Wrong location when using high accuracy - Nexus 6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm running stock 5.1.1 on the LMY48M build and when I have high accuracy enabled in location settings, it shows that I'm in Houston, TX. I'm on the other end of the country in Michigan though. If I go to Google Maps, it shows my correct location. It also shows the correct location if I switch to Device Only in location settings. But in Google Now and Chronus, with high accuracy enabled it shows Texas. Has anyone experienced this before? I've searched all over and couldn't find any information.
E: Also, I'm on Verizon.

GreatDayChap said:
I'm running stock 5.1.1 on the LMY48M build and when I have high accuracy enabled in location settings, it shows that I'm in Houston, TX. I'm on the other end of the country in Michigan though. If I go to Google Maps, it shows my correct location. It also shows the correct location if I switch to Device Only in location settings. But in Google Now and Chronus, with high accuracy enabled it shows Texas. Has anyone experienced this before? I've searched all over and couldn't find any information.
E: Also, I'm on Verizon.
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i have seen this before, but not nearly to this extreme. the wifi location is being preferred over the gps, and the wifi is wrong, so you get whats happening to you.
we never did actually fix it. you could try clearing cache's and see if that helps.
ist not a solution, but keeping device only on is really the best option if you dont need the wifi. gps is going to be far more accurate alone, the majority of the time, unless you are in a building or somewhere gps has trouble seeing the sat's.

bweN diorD said:
i have seen this before, but not nearly to this extreme. the wifi location is being preferred over the gps, and the wifi is wrong, so you get whats happening to you.
we never did actually fix it. you could try clearing cache's and see if that helps.
ist not a solution, but keeping device only on is really the best option if you dont need the wifi. gps is going to be far more accurate alone, the majority of the time, unless you are in a building or somewhere gps has trouble seeing the sat's.
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That makes sense. I just tried with WiFi disabled and it still showed Texas, so I'd guess it's Verizon's network causing the issue. I like keeping High Accuracy on for navigation purposes, but if there's no real solution I'll just switch to Device Only. What apps should I try clearing cache for?

GreatDayChap said:
That makes sense. I just tried with WiFi disabled and it still showed Texas, so I'd guess it's Verizon's network causing the issue. I like keeping High Accuracy on for navigation purposes, but if there's no real solution I'll just switch to Device Only. What apps should I try clearing cache for?
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Click to collapse
i would clear them all through recovery.
the inherent problem with wifi location, that is unfixable, is wifi has a range. usually between 100 and 500 feet in any direction, depending on the power of the router. so any time its relying on wifi, you will always have that range of possible error. where as gps is directly between your device and multiple sat's simultaneously.
also while wifi location is on, google is constantly causing a nlpcollector wakelock, as it records connected wifi to its servers in an effort to build its database, at the expense of your battery and data.

Related

GPS: Use GPS satellites or Use Wireless Networks...

which is more private, use wireless networks or gps satellites? also considering battery life. im the type that thinks if they want to find me via my wireless device, they can do so without either of these options enabled on my device.
a few poorly developed apps require gps, for some reason, to view places that are around me instead of using 3g...
What do you mean private?
About battery life, GPS does drain your battery more, so use it only when you need to navigate or find places around you.
andythegreenguy said:
What do you mean private?
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The more pertinent questions are...What have you done, and who is the "they" that might find you?
I do think most cell phones can be traced to a physical location by nearby towers anytime a call is placed or received (Bourne Identity style, cuz all movies are totally real), regardless of whether or not you have those location options checked on the phone. But you will need to have at least GPS or wireless networks location enabled if you are searching for things near you on like Maps or Footprints.
Or if you're worried about location information being stored in your phone, I think you could delete cache/data from Maps, Footprints, Places, etc. on a regular basis and that would keep the history from showing up, right?
chromiumleaf said:
The more pertinent questions are...What have you done, and who is the "they" that might find you?
I do think most cell phones can be traced to a physical location by nearby towers anytime a call is placed or received (Bourne Identity style, cuz all movies are totally real), regardless of whether or not you have those location options checked on the phone. But you will need to have at least GPS or wireless networks location enabled if you are searching for things near you on like Maps or Footprints.
Or if you're worried about location information being stored in your phone, I think you could delete cache/data from Maps, Footprints, Places, etc. on a regular basis and that would keep the history from showing up, right?
Click to expand...
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i like that response.
As long as your phone is on they pretty much know where you are
Case in point.... I live in chicago, use the phone before I start a trip. 8 hours later I'm in nebraska you call me and I answer one the 1st ring. How does the system know where I'm at
Does "use wireless networks" have much of an impact on battery life? There are some programs like HTC clock widget with weather that seems to require it on. When turning on "use wireless networks" there's a message saying "Collection will occur even when no applications are running", what exactly does this mean? I'm mainly concerned about idle battery life.
shilent said:
Does "use wireless networks" have much of an impact on battery life? There are some programs like HTC clock widget with weather that seems to require it on. When turning on "use wireless networks" there's a message saying "Collection will occur even when no applications are running", what exactly does this mean? I'm mainly concerned about idle battery life.
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Battery life really won't improve all that much if it's off, and if it's off you'll lose a ton of features, like the market and such.
theimpaler747 said:
Battery life really won't improve all that much if it's off, and if it's off you'll lose a ton of features, like the market and such.
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You shouldn't need to have 'Use Wireless Networks' checked to use Market. I know I don't and it works fine..
stayclean said:
You shouldn't need to have 'Use Wireless Networks' checked to use Market. I know I don't and it works fine..
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Maybe I'm thinking of that old "backgroud data" feature in sense roms
theimpaler747 said:
Maybe I'm thinking of that old "backgroud data" feature in sense roms
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Background Data needs to be on to access the Market regardless of being on 2.2, 2.1, and below. Use Wireless Networks just finds your location based on IP address over wifi, doesn't use quite as much battery as GPS, but not super accurate either.
stayclean said:
Background Data needs to be on to access the Market regardless of being on 2.2, 2.1, and below. Use Wireless Networks just finds your location based on IP address over wifi, doesn't use quite as much battery as GPS, but not super accurate either.
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That's what I was thinking of, my bad
Sent from my hero running froyo... take that Sprint!

