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AI Box Fix

SIM, Wi-Fi & GPSReviewed

Inaccurate GPS on an AI Box: Settings That Help

Position jumps, lags or no GPS fix on your AI box? Turn on Google Location Accuracy and check the OEM GPS switch. Carlinkit TBox Plus, Ambient, Ultra.

Quick answer

Turn on Google Location Accuracy (and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning) in the box's location settings, and turn off Wi-Fi scan throttling in Developer options; that fixed lagging or jumping positions for three of the four owners who reported trying it, and the community FAQ recommends the same settings. If the box finds no satellites at all, check the OEM GPS switch: it must be off unless your car shares its own GPS over CarPlay.

Symptoms

  • Your position lags behind the car, shows you on the previous street, or jumps around a wide circle
  • Navigation finds satellites for route planning but loses them while driving
  • A GPS test app shows satellites, all red or 'no fix', while a phone in the same car is fine
  • GPS stopped working after a factory reset or after switching between CarPlay and Android Auto
  • The arrow spins or drifts when you stop at traffic lights

Applies to

Connection to the car
CarPlay and Android Auto
Head units mentioned in reports
Haval / GWM GWM head units
Firmware in confirmed reports
Carlinkit TBox Plus: 2024-12-04; Carlinkit TBox Ultra 3: 2026-07-05; Carlinkit TBox Ultra 2: 2026-08-28; Carlinkit TBox Ultra: 2025-12-26
Highest risk on this page
Advanced
Status
Workaround confirmed by the community

Why it happens

An AI box has its own satellite receiver with a small antenna, usually lying in a console tray or under the dashboard where the signal is weaker than on a phone held high in the cabin. On the TBox Ultra 3 the GPS antenna is soldered onto the circuit board rather than connected by a lead, owners say the Ultra 2 and 4 share that design, and some compare its reception unfavourably with the older TBox Ambient. A phone also corrects its position constantly with Wi-Fi and mobile-network data; many box builds ship with that help partly switched off, so the box relies on raw satellite data alone and lags or drifts.

The second cause is the OEM GPS switch. When it is on, the box stops using its own receiver and waits for the car to send its position. Many cars do that only over CarPlay, and cars without built-in navigation never do, so the switch in the wrong position leaves the box with no position at all.

Then there are faults the box cannot fix in software: a loose antenna connector inside the case, and areas with satellite jamming or spoofing. The steps below go from the cheapest check to the most involved.

Fixes, ranked

Turn on Google Location Accuracy and stop Wi-Fi scan throttling

  • Safe
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 4 reports
  • Recommended in the community FAQ
  1. Open Settings → Location → Location services (on some builds Settings → System → More → Location).
  2. Open Google Location Accuracy and turn on Improve location accuracy (on older builds: “more precise location”).
  3. In Location services, turn on Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning.
  4. Enable Developer options: Settings → About → Build number, tap it seven times.
  5. In Developer options, turn off Wi-Fi scan throttling.
  6. Close and reopen the navigation app, then drive a familiar route.
Location services with network-assisted accuracy on. Labels vary by Android version and build. Reconstructed screen, labels may differ by firmware.

The community FAQ lists these two settings for every box. A TBox Plus owner in a Haval F7, on the 4 Dec 2024 build, saw a navigation app lose satellites mid-route while others lagged a junction behind; switching on precise location, after turning off scan throttling the day before, fixed it. A TBox Ultra 2 owner whose navigation moved in jerks found one of these location options off by default, and another Ultra 2 owner reports 4 m accuracy most of the time with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning allowed.

It did not help an owner who drives through an area with satellite jamming every morning; nothing in the settings changes that.

Use your phone's GPS on the box with ShareGPS

  • Safe
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 3 reports
  1. Install ShareGPS from Google Play on the phone and on the box.
  2. On the phone, create a connection as the server (sending location); on the box, create one as the client.
  3. On the box, open Developer options → Select mock location app and choose ShareGPS.
  4. Connect over Wi-Fi, or over Bluetooth after pairing the phone and the box in both directions.
  5. Open your navigation app on the box and check that the position follows the phone.

An owner with a TBox Ultra 1 had it running over both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. A TBox Ambient owner got it working once the phone and box were paired both ways. An owner with an ApplePie UX999 Rocket drove with it for a while but found positions arriving up to two seconds late, which is noticeable at junctions. GPS test apps on the box keep showing the box’s own satellites; that is cosmetic, the navigation uses the phone’s position.

Set the OEM GPS switch to match your car and protocol

  • Advanced
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 3 reports
  • Recommended in the community FAQ

Warranty warning: this uses developer or engineering access. Follow the undo steps afterwards; some sellers refuse warranty claims on units with debugging left enabled.

