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theelectronicsofjosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2018
9
1
You probably groaned when you saw the iPhone 6 part of the title, but I'm not in a financial position to upgrade to a new iPhone yet unfortunately.

I'm aware of the iPhone 6's age, but a problem arose around roughly February that has been absolutely ridiculous and has caused major problems for me. Out of the blue, my GPS became un-functional. By un-functional, I mean many things, such as:
  1. On all GPS related services such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, and even Waze, my GPS positions me in random spots that are either near but not exact to where I am, or not even close. For instance, when I drive down a freeway, it will suddenly think I'm in a neighborhood that's off the freeway, even though I'm going 60MPH and I'm nowhere close. This happens constantly, not just on freeways.
  2. My GPS won't tell me where to turn next, and if it does it's always the first direction it tells me at the start of my commute (It'd tell me to turn right on a street near my house, even if I'm 30 miles away from my house).
  3. Voice guidance is nonexistent, even though it's turned on and settings are constantly checked.
  4. Does not re-route, so if I make a wrong turn, I'm SOL.

My 10 minute drives have gone to hour long drives because of my GPS thinking I'm in places I'm not, and has gotten me trapped in places far away from where I live without any idea how to get home.

I've gone to the Apple Store and also called, but they came up with no solution (aside from upgrading to a 6S for $300).

I've tried every reset and attempt, but I can't help but think there might be something else I can do aside from dropping $300 on a phone that's next to go in Apple's lineup.

If anyone has a similar problem and found a solution, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
 

adamhenry

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2015
1,621
611
On the Beach
Which version of iOS are you on? I had a bunch of issues like you’re describing with 11.4.1 on my X... iOS 12 straightened them out though

Same experience with my X here. 12.0 was perfect but I have had problems a couple of times since loading 12.0.1. I think when that when location services fails to receive a GPS signal, it looks for a wifi signal and uses the wifi location to determine the current location. The results when the gps isn't reliable will bounce you around from wrong location to wrong location.
 
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theelectronicsofjosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2018
9
1
Which version of iOS are you on? I had a bunch of issues like you’re describing with 11.4.1 on my X... iOS 12 straightened them out though
Currently on 12.0.1. Issue started around 11.4 for sure or maybe slightly before. I hoped 12 would straighten it out for me but unfortunately I wasn't so lucky :/
[doublepost=1539827697][/doublepost]
Same experience with my X here. 12.0 was perfect but I have had problems a couple of times since loading 12.0.1. I think when that when location services fails to receive a GPS signal, it looks for a wifi signal and uses the wifi location to determine the current location. The results when the gps isn't reliable will bounce you around from wrong location to wrong location.
That's a huge bummer, especially since the X is new :/ It's something similar to that and it definitely bounces from place to place all the time but I haven't been able to find an option in location services that could relate to the issue. Have you had any luck with a solution?
 

nottooshabby

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2008
419
90
You probably groaned when you saw the iPhone 6 part of the title, but I'm not in a financial position to upgrade to a new iPhone yet unfortunately.

I'm aware of the iPhone 6's age, but a problem arose around roughly February that has been absolutely ridiculous and has caused major problems for me. Out of the blue, my GPS became un-functional. By un-functional, I mean many things, such as:
  1. On all GPS related services such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, and even Waze, my GPS positions me in random spots that are either near but not exact to where I am, or not even close. For instance, when I drive down a freeway, it will suddenly think I'm in a neighborhood that's off the freeway, even though I'm going 60MPH and I'm nowhere close. This happens constantly, not just on freeways.
  2. My GPS won't tell me where to turn next, and if it does it's always the first direction it tells me at the start of my commute (It'd tell me to turn right on a street near my house, even if I'm 30 miles away from my house).
  3. Voice guidance is nonexistent, even though it's turned on and settings are constantly checked.
  4. Does not re-route, so if I make a wrong turn, I'm SOL.

My 10 minute drives have gone to hour long drives because of my GPS thinking I'm in places I'm not, and has gotten me trapped in places far away from where I live without any idea how to get home.

I've gone to the Apple Store and also called, but they came up with no solution (aside from upgrading to a 6S for $300).

I've tried every reset and attempt, but I can't help but think there might be something else I can do aside from dropping $300 on a phone that's next to go in Apple's lineup.

If anyone has a similar problem and found a solution, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

I had this problem with my iPhone 6. Taking the case off would sometimes help. I traded it in for an iPhone 7 2 years ago though back when they were giving $650 trade-in value.
 

theelectronicsofjosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2018
9
1
have a look at this https://appletoolbox.com/2016/05/gp...-upgrade/#iPhone_66s_Models_With_GPS_Problems. im sure you tried some of the solutions, but there are a few interesting ones.

did the apple store check if your antenna flex cable is still working?
Sorry for the late response. Sadly, they didn't even try to fix it - they just told me to upgrade. I'll definitely look at that article, thanks!
[doublepost=1540228888][/doublepost]
I had this problem with my iPhone 6. Taking the case off would sometimes help. I traded it in for an iPhone 7 2 years ago though back when they were giving $650 trade-in value.

I wish it was still worth that much today. I'd trade it in a heartbeat :/
 

theelectronicsofjosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2018
9
1
You probably groaned when you saw the iPhone 6 part of the title, but I'm not in a financial position to upgrade to a new iPhone yet unfortunately.

I'm aware of the iPhone 6's age, but a problem arose around roughly February that has been absolutely ridiculous and has caused major problems for me. Out of the blue, my GPS became un-functional. By un-functional, I mean many things, such as:
  1. On all GPS related services such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, and even Waze, my GPS positions me in random spots that are either near but not exact to where I am, or not even close. For instance, when I drive down a freeway, it will suddenly think I'm in a neighborhood that's off the freeway, even though I'm going 60MPH and I'm nowhere close. This happens constantly, not just on freeways.
  2. My GPS won't tell me where to turn next, and if it does it's always the first direction it tells me at the start of my commute (It'd tell me to turn right on a street near my house, even if I'm 30 miles away from my house).
  3. Voice guidance is nonexistent, even though it's turned on and settings are constantly checked.
  4. Does not re-route, so if I make a wrong turn, I'm SOL.

My 10 minute drives have gone to hour long drives because of my GPS thinking I'm in places I'm not, and has gotten me trapped in places far away from where I live without any idea how to get home.

I've gone to the Apple Store and also called, but they came up with no solution (aside from upgrading to a 6S for $300).

I've tried every reset and attempt, but I can't help but think there might be something else I can do aside from dropping $300 on a phone that's next to go in Apple's lineup.

If anyone has a similar problem and found a solution, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

UPDATE:

After speaking with an Apple tech., he deemed it was possibly the antennae, but they don't repair them at Apple anywhere. The only fix is a new phone apparently, and since the iPhone 6 is officially no longer made, the issue is officially unfixable. This marks the end of the iPhone 6 era...
 

BugeyeSTI

macrumors 604
Aug 19, 2017
7,253
9,093
Arizona/Illinois
UPDATE:

After speaking with an Apple tech., he deemed it was possibly the antennae, but they don't repair them at Apple anywhere. The only fix is a new phone apparently, and since the iPhone 6 is officially no longer made, the issue is officially unfixable. This marks the end of the iPhone 6 era...
If your handy and want to try fixing it yourself here’s a link to the part and a video to replace it:
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-6-Top-Left-Antenna/IF268-014-3
 
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