GPS issues? - T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Anyone experiencing GPS issues? I can be in big cities with perfect LTE reception, where I'd assume I have great GPS signal but it constantly drops and stops working/freezing my location.
Any tips??

My tip? Try searching. This issue has been around since N4 came out.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Related

Poor Wi-Fi signal reception

Hi all
I'm playing with my new Xperia T since 4 days and I noticed right away that it's got one of the worst WiFi reception quality of any phone I've ever owned.
Either that or there are problems with WiFi signals from 802.11n routers.
Result is, it struggles to keep connected to my network, and I have to hold the phone in an awkward way, while previously I didn't care about that.
Anyone with the same issue?
No sorry, in my case I it has one of the best reception I've ever had on a phone.
Sent from my LT30p (Xperia T) using XDA Premium.
Did I help? please press thanks button
I don't have problems keeping the connection up, but it is indeed lacking in wifi sensibility.
Performing a scan, my old HTC Desire shows more wifi access points, and with better signal, than this phone.
I have no problems connecting, but signal seems quite weak. With my old x10 I could retain connection in my back garden, but with T it won't go past the back door!!
Sent from my LT30p using xda app-developers app
I measured the signal intensity with the network monitor app and the levels seem quite similar to other phones (i was testing with a galaxy note), but the Xperia gives out much earlier at -85 dbm, the Samsung phone holds on instead at the same level.
Maybe it's software related?

WIFI range

I'm not sure if it's just me but haven't anyone notice the wifi range on this device is unbelievable?
I'm always on wifi either at home and at work and I had a bunch of devices and I have to say this one by far has the best range I've ever had.
I'm thoroughly impressed cause I've always remember HTC always having the worse range.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
shook187 said:
I'm not sure if it's just me but haven't anyone notice the wifi range on this device is unbelievable?
I'm always on wifi either at home and at work and I had a bunch of devices and I have to say this one by far has the best range I've ever had.
I'm thoroughly impressed cause I've always remember HTC always having the worse range.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that myself as well. I used to not be able to pick up wifi in certian parts of my house now i get near perfect signal i every room. I also get 1-2 bars in my garage (not attached).
Just to correct you, Sony xperia devices actually have the worst wifi reception.
All these good reviews about this remarkable gadget is opening my appetite.
So this phone: Great design. Aluminum made.Great wifi reception. What more ?
This is good to hear. I thought there was a problem with wifi. I'm not able to connect at all with my One but I have no problem connecting on my Nexus 7 or iPhone 4s. I guess I just have a defective unit. I'm going to exchange it in the morning.
Edit: Got another phone and wifi still isn't working at all. Probably gonna switch phones. I really liked the One too.
I'm having issues connecting to 5g network, 2.4 works fine, both with stock and viper Rom. Does that mean it's defective? Laptop connects just fine.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
5ghz is finicky in general with most routers
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
I think the Wifi signal bars are just screwy. As far as real signal goes, and speeds, it gets about the same speed as my S3 in my bedroom...But the S3 shows one bar, and the One shows full.
I think it just reports full bars even if it's only about half strength.
The wifi analyzer app confirms this. Wifi analyzer shows half signal despite full wifi bars.
Felnarion said:
I think the Wifi signal bars are just screwy. As far as real signal goes, and speeds, it gets about the same speed as my S3 in my bedroom...But the S3 shows one bar, and the One shows full.
I think it just reports full bars even if it's only about half strength.
The wifi analyzer app confirms this. Wifi analyzer shows half signal despite full wifi bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's weird though is I can see networks that I've never been able to see from inside my house before, routers that I'm pretty sure are 300-400 feet away at minimum. Really appreciating the range since my One can get connected to my home WiFi as I'm pulling into my garage, and start downloading whatever it needs to a little faster than my other phones have.
my range seems to be improved drastically in fringe areas compared to my lte
is there any way to stop that little message box that pops up when im out and about and it ask me to connect to a wifi network or remember to later
beezy69 said:
is there any way to stop that little message box that pops up when im out and about and it ask me to connect to a wifi network or remember to later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try turning off wifi when you leave your house.
There is a setting under wifi and advanced I believe.
Sent from my HTC One

