I discovered this when I turned GPS off out of disgust. I was having very inconsistent problems. Sometimes GPS would take a long time to lock. Sometimes it would never lock. Sometimes it would lock, but place me at the wrong coordinates. Sometimes, it would be working and then just stop working mid-trip; just general flakiness.
So, I turned it off. Then, the next day I tried to use Google Maps and that reminded me to turn it back on. Immediate (I mean, like 2 sec!) lock and correct coordinates. I turned it back off. Later, turned it back on and checked maps again. Immediate lock. Since then I've duplicated it several times. This is on the same ROM where I was having problems (I've had intermittent problems regardless of which ROM I flash) getting a lock before. Now, inside, outside, it makes no difference. It just works.
Sooooo, the only reason I could think of that it would only work when it had been off is if there is a hardware problem causing the chipset to heat-up and fail intermittently with use. Either that, or some kind of cache is building up that is causing problems, but my money is on the former. And that is something I'll have to return it under warranty for.
If you are having GPS issues, try that on your phone. Leave GPS entirely off for a day, and then turn it on and immediately give it a try.
UberSuber said:
I discovered this when I turned GPS off out of disgust. I was having very inconsistent problems. Sometimes GPS would take a long time to lock. Sometimes it would never lock. Sometimes it would lock, but place me at the wrong coordinates. Sometimes, it would be working and then just stop working mid-trip; just general flakiness.
So, I turned it off. Then, the next day I tried to use Google Maps and that reminded me to turn it back on. Immediate (I mean, like 2 sec!) lock and correct coordinates. I turned it back off. Later, turned it back on and checked maps again. Immediate lock. Since then I've duplicated it several times. This is on the same ROM where I was having problems (I've had intermittent problems regardless of which ROM I flash) getting a lock before. Now, inside, outside, it makes no difference. It just works.
Sooooo, the only reason I could think of that it would only work when it had been off is if there is a hardware problem causing the chipset to heat-up and fail intermittently with use. Either that, or some kind of cache is building up that is causing problems, but my money is on the former. And that is something I'll have to return it under warranty for.
If you are having GPS issues, try that on your phone. Leave GPS entirely off for a day, and then turn it on and immediately give it a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is common on samsung devices...normally i turn off gps, toggle airplane mode on/off, turn gps back on, and it locks quickly.
I've been banging my head off of the wall over my gps, we have 4 gs3s and 3 have good gps and mine sucks. I swore it was from unlocking the bootloader so I odined the phone (3 times) the gps is a little better but still not as fast and accurate as the other 3. I can get 8 satellites but no lock sometimes.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I really am thinking it is isolated to certain devices. Mine has no gps issues, toggle is always on, works fast across all roms I've run (aosp, tw, jb tw). Maybe people's devices with issues came off the assembly line on a Friday around 5:00!
Sent from my Galaxy Player 5.0 running CM9
First off, I turned my GPS off overnight, the first time I've done so since noticing the GPS issue, and it gave me a tight location within 10s.
I've used the GPS all over the NE US and Hawaii without issue thru August, then I rooted all of our phones, (4 GS3's) when the update came out in order to block it and to ensure I could root if I ever decided to. I took my phone a step further and used the ez unlock app for no particular reason. Around that time, I'm still not sure it's related, my GPS started getting flaky. First I tried updating radios and that didn't help, then I odined to the HD leak and the GPS got a little better, I then tried the GPS.conf files from the GPS fix in the development thread and that didn't help either, I then Odined again and the problem lessened but out of nowhere I began getting a com.android.phone error and couldn't use the phone, another Odin last night then this thread popped up. I guess we'll see how things work out today.
