Well, I took my phone to Europe with me for our extended vacation over here. Using modified stock on v21y baseband and the GPS locks have been terrible. In fact, I Bly use google maps and four square when I am on wifi. Any hints? I am using gps status but it doesn't seem to help. Occasionally a reboot helps. This phone is broken...it was. Broken and will remain broken. I wil never buy LG again.
What ROM and kernel are you using. Because I'm on cm7 rc3 and the GPS lock is almost instantaneous. I'm in US though.
March 2012 baseband also.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
I had the same issue in Europe. This isn't a fix, but it helped:
You'll need a root enabled file explorer. I like ES File Explorer because it's free and easy to use. Access the root directory, go to system->etc->gps.conf
modify the line reading SUPL_HOST=lbs.geo.t-mobile.com to read SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
and SUPL_PORT=7275 to SUPL_PORT=7276
you can also try getting a lock with GPS Test first. That seemed to help things as well. I don't always get a lock now, but sometimes I do, that's certainly better than never.
You didn't say whether whether you have data access away from wifi and, if so, whether you're using data roaming or a local SIM. If you don't have data access, locks will take several minutes because you won't have access to AGPS, so the GPS is essentially doing a cold start each time and has to get the ephemeris data from the satellites, which takes a long time. Assuming you do have data access, changing the SUPL server, as mentioned (or by using the hidden menu), from T-Mobile to Google may very well help.
Thanks
I am, in fact, not paying for europeandataand need to be patient. I will try the server change and see if it helps. I guess this was a matter of not understanding how GPS works.
Time delay and phase difference measurements from 4 satellites (3 in some circumstances).
Everything from atmospheric propagation rates to space/time variances due to gravity differences are taken into account.
I don't think that GPS is given enough credit for how amazing it really is.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
BionicSniper said:
Time delay and phase difference measurements from 4 satellites (3 in some circumstances).
Everything from atmospheric propagation rates to space/time variances due to gravity differences are taken into account.
I don't think that GPS is given enough credit for how amazing it really is.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right!
[email protected]
I live in California and had a terrible time with the GPS in Rhode Island last year... and I did have data. I found the GPS to either work very well, or not at all when I need it to. With the latest baseband, it seems to work 2/3 times, with one time requiring a reboot or disabling and re-enabling GPS before I can get a lock. I've never been able to use my g2x to get me somewhere without having to worry about it leaving me stranded. :-(
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
The big issue is that in most android phones, a lot of the decision making for how the GPS system works is left up to the operating system.
This means you have drivers and compatibility issues to deal with.
What I would prefer to see is a dedicated GPS system in the phone the simply passes nema data to a serial port with some medium level access to functions available to the os.
This would would use more power and take up more space.... but my motto is function over form. If it doesn't work correctly then who cares if it looks good.
Would you really care if your phone was half again as think if the battery life was 2x, you almost always had a perfect signal, and GPS/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/encryption worked 100% of the time.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
I use the GPS of the phone nearly every day to track my workouts, and have been doing so for over a year now.
Although not perfect, the new Baseband *does* appear to help things quite a bit.
On the OLD Baseband, I noticed a few bad things would happen:
1) Locks would take a LONG time, over 5 minutes usually.
2) If if didn't lock in 5 minutes, it would rarely ever lock unless you reboot.
3) During runtime, if I lost mobile connectivity, and then came back into range, 80%+ of the time, it would knock my GPS off, and relocking was nearly impossible without rebooting.
On the NEW Baseband with the newest CM7:
1) Locks generally happen much much faster, usually within 15-30 seconds.
2) On the rare occasional case where it doesn't lock, a reboot *always* fixes it, and generates a lock instantly after the reboot.
3) I never lose GPS during runtime, regardless of my mobile connectivity coming in and out.
Personally, I am reasonably happy with the new Baseband with CM7 for GPS, and although not perfect, I think it is the best we can hope for, considering that the phone is now EOL.
True
Some of the points about the complexity of GPS are spot on to me. I have to admit, it works like magic when it works. I will live with waiting, or finding wifi to make things work or just skipping GPS.
Just drove from Utah to Virginia and back my brothers mytouch4g killed my gps g2x kept trying to send me in circles around Denver. Couldn't get a lock off the freeway
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
i have no issues with my gps on my g2x. that is with the march 2012 y21 baseband. make sure that you got into preferences and select use internal GPS. thats the kicker. gps now works wonderfully
the g2x gps has been rather disappointing. For me, it always work whenever it feels like working and it's just unreliable.
