Apple Maps Not Showing Correct Location

You answered your own question. Satellite GPS only works outdoors with a clear view of the sky in all directions. So All mapping apps use the locations of known Wi-Fi networks to fill in the gaps in GPS coverage. If you turn off Wi-Fi this “backup” location tracking feature can’t work. Instead, what the navigation app is using is the location of the cellular radio tower that your iPhone is connected to. When Wi-Fi is on it does not connect to any networks; it just listens for the MAC addresses of the routers that are nearby and triangulates from those Wi-Fi networks, so this is not a security issue.

Leaving Wi-Fi on does not drain the battery→Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Battery Drain and oth… - Apple Community

You should also leave Wi-Fi on for other reasons; for example, Find My requires it.

I’m afraid you are misremembering. NO smartphone from any manufacturer can provide Accurate location data with WiFi turned off. It is not possible perhaps you were turning WiFi off with the button in the control center-the button only disconnects from the current network, it does not turn WiFi off.

James8133 wrote:

The person said at Verizon said that the issue was software?

No the issue is that WiFi was off. Verizon store staff are not technical, they are just sales drones. Verizon fired all of their field techs 10 years ago.

Navigation apps will only show accurate location with Wi-Fi off if the device is out-of-doors with a full view of the sky, unblocked by tall buildings, heavy overhead foliage or heavy precipitation. Under those conditions only, Wi-Fi is not needed, but it can still improve the accuracy and satellite signal acquisition time. Try using your device with Wi-Fi off while you are in a structure.

Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, Find My and all other mapping programs use the same location “engine” in iOS, so they will all show the same location information.

It is a FACT that if Wi-Fi is off location data will be inaccurate. If you want to use any mapping program you must leave Wi-Fi on. If you can’t accept this then don’t use your phone for navigation and get a 3rd party navigation device, but even then they will use Wi-Fi.

There is nothing else to discuss; these are FACTS. You may not like them, but they are still facts derived from the physics of navigation satellite technology and the geometry of triangulation.

Either you spoke to someone at Apple who doesn’t know what they are talking about, or it didn’t happen. If this were a common problem there would be thousands of posts about it. How many have you seen?

From: If Maps isn't working on your Apple device - Apple Support

Location Services uses GPS, Bluetooth, crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspots, and cellular towers to determine your location.

James8133 wrote:

If you google, iPhone 16 Pro Max wrong GPS locations, you’ll find SEVERAL threads mentioning the issues that I’m having. You are clearly misinformed in what you’re talking about. Are you even an apple employee?

Name any problem with Apple products or for that matter any product, and you will see SEVERAL threads mentioning it. With 2 billion iPhone’s, or even the 100 million of your model, unless SEVERAL is in the hundreds or thousands it is not a widespread issue, but at best it is either a hardware problem with your device, or you clearly don’t understand how nav apps work.

As you would know if you had bothered to read the introductory information about ASC when you joined to post, no one posting here is an Apple employee; we are all volunteers. In fact, Apple employees are forbidden to post in ASC, a user to user forum.