Location GPS not working during navigation - iPhone 17 Pro

I have the exact same issue. I am located in Central Europe. Where I had no issues two weeks ago with my 12 Mini Waze on my Air sometimes randomly drops gps after few minutes of working just fine. Restarting helps, so does waiting another 5-10 minutes. I am kind of glad I read here the issue is not just about Air but other phones also. I hope it is just software issue that will be fixed soon.

Same issue - UK based - iPhone 17 pro. iPhone 14 was working fine until I switched to the 17 a couple of weeks ago.

Navigation apps just freeze and say no GPS etc.

Saw a post about making sure the phone isn’t in a case or mag case - tried that, same issue.

The Mini is on 26.0.1. I do not think it was updated since I replaced it but I could be wrong about that. But I was on last 3 public betas of iOS 26 on that mini and I did not notice any GPS malfunctions.

Agree. It is not case issue. Or car issue. Or carrier issue (which has nothing to do with GPS). Nor is it location issue. I drive the same route, same car, just Air instead 12 Mini. GPS just randomly drops.

Fair, I just meant the users in this chat as everyone. No I do not have a VPN. And as other users report it works fine and then catches and the location doesn’t move at all. At first I could switch between navigation apps and continue but now when it happens it persists through all navigation apps. I’ve tried deleting and reinstalling the navigation apps to no avail. I’ve found restarting the device the only method to temporarily resolve the issue.

Same issue using iPhone 16pro max 1tb. Apple Maps just doesn’t work at all, displays a map of the USA without ever discovering the gps location. Switched to Google Maps, either freezes, loses the navigation coordinates or shows no lines and no vocalization. Absolutely horrendous..

Exactly the same with me. And I’m on ios26 on iPhone 17. Driving with Google Maps and all of the sudden it is no longer updating where I am on the map. Same with Maps and Waze. If I pull over and restart the phone it’s good to go. But then also only works correctly for about 10 mins. Then freezes again.

The weird thing for me though, is that I have had this phone on iOS 26 for about 2 weeks and this issue only started appearing 3 days ago. I can understand if this problem started as soon as I got the new phone. But why would it seemingly out of the blue start this issue?

I have had the new iphone every year for the past 10+ years, this is the first time in awhile I've had such serious issues on early days of launch. Just before my iphone 16 pro was working fine, navigating no issues. Upon switching to iphone 17 pro i have had issues every single time I'm in the car using google maps or waze. The lag and navigation issues are night and day compared to few weeks ago when I had my iphone 16 pro eveything was working fine. This is completely unacceptable, if anyone has a fix please let me know.

I’m having the same issue, started with iOS 26. I’m on iPhone 17 Pro in Seattle, WA.

I’ll be navigating with Apple Maps in CarPlay and I will notice that the map hasn’t been moving, and it thinks I’ve stopped moving.

Restarting the phone is also the only thing I’ve found to fix.

The same thing is happening to me. It’s getting very annoying. I have the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I’ll be in the middle of driving and pass right by everything and won’t even notice because it won’t even update. On my iPhone 16e no issues there must be something either with the phone or the software.

My fiancé and I upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone 17 and are facing the same issues. We've had to pull over in very busy Boston traffic to wait for our phones to restart. I've been an iPhone user for decades; he just switched. We're having quite the suboptimal experience and would appreciate Apple Support investigating this, as we both drive for work and it can't be our Fiat 2020 500x's fault...

Are you sure 26.1 resolved the issue? I still feel like it’s not. Have to keep trying longer. I used to have very poor GPS sensitivity, if the phone covers a bit by car dashboard parts protruding above the phone, then you loose GPS connectivity. It’s unlike my previous iPhone 13 Pro which used to be very good with GPS, before I switched to 17 pro recently.

Pat838pat wrote:

I had this issue on my 14 pro max, upgraded to 17 pro and after two weeks I’m having the same issue. Makes the phone unusable

What did the Apple Tech at the Genius Bar say when you demonstrated the problem to them?

Clear view of the sky and this tinted window thing isn't the issue as navigation has worked flawlessly before with all my devices. It was only recently that this started happening on my 17 Pro, of which I have owned for a month before this issue came up. I am seeing a handful of people talking about the same issue and the only fix is to restart the phones when location is lost. I take the same exact commute every day rain or shine and have never lost GPS signal even for a second until very recently with this phone. Turning off and on Location services does absolutely nothing and WiFi is always on because of carplay. I'm sure its some weird bug with IOS 26 possibly but hard to tell. All I can say is I've never had this issue with any phone until a couple of days ago. Running iphone 17 Pro, IOS 26, no VPN, no apps or case that mess with gps reception or cell reception.

I have the same issue, no matter what APP I use, Google Maps or Apple Maps. I checked the Location service was ON. And it could not recover until I restarted the phone. Or quiting Maps APP and waiting for a while, then I can start a new navigation. Then all happens again.