Things got much, much better for me with the v21y update. My TTFF (time to first fix) was almost invariably 2.5-3 minutes before; since I updated it's nearly always < 15 seconds. Very rarely it will again take 150+ seconds, but that's really the exception now.
if you rooted your phone i recommend fasterGPS, you can change your GPS setting to your location. It increases lock on speed greatly. Before it took almost a minute for GPS to lock on, now it locks on before google maps finishes loading
I continue to see a lot of myths concerning how GPS works.
I wrote the following post which has never failed across the US and throughout the world. I've been to Europe (UK, Netherlands) and Africa (Mozambique, South Africa) and been able to use my GPS successfully.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1374577
For international travelers, steps 2 and 3 are the most important. Step 2 gives you access to more satellites and step 3 gives you AGPS data, which is explained in the post.
Related
I just updated my google maps and all of the sudden my GPS works! Just went on a 25 mile ride and tutn by turn worked flawlessly with no hiccups and it locks in a mtter of seconds.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Confirmed
I was skeptical of your claim, we've heard this before, but dang, something IS different! I've put countless hours into the GPS issue, tried everything, and I'll be darned, the phone does something now that it never has before. Sitting in my same desk position as always, after a fresh reboot, Google maps locks incredibly quick, inside the house, where it never would before, never. Time to lock is probably somewhere in the 15 seconds with 4 out of 8 sats found. Inside! Something most certainly changed with this version of Google maps. I'm running stock ROM (JH7) and only GPS change was to use supl.google.com
I want to try this but I'm worried if by some chance out messes up ill be worse off. If I back it up using titanium she it doesn't work as well, titanium will restore it just as b4 right?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Well I was just exploring through the Market and noticed I had an update for google maps. So I updated it. As I type this, my phone is locking in a matter of 10-15 seconds inside my house. I posted a few times talking really bad about this phone a few times and was very disgusted . I dont know, it must have been software all along. And now after 4 months I am satisfied!
designgears said:
Thats funny, I just picked up copilot and gps is fine with it... maybe there is something something funky with how the gps works that google maps wasn't designed to handle...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope this is true.
I've noticed that with each google maps update, my GPS gets better, but then goes back to crap. Don't get too excited.
Edit: BTW... with wifi and GPS off, the phone has me in Germany. I'd hope that I'm using a cell tower closer than that.
UPDATED,still not working,such a cool phone,i love the movies and music,i love this phone,,just hoping the koreans wont forget the captivated,prisoners? damnit.we should BE getting ginger,they want to feed souryougurt,****YOU
My GPS worked well before. I saw this post and decided to try it, since I updated GMaps recently. And there IS a difference. It locked even faster and seemed to track movement better. I'm pleased.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I read this just a little while ago and updated mine. It certainly locks much faster with stock settings for gps. I locked on here at work under 30 seconds next to a 21 story building...something it would never do before.I'll try it out and see how it tracks tomorrow while driving around.
Mac
Come back here in 3-5 days and tell us it still works. Every single fix to date stops working after a period of time. I strongly suspect it's an issue of the cached GPS Sat positions going out of date. Every time I clear the data in libtstmode, I get a better working GPS.
Read the OP and searched for an update. Low and behold, there it was. I had GPS lock within 15 seconds at 35mph driving through town. We'll see if it keeps up; I was among the worst in terms of GPS performance.
With WiFi and aGPS on, GMaps always used to put me about 5 miles away when I was in my house, now it puts me close to my actual position (less that 100 ft away, but within the circle of ambiguity), so the new version is definitely better.
Not that this has anything to do with the slow lock for the actual GPS . . .
settings
what are you using for Supl/CP Settings
and Applcation settings?
I'm using all the default settings except I have Skyhook on.
This is definitely better. GMaps puts me almost spot on inside my house. However, whatever they are doing may be smoke and mirrors because I still have the same GPS issues with applications like MyTracks and GPS Status (major inaccuracy and drifting).
When you all are getting locks indoors, do you have 'Use wireless networks' turned on or off in the Location and Security settings?
I have AGPS off.
GPS still sucks for me with new maps update. No lock at all after waiting like 10 min
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897
hopefully this is hte answer we are looking for!
SiL3nTKiLL said:
hopefully this is hte answer we are looking for!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not. You've only changed the front end interface.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Iv had this phone since the day it came out... this phone is awesome in every aspect expect GPS... I had the blackberry bold 9000 and that had an excellent GPS never gave me any issues I'm really thinking of trading my captivate for a torch 9800 ... what I want to know it that is there any hope for this GPS? And when should. We expect it
In a word No. This really seems like a hardware issue. otherwise this would have been taken care of in the subsequent updates. Cappy is a great device but the gps is very hit or miss. Line of sight is very important if that is lost gps loses fix. It seems like a hardware issue no matter what software fix or setting you can use.