Related
not to sound like i'm bragging, because my GPS locks perfectly fine in under 10 sec (usually around 4-5 sec), but what are the issues that every seems to be having with GPS? is it not finding a lock? is it not putting your location in the correct place?
all i'm seeing are threads with GPS fixes and whatnot... but i don't recal seeing what the issues were.
thanks
Lucke said:
not to sound like i'm bragging, because my GPS locks perfectly fine in under 10 sec (usually around 4-5 sec), but what are the issues that every seems to be having with GPS? is it not finding a lock? is it not putting your location in the correct place?
all i'm seeing are threads with GPS fixes and whatnot... but i don't recal seeing what the issues were.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are problems and non-problems for every aspect of the GPS.
People like you get a fix in under 10 seconds with no problems.
People like me get a fix within a minute with no problem
People who can't get a fix unless they are in the middle of an open field after a few minutes
People who can't get a fix period
People who can see satellites in GPS test, but can't connect to them
and people who can connect, but end up miles off of their true location.
I suspect that the underlying factor may be location in the US coupled with the cell phone radio (depending on obstacles, some people will be on different bands, and that may affect downloading GPS updates), because all cell phones should have the same factory defaults. The factory defaults work for me, but not with other people.
And then there are people like me, who one day, the GPS would lock on within seconds, have a perfectly accurate location, and work flawlessly. Then the next morning (when the phone had only been on charge overnight, not dead, not off, not anything) could drive for two hours in the middle of the prairie and not get a lock all day.
When mine worked, it was perfect. When it didn't, it acted like all the satellites fell out of the sky. There was NOTHING I was doing different.
Lucke said:
not to sound like i'm bragging, because my GPS locks perfectly fine in under 10 sec (usually around 4-5 sec), but what are the issues that every seems to be having with GPS? is it not finding a lock? is it not putting your location in the correct place?
all i'm seeing are threads with GPS fixes and whatnot... but i don't recal seeing what the issues were.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm in your boat, mine's been flawless since day one on both my captivates. (had to return one). I think location is the biggest factor here. I know two phones isn't enough to show a strong correlation, but its something.
when i say location is the biggest factor, i mean its what separates our experience from others who have sucky gps. Samsung still needs to fix the gps issues so everyone can have a positive experience .
thanks for explaining, and summing up, the GPS issues.
Is the GPS working now that Froyo is on your Captivate? I have a brand new one on the way to me via FedEx right now so I can't flash it till I get it and wonder if anyone can tell me if GPS is fixed since Froyo is now available to the phone.
It's a lot better. But its not perfect. I'm still in the 3 day "GPS is guaranteed to work better" window so time will tell
Mine doesn't work at all. With all kinds of combinations of GPS setting tweaks.
Thanks. I hope it works better. The phone is still nice so I guess I'll be happy with it even if it's not perfect.
I hope Samsung has another fix for it since it's not working for everybody
I'm doing better but it still sucks.
GPS, using GPS Satellites only with default GPS settings will not lock onto ANYTHING AT ALL for me.
With cell towers, it's 1400m accurate.
Not sure what changed between 2.2 and 2.1 but with 2.1 GPS worked great for me.
Very strange that GPS functionality is different from phone to phone, software to software.....
I do hope they release an actual total GPS fix someday.
Edit: I still like the Galaxy S phones. I know Samsung is still very high tech. It may take them awhile to catch up with what people really want with an Android phone but other than that they have have put together some very nice phones with the Galaxy S line.
mine will pull me down to 10-20 meters. and according to lbstest, it shows it as 15m accurate, full stand alone, lock in between 15s-90s.
Driving around, it was the worst it has ever been. I then used GPS Status and left it up on my dash. I generally could see 2 or 3 satellites. Once, it got up to 4. This is during a sunny day with full view of the sky.
People still seem to think they have something great if it locks in their house, but the real test is driving around and seeing if you can KEEP that lock.
I noticed using ANY of the "GPS fixes" destroyed my GPS performance. I need it set to Standalone, Cold Start, AUTO SUPL config (no supl.google.com) and none of the Jupiter XML "fixes". Stock froyo GPS seems to work OK for me -- I get locks in a reasonable amount of time, although accuracy still isn't great. I still have yet to test Google Navigation / My Tracks, however.