[Q] Poor wifi performance

For those who have the device, how does your wifi signal strength compare. Sitting at my desk, I get no bars now where on my OneX I got 2 or 3.
pinn___________ said:
For those who have the device, how does your wifi signal strength compare. Sitting at my desk, I get no bars now where on my OneX I got 2 or 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here on a phone from O2 with the latest software installed.
Compared to an iphone 5 struggles to hang onto signal. Tried both bands as well, same issue.
I can see my work wifi in a location I frequent with previous phones.
I can connect and use it even though it gives me just a dot for the signal. other phones struggle in this same location.
Perhaps try turning off Wifi power saving in the settings
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 4
Has turning wifi power saving off, has this helped?.. for me this has made no difference
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 4
No wifi issues here what so ever
yeah its pretty bad for me. next room and i'm down to "1 bar" when on all of my other devices i'd get 4 or 5
guys from what I've seen don't go by the little signal strength indicator on the notification bar as it doesn't really reflect what's actually happening, I had a XZU for a few weeks and a Z before that, I can pick up wifi connections on both the XZU and Z1 were the Z was out of range, I was sitting in a bar last night connected to a wifi AP that was about 100m away and there are structures and people in-between, the Z1 is as good as the ZU when connecting to wifi and both are better than the Z
Check with this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
pinn___________ said:
For those who have the device, how does your wifi signal strength compare. Sitting at my desk, I get no bars now where on my OneX I got 2 or 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wifi on my Z1 C6903 seems really poor.
Connected to 5Ghz on a dual band wifi router situated in the tv room. I don't get any connectivity from my room which is around 10m away.
I used to get decent connectivity on my iphone 5 - speedtest of around 14mbps. I can't even connect to speedtest on my Z1.
On a sidenote - what is with the headphone button not working. Had to update to .534 after much googling. Also, the new firmware doesn't help the wifi issues. Who knows how long we'll have to wait for a fix ...which may or may not improve it.
Also, did try to turn off the wifi power saving "feature" as well. Didn't do much.
Anyways that's my feedback.
same here! very bad connection with the xperia z1.
Yep poor wifi performance, I hope we get a software fix soon
Same here, disconnects from wifi a lot.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 2
Id just like to know, Wifi is that bad, compared to what?
Regards
Flashmore said:
Id just like to know, Wifi is that bad, compared to what?
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In OP, I said compared to my previous phone. Also, have trouble with mobile data being very slow. With that being said, I have moved provider to EE but they are supposed to have decent coverage.
Not sure now whether to return and get a new one or get the Notes 3 instead.
maverick1103 said:
Same here, disconnects from wifi a lot.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Wi-fi issues here at all.. Even with the door closed, when I got to the next room, get plenty of signal and speed...
pinn___________ said:
In OP, I said compared to my previous phone. Also, have trouble with mobile data being very slow. With that being said, I have moved provider to EE but they are supposed to have decent coverage.
Not sure now whether to return and get a new one or get the Notes 3 instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to move to 4G... EE 3G is so slow... I get 10 times the speed I used to get on EE 3G now that I'm on EE 4G...
Sean473 said:
No Wi-fi issues here at all.. Even with the door closed, when I got to the next room, get plenty of signal and speed...
You might want to move to 4G... EE 3G is so slow... I get 10 times the speed I used to get on EE 3G now that I'm on EE 4G...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No 4g where I'm at yet - promised by Xmas....
Sean473 said:
No Wi-fi issues here at all.. Even with the door closed, when I got to the next room, get plenty of signal and speed...
You might want to move to 4G... EE 3G is so slow... I get 10 times the speed I used to get on EE 3G now that I'm on EE 4G...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've turned off the the wifi optimisation off, it seems to of helped but still not as good as the wifi on the HTC One.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 2
Flashmore said:
Id just like to know, Wifi is that bad, compared to what?
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC One
Galaxy S4
iPhone 5
iPhone 5S
Basically it is rubbish so far. The signal and speed is not as good as other devices.
Interested in hearing more from people who say it is fine.
Fine compared to what? Can you give examples?
---------- Post added at 04:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:41 PM ----------
As an example between Z1 and a 5S.
Same router, same distance.
Speedtest.net app on each phone.
Z1
Ping: 248ms
Down: 0.42
Up: 1.25
5S
Ping: 45ms
Down: 17.49
Up: 2.5
(I have around 20mbit fibre with around 3-4mbit up)
How frustrating, I was looking at upgrading to this phone, and reading most of the posts floating around I am having huge deja vu experiences with the newly launched Xperia Z and the pains associated with being some of the first. I feel for you all.
While we are talking WIFI, anyone tested the 802.11ac bands?
maverick1103 said:
I've turned off the the wifi optimisation off, it seems to of helped but still not as good as the wifi on the HTC One.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a proper test yesterday. Closed my living room door (living room is where router is) and closed my own room's door... Got plenty of signal and about 33Mb/s which is good considering my connection is a 50Mb/s one.. Get about 48 on my laptop which is very near router...Don't see any issues here

