Database Info

Verizon TP2 GPS only works after using VZ navigator.

Hi all, I am experiencing a bit of a strange problem that I have only seen duplicated here http://forums.verizon.com/t5/PDA-Sm...6;jsessionid=CA9AC87365188A46401DEAC053629BFF
My issue is that no matter what I try (including exchanging my phone for another new tp2) I can not get my gps to acquire satellite locks in bing or google maps. My location is on, my gps settings are all correct, always use quick gps and still nothing. The best I ever got was using gps viewer I managed to "see" up to 6 satellites at a time but never got a location or a lock...usually it sees 1-3 at a time and they fade in and out quickly. Still google maps has never shown anything but (0) satellites....UNTIL! I found the link above and called tech support. He informed me that because I was a prior alltel customer that I could not activate vz navigator (even for testing purposes) and I would have to switch my plan to allow this.
After reading the above forum link I called BS and proceeded to install VZ navigator and activate the free 1 day trial without issue. VOILA! I get an instant gps lock..full navigation (not just a-gps) and I can even turn off vz navigator and all of my 3rd party apps receive the same reception and all get locks near instantly.
I know some of you geniuses out there can figure out what and why this is happening. Also I would like to note that although I never ran vz navigator on them, I did reflash to 2 different roms and had no luck with gps lock either.
Here is my basic info in case it is relevant.
Rom version 1.18.605.12
Date 8/15/09
Radio 1.88.07WV
PRL 40059
I refuse to believe that I will have to pay for something that should be unlocked and free OR that if I want to use a different program that I will have to start and run VZ nav first.

Have you used the QuickGPS tool provided by verizon? I used this and the GPS then worked instantly. I never used VZ navigator

Yes. As I stated in my first post, I used quickgps each time with no luck. I again today tried before my trial ran out and vz navigator is the key to my gps receiving a signal.

I am having this same issue. I stood out in a blizzard today for 15mins to try and get a signal with no luck. Although I have not tried VZ nav to try and get a signal...I cant stand VZ nav anyways...

I'm not sure if I should be puzzled, or happy?...but suddenly my gps works!
After my vz nav demo ran out I noticed that the gps went right back to the same broken state, and was that way for a couple days until I finally just gave up playing with it, until yesterday when a co-worker asked if I could get directions to a supply house we were driving toward... I said "well yes, and no" so I fired up google maps and before the map loaded I saw "gps active" then "(8)" and it tracked me in less than 4 sec. Since then my gps has locked every time with every program, even inside my house.
Trust me im glad that everything is working now, but my question is... why? Very random, and I hope it doesnt stop working again, even though I powered it off several times just to make sure.

Sometimes there is no answer as to why. Could just be a glitch. I had a very similar problem in that Remote Desktop wouldn't work unless I had Internet Explorer loaded in the background. Sounds similar to your problem but with different hardware/software. Anyway the problem went away when I flashed my phone to MightyROM. Hope this helped!

Recent GPS woes?

So my GPS was working fine for its limited use over the past few weeks that I owned the Inspire.... Now I'm having a rough time.
I downloaded a geocaching app called c:geo and was getting very erratic location locks on coordinates (it would tell me a cache was over 200 feet away when it was literally right on top of me).
Then, yesterday, while trying to use the GPS with google maps in my car, it continually lost signal, and would often not be able to reconnect.
This is rather troubling to me, as the GPS seemed to be working fine as of earlier last week.

exchange it

Update: Just went outside and stood with the GPS and it kept searching for GPS in google maps... I think I might be returning this and getting another.

magnumforce2006 said:
So my GPS was working fine for its limited use over the past few weeks that I owned the Inspire.... Now I'm having a rough time.
I downloaded a geocaching app called c:geo and was getting very erratic location locks on coordinates (it would tell me a cache was over 200 feet away when it was literally right on top of me).
Then, yesterday, while trying to use the GPS with google maps in my car, it continually lost signal, and would often not be able to reconnect.
This is rather troubling to me, as the GPS seemed to be working fine as of earlier last week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try downloading Fasterfix from the Market.

So this is quite weird... after downloading GPS status, I was noticing that I was getting NO satellites... I leave the app on for awhile, just fiddling around with things, and out of nowhere I get a fix on 7 (in my house).
I take the phone out to a nearby cache and it's accurate within 4 meters... ?_?