A lot better for me......Many sats in view. Quick locks. Google maps tracked my car pretty quickly on 2.1. I would say this is as good as can be expected from a cell phone GPS device. I have Gamins for the cars so I really won't use this as such. but on my motorcycle it works very well.
It will not be perfect and I accept that. It is A lot better though than 2.1 IMO.
It is marginally better than JH7. Still broken for sure.
Stationary it's fine and gets a pretty fast lock.
Car navigation is poor. I was getting better results in Cognition 2.1.5. Positioning is jumping around, putting me a block away about 25% of the time, getting various sizes of the blue "circle of trust" about 50% of the time. It freezes occaisonally but maybe less than in some of my previously used ROMs. I've tried all the usual setting adjustments and they haven't helped.
The GPS nav capability on the Captivate in prior ROMs has been good enough for me to declare it satisfactory. I'd say this version isn't- yet. I'm confident we'll get it back to at least what it was, but it will take some more tweaking.
Just wondering if anyone is able to get reliable GPS locks in airplane mode. I am beginning to question whether I should switch to Xperia X10. I use GPS quite a bit and don't see why I need to get another GPS when the Cappy should have a working one.
I do love everything else about the Cappy. Hate to go to an outdated system but having everything working as described is kind of nice.
In my testing and experience it is much better, but still not as it ideally should be. I get nice, fast locks in Maps, but GPS test apps are still confused. Perhaps the whole benchmark vs practice concept, but this case seems to a little outside of that realm.
I was able to get GPS lock to around 10 sats only after deactivating the "Use wireless network" option.
However, I had no nav app so i cant say how it tracks.. I am back to 2.1 now, waiting until 2.2 wont be so laggy
gordec said:
Just wondering if anyone is able to get reliable GPS locks in airplane mode. I am beginning to question whether I should switch to Xperia X10. I use GPS quite a bit and don't see why I need to get another GPS when the Cappy should have a working one.
I do love everything else about the Cappy. Hate to go to an outdated system but having everything working as described is kind of nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is interesting, as I keep thinking of switching to a Galaxy S because SE's so slow about updating to 2.1 (Maybe November?) and 2.2 which is a requirement for the latest Gmail and GDocs may not come until Spring 2011 if ever.
However, GPS is extraordinary on the X10. I live on the side of a hill and I can get a lock in 3 seconds,starting with 7/7 and then 8/8 sats by 30 seconds (every option turned on). Lattitude, Navigation, Maps, etc all work wonderfully.
WiFi and GPS are the two most 'additional' features for me on a phone. I have a bit of an issue with SE's Wifi as it's only working when the phone's awake and if the screen blanks, it switches to 3G. Leaves you tethered to a plug so you can set the screen to stay on when plugged in.
stan.s said:
This is interesting, as I keep thinking of switching to a Galaxy S because SE's so slow about updating to 2.1 (Maybe November?) and 2.2 which is a requirement for the latest Gmail and GDocs may not come until Spring 2011 if ever.
However, GPS is extraordinary on the X10. I live on the side of a hill and I can get a lock in 3 seconds,starting with 7/7 and then 8/8 sats by 30 seconds (every option turned on). Lattitude, Navigation, Maps, etc all work wonderfully.
WiFi and GPS are the two most 'additional' features for me on a phone. I have a bit of an issue with SE's Wifi as it's only working when the phone's awake and if the screen blanks, it switches to 3G. Leaves you tethered to a plug so you can set the screen to stay on when plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just realized that I use GPS more than I expected. I think 2.1 without multitouch is ok for me. I am still having daily random shutdowns though mine is limited to unplugging from AC only. I am still waiting for something to happen to Cappy cause I still like it.
I have an RMA phone that I updated OTA to JH7 and yesterday i had to drive out of state and about 20 minutes before I left I updated to Froyo 2.2 stock and my GPS worked perfectly the whole way there and back. Granted it was only about two hours of total drive time ( I am really close to the state border), but it never showed me off the path it set for me and when I passed the spot I was suppsed to go to, it showed me drive past it. So I have as stock a setup as possible and my GPS worked perfectly for me. I cant tell you how many sattelites I have or how many seconds it took to lock etc., but real world road test was great. i will use it tonight on my way to and from work and maybe repost now that I have had it loaded for a day.