Especially bad low signal battery life

My house has terrible reception in general (T-Mobile!), but I've never had a phone drain THIS quickly due to searching for signal.
I've set it to 2G only (I only get EDGE at my house anyway, THANKS OBAMA) and it seems to be helping.
Is the Nexus 5 or Kit Kat in general aggressive with searching for 3G/4G signal in anyone else's experience?
Like I said, other phones haven't had this issue.
Cheers
Sent from my Nexus 5
Ajfink said:
My house has terrible reception in general (T-Mobile!), but I've never had a phone drain THIS quickly due to searching for signal.
I've set it to 2G only (I only get EDGE at my house anyway, THANKS OBAMA) and it seems to be helping.
Is the Nexus 5 or Kit Kat in general aggressive with searching for 3G/4G signal in anyone else's experience?
Like I said, other phones haven't had this issue.
Cheers
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have terrible signal too and standby time is horrible. I'll try using faux kernel and report back.
I have same setup as you except my network settings are set to LTE even though there is no lte in my area. Not saying i have great battery life, but it isnt 49% looking for signal.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
I have this SAME problem, and the signal on my phone is terrible compared to my last LTE phone.
same problem at work...... I dont know how 1 place can go from lte to 4g to edge all with in a small building with 1 floor. First day while being at school i got 3 hours screentime on lte, today at work i got like 1.5 hours.
27% over 12 hours with one bar seems just fine to me..
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Mine reacts different with st att. I get 1 bar of lte in my home when I force lte. If I do auto switch gsm/lte it opts to 3 to 4 bars of hspa, which of course I prefer at home on Wi-Fi.
I've used tmobile for most of my smart phone life and always used tasker to switch to edge when connected to Wi-Fi. Saved a lot of battery. So your experience has been what I normally get.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2
I have T-mobile as well and my house is in a bad spot. I found that with my note 2 I could use the dialer debug codes to manually set the phone to what ever freq and service I wanted. I found this to greatly help my battery as the modems for T-mo are particularly bad at determining the correct type of service to use and needlessly killing battery.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2
At least I'm not alone. It's just annoying to have to switch to 2G only when I go home. -.-
Sent from my Nexus 5
Are you guys using wifi while at home? If not then you really should. It generally makes the data modem go into a lower power state if wifi is connected saving battery. Thats how it is on my VZW galaxy nexus.
blackhand1001 said:
Are you guys using wifi while at home? If not then you really should. It generally makes the data modem go into a lower power state if wifi is connected saving battery. Thats how it is on my VZW galaxy nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do use WiFi at my house.
Sent from my Nexus 5
I have full data bars in my area. If I turn WiFi off and just use data the battery drains significantly faster.
I am new to T-Mobile, I was with Verizon and my house on Verizon barely gets LTE. My galaxy nexus never got LTE but with T-Mobile my Nexus 5 has 3-4 bars of LTE. So I've been using LTE lately and my battery life has been great. I get 5 + hours screen on time with LTE.
Of course Verizon says my area has great 4g service too but anybody who has came to my house either gets 1 bar of LTE or 3g on Verizon. Trying to acquire a signal will of course eat battery though but I will tell you what I am very happy with T-Mobile so far, a lot better then I expected.
I am happy with the battery life and signal strength where I live and travel to.
I noticed this issue today as well... hoping for a solution...
kgptzac said:
I noticed this issue today as well... hoping for a solution...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, manually switching to 2G-only when you're in the affected area removes the problem, but you'll need to switch it back to LTE when you go anywhere with a better connection time. Settings > More > Mobile Networks > Network Mode.
If you're worried about battery life. There's a few things you can do. I found that turning off my "Ok Google" hot word detection increased battery life immensely. Also try turning off Google Now sometimes. I realize that the highlight of this phone more or less was Google Now, but if you don't need it for a certain period of time, turn it off. Doesn't hurt to try.
Try out Faux kernel also. On his test 7 (I think he just put out test 8) I was on track to get 60 hours of standby time. I'll try and dig up the screenshot..hopefully I didn't loose it one of my many wipes..
ZenithHammerhead said:
Try out Faux kernel also. On his test 7 (I think he just put out test 8) I was on track to get 60 hours of standby time. I'll try and dig up the screenshot..hopefully I didn't loose it one of my many wipes..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean Franco? Faux kernel is only on 002 beta 2, Franco's is on test build 8.
I had this problem and I sent my phone back and got a new one. The new phone doesn't do it at all just got a day and a half with over 4 hours screen time. I think some of the nexus 5's are a bit dodgy.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
D3_ said:
Do you mean Franco? Faux kernel is only on 002 beta 2, Franco's is on test build 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Sorry, I had flashed both kernels and decided on Franco for now because it seems he's had the most progress so far. He also received his own device today so he should be able to get even more things done!
Looking forward to both of their kernels!
kurnis said:
I have this SAME problem, and the signal on my phone is terrible compared to my last LTE phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. It looks like my N5 gets 5-8 dBm worse signal than my N4.