Don't return the phone yet. Do to settings>location the the very last option listed should let you reinstall / recover the locations app/ Doing this fixed mine perfectly. Also remember some cases interfere with the gps antenna

Went ahead and returned it anyway, may as well while I'm still in the 30 day period. New GPS works like a charm, at first.
Also I was not using a case.

9646gt said:
Don't return the phone yet. Do to settings>location the the very last option listed should let you reinstall / recover the locations app/ Doing this fixed mine perfectly. Also remember some cases interfere with the gps antenna
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For future reference, where is this exactly?
All I see in Settings > Location is
-Use Wireless networks
-Use GPS Satellites
-Phone Finder

That option appears in some of the DHD roms and not available in the stock AT&T rom.

GPS icon going super fast.

Tonight I noticed a pattern on my LG Optimus T running CM7 2.3.5.
If I disable "use wireless networks" under location and the GPS comes up to find my signal (I assume Google Latitude was calling for it even though it was backgrounded?????) it flashes super fast. I'm talking 12-15x a second. It's far faster than the searching for GPS icon we're all used to seeing.
If I re-enable "use wireless networks" it's instantly fine. If I disable it, it goes back to flashing.
I even signed out of Latitude to make sure it wasn't Latitude causing it to act up, but it did the same thing in both scenarios.
What could be causing this? I tried rebooting it, powering off and pulling the battery, etc. Any ideas?

Well, some new findings, and some new questions.
I have no idea what was causing the issue. Someone suggested I may have several GPS apps at once trying to get a grip on my location. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I ended up pulling a recovery from 10 days ago when I backed it up and it took care of the issue.
Moving along... I'm reading that "use wireless networks" helps the GPS antenna to find my location significantly faster since it can hone in on the area instead of the entire globe. Okay, fine. But I noticed something today. Previously I noticed that Google Latitude was wildly inaccurate. Further research after driving up and down the east coast reveals that Google Latitude (using only cell tower triangulation) is actually pretty damn accurate. In fact, it's always triangulated me within 2.5 miles of my location.
Here's the curve ball. Today I had wifi enabled. On a hunch, I opened Latitude. It said I was in Mineola, New York. Uh. No. I'm definitely in the very very southern most area of Pennsylvania you can get (Maryland border is a mere 5 minute bike ride away). I disable wifi, back in PA. I enable wifi, back in New York.
That said, it's obvious my wifi is throwing off the accuracy of Latitude. Personally I can't even find use with Latitude since I'm ALWAYS on wifi with work. Always. There are several buildings many miles apart I could be at, and since I'm always on wifi, the use of this app is really tanked if my wifi is going to throw off co-workers from knowing where I truly am. And this isn't Latitude's fault from what I can tell... something is goofed up in the database (whoever's database it is) that signifies my current wifi = New York when it should have been Pennsylvania, clearly.
So here's my next question - is it possible to separate wifi vs mobile tower triangulation? I noticed on my Android (Optimus T running CM7 2.3.5) that it specifically says:
Use Wireless Networks
Location determined by Wi-Fi and/or mobile networks
Keyword being... "or"...
Any ideas??

Anybody? No dice?

[Q] Sprint Galaxy S Epic 4G GPS problem: Gingerbread

I upgraded from Froyo to Gingerbread through Sprint's "push" during November. Since then, I've been experiencing problems with GPS in Google Maps, which "bleed over" to Google Navigation as well as Sprint's TeleNav app (they can't locate me, much less give me routing).
Example: I recently drove from Arlington up to Denton, TX, about 60 miles, with GPS on (didn't actually need it), turned it off, then drove back down to Fort Worth. When I got there, I wanted to see a map of the area where I was, turned on GPS, and Maps insisted that I was still 40 miles away in Denton. Had similar problems in other towns with Maps telling me I was where I'd been before.
Depending upon whom you talk to at Sprint, it either is or isn't a known issue. The only solutions I've found are to (1) cover the GPS antenna with thin cardboard (e.g., business card scrap), and (2) to root the phone and use a GPSfix.zip fix (which I'm loathe to do since it voids warranty).
Today, a seemingly knowledgeable Sprint rep said that they have "no reports" of such problems on this phone, tho' there are threads upon threads on the Sprint Community about this. Their only suggestion is to retrograde the phone to Froyo, which necessarily involves wiping the phone of apps and data. I'm not concerned so much about the data (I can back most of it up), but it takes a couple of days to get the phone back to where it was (multiple email accounts in different apps, etc., not to mention re-downloading everything).
I've also done a forced stop of Maps and removed all updates and data, but don't get any better or consistent results using either the "factory" Maps or after re-installing updates.
Does anyone have a clue about this? It's been going on for more than a month and I'm getting rather frustrated.

