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My GPS worked fine all day, but when the phone was sitting on my desk running Google Maps (I get a pretty good GPS reception through a Velux window), I noticed my location rapidly heading off south of France. At that point the phone dropped the signal, and I haven't been able to get a lock since.
GPS Status is only showing the one satellite lock, Google Maps can't get a position fix either. Tried restarting the phone, and have run out of ideas. Just about to try the TomTom to see if it can get a lock here...
From what you're describing, with no software able to get a lock, could be a hardware failure. Try logging a support call with HTC.
Hi Rob,
Just an update to this - I checked the NOTAMs and it turns out the military was conducting GPS jamming trials. The GPS received worked fine the next morning.
Kind regards,
Dave.
Hi Everybody,
I am very interested in purchasing the Tmo-US version of this phone when it is avaliable and I