No
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Am I the only one that believes it will with froyo? I'm not giving up!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
If you guys really want your gps to work there are a couple ways I have found to improve it greatly. This is as close to a fix as i can find out there, and I am somewhat happy with my gps now. I say somewhat because it really should have been totally fixed by now. I am running a i9000 rom with my lbstestmode setting stock except accuracy set to 250 which IMO only makes it lock faster and doesn't affect accuracy. I can usually get a lock accurate to 10-15 m in about 5 sec outside. Navigation tracks well I usually only have one or two hiccups on a 30 mile trip. I have been running this set up for about a month and a half so I am pretty sure it will stick. And btw my gps never got a lock stock no matter what I did if I wasn't using wireless networks. Hope this helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I don't think its a hardware issue. I am in Canada and the GPs has been working pretty much flawlessly on the Rogers Captivate. You can see other threads and everyone who has had a Rogers Captivate and flashed other ROMS (ie. AT&T) has noted that their GPS turned to crap.
I have had this phone for a month and the GPS has been stable and I get an accurate reading down to (5-10m) in 10 seconds or so.
I believe that it is a driver issue and how it tries to communicate with the software on our phones. Sure each ROM means different software settings, which I think helps tweak the software to work a bit better with the driver, but until they fix the communication between the broadcom chip and Samsung's (or AT&T) software, it won't work like it is supposed to. Samsung so far has only tried to fix it in their software, not the driver.
This explanation also helps explain why some GPS's are better than others. No two phones have the exact same files and settings, even from stock, which can explain variance of GPS.
However, hasn't anyone else noticed that the more we move away from Samsung/AT&T software on our phones and unlock it, the better the GPS seems to get, little by little? I believe there will be no solution from Samsung, but it will just appear in the Dev section here one day, when one person stumbles upon the real communication culprit when messing around on their system.
On perception build three rom. Did juniper fix. I get a lock in under 10 seconds even with heavy cloud cover. Tracks very well too. It can be fixed. But you have to bee willing to mess around a bit.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I'm with the OP. I love every single aspect of my phone except the GPS. I LOVE google maps and location based services on the phone. But having them all be crippled is a daily annoyance for me. One person mentioned that the Rogers Captivate works well. Has anyone tried loading a Rogers rom on an AT&T phone?
We all know that GPS issues have affected every initial launch variant of the Galaxy S phones. Is there any version of the phone out there that has gotten an update that fixed the GPS issue for EVERYONE, including TRACKING? If there is, we should be looking into that rom for a fix. If there isn't, I'd say we should be very concerend that a fix will never come.
The GPS will never ever work.
Really too bad for those out there that have GPS not working as expected...I wouldn't be happy either, but since I chgd the supl server to google I've had no problems obtaining a lock-accurate as well..
gmanunited said:
In a word No. This really seems like a hardware issue. otherwise this would have been taken care of in the subsequent updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol
You're making the giant false assumption that Samsung cares about updating.
mcord11758 said:
juniper
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It's JUPITER, as in, the planet. I tend not to nitpick spelling or grammar but in this case it's really annoying as the first time I heard about this fix I wasted some time searching in vain for JUNIPER (which is a genus of plant), which produces no helpful hits.
I was a non-believer.... The best I ever got was on Stock JH7...
But My GPS is perfect and locks in under 3 seconds on google navigation and tracks perfectly with the Axura Rom.
Last one i tried beta4 worked perfectly. Gonna flash beta5 in the morning and test that out with a long drive tomorrow.
With Axura I have officially left eclair 2.1 in the dust and won't go back due to the over sophistication of Axura. I give it a week or two before it is clearly the most used rom on the Galaxy S line.
I will take a video of my gps and google nav with my wifes blackberry 9700 running os6.
I know my post is unbelievable.. just wait for the video footage.
Krad said:
I will take a video of my gps and google nav with my wifes blackberry 9700 running os6.
I know my post is unbelievable.. just wait for the video footage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything that incorporates the Jupiter v006 files seems to have significantly improved GPS, including Axura (I'm not 100% sure it uses the Jupiter v006 files but it sure seems like it) and Perception.
I haven't really read of anyone having significant GPS problems once they have any ROM with the Jupiter v006 tweaks or applied it manually themselves, but we'll see as time goes on.
