How to Fix GPS Not Working
Step-by-step fixes for GPS not working on iPhone and Android. Covers location settings, compass calibration, battery saver issues, network resets, and more.
You are following directions and suddenly your phone announces "GPS signal lost" right in the middle of an unfamiliar intersection. Or the blue dot on your map is confidently pointing you into a lake. Or it just spins in circles and never figures out where you are.
GPS issues are frustrating because they always seem to happen at the worst possible moment. Most GPS problems are software-related rather than hardware failures. That means you can usually fix them yourself in a few minutes without visiting a repair shop. We will walk through the fixes from simplest to most thorough, so you can stop at whichever step gets your GPS working again.
Check that location services are turned on
This sounds obvious, but it catches more people than you would expect. Apps cannot use GPS if your phone's location services are disabled at the system level. On iPhone, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Location Services. Make sure the main toggle at the top is on. While you are here, scroll down and check that the specific app you are using (Maps, Google Maps, Waze, etc.) is set to "While Using the App" or "Always." Apple's support page walks through these settings in detail. On Android, open Settings, then Location, and make sure "Use location" is toggled on. You can also pull down the Quick Settings panel and tap the Location tile. If it is grayed out, tap it to turn it on.
Toggle location off and back on
Even when location services are enabled, the GPS radio can get stuck in a bad state. Toggling it off and on forces your phone to drop its current satellite connections and establish new ones from scratch. Turn location off, wait about ten seconds, then turn it back on. Open your maps app and give it 30 seconds to a minute to get a fresh fix. According to GPS.gov, GPS accuracy depends on the number of visible satellites, and getting a lock can take several minutes if your phone has been off or moved a long distance since it last had a signal. Do this test outdoors with a clear view of the sky. GPS signals are high-frequency and low-power, so walls, roofs, and even dense tree cover can block them.
Restart your phone
A restart clears out temporary software glitches that may be interfering with the GPS hardware. It resets the radio stack, flushes cached location data, and forces the operating system to reinitialize all its location services from scratch. On iPhone, hold the side button and volume button together until the power-off slider appears. Slide to power off, wait 30 seconds, then hold the side button to turn it back on. On Android, hold the power button and tap Restart (or Power Off, then turn it back on). Once the phone boots up, open your maps app and check whether the GPS locks on. This single step fixes a surprising number of location issues because it forces every background process to start fresh.
Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning
Your phone does not rely on GPS satellites alone to figure out where you are. Modern smartphones combine GPS with Wi-Fi access points, cell towers, Bluetooth beacons, and internal sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes. When any of these extra signals are missing, your location accuracy drops. On Android, go to Settings, then Location, then Location Services (or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning on Samsung devices). Make sure both Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning are turned on. These features help pinpoint your location even when you are not actively connected to a Wi-Fi network. On iPhone, Location Services automatically uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when those radios are enabled. Make sure Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are both on in Settings, not just in Control Center (which can disconnect without fully disabling them).
Good to know: If you are navigating in a car and the GPS keeps losing signal, check whether your windshield has metallic window tint. Some tint films contain metal particles that block GPS signals from reaching your phone.
Calibrate your compass
GPS tells your phone where you are, but the compass (magnetometer) tells it which direction you are facing. If the compass is poorly calibrated, your blue dot might be in the right spot but pointing the wrong way, which makes turn-by-turn navigation feel broken. Open Google Maps (on Android or iPhone) and tap the blue dot that represents your location. If it shows a wide, faded beam instead of a narrow directional arrow, the compass needs calibrating. Tap the "Calibrate" option if it appears. The calibration method is the same on both platforms. Hold your phone and move it in a figure-eight pattern, rotating your wrist so the phone tilts in all directions. Do this for about 15 to 20 seconds. The accuracy indicator should tighten from a wide fan to a narrow beam. You are looking for the app to report "High" accuracy when you are done.
Turn off battery saver mode
Battery saver is one of the sneakiest GPS killers. On many phones, it quietly disables GPS when the battery gets low, especially when the screen is off or your maps app is running in the background. You will not get a notification that this happened. Your navigation just silently stops updating. Google's GPS troubleshooting page specifically lists battery saver as a common cause of "GPS Signal Lost" errors in Maps. On Android, go to Settings, then Battery, and turn off Battery Saver or Power Saving Mode. On iPhone, go to Settings, then Battery, and toggle off Low Power Mode. If your battery is low and you need GPS, plug your phone into a charger or a portable battery pack instead. That way you get both working GPS and enough power to reach your destination.
