails on both accounts. Switching off 3G and wifi did not make GPS signal aquisition any better. I don’t recall having the problem when I bought the phone. My suspicion is that apple know of the problem but is keeping mum because it would involve a recall. The GPS chip is clearly flawed. If the problems are because of the various location data the phone gathers, then they should give the user the ability to select which sources the phone uses. I.e. Switch off wifi locating and cell tower locating and only use the GPS as the source of positional data.
Apple’s reputation for quality niche products is definately tarnished with this product. And their lack of support and respect for their users is pathetic. One would think the level of similar complaints I have read here would be enough to garner their attention.
With 3g on, I my location is Minnesota. With 3g off, i am correctly located in Ogden, Utah. When I switch 3G on, back to Minnesota.
At least this is a partial solution.
Thanks,