I just got my sensation yesterday, coming from the G2x, my gps lock when using google maps/navigation takes more than 10 minutes to lock. I turn in in landscape mode loses data connection as well. Anyone else experiencing very slow gps locks? My g2 was instant
Something is wrong. Mine takes about 20-30 sec.
Return it
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
Same exact thing here except for the data issue, on my second device and its nothing like my G2. Have you Tested other areas? Use gps test (by Chartcross Limited) and see your signal strength and how many satellites you can connect to.
My G2 can see 12 in a few sec
My Sensation only sees 3-0 at poor signal
Don't really have an option to return it cause I purchased it off of craigslist, and I use Simple Mobile. So I don't even have a T-Mobile account. Unless someone knows a work around this, I am forced to send it to HTC for "repair".
Just got my Sensation yesterday. First thing I tested was GPS. My heart sank when it saw zero sats outside. Tried various test apps, Google Maps, etc., checked and double checked settings, rebooted several times. Nothing. The GPS icon never even showed in the notification bar. Was about to box it up to send back and decided to pop the battery out. Rebooted, and bingo! Excellent signal strength even indoors, very quick locks, typically accurate to under 15 ft, and very stable map location. As close to perfect GPS as I had hoped for. Coming from the Vibrant GPS fiasco I'm VERY happy.
wish I could say the same about mine
mariopm2005 said:
wish I could say the same about mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you download GPS test from the market and use the calibration tools? It could help. Or you can also try pulling the battery (old BB trick) instead of restarting to see if that helps. Keep your head up.
I got mine yesterday and had the same experience. I fixed it as follows:
SETTINGS->LOCATION -> Make sure "Use Wireless Networks" is UNCHECKED
Since unchecking that option, my locks are much faster.
However I turned WiFi Calling on and it started behaving like before. Never seeing satellites, minutes for lock.
I turned off WiFi Calling and now I get <10sec lock again.
Sounds like a software issue that HTC needs to figure out.
Let me know if anyone has success with this.
Did you try it out inside?
I just went outside and it's pretty cloudy and got 5locks in 3seconds and 10locks in under 10 seconds.
So there is something wrong or you are doing something wrong
With 3G and the GPS antenna turned on, when I use Navigation the circle is constantly jumping around, sometimes it's big, other times it's small, and it never disappears completely leaving just the Navigation arrow visible.
Same goes for Maps itself, even while stopped it doesn't lock correctly. Is there anything I can do about this?
I'm not sure if the Nexus S has A-GPS, but if it does, I don't think it's using my carrier's data plan to help with locking the signal. I say this because after it has downloaded the map data, the 3G icon in the notifications area doesn't show the down and up arrows moving.
I'm on Android 2.3.6, completely stock and unrooted.
Hi,
Have u tried using Navigation/Maps app with WiFi turned ON?
It will gain accuracy of your GPS.
As for the GPS, it is a persist problem, you could retrieve lots of results by Google "Nexus S GPS"...
Some users suggest that use without battery cover could gain a much stronger GPS signal.
I encountered this problem as yours, plus with the compass disorder in Navigation app only.
KaiZ51 said:
With 3G and the GPS antenna turned on, when I use Navigation the circle is constantly jumping around, sometimes it's big, other times it's small, and it never disappears completely leaving just the Navigation arrow visible.
Same goes for Maps itself, even while stopped it doesn't lock correctly. Is there anything I can do about this?
I'm not sure if the Nexus S has A-GPS, but if it does, I don't think it's using my carrier's data plan to help with locking the signal. I say this because after it has downloaded the map data, the 3G icon in the notifications area doesn't show the down and up arrows moving.
