Have had my GSIII for about 2 months now and I'm wondering if something is wrong with my gps. I have taken my phone and compared it to 2 other GSIII's using the app GPS Status & Toolbox. On my phone when the app is opened it says 'Looking for GPS Location' and will quite often never find anything. Sometimes it will lock on however. If I'm outside it locks on quicker but indoors it does not. On the other phones I compare it against they both lock on almost immediately.
The other weird thing about my phone is the compass in the GPS Status app. Mine never sits still it is always bouncing back and forth. The other 2 phones I compare against the compass locks on and never moves unless I move the phone.
Now when it comes to navigation my phone seems to work decent. The only places it does not take me directly to are houses it is usually off by about a block, but businesses it is spot on. I figured the maps app just doesnt have the exact house locations?
I am running stock 4.1.2 on Verizon. After reading many threads about gps problems I have already tried tightening the 10 screws under the back cover of my phone. I also did the whole clear cache and remove Maps updates and reinstall. Would this be enough to call Verizon and try to get a different phone while its still under the year warranty?
I have the same problem. Mine worked great for a few months and suddenly became very unreliable. I can be driving down the freeway at 70MPH and navigation will suddenly freak out and think I'm on some other side street and start giving me directions to get back to the freeway. It will do this constantly and never shut up and it will even show me driving in totally different directions down streets that are blocks away from where I actually am.
I tried the screw thing and cleared the cache and reinstalled the Maps updates but that did not help. The problem has recently become even worse. Sometimes it takes 15+ minutes to get a GPS lock while in my car and in my house where it used to work perfectly it won't lock at all.
Another problem I've had, while I don't know if it's related, is that Google Maps flickers when scrolling and randomly goes blank. Along with that, it will randomly scroll out into the middle of the Atlantic when I'm just trying to zoom in on a particular location near me.
Have you tried a factory reset? That's probably the last thing I'm going to try before going to Verizon and requesting a replacement though I really don't want to go through the hassle of setting everything up again just to do it yet again if I have to replace the phone.
I have not tried a factory reset yet but I should probably give it a try. I posted this on another GS3 forum and a former Verizon support person recommended to not get a replacement from Verizon cause they send out real crappy ones they have laying around. He said to call Samsung and get the phone fixed that way so I will probably try that if the factory reset does not work.
have read where removing battery door and tightening the body screws has fixed most gps problems. It seems that the contacts are very susceptible to the body getting loose. Daily vibration can cause them to slightly loosen and thus the problem. I would give it a try, it only a few seconds work.
Good Luck
See the Galaxy sIII shine via SynergyRom
I just tried the screw thing again. I think there is definitely something to that. Sitting here at my desk I could not get a GPS lock at all. After tightening the screws I get a lock within 1-2 seconds. Maybe I should get some Loctite to keep them from backing off? I'll have to drive around to see if it's really working but this is what fixed it before. The only thing now is the strange flickering/graphical glitches that I see when in maps/navigation.
bbolton_98 said:
have read where removing battery door and tightening the body screws has fixed most gps problems. It seems that the contacts are very susceptible to the body getting loose. Daily vibration can cause them to slightly loosen and thus the problem. I would give it a try, it only a few seconds work.
Good Luck
See the Galaxy sIII shine via SynergyRom
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Tried this and worked for me. Thanks Mine locks on a lot quicker now
Hi, I just got this watch this weekend and haven't really got a chance to experiment with these apps yet. During the little bit of time I did, I experienced the Nike+ app would lag/skip while music was playing every time I would try to look at the screen. On the other side, the S Health caused my watch to reboot twice for whatever reason.
I was wondering, what are the differences between these apps? If you use one versus the other does the information still get transferred/communicated to the S Health information or the Nike+ results such as the distance and average pace? One other question, is there a way to make the display last longer? It seems as soon as I would try to see my current run's information, the movement of my arm would cause the display to shut off before I could switch between screens, which is pretty frustrating.
Anyone else have any experience with this? Thanks.
yackeysp said:
Hi, I just got this phone this weekend and haven't really got a chance to experiment with these apps yet. During the little bit of time I did, I experienced the Nike+ app would lag/skip while music was playing every time I would try to look at the screen. On the other side, the S Health caused my watch to reboot twice for whatever reason.
I was wondering, what are the differences between these apps? If you use one versus the other does the information still get transferred/communicated to the S Health information or the Nike+ results such as the distance and average pace? One other question, is there a way to make the display last longer? It seems as soon as I would try to see my current run's information, the movement of my arm would cause the display to shut off before I could switch between screens, which is pretty frustrating.
Anyone else have any experience with this? Thanks.
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I didn't experience the issues you mentioned on the apps - maybe a reboot would help?
I did suffer from poor GPS reception on both apps, though S health seemed a little better on that front (just from a couple of runs). I'm on the TMobile 3g model.
You can connect the Nike and S health apps. When you do so, S health gets a new tile reporting some stats from the Nike app. Clicking on that tile will simply open the Nike app for the full details.
