iPhone GPS Suddenly Stopped Working

After 12 months of flawless performance, I was disappointed yesterday morning when I discovered that the GPS on my iPhone 3Gs wasn’t working. I had just fired up RunKeeper for my morning run, but couldn’t get a signal.

Since I was in a rush, I decided to just get going and not worry about tracking my run. Later in the day, however, I spent some time figuring out what was going on.

A few days earlier, I had updated my phone to iOS4 and then used jailbreakme.com to jailbreak it. I was thus a bit worried that I had messed something up and would have to restore my iPhone.

The good news is that it was a very simple fix. I had somehow messed up the “Location Services” preferences and just needed to switch it back on for certain apps. To do this, I went into the “Setting” and selected “General.” From there, simply select “Location Services” and make sure that: (1) the master switch is set to “On,” and (2) your apps of interest are likewise enabled.

That’s it. A very easy fix for what could have been a troublesome problem. I’m still not sure what caused it, but now that it’s fixed, I don’t really care.

Topic(s): Technology & Gadgets
Keyword(s): apple, gps, iphone, troubleshooting