I'm on Android 2.3.6, completely stock and unrooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ss1271 said:
Hi,
Have u tried using Navigation/Maps app with WiFi turned ON?
It will gain accuracy of your GPS.
As for the GPS, it is a persist problem, you could retrieve lots of results by Google "Nexus S GPS"...
Some users suggest that use without battery cover could gain a much stronger GPS signal.
I encountered this problem as yours, plus with the compass disorder in Navigation app only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot to mention, I usually have Wi-Fi turned on anywhere I go, but the only network my phone knows is my home wireless connection. And if I'm using GPS on my phone, I'm not at home, so yeah...
Though if I try to use GPS on my phone, while connected to my home network, it gives me a much better result, though not perfect. It gives me a precision of 30 meters when connected to my home network.
And I tried it just now without the battery cover, and the results are the same, pretty bad.
I had the same exact issue with a previous Nexus S 4 G and I took it in to Sprint. I told them the GPS couldn't get a lock and when it did, it would instantly lose it. They tested it and issued me a replacement. They said the GPS antenna...or something in regards to the GPS (can't remember the exact name) was going bad.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Just to make sure, what is a "lock"? Does it mean the phone just having the arrow displayed, or the arrow with a circle around it on maps?
Because the latter is what happens to me, it never fails to "get" my location, it just isn't really that accurate...
KaiZ51 said:
Just to make sure, what is a "lock"? Does it mean the phone just having the arrow displayed, or the arrow with a circle around it on maps?
Because the latter is what happens to me, it never fails to "get" my location, it just isn't really that accurate...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you open Maps and press the little circle icon in the upper right hand corner, the GPS is finding your location and locking you in. While its doing this the GPS icon in the status bar keep flashing until, the GPS locks on to you.
If it doesn't lock on you or cant, the GPS icon just flashing.
Now when I had my previous nexus, it never locked on me. But when I used navigation, it locked on after about 2-3 minutes but as soon as started to drive, it would lose the lock it had on me and display "GPS signal lost."
I used GPS toolbox to reset the gps calibration or whatever it does and that didn't work either.
So that's when I took it to sprint
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Remove battery back cover will solve your issue
I've had this problem since updating to stock 2.3.6 too. My phone was fine on 2.3.4. This week I got the OTA update to 4.0.3 and it does seem to have improved things but has brought other problems - mainly with horrendous battery drain ...75%+ drain in 9hrs on (mostly) standby. Today I unplugged my phone 1½hrs ago, typed this reply and already I'm down to 74%.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
My wife's Nexus is draining the battery fast. It wont last half a day. The GPS Icon is blinking and I have Wifi and GPS on. I think an OTA update ruined hers also
Kevin K said:
My wife's Nexus is draining the battery fast. It wont last half a day. The GPS Icon is blinking and I have Wifi and GPS on. I think an OTA update ruined hers also
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS icon blinking constantly is the main reason for the draining battery. Look for the app that is using it. Might be Facebook, Maps, or others running in the background. Close it/them.
turn off WiFi when not needed.
I get over a day of battery on a single charge with custom ICS.
faizalmzain said:
Remove battery back cover will solve your issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you really serious about this
GPS takes a lot of time to lock for me irrespective of the ROM
The removal of the battery cover might slightly improve the signal but in my honest opinion it's mainly a placebo effect.
I'm having the same experience as the original post.
The problem is not obtaining a good satellite lock, it does that as it normally would. The problem is after it obtains the lock, it will jump anywhere from a mile to twenty miles away at totally random times.
When I get home and look at my tracks over the day using Google Latitude, I see that I was transported to various positions around Los Angeles at totally random times. It's really frustrating when I'm driving waiting for instructions on the next turn and the GPS says that I'm still sitting at the stoplight half a mile back.
dougfreeze said:
I'm having the same experience as the original post.
The problem is not obtaining a good satellite lock, it does that as it normally would. The problem is after it obtains the lock, it will jump anywhere from a mile to twenty miles away at totally random times.