I'm not aware of a way to set a longer time out for the screen. I beleive this was added to a firmware update that so far is only available in Korea, hopefully we'll also get it at some point here in the US. Not sure if changing the screen to always-on might help with the hand movement issue - I'm using the wake up gesture too, so have no experience with that, unfortunately.
Thanks for the information. I did do a reboot last night, hoping that helps.
So between the two apps, they're basically the same and it just comes down to user preference? Glad to hear they share the data. That's a good idea to always leave the watch face on, at least only while running, I just don't want to kill the battery in the first few hours. Hopefully, the firmware gets pushed to us soon, it would make that a lot easier.
Other think that really bothered me yesterday on my first run with the watch (3g, Tmo), was that I was listening music from the watch through some BT headphones, and when I pressed the home button to go to the music app to skip tracks, when I went back to the Nike+, it started again. Did not kept in the background!!!
yackeysp said:
Thanks for the information. I did do a reboot last night, hoping that helps.
So between the two apps, they're basically the same and it just comes down to user preference? Glad to hear they share the data. That's a good idea to always leave the watch face on, at least only while running, I just don't want to kill the battery in the first few hours. Hopefully, the firmware gets pushed to us soon, it would make that a lot easier.
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Just to clarify, the data sharing is one way - you can see some data from Nike on S-health, but I don't think it works the other way round
Also, how can the data on my watch sync with my Shealth on the phone, is it possible?
bebeloneovvl said:
Also, how can the data on my watch sync with my Shealth on the phone, is it possible?
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Yes, the phone app gets stats from the watch - for example step count or heart rate measures are shown on the phone app. Unfortunately I don't remember if I had to do something to make it work or if it syncs automatically, but it's definitely working
Good to know. Looks like I'll be using Nike+ to start out with. To answer bebeloneovvl, I didn't do anything in the settings and my phone synced with my watch to the step. It didn't at first but over night it did and ever since then, once it's in bt range it syncs.
I also noticed that if you're running on the treadmill, if the location/GPS is on it isn't accurate at all, but if that's turned off it's pretty close to what's on the treadmill. Seemed to for me anyways. I didn't even attempt to start either app, the S Health just automatically recognized I was running. I'll have to try the Nike+ app tomorrow.
Thanks for the answer. I did a restart and it seems to work well now. Today on my second day of running, using the watch alone, the distance was wayyyy off. My 4 mile route, that I've been running forever, on the watch measured 3.50 miles. Found that pretty odd, maybe GPS signal drops along the route?
bebeloneovvl said:
Thanks for the answer. I did a restart and it seems to work well now. Today on my second day of running, using the watch alone, the distance was wayyyy off. My 4 mile route, that I've been running forever, on the watch measured 3.50 miles. Found that pretty odd, maybe GPS signal drops along the route?
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I haven't had the chance to run outside yet with mine, so I can't give you any advice on that, that does suck though... Which app did you use?
I found this thread while Googling inaccurate readings with the Nike app on Samsung Gear S2.
I've run outdoors with it 3 times so far and each time has been way off. Not only is the mileage off, but I noticed while looking at my mapped out run online afterwards that my path jumps all over the place. I ran on a track and it showed me running through the infield many times. Also, I was jogging on a 9 minute/mile pace, but the mileage breakdown showed I was running 4 to 5 minute miles then a huge lump sum of the leftover minutes went to the end of the run.
I've rebooted the watch before runs 2 and 3. I also switched GPS mode to GPS only and not 'GPS and Network'. On the 3rd run, I removed the link between Nike and S Health then ran without heartrate, music, or cheers. Still had inaccuracies.
I was in the market for a Nike watch, but when I saw the Gear S2's with built in Nike App I couldn't pass it up. I love everything else about the watch. I hope they can get these issues resolved. Mine is on the T-Mobile network.
colinzeal109 said:
I found this thread while Googling inaccurate readings with the Nike app on Samsung Gear S2.
I've run outdoors with it 3 times so far and each time has been way off. Not only is the mileage off, but I noticed while looking at my mapped out run online afterwards that my path jumps all over the place. I ran on a track and it showed me running through the infield many times. Also, I was jogging on a 9 minute/mile pace, but the mileage breakdown showed I was running 4 to 5 minute miles then a huge lump sum of the leftover minutes went to the end of the run.
I've rebooted the watch before runs 2 and 3. I also switched GPS mode to GPS only and not 'GPS and Network'. On the 3rd run, I removed the link between Nike and S Health then ran without heartrate, music, or cheers. Still had inaccuracies.
I was in the market for a Nike watch, but when I saw the Gear S2's with built in Nike App I couldn't pass it up. I love everything else about the watch. I hope they can get these issues resolved. Mine is on the T-Mobile network.
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I was really hoping for better results than that... I agree, I love the watch and all the capabilities it has but that's a pretty big factor for me. I really want to keep this, but if this is consistent then it may just be going back to AT&T. We'll see how accurate mine is this weekend. I'm sorry to hear that though.
yackeysp said:
I was really hoping for better results than that... I agree, I love the watch and all the capabilities it has but that's a pretty big factor for me. I really want to keep this, but if this is consistent then it may just be going back to AT&T. We'll see how accurate mine is this weekend. I'm sorry to hear that though.