A couple days ago I was in Perception snooping around, and found a GPS settings file in the system that had different settings than in the Jupiter006 file. The Jupiter file was in there, but this file was named something different and a different location, and it used a different supl. I was looking for something else at the time, so I mentally noted it to go back and check it out for testing, but I can't find it now, I looked for it for an hour today. :/
Hmmm..... The GPS locking on is not the problem i get locks with in seconds , what is the problem is accuracy, the gps works NEARLY flawless in locking and accuracy when on a highway or interstate but when driving in the city were streets are close to each other my location jumps around like crazy, im using AXURA beta 5 and ive tried supl.google.com with no luck thanks for all your help everyone, ill look up the Jupiter fix and see if it helps ....I'm not to good with any tweaking other then flashing and lag fix's so if someone can lead me to a tutorial on the Jupiter fix that would really help
JPS81 said:
Anything that incorporates the Jupiter v006 files seems to have significantly improved GPS, including Axura (I'm not 100% sure it uses the Jupiter v006 files but it sure seems like it) and Perception.
I haven't really read of anyone having significant GPS problems once they have any ROM with the Jupiter v006 tweaks or applied it manually themselves, but we'll see as time goes on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with perception 4 i had my worst gps problems. I have had good lock times with just about ever rom including stock but with perception 4 i had difficulty acquiring locks period.
Tracking is a bigger issue. I don't believe the gps will ever track perfectly or even close to the performance that it should. Someone claimed their device tracks perfectly with auxura which i haven't tried but will....but again i am skeptical and would be curious exactly how much real-time driving navigation they have tested.
Anytime someone brings up the notion of this being at least partially a hardware issue people say that it just speculation. Asserting that it isn't is no less speculation.
With some of the beastly devices coming (as soon as january...im looking at your terminator aka olympus) not address the serious gps flaw is not good business. So i believe if it could be fixed with firmware it would have been and you wouldn't hear them use words like OPTIMIZE instead of fix/repair. Am i the only one the thinks it seems they realized they can't fix it and are just trying to hold on and sell as many as they can (several places had them free with 2year contract yesterday and this weekend) before the next serious contender hits.
I really don't care for IOS but mapquest + wife's iphone 4 is a good example of how the gps on a phone can and should function in regard to locks and excellent tracking.
Krad said:
I will take a video of my gps and google nav with my wifes blackberry 9700 running os6.
I know my post is unbelievable.. just wait for the video footage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would love to see this. please make sure to use a route with plenty of turns..and some portion of city navigation. I am skeptical that it will track you through every turn as a gps should. Straight line tracking isn't using a problem except for the occasional lag. The tracking problem is it has a serious issue being able to track you accurately enough to know when you had turned 50% or more of the time.
UPDATE
just flashed axura 5 so will give it a brief nav test shortly.
The aesthetics of the settings menu is very nice in this build. I wish they would give up on 3d app drawer though UGLY and SLOW.
Haven't had much time to play with it yet but will report back.
limited testing but might have to eat crow.
FRESH FLASH of AXURA 5
only a 10 mile drive but did incorporated 12-15 turns.
Lock time and accuracy when stationary was great.
Best tracking and turn by turn navigation i have had yet.
Only missed one turn and it corrected itself to actual location much quicker (before when i would turn nav would continue through the intersection and start giving verbal reroutes thinking i was on a different street and then when it would finally think it had correctly re-rerouted it would actually be running parellel to me 1 or 2 blocks off).
Taking this with a grain of salt further testing necessary as i have had promising results with fresh flashed roms before only to have them quickly go to crap within a few days testing. But this is one of the more promising so i will be staying with Axura for now.
The only gps issue that really stood out was a little bit of a lag after you had been completely stationary. Slight Lag pinpointing me on road after i pulled out of driveway and same thing when leaving grocery store parking lot.
PS - are you using the stock gps settings that came with the flash or did you modify anything.
Howdy all?
I don't know WHAT I was thinking but on impulse bought the LG Revolution last night. It's a decent and I do want to emphasize just decent, however it has an AMAZING GPS capability.
Well I am going to right my wrong and get the Charge, hence how is the GPS on it in comparison? I need a device that locks fast and can get below 20 meters (long story with crap phone at AT&T)!
Any guidance/perspective would be appreciated.
Angieutc
gps is great. Locks quickly. Much better than the fasciante was. I wouldnt regret buying the revo...its a great phone too.
Doesn't the Revo have Bing by default for search engine? I thought about getting the Revo but I hate Bing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
sir2545 said:
Doesn't the Revo have Bing by default for search engine? I thought about getting the Revo but I hate Bing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly why I am taking it back. I did not know how deeply intergrated bing was into the phone. I thought it was just to higlight the search engine.
Plus there is not excitement about the phone. Verizon reps weren't excited to talk about it and there is not support on XDA.
On thing -- GPS and call quality were some of the best i have had on a phone.