[Q] could wifi be the problem with samsung captivate's gps issues

anyone else notice that when using the Samsung captivate & navigation that is recommends turning on WiFi. it doesn't make sense, but i notice it makes a huge difference in speeding up satellite connection time with WiFi on.
could this be the issue with the GPS??
please confirm this.
-Alex
This is not a fix. Turning WFi on will help give your phone another source to determine your location. The key thing here is that WiFi cannot determine your location as accurately as GPS can. If you look again, you'll probably see that your phone will "lock" onto your position much faster, but it's probably not going to be accurate enough to be usable.
norcal einstein said:
This is not a fix. Turning WFi on will help give your phone another source to determine your location. The key thing here is that WiFi cannot determine your location as accurately as GPS can. If you look again, you'll probably see that your phone will "lock" onto your position much faster, but it's probably not going to be accurate enough to be usable.
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you must have read the title before i edited it.
im not using the WiFi as a location source since i don't have any WiFi internet on the road.
but i notice that the GPS locks on quicker than without the Wifi on.
my nexus one never suggest to turn on WiFi when using navigation
Its not necessarily wifi based location but it can use wifi to download gps data. For a date lock. Its just a suggestion, I don't see why out would make a difference with out a wifi signal.
I prefer to not have network location or sensor aiding enabled. Sensor aiding really doesn't work. Made my my tracks results erratic. Network location gets me within 2 miles, not exactly good for navigation, having it on only allow something to fall back on of you lose gps signal but the whole process of the phone switching from one source to the other and back again takes to long. Keeping network location off forces it to only try to get a gps lock and in my opinion works better.
As far as wifi, if you believe it works better that way then do what every you think helps. It really should only download the data and once it has it it is done with wifi un till it needs new data which usually won't be for several hours.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897

[Q] Location Services Down?