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With the watch being new, I'll give them a chance to fix it. Perhaps a Nike competitor will swoop in and create a better app. In general, there's not many apps available for the watch. I'm looking forward to what the developers can come up with.
running with g2 is inacurrate
I get some issues also. my 6 km run is only 5,5 km with the g2, because at some point, i was looking at the watch and it doens not counted that half km. I will try next time to run with the watch disconected for the phone, because I suspect that it takes the possition from the phone gps, and at some point, the watch disconects from the phone, and maybe that's why it drops the signal
Please try your and give us your review.
I did some more experimenting today. I ran at a local high school 400m track (4 laps = mile).
Here's what I tried this time:
- Turned Bluetooth, WIFI, and NFC off
- Switched Location to GPS only
- I was using T-Mobile 4G network, clear blue Texas skies
- I unlinked the S Health and Nike App to try to prevent any clashing
- Closed all apps that were running
I launched the Nike app, didn't use music, heartrate, or cheers.
I jogged 8 full laps in lane 6 which should of been just over 2.1 miles but it logged me for 1.92.
My map was all over the place. I wanted to post screenshots but I'm a newb and can't until I have 10 posts here.
I don't expect it to be a perfect oval, but my cheap ZTE phone that I usually run with maps it much cleaner and a lot more accurate.
I ended that run, saved it, then ran another 8 laps in lane 2 with heartrate on this time. It says I jogged 1.8 miles instead of just over 2.
I noticed that there is no way to check the GPS signal before running. On both runs, it didn't show the map until halfway through the first lap. I wonder if that's when it started tracking my run
The phone app and Nike watches sync up and make sure you have a good GPS signal before you can run.
Another issue, although minor, I didn't see where to enter the track/road/trail or the shoes option.
I uploaded my path from Nike on imgur, but I can't post it as a link yet.
Decode this and take a look-> imgur dot com/609x3Ws
I swear I wasn't drunk during the 2 runs. I ran in the same lane on an oval track and the GPS was all over the place.
Also, I started and ended in the same spot but it's not reflected on the map. It shows I stop early.
I bought the AT&T version yesterday, mainly as a running device, but also for the smart watch perks. I ran three miles this morning and my experience was terrible.
I left my phone at home, turned off all connections on the watch except for GPS. I brought along my Garmin Forerunner that I've had for almost six years that has been reliably accurate.
It took a good 3-5 minutes for the GPS to initially lock on (I assume the location icon turning solid means it's locked on). I started down my street, which is residential houses with little tree coverage. By the time my Garmin said .40 miles, my S2 said .20 miles. So I decided to try in cycling mode, which I've seen recommended somewhere (running supposedly uses the pedometer instead of GPS for distance).
After switching to the cycling mode, distance seemed to be much more accurate but pace was being difficult. When I swiped to go to the pace screen, the GPS symbol was usually blinking and pace was blank. After a couple seconds, pace would kick in and start trying to match my current pace. Again, the Garmin does this much quicker with varying speeds.
I switched to the Nike Run app and that's just a terrible interface, even worse than the Shealth.
Not only is the GPS tracking pretty bad, but my general experience with the interface was terrible. I have the always on screen mode set to on. The screen of course goes back to ambient mode when the watch is in a certain position. Most of the time when trying to read my stats, the screen wouldn't go to the on the mode, so I would have to touch the screen or spin the dial to get it to turn on (I was also pushing my son in a stroller today, which made it more difficult). On top of that, I have to then scroll to whatever data screen I want to look at. All that screen space and they can only put one stat on each screen.
The Nike app was even worse because I can't even manually change what data I'm looking at. I have to wait for it to scroll through, which IMO, is pretty dangerous is you're running by traffic.
Overall, the experience was just terrible. It's going back to AT&T. I really wanted to like this device, but can't. It was actually great as a smart watch and I really like the look. Unfortunately, the running experience is a complete deal breaker.
Welp, I contacted Nike support Friday and thought I was on the right track, told them everything that was going on and they said their engineer was going to look into it. Yesterday they wrote me and said it's a Samsung problem. I contacted Samsungs support and they are telling me that it's Nike's problem. Samsung also said it's a 3rd party app, which it is, but there is not a way to uninstall it. It came loaded with the watch. I've tried to reinstall the Nike app before to try to fix the problem but it doesn't show up on the uninstall list.
I just love it when they pass the blame back to each other while I'm sitting here with my $350 GPS watch that doesn't work correctly.
I used the built-in S Health app and the map of my run was messed up too, so that rules out Nike's app as being the culprit.
I am sending the watch back to Samsung so they can run diagnostics on it. I'll have it back in a couple of weeks then I'll give it another shot.
GPS inaccuracy?
I just got my new Gear S2 from T-Mobile (3G version) today and did a 5KM running and some walking. I also carried my Galaxy S4 with runkeeper on it. Nike+ app on Gear S2 showed me at 4.9KM. Also as I was running I looked at the watch to see my current distance, but it wasn't updating the current distance instantly. I am very upset for this. Basically I needed a solid GPS watch with phone capability. Do you know if the GPS chip is not good enough or is it a software issue?