I made a mistake and thankful I can fix it within my 14 day period.
sir2545 said:
Doesn't the Revo have Bing by default for search engine? I thought about getting the Revo but I hate Bing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easily removed.
suzook said:
Easily removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. However, I would feel better with a Samsung or HTC model. Something is nagging in my mind that I would regret the LG purchase down the line. Just a feeling.
angieutc said:
On thing -- GPS and call quality were some of the best i have had on a phone.
I made a mistake and thankful I can fix it within my 14 day period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you will maybe regret making the change. There WILL be roms, with debloat. And make the phone what it should be.
GPS on the Charge is okay. Doesn't lock nearly as fast as other Moto devices that I have had.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
Gps rocks under 5 meter accuracy and fast lock times. Way better than the captivate I used to own
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
im very unimpressed by ALL of its wireless network capabilities, the gps can take minutes to lock on its fairly accurate but sometimes i'll go threw 2 songs and pass 4 exits before it locks and i find out im going the wrong way. on top of that i had the HTC TB and it had great 4G signal all around my area but my charge is maybe 1/2 to 3/4 as strong in the same places, also the bluetooth will NOT stay connected to anything which is a HUGE problem at least for me because i have a tablet and the entire reason i bought the charge was for th 4g hotspot to share with my transformer but as of right now that is nothing more than a pipe dream. I'm hoping that some of these issues will be ironed out because i can't take this phone back now and i have to wait for something newer to come out.
sadly i'm slightly disappointed in this phone so far but i do understand that in time problems will be addressed.
as far as another phone to get its hard to suggest ANY of verizons 4G phones as they all kinda suck....
So far, the GPS on my Charge has been awful. I love the phone to death, but every time I try to use the GPS, it just laaaags. Doesn't matter what program I'm using to access the GPS.
Thankfully, there are very few reasons I need GPS and most of those reasons, I really don't need GPS, I just need a location, which I can get with cell tower triangulation or whatever.
...Ok, I just opened my phone, flipped on GPS, opened Google maps and it is working perfectly. Eh... so I guess I'll amend "awful" to "spotty with a chance of awesome."
The GPS in my Charge works. It is not nearly as fast as my Droid X was, and it struggles to get a lock indoors, but I only rely on it for 1 app and can make do.
My DX would have a lock within 2 seconds max, and the Charge will take up to 10 seconds for an initial lock. That being said, I have not experienced any latency/accuracy issues once locked on to 5+ satellites.
--------------------
Sent via the combination of 4G airwaves and a Samsung device, using the full featured version of Tapatalk, better known as Forum Runner.
GPS has been terrible for me. I have had to use additional testing apps to get it to lock at all on occasion and it has been slow in those instance. Prior to EE4 it was excellent, but since it has been horrible.
My GPS completely blows, just like the Fascinate.
For those with the GPS issues, download GPS Test by Chartcross and fire that up one time. It should get a signal within 15 seconds. After opening that one time, my other GPS apps lock a signal very quickly.
It sounds strange but that solved my GPS issues...
robstamack said:
For those with the GPS issues, download GPS Test by Chartcross and fire that up one time. It should get a signal within 15 seconds. After opening that one time, my other GPS apps lock a signal very quickly.
It sounds strange but that solved my GPS issues...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have taken to using that app as well. For me it means the difference between not being able to lock and being able to lock in a minute or three. Now, I have taken to modifying my gps.conf .. so we'll see how that goes.
My wife's takes literally over five minutes to lock the first use each day or so, but sped up with a the testing app. It seems like Samsung has issues with pull GPS data off the net/cell towers to speed the initial connection. Just a theory.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
My GPS has also been very awful since ive gotten my charge last week. It takes forever to lock and mostly it doesn't even lock accurately on my location kinda disappointing coming from a BB that locks on almost instantly on my exact location.
I remember it working real well but then yesterday I went to use Navigation and got nothing. Since then I've tried to clear the DV cache, clear the GPS data, reinstall Maps. Nothing has worked. Through the testing apps, I can see it is getting some gps signal but they are mostly weak and it never locks on to anything. I am thinking about wiping my phone to see if maybe that will do the trick. Might be a good time to start getting into Roms.
I've only used mine twice, but it seems to consistently position me about .25 to .5mi away to the south from my actual location. (Both times I was using it indoors.)
I've searched the threads for are Verizon variant of the SGSIII. If this has been discussed , mod please remove.
I'm not a noob by any means. My GPS is driving me up a freaking wall. I've tried from on a pure stock ROM, yes out the box and both rooted .img's. Plus all available ROM'S .