Heads up: Some Android manufacturers add their own battery optimization on top of the standard battery saver. Check Settings, then Apps, then your maps app, and look for battery optimization or background activity settings. Make sure your maps app is set to "Unrestricted" or allowed to run in the background.
Check for software updates
GPS issues sometimes come from bugs in the operating system itself. Phone manufacturers regularly release updates that fix location accuracy problems, patch GPS driver issues, and improve how the phone talks to satellites. On iPhone, go to Settings, then General, then Software Update. On Android, go to Settings, then System (or About Phone), then System Update. Install any available updates, then restart your phone and test GPS again. If your GPS problems started right after an update, you are not alone. OS updates occasionally introduce regressions in location services. In that case, the fix is usually the next patch update. In the meantime, restarting your phone and resetting network settings (the next step) can help work around the issue.
Reset network settings
This is the heavier fix, but it resolves deep configuration issues that simpler steps cannot reach. Resetting network settings clears all saved Wi-Fi passwords, Bluetooth pairings, cellular settings, and VPN configurations. It also resets the location services configuration back to factory defaults. On iPhone, go to Settings, then General, then Transfer or Reset iPhone, then Reset, and tap Reset Network Settings. On Android, go to Settings, then System (or General Management on Samsung), then Reset Options, and tap Reset Wi-Fi, Mobile, and Bluetooth. Your phone will restart. After it boots up, reconnect to your Wi-Fi network (you will need your password), then open your maps app and test GPS. This step essentially gives your phone's location stack a clean slate without erasing your personal data, photos, or apps.
Heads up: Write down your Wi-Fi passwords before you do this. You will need to re-enter them for every network your phone was connected to. Your Bluetooth devices will also need to be paired again.
Factory reset as a last resort
If you have tried every step above and your GPS still will not work, the issue may be a deeper software corruption that only a full factory reset can fix. This erases everything on your phone, so it is truly the nuclear option. Before you reset, back up your phone. On iPhone, use iCloud (Settings, then your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup) or connect to a computer and use Finder or iTunes. On Android, use Google's built-in backup (Settings, then System, then Backup) or your manufacturer's backup tool. Once backed up, go to Settings, then General, then Transfer or Reset iPhone, then Erase All Content and Settings on iPhone. On Android, go to Settings, then System, then Reset Options, then Erase All Data (Factory Reset). After the reset, set up your phone and test GPS before restoring your backup. If GPS works on a fresh install but breaks after restoring, one of your apps or settings is the culprit. In that case, set up the phone fresh and reinstall apps one at a time instead of restoring from backup. If GPS still does not work after a factory reset, the problem is almost certainly hardware. Contact your phone manufacturer or visit a repair shop to have the GPS antenna checked.
Most GPS problems come down to a setting that got toggled off, a battery saver that is quietly killing your location services, or a compass that needs a quick figure-eight calibration. The fixes are simple once you know where to look. If you have worked through all nine steps and your GPS still refuses to cooperate, the antenna itself may need professional attention. But in our experience, almost every GPS headache ends somewhere in the first six steps.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Some car windshields and window tints contain metallic particles that block GPS signals. This is especially common with tints marketed as heat-reducing or UV-blocking. Try placing your phone on the dashboard or closer to the windshield to see if the signal improves. If it does, the tint is likely the issue. A phone mount near the base of the windshield usually helps enough for reliable navigation.
Under open sky, a typical smartphone GPS is accurate to within about 5 meters (16 feet). In cities with tall buildings, accuracy can drop to 20 to 100 meters because buildings reflect and block satellite signals. Your phone compensates by using Wi-Fi, cell towers, and Bluetooth to narrow down its position, which is why keeping those radios on improves accuracy.
GPS itself does not use mobile data. It receives signals directly from satellites, which is free. However, your maps app uses mobile data to load map tiles, traffic information, and route calculations. If you are worried about data usage, download offline maps in Google Maps or Apple Maps before you leave Wi-Fi. Your phone will still use GPS for positioning but will not need data to show the map.
When your phone has been off or has traveled a long distance while powered down, it needs to download fresh satellite position data before it can calculate your location. This is called a cold start and can take one to five minutes. Once your phone has a fix, subsequent GPS locks are much faster because it caches the satellite data. Keeping Wi-Fi on helps speed up the process because your phone can download satellite data over the internet instead of waiting to receive it from the satellites themselves.
Standard plastic, silicone, and leather phone cases do not block GPS signals. However, cases with metal plates (often used for magnetic car mounts), built-in batteries, or metallic card holders can interfere with GPS reception. If you use a case with a metal plate, try removing it and testing GPS without it. If the signal improves, switch to a case with a non-metallic mount system.
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