My new Vivid used to show the city where I am located in the home page, along with weather.
As of today, the city is no longer named; and it just says "Current Location" with a current weather that does not seem to be relevant to where I am or no weather at all. See attached.
I have both Use Wireless networks and Use GPS checked in the Settings>Location.
When I try to Sync Weather, it says that it is "unable to contact location services" to determine my location.
Has the Google Location Services database gone upside down?
I have not been able to get any websites to find my location. I realized this the other day when NextBus gave an error "Sorry, but we could not determine your location. Error: Failed to start Geolocation service." I've tried other websites as well and none of them can access the phones GPS location. "Enable location" is selected on the settings (I tried turning it on and off). Has anyone else had this problem? The maps application does find my location correctly.
I think there's an issue with Goggle Location Services. Everything worked fine for a while today, but now we're back into the "unable to contact the location service" error message when starting the weather app; and Goggle Maps puts me in the right place just fine.
I think my home WiFi is preventing the Vivid from contacting the Loaction Service. When I turned WiFi access off in the Vivid, the Location and Weather seemed to work A-OK. When I turned WiFi access back on, it no longer gave me my location or weather.
Could Be AT&T
I have not had this problem with the Vivid, but I had the problem a time or two with my HD2 on T-Mobile and AT&T. Sometimes, the phone cannot locate enough towers to get a good triangulation fix for your location. A tower may be out of service. I had the problem last for a day or so on T-Mobile before it started working again.
As to WiFi, I wonder if turning on the WiFi causes the data connection to shut down or switch connection from the "3G/4G" radio to the WiFi. I have not tested it.
I recall seeing in another thread where someone questioned the accuracy and completenes of the Google Location Serrvices data, but I think it is a tower porblem. If you can, try it from a different location later in the day.
brucegil said:
As to WiFi, I wonder if turning on the WiFi causes the data connection to shut down or switch connection from the "3G/4G" radio to the WiFi. I have not tested it.
If you can, try it from a different location later in the day.
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Any locations where I do not have a WiFi connection, even though it's turned on and not connected, work fine for location and weather. If I log on to a WiFi network - no matter where, the location and weather stop syncing and properly displaying.
DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
Any locations where I do not have a WiFi connection, even though it's turned on and not connected, work fine for location and weather. If I log on to a WiFi network - no matter where, the location and weather stop syncing and properly displaying.
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That sounds like a question that needs to be sent to HTC. IF the WiFi connection is shutting down the data connection, that could be a problem. Of course, it could be something else. I installed the HTC weather widget with WiFi running and the weather widget immediately displayed the current temp for my location.
brucegil said:
That sounds like a question that needs to be sent to HTC.
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Click to collapse
Done. No response.
this could be a tower issue with your cell provider. When i had the HTC Aria location worked great then all of a sudden i only got Current city or a location about 20 miles away which was near my work. location worked at work but not at home.
I called att support and they did a engineering ticket or something and it was resolved within the week.
That is a common problem with att android phones.
Sent from my Inspire 4g using xda premium
DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
My new Vivid used to show the city where I am located in the home page, along with weather.
As of today, the city is no longer named; and it just says "Current Location" with a current weather that does not seem to be relevant to where I am or no weather at all. See attached.
I have both Use Wireless networks and Use GPS checked in the Settings>Location.
When I try to Sync Weather, it says that it is "unable to contact location services" to determine my location.
Has the Google Location Services database gone upside down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using a different APN? My location service got all jacked up when I changed my APN after I got throttled.
Dawakat said:
Are you using a different APN? My location service got all jacked up when I changed my APN after I got throttled.
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Click to collapse
No. Stock out of the ATT box. No changes.
If you are near wi-fi turn on your wi-fi and try refreshing the location you are at and make sure your phone is actually connecting to the internet by trying to go to a webpage if it isn't try restarting the phone and or doing a factory reset. Sometimes the UI will completely glitch out so I would try those and if still nothing return it because at that point I would say it's an actual hardware issue if you go all the way to the point of restoring the phone.
malickie said:
If you are near wi-fi turn on your wi-fi and try refreshing the location you are at and make sure your phone is actually connecting to the internet by trying to go to a webpage if it isn't try restarting the phone and or doing a factory reset. Sometimes the UI will completely glitch out so I would try those and if still nothing return it because at that point I would say it's an actual hardware issue if you go all the way to the point of restoring the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC Support wanted me to put the device into the Safe Mode (prevents 3rd party apps and drivers from loading) and observe it for 24-48 hrs to see if the problem persists. I have not done that yet, as a battery pull is hard work with the phone in an Otterbox Defender case.