Here is where my adventure begins. It takes forever if at all , to get a lock. If I do get a lock it will stick but that is about 1 out of ten times. I've tried to modify the GPS.conf , with known general tweaks and NTP servers to pull from with no luck, also a few general build.prop tweaks. Then I turned to the market and we all no how that goes , thousands of apps claiming to give you the world with a click of a button. Nada , nothing. I've done full restores, formatted system, efs etc ect, a clean start. Still no luck. Now I thought at one point that maby my GPS is fubared, I highly doubt this. I can see all satellites in my region and it connects to about one or two at the most. When I just look at my maps on my location it is close , it will show me about 100 ft away from the road I'm on or the next road over, or show me on the road but riding along side it. If I'm in navigation it just says follow route , searching for GPS. So I no its close.
This is frustrating cause I'm a self employed contractor and I depend on my phone for everything. So if anyone can confirm some of the problems I've been having or any links or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
(EDIT) After some reaserch and tinkering with the gps.conf I have made my GPS 50% better. See page 2.
DirtyDroidX
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
I've had the same problem. My GPS takes forever to lock on (if I try to start it up while navigating, it usually doesn't lock at all). And when it does lock on, the accuracy is terrible.
I haven't tried any of the tweaks, apps, or different ROMs or anything, but I shouldn't be really have to. GPS worked great on my now 2.5 year old HTC Incredible, and works fine on the Rezound I play with a lot. This was one of the things I was worried about when I bought this phone... HTC phones are known for having the best radios around... and Samsung radios are known to be ****. Well, this has only reinforced that for me.
For a comparison to the Rezound, see the attached screenshots taken at pretty much the same time, in pretty much the same spot. In fairness, I was moving (although coming to a stop) when the SGSIII one was taken, but the results that came out were actually one of the better ones. Around the time I took the screenshots, I was getting measurements similar to this as well as much worse than this, while both moving and stopped. Hell, you can even see that the 3G signal is weaker on the SGSIII.
I've seen these same issues discussed in a number of forums on here, and I recognize that not everyone has this problem. Most people's GPS locks on instantly and the accuracy is great. But there are still a lot of people who do have this problem, so it's definitely not just a couple isolated cases. I realize that I can take it in for a warranty replacement, but then I get a refurbished phone back, and those usually come with even more problems... which is the thing that pisses me off about the Verizon warranty program... I buy a brand new phone... it doesn't work... I get a refurbished phone in it's place. Samsung needs to just stop making shoddy hardware and it won't be a problem.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still take this phone over the Rezound any day. It's sexier, has a way better processor, camera, and battery life, and has a bigger screen. I just miss Sense and having radios that actually work well
For whatever reason, the old GPS issue thread disappeared. Initially I had no problems on stock, but when I flashed Invisiblek's JB 8-10 build, I wasn't able to lock on.
What I did was download FasterFix from the PlayStore. With GPS off, I launched it, set the region to my region, closed, and then turned on GPS, waited a minute and launched navigation again. See if that works for you. I think FasterFix calibrates your region or something if it's trying to find you somewhere in the world and is taking a while.
xmrlazyx said:
For whatever reason, the old GPS issue thread disappeared. Initially I had no problems on stock, but when I flashed Invisiblek's JB 8-10 build, I wasn't able to lock on.
What I did was download FasterFix from the PlayStore. With GPS off, I launched it, set the region to my region, closed, and then turned on GPS, waited a minute and launched navigation again. See if that works for you. I think FasterFix calibrates your region or something if it's trying to find you somewhere in the world and is taking a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FasterFix seems like it might fix the lock-on time but not the accuracy, which is the (much) bigger problem.
I hope I don't. S2 had a POS GPS at first that took forever to fix.
Yea I can get a lock faster with a few play store apps. The thing is like said before, the accuracy is ****ty. Plus the navigation won't function cause of this. I hope someone with in depth knowledge can see what the problem is. I have not given up hope yet lol. I have a few things I want to test out and then I might throw my hands in the air. I need to get ahold of nitroglycerin33 on talk and ask him a few questions.
Jmo. I flashed the radio before Verizon got there ignorant hands on it. I forget what the version name is . I live on a fringe area and I was dropping calls left and right ,bad 4G conection. Now I would say its 60% better.
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
You should exchange the phone if you can. Mine was terrible before and now its perfect on the new phone.
ChrisNee1988 said:
You should exchange the phone if you can..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, GPS not working in these phones seems to be a hardware problem.
My G3 GPS works perfectly (better than my old Rezound in side by side comparisons, it locks almost instantly even inside where I work), but my boss had one that didn't work for ****.
VZ replaced his & now it works great.
My wife's S3 does something entirely different. GPS locks on fine and fast, but it says she's in Clintwood VA, about 500 miles off. First noticed it in the weather widget, but if she opens maps it starts in Clintwood, but locks on correctly in just a few seconds. Weather can be changed manually, but goes back to Clintwood after a while.