  1. Find the OEM GPS switch (on some builds “use car GPS”) in the box’s settings. On older builds it sits in the engineering menu: Settings → Other → Factory settings → 4545 → Other. Change only this switch there.
  2. If your car has no built-in navigation, or you run the box in Android Auto mode, turn it off.
  3. If your car has built-in navigation and you use CarPlay mode, try it on and compare.
  4. Test in a GPS test or speed-camera app, which shows the fix more directly than a navigation app.

A TBox Plus lost GPS after a factory reset; the switch turned out to be on, and turning it off restored satellites. An Ultra owner whose car has no navigation turned it on and lost satellites entirely until switching it back. The opposite also happened: a TBox Plus EAU in a car that shares GPS lost its signal with the switch off, and turning it on fixed it.

The community FAQ says the car’s GPS is not used in Android Auto mode. Owners on the latest TBox Ultra 2 builds (late August 2026 onward) report mixed results: one says the car’s GPS now works well in Android Auto, another on a Hongqi H6 found it still does not. If you are choosing a protocol partly for GPS, see switch between CarPlay and Android Auto.

TBox Ultra: install the newest official build

  • Advanced
  • Time: 20–30 minutes
  • Worked for 2 of 3 reports

Warranty warning: this uses developer or engineering access. Follow the undo steps afterwards; some sellers refuse warranty claims on units with debugging left enabled.

  1. Note the current build date in Settings → About.
  2. Get the newest official build for your exact Ultra model from Carlinkit’s support channel.
  3. Install it with FOTA Update → Local update; the full procedure is in update TBox firmware with FOTA.
  4. Repeat the location settings from the first fix, which a reset may undo.

A TBox Ultra 3 owner who had considered returning the box found GPS on the 5 Jul 2026 build as good as on the older 6225 boxes. A TBox Ultra 2 owner called the built-in GPS adequate on the 28 Aug 2026 build after a long struggle. Another Ultra 3 owner on the same July build still found GPS poor in a city with interference, so the build alone does not overcome jamming.

Clear and update the AGPS data

  • Safe
  • Time: 10 minutes
  • Worked for 1 of 1 report
  1. Make sure the box has internet.
  2. Open the GPS test app → menu (three dots) → AGPS → Clear, then Update.
  3. If the box was updated over an older build without a reset, reinstall the same build with a factory reset first, then do step 2.
  4. Wait outdoors until the app shows a 3D fix.

An Ultra 1 owner on the 26 Dec 2025 build, whose box saw satellites but never got a fix, did both: a clean reinstall with a factory reset, then an AGPS clear and update. The jerks stopped and the shown accuracy matched the map.

Things to try (unverified)

  • Do not force location mode over ADB. One owner suggested adb shell settings put secure location_mode 3 (high accuracy). Another owner’s GPS stopped fixing entirely after it, and setting it back did not help; they expected to need a factory reset. The settings route in the first fix does the same job safely.
  • Reseating the GPS antenna connector inside the case. Three owners whose boxes never had a usable fix from new (a Geely-branded TBox clone and two TBox Ambient units) opened the case, reseated the small antenna connector and got satellites back. It is not listed as a fix here: the Ambient’s case is glued, opening it voids the warranty, and handling the board risks static damage. A new box with no fix outdoors should go back to the seller as faulty.
  • Move the box. One owner reports tolerable reception only with the box on top of the dashboard, not deep in a console. Not measured.
  • GPS drops when mobile data falls to 3G. One Ambient owner loses GPS whenever the signal drops to 2G or 3G, and gets it back by switching mobile data off for a few seconds. If that matches, setting LTE only, as in exclamation mark on the Wi-Fi or signal icon, may help.
  • Lost GPS after removing the exclamation mark. One owner reported this; it has not been reproduced. Undo the change if it happens to you.

If nothing works

Record a screenshot of the GPS test app outdoors with a clear sky: satellites in view, satellites used, and the accuracy figure. Add the box model and firmware date from Settings → About, the protocol (CarPlay or Android Auto), the OEM GPS setting, where the box sits in the car, and whether a phone in the same spot gets a fix.

Send that to the manufacturer’s support (Carlinkit: [email protected]). If a new box has never had a fix outdoors, with the OEM switch off and the location settings above, it is a hardware fault and a warranty replacement is the honest answer. If GPS quality is the reason you are changing boxes, start here compares the models.

Related fixes

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Changelog

  • Last reviewed against new community reports:
  • Confirmed by 15 community reports on Carlinkit TBox Plus, Carlinkit TBox Ultra 2, Carlinkit TBox Ultra, Carlinkit TBox Ambient, ApplePie UX999 Rocket, Carlinkit TBox Ultra 3.
  • Page updated:

"Confirmed" means a community member reported that the fix worked on their unit. We have not tested it on our own hardware. How we verify.