[Major Bug] Wifi Always Scan breaks Location Services

Hello everyone.
I just wanted to get your attention on a major Android OS (Kitkat) bug in the interaction between Wifi -> Advanced -> Wifi Always Scan and the Location Service. Clearly the bug doesn't happen every time, but sometimes it does, and obviously I'm talking about stock rom / kernel / no root / locked bootloader.
Althought I can't prove it, this might also be the cause of the current GPS / Navigation issues, currently being reported here.
What makes me link this to that issue? Because when Wifi Always Scan bugs out, it prevents my phone to acquire a location even from the 3g network.
That would explain why in that thread many people report that they could navigate with Device Only, which doesn't use 3g or wifi for location, but they had major issues with High Accuracy, which uses all three sources.
Please take a minute to star the issue so that Google will hopefully fix it faster.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=64597
Thank you,
TD
Just turn it off, all it does is waste battery anyway
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Ben36 said:
Just turn it off, all it does is waste battery anyway
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your useful contribution.
It doesn't waste battery, it saves it. It enables to use the wifi location using a lower power state of the wifi chip compared to actually turned on wifi (which is also more accurate by miles than 3g location, works indoors in clubs where there is no 3g or gps signal, and not as battery expensive as gps location).
Also, people use that option for many things, I for one use it in MANY Tasker tasks flawlessly, whether the alternative (wifi periodic toggle and polling) would rape my battery.
Wifi automatically Turned off. Built in feature?
I kept my wifi on, and the had not used it basically just left the device in the room and had run off.
When I retured, the wifi was on in the power control widget but the wifi signal indicator icon in the notifications bar was absent.
is this normal/intended?
My wifi / internet connection is weak but continuous and my device is about ten to twelve feet away from the modem / router.
Can anybody help?
Although I have not a Nexus 5, my problem seems to be the same. I'll tell you if perhaps serve as any indication.
In my HTC EVO 3D, I've been running since the summer with CM10.2 (Android v4.3.1) with location mode set to "Network & WiFi" and "WiFi Always Scan ON". During this time the location was very accurate, location history left a fairly detailed trace. In Google Maps, was located immediately, as in Google+. If activated the GPS, even better. Summarizing, 0 issues with the location.
On January 1, I decided to upgrade to CM11 (Android v4.4.2), I set my location mode to "Battery Saving" & "Wifi Scan Always ON". During the first 10 days everything was perfect, the location history trail was so detailed as CM10.2 and battery consumption a little better. Google Maps and Google+ also positioned themselves almost immediately. Suddenly, on January 11 the location seems to stop of using WiFi networks and began guided only by the Network Cells (being rather more vague). Also when for some reason failed to position (being out of range of Network Cell), the phone started to not enter Deep Sleep Mode and the battery started to discharge at high speed. Google Maps, Google+, 1Weather ... were unable to obtain the current location or showed the last known location of hours before. Rebooting the phone sometimes temporarily solved the problem, but sometimes not.
I tried to change the placement options; abroad, with "high accuracy" mode, the location worked well, but indoors the GPS was not able to find satellites (logical) and still the same problems. I enabled and I disabled the location, nothing. Factory reset, no change.
To rule out a hardware failure, I returned CM10.2. Everything about the location worked smoothly... Return to CM11, again the same problems.
In short, my impression is that this is a software bug, as in versions prior to v4.4 Android location "Network & WiFi" + "Scan Always ON WiFi" works correctly. Moreover, not only occurs in the Nexus 5.
I have marked with a star your ticket.
I'll keept testing.
I get this problem when I use tether with WiFi always scan enabled.
When I disabled tethering, I have to manually enable WiFi to fix the location reporting issue.
With WiFi scanning not enabled, I do not get this problem
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I think I have similar problem and I really hope smbody can help me.
On my stock nexus 5(4.4.2) wifi location don't work in google maps and ingress, when I turn it on instead of gps location.
But in other apps wifi location works( yandex.maps, 4square)
Only reboot helps
Hello again.
I just updated Google Maps to version 7.6.0 and Google Play Services to version 4.2.39 and all the problems I had with the location are gone, everything is okay again, as it did in CM10.2. So it looks like it is confirmed that it was a software bug.
Sorry, I know this post is quite stale, but I came across it doing a search about this very same problem I've seen on my LG G4 (stock). I have a Tasker task that uses WiFi near state and I use the "Allow Wifi scanning..." option in my Advanced WiFi settings. Whenever I would use WiFi tethering and then later turn it off, I noticed my Tasker task would not detect the WiFi networks it was supposed to. If I turn the "Allow scanning" option of and back on, or just turn on WiFi altogether, it starts working again.
So, after more than a year and a half, and on a newer version of Android and it still doesn't work right. Who knows; maybe it's a Tasker problem.
-SR-

Location + Wifi mess

Why does Location turn on whenever I connect to a Wifi network? I never had this kind of behaviour before. How to stop this? I read online that disabling Locate my phone would do the trick, but it doesn't.
Also, since a few weeks, I always get the Location consent dialog, and even if I agree, it always asks me. I want to always agree and stop being asked every single time. Even Xposed modules don't do anything on my rooted S7E. Do you guys have any hint?
Yeah you can't turn them off now.
I figured the only way the data collection won't hurt me is if i don't have any accounts synced to my phone.
They tied down the Geo location for most radio connections the phone has.
Irritating. You can toggle by using the phone gps only but my experience, my map apps tend to not work unless I use the high setting.
Most phones has AGPS units where it's always assisted by other connections.
And individual gps units are exactly that: gps (garmins... Etc)
Good luck

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