Never been to Clintwood, may need to see if there's anything worth seeing there.
johnnyvol said:
My wife's S3 does something entirely different. GPS locks on fine and fast, but it says she's in Clintwood VA, about 500 miles off. First noticed it in the weather widget, but if she opens maps it starts in Clintwood, but locks on correctly in just a few seconds. Weather can be changed manually, but goes back to Clintwood after a while.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is just a bug in the [email protected] stock weather app, mine does the same thing. It always puts me in NYC which is a 6 1/2 hour drive away.
I use weather & toggle widgets flip clock/weather instead in Nova Launcher & that weather app always locates me perfectly no matter where I am.
Just got it and this is one of the best GPS's I have seen yet. Better than my S2 and my Razr.
My last GS3 had a similar issue too on top of the lock taking forever and it being a bit off. At one point it thought I was in Florida but I really live near DC. My friend noticed it when I was chatting with the FB app and it included Geotags and was wondering what I was doing in Florida.
johnnyvol said:
My wife's S3 does something entirely different. GPS locks on fine and fast, but it says she's in Clintwood VA, about 500 miles off. First noticed it in the weather widget, but if she opens maps it starts in Clintwood, but locks on correctly in just a few seconds. Weather can be changed manually, but goes back to Clintwood after a while.
Never been to Clintwood, may need to see if there's anything worth seeing there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm leaning toward a hardware issue myself cause I'm adjusting the NTP servers as we speak. I've used about 6 different ones . No change. I'm going to try some prop tweaks now.
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
dirtydroidx said:
I'm leaning toward a hardware issue myself cause I'm adjusting the NTP servers as we speak. I've used about 6 different ones . No change. I'm going to try some prop tweaks now.
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
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Click to collapse
I could be misinterpreting what you are trying to do, but why would the NTP servers have anything to do with your GPS problem? NTP simply delivers UTC time....
GPS works prefer for me. Takes about ten seconds at most to lock
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Beemer533 said:
I could be misinterpreting what you are trying to do, but why would the NTP servers have anything to do with your GPS problem? NTP simply delivers UTC time....
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure what the problem is that's why I'm trying to distinguish between hardware or software. Just exploring all options. Can't hurt.
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
OK might be on to something
If anyone wants to try it out I will post it here in a little bit. From tweaking the GPS.conf file I got this>>>
When I started the day I got not one lock on a satt !
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
dirtydroidx said:
I'm not sure what the problem is that's why I'm trying to distinguish between hardware or software. Just exploring all options. Can't hurt.
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it certainly can't! I was just wondering, as NTP just delivers time, and has no positional information...
Agreed the lock does take forever UNLESS you turn on Google Location Services (which I usually have off), and it is accurate as all hell even indoors. I wonder if turning that on with Standalone GPS will solve your issues.
Edit: GPS lock was great with Maps indoors, but switching to Navigation it never locked onto GPS even though it had my location perfectly!
OK if you want to prove my concept feel free to . Let me no if it works for you. Go out side or be in a car while locking on!
1) Download new gps.conf file>>>
http://db.tt/5xvFneRt
2) Replace it in /ect . Rename the original one from .conf to .bak. using a file explorer with R/W enabled , so yes you have to be rooted!
3) Download GPS toolbox https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2
4) Reboot.
5) Enable standalone GPS and Google services NOT Verizon services.
6) Open GPS status select options/tools/reset . Then options/ tools/download
7) Reboot
8) Open GPS status and wait for lock . Mine took 5 min a friends took 3. Then open up navigation .
9) Profit
Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913
I notice that some people have reported their S3's to receive poor GPS signal or that their phones can not lock onto a location at all, even to the point of having to return their phones. This paranoia had also struck me, and I noticed that I began to have problems too. However, I realized that at some point (for me personally) it had nothing to do with the phone. I just wanted to provide some tips as to how to improve GPS or use it more properly.
1. You need a line of sight to the satellites from your phone. That means that being in the middle of midtown Manhattan, you're likely to not get a signal. That also means that if you're in the middle of your living room, don't also expect to magically receive a GPS lock. It just doesn't work that way.
2. While it's controversial whether or not bad weather affects GPS signals, I notice that heavy clouds and poor weather affects my phone's ability to lock on at all.
3. If you're in an area where you can't get a lock (i.e. Midtown Manhattan, etc), turn on Google Location Services. This will always put you within a 500-1000 meter radius of where you are (in which case you would just read a map the old fashioned way).
4. I almost never have a problem locking on a location within 5 seconds while driving on a clear day, outside of the city. If your GPS and Google Navigation still does not work in this situation, you probably really have an issue.