I have this problem. The GPS indicator stays on, but no position info gets updated. A power-off restart is required - it then works for 1 minute to 1 week... very frustrating when you are lost and relying on your GPS.

[Q] GPS/Maps bug?

I have recently encountered more of an annoyance rather than a problem that got my head scratching. It is location and GPS related, so I searched for Galaxy S6 GPS problems in google, and I have noticed that some owners experience a lot of signal loss/searching in their phones. What I have found annoying in my case is that whenever the GPS signal is lost, Google Maps puts me in a wrong location that I have not been to for a while (around one month). I have lived in that location before, but I have since moved and no longer stay there. I have purchased the phone after moving. After a bit of experimenting I came to the conclusion that the building I currently live in blocks the GPS signal, since whenever I am in the balcony/near a window I get a signal and I'm put in the correct location in Google Maps. As soon as the signal is lost, Maps automatically puts me in that old location. This has also effected Google Now where I'm given incorrect travel times and directions, but not my weather location (set on current).
I have set 'Home' to my new location, I have also tried deleting my location history from google, tried a few GPS fixing apps, reinstalling Maps, and also installing other map applications like Here and Waze, which behave the same way and give me the same old location as my current.
At first I thought it could be a GPS hardware defect in the galaxy, but I turned on my old HTC One (M8) and it acted and behaved in the same way putting me in my old location. So it seems to me there's something in the Android OS perhaps since Here and Waze act in the same way. I also tested with the Maps app on an iPhone 6 and it gave the correct location although not 100% accurate. So is there anyway I can make Maps at least remember my last location before signal loss?
It is also absurd that my laptop can pinpoint my correct location while connected on Wifi while my phone with GPS, wifi and cell network cannot, which in conclusion seems like an android bug or something with location history in my google account which as I said already tried deleting the whole history.
Also note that the GPS and Maps work perfectly fine whenever I'm outside the building.

Google Maps has had weird location issues on Android since January or February. Affected the GPS accuracy / function of my Nexus 5 as well. I think the bug is actually in Google Play Services framework, not in AOSP or the Maps app.

s6 gps issue
ab1983 said:
I have recently encountered more of an annoyance rather than a problem that got my head scratching. It is location and GPS related, so I searched for Galaxy S6 GPS problems in google, and I have noticed that some owners experience a lot of signal loss/searching in their phones. What I have found annoying in my case is that whenever the GPS signal is lost, Google Maps puts me in a wrong location that I have not been to for a while (around one month). I have lived in that location before, but I have since moved and no longer stay there. I have purchased the phone after moving. After a bit of experimenting I came to the conclusion that the building I currently live in blocks the GPS signal, since whenever I am in the balcony/near a window I get a signal and I'm put in the correct location in Google Maps. As soon as the signal is lost, Maps automatically puts me in that old location. This has also effected Google Now where I'm given incorrect travel times and directions, but not my weather location (set on current).
I have set 'Home' to my new location, I have also tried deleting my location history from google, tried a few GPS fixing apps, reinstalling Maps, and also installing other map applications like Here and Waze, which behave the same way and give me the same old location as my current.
At first I thought it could be a GPS hardware defect in the galaxy, but I turned on my old HTC One (M8) and it acted and behaved in the same way putting me in my old location. So it seems to me there's something in the Android OS perhaps since Here and Waze act in the same way. I also tested with the Maps app on an iPhone 6 and it gave the correct location although not 100% accurate. So is there anyway I can make Maps at least remember my last location before signal loss?
It is also absurd that my laptop can pinpoint my correct location while connected on Wifi while my phone with GPS, wifi and cell network cannot, which in conclusion seems like an android bug or something with location history in my google account which as I said already tried deleting the whole history.
Also note that the GPS and Maps work perfectly fine whenever I'm outside the building.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a case that was supposed to be a clear view but doesn't work and needs a proximity sensor app installed to work. It has the magnet and a lump for the chip. I also couldn't get a gps lock. Was seeing up to 6 satellites but not locking. I removed the case and got 17+ and a 3d lock straight away.

I came to the conclusion that my building blocks the GPS signal, but the annoyance comes from Google maps locating me in a default location far away from me whenever there is no signal.