When I get home and look at my tracks over the day using Google Latitude, I see that I was transported to various positions around Los Angeles at totally random times. It's really frustrating when I'm driving waiting for instructions on the next turn and the GPS says that I'm still sitting at the stoplight half a mile back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally understand. I experienced the same thing with the i9023 version. I switched from ROM to ROM and constantly experienced the same issues.
However, strangly enough the signal seemed to have improved a lot after I updated to ICS 4.0.4 that was released just recently. If you can, get the update and give it another run. I've been turning it on while driving on the freeway to see how good it's been working - so far it's kept the lock fairly accurate and haven't gotten the lost GPS message.
And the battery cover was left on!
KaiZ51 said:
With 3G and the GPS antenna turned on, when I use Navigation the circle is constantly jumping around, sometimes it's big, other times it's small, and it never disappears completely leaving just the Navigation arrow visible.
Same goes for Maps itself, even while stopped it doesn't lock correctly. Is there anything I can do about this?
I'm not sure if the Nexus S has A-GPS, but if it does, I don't think it's using my carrier's data plan to help with locking the signal. I say this because after it has downloaded the map data, the 3G icon in the notifications area doesn't show the down and up arrows moving.
I'm on Android 2.3.6, completely stock and unrooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus S has AGPS, and you can try to change an AGPS server. Please do a web search for more information.
For one reason or another when I first got my NS over a year ago I had to replace the first five. Out of those five there was one in particular that had GPS issues (took for ever to find a signal, frequently lost signals when driving, and just overall an inconsistent user experience), but the others worked amazing. Initially I would think it's a hardware thing, but seeing as though that other guy said 4.0.4 helped a bit. I'd certainly give that a go if you haven't already.
Friend of mine recently told me her GPS on her verizon S3 stopped working. she brought it by, i flashed the newest build of cleanrom on it today and sure enough the GPS still doesnt work. everything needed is turned on but it doesnt get a lock. i checked it with the GPS Status app and it shows like 0/20 satellites and doesnt lock to any. only way i was able to actually get somewhat of a lock on google maps was to hook it up to WiFi and let it gather from that.
any suggestions?
Somewhat common problem. I haven't found a fix as of yet. There is a gps fix somewhere in these forums though that sort of helps. my phone had the same problem. Going back to stock or to any custom rom, nothing worked, the gps was just dead. After flashing one of the fixes I finally managed to get it to get locks, but it needs like 7-8 satellites to get a fix, is highly inaccurate, and loses gps lock a few times on every trip.
Here's the gps fix page
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1880411
I use Galaxy s3 test 3 alt, it's the only one that gets any lock for me. The first time and other intermittent times can take up to 10 minutes or more though, and rebooting the phone or trying again another day does sometimes help.
I know it is definitely the phone, as my pantech marauder which has the same SoC which should be very similar for gps location, finds and locks on to 6-8 towers in like 10 seconds or less all the time, even indoors, and gets location accurate to less than 100ft with 4 satellites while the gs3 needs 7-8 satellites to get a lock to 300-600ft
If none of the software fixes work. And the stock unrooted software does not receive GPS lock.
I would highly recommend replacing the GPS antenna just in case.
I'm 90% sure the headphone jack. External speaker. WiFi antenna and GPS antenna are all in one unit.
This piece is sold for cheap on Amazon. Or eBay or whatever.
Replacing is simply a removing a couple screws and popping the old one out.
Here is a link to eBay
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=160890063224
Possibly you could find one cheaper.
Hopefully this is it for you.
Let me know how it goes.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I too have this problem: the GPS no longer gets a fix w/o a data connection
the phone recently did an update to jb 411 and now no gps fix w/o data.
I do NOT believe its the antenna.
does anyone else with the os in sight have any info?
palm2droid said:
I too have this problem: the GPS no longer gets a fix w/o a data connection
the phone recently did an update to jb 411 and now no gps fix w/o data.
I do NOT believe its the antenna.
does anyone else with the os in sight have any info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too have the same problems on this rom