5. During my paranoia, I cleared cache/data for Google Framework Services (warning: this will remove your sync account) and uninstalled updates to Maps and reinstalled. That may help if you've been flashing back and forth between roms.
Hope these simple tips might help some people out.
I don't know if it's because I leave GPS and Location services on all the time but I've never had an issue with GPS lock with this phone whether I'm in the burbs or in a city.
Yesterday I was in open line of site in Fitchburg MA, I had the GPS on for 20 minutes as I was scrambling for and event. It just would not lock at all. When I do get a lock. Yesterday same day driving 2 hours to Cape Cod (105 miles of open space) it would lock work good for a couple minutes then lag for a few seconds to minutes and not move then just jump and update. (Says GPS signal lost.) Sometimes it would then put me on side streets and struggle for find that I was still on 495 South. It did this when whole way. I knew where I was going so it wasn't a problem but there is something up and I am interested in finding out what. BTW this started after the first OTA update from Verizon.
If you have problems with gps get a replacement phone.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
A lot of people don't know is to turn on wifi first. You will get a lock on in seconds.
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loonie01 said:
A lot of people don't know is to turn on wifi first. You will get a lock on in seconds.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tough to sign onto wifi on the highway
Even when I was in line of sight and with wifi on. My s3 wouldn't get a gps signal or lock on. My wife's Rezound did. So, I called Verizon and they sent me a replacement and now everything is fine. It was the hardware in my first one that was the problem.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Boss428man said:
Yesterday I was in open line of site in Fitchburg MA, I had the GPS on for 20 minutes as I was scrambling for and event. It just would not lock at all. When I do get a lock. Yesterday same day driving 2 hours to Cape Cod (105 miles of open space) it would lock work good for a couple minutes then lag for a few seconds to minutes and not move then just jump and update. (Says GPS signal lost.) Sometimes it would then put me on side streets and struggle for find that I was still on 495 South. It did this when whole way. I knew where I was going so it wasn't a problem but there is something up and I am interested in finding out what. BTW this started after the first OTA update from Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exact same issue with me. I haven't tried it bout lately because it pissed me off. I started using GPS status and toolbox and beginning to calibrate and update things. Hopefully its better now. Unfortunately, I cant get a replacement because I bought the phone off contract on eBay (just like I always do).
Boss428man said:
Tough to sign onto wifi on the highway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to. For some reason enabling WiFi alone will improve the GPS's ability to get a lock. Though this isn't always the case, its one of the first things I do when I have trouble getting a lock.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Yeah I don't understand it also but when I flash a new ROM, I would go to google maps. At that time I would not get a GPS lock until I turn on Wifi. GPS status app also helps with a good GPS lock.
Div033 said:
You don't have to. For some reason enabling WiFi alone will improve the GPS's ability to get a lock. Though this isn't always the case, its one of the first things I do when I have trouble getting a lock.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's getting a rough location estimate from access points when your turn WiFi on. WiFi location doesn't have anything to do with GPS. This will only work if you're by access points.
I've had problems since day one of owning this phone. I've owned a droid 1 and droid 3. My og droid honestly never failed to lock almost instantly whether in my house or on the road. Its a shame to get such a new phone and have issues like this. Multiple threads show many users are having the same issues. I've tried fixes, clearing caches, flashing new roms and nothing.
http://m.cnet.com/news/street-view-cars-grabbed-locations-of-phones-pcs/20082777?ds=1
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396403,00.asp
All wifi is used for is helping finding a rough location by send info through Verizon about access points nearby. Turning it doesn't make the internal gps work "better" in regards to seeing satellites it just helps Google get a fix on the phone faster
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I suspect the Chinese are setting up random gps blockers tuned specifically to the S3. /conspiracy theory
All I know is that I can never get it to work. Ever.
My Nexus 10 is better than your tablet. Hah.
As stated before if you have problems then get the phone replaced. I have never had a single problem getting a lock at all and I live in the cities.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
unique77 said:
As stated before if you have problems then get the phone replaced. I have never had a single problem getting a lock at all and I live in the cities.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, its probably the rom they're on. Even on 4.2.1 I get GPS though (not inside, but I can on TW roms).
OP: I can get a lock inside my living room
My GPS locks 20% of the time...outside on a clear day in Cali. Not sure what to do anymore. I've tried everything I read on here but returning it. I have a feeling they'll just give me a used refurbished phone so I hesitate to do it.
I can safely say that S3 gps is the best I've had out of all the smartphones I used. I am frequently in midtown Manhattan and it locks there within 10 seconds, and it works in my livingroom
Every time I load a new Rom I open up gps status toolbox get a lock instantly then open maps to locate me then I never have any trouble after that at all.
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