Stronger wifi

It seems that the Wi-Fi on the nexus 5 is a lot more sensitive then on the Nexus 4. With no changes in network gear I'm able to get WiFi in more places than before. It even stronger than my old HP laptop.
I noticed that as well although at first I paniced because the wifi bars would show weak signal.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I've experienced the exact opposite.
It does do really well on WiFi huh? I was surprised a few days after I got it, sitting in a parking lot trying to swipe some free WiFi and the Tab 8.9 wouldn't connect, but the Nexus 5 did. It's almost on par with my HP ultrabook, which no mobile device has touched.
Does well on 5ghz too, which is a nice bonus, since I prefer to use 5ghz to avoid all the clutter on the 2.4g band.
yeah it's awesome. I live on the 6th floor of an apartment building and I was able to get signal from the first floor (not the void deck but in the open space surrounding my building though)
WiFi signal strength was my concern after a few users reported weak WiFi reception. My N5 got great WiFi reception, which is similar to SGS3/4 reception and better than iPhone 5 has.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Moostafa29 said:
I've experienced the exact opposite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same.
At home in my bedroom across the house from my router I would have no trouble with my N4. Not so much with my N5.
What is strange for me is that I can see APs that I couldn't see with my Galaxy S2, but the AP I m connected to has now a weaker signal.
I hope that is only software related...
wow!
A mostly positive thread about a nexus 5 feature. My WiFi is great and faster also than my htc's.
Mine consistently shows weaker signal on both Wi-Fi and mobile network compared to my s4. Using Wi-Fi analyzer I see more networks with my s4. I tried turning off n5 battery saving on Wi-Fi and it makes a slight difference. I feel the signal is weak for the n5.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Any coverage of the top half of the back of the phone sees a big drop in WiFi reception for me.
If I'm in a different room from the router, even placing the phone down on its back sees a big drop in WiFi strength.
Those in this thread saying they have strong reception, what happens when you do the above?
waspattack said:
Any coverage of the top half of the back of the phone sees a big drop in WiFi reception for me.
If I'm in a different room from the router, even placing the phone down on its back sees a big drop in WiFi strength.
Those in this thread saying they have strong reception, what happens when you do the above?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That can actually severely hamper landscape usage if true.
I did some testing and Wi-Fi speeds do match my S4 despite the meter reading showing lower signal. Also, even with 1 bar less than max for mobile, I get incredible LTE speed.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Seems about the same to me vs the N4.
darkgoon3r96 said:
That can actually severely hamper landscape usage if true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really had to cup my hand over top to get the signal to drop. So unless you hold your phone as if it was a baby bird, you should be fine.
I think the opposite of this phone. In the back of my house I get 1 bar on the N5. On my old S3 I would get 2-3 bars and wifi worked just fine. With the N5 and 1 bar wifi is not working nearly as well. I also noticed that the signal is weaker on the N4.
coolguy949 said:
Mine consistently shows weaker signal on both Wi-Fi and mobile network compared to my s4. Using Wi-Fi analyzer I see more networks with my s4. I tried turning off n5 battery saving on Wi-Fi and it makes a slight difference. I feel the signal is weak for the n5.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I've found as well. But to be honest, I think the S4 is able to get really good signal. I had a iPhone5 a couple of months ago and wasn't able to get signal in a certain part of my house (same with my N5). With my S4, I was able to get signal just fine.
Has anyone tried the 802.11ac band yet? I don't have a router that can broadcast on that.
Caelrie said:
Has anyone tried the 802.11ac band yet? I don't have a router that can broadcast on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using 5ghz and as mentioned a couple posts above the signal seems worse at the back of my house. Maybe I will switch to 2.4ghz tonight and see if that makes any difference.
EcPercy said:
I am using 5ghz and as mentioned a couple posts above the signal seems worse at the back of my house. Maybe I will switch to 2.4ghz tonight and see if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But unless it's actually the ac wifi, you don't have access to beamforming, which is supposed to help with the range weaknesses of the 5ghz band. The nexus 5 is one of the very first devices to support it, so I'm curious.

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