If you’ve been following iPhone 14 news, then you’ll probably know that the iOS 16.1 beta caused a pretty serious issue with GPS on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Well, the good news is that the bug has now been fixed, thanks to an update contained in iOS 16.1 beta 2.
Both iPhone 14 Pro models, and the Apple Watch Ultra, offer support for L5 GPS alongside the legacy L1 GPS most phones have. The idea being that pairing the two ensures better location accuracy, and signals that can travel through buildings and other obstacles more easily.
The iOS 16.1 beta bug causes iPhone 14 Pro models to display the wrong GPS coordinates. Simply put, it meant the phone thought you were in a totally different location and ruined any hope of navigating as a result, To the point where beta users were having to roll back to the same stable iOS 16 version enjoyed by everyone else.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus weren’t affected by this bug. Considering they only support L1 GPS, it suggests that the problem either lay with the L5 signal or how the Pro models were working with the combination GPS.
Fortunately, the second version of the beta appears to have fixed the issue. That means beta testers can install the latest version, safe in the knowledge that their iPhone 14 Pro will know where they are.
If you’re not on the iOS 16 beta, then none of this will be of any concern to you. iOS 16.1 isn’t due to be released to the general public until sometime later this year. But by fixing the issue now, it means the GPS signal issues won’t wind up in the public release.
That’s not to say the iPhone 14 range is free of issues, and there have been reports of a number of iPhone 14 problems since the phones were released. That includes the camera “rattling and shaking” when some apps are in use and complaints of excessive pop-ups when users attempt to copy and paste content between apps.
There have also been issues with FaceTime and iMessage, with Apple support documents mentioning various problems. They include not being able to receive messages or FaceTime calls, seeing green bubbles from known Apple devices, conversations being split into two threads, and message recipients seeing them come from the wrong account.
The good news is that Apple has acknowledged the vast majority of iPhone 14 problems that have surfaced thus far and has promised to come up with fixes. If you're thinking of getting one of the new iPhones, check out our iPhone 14 review, iPhone 14 Pro review and iPhone 14 Pro Max review.
Next: I just tested the iPhone 14 Pro's 48MP camera mode — and it blew me away. Check out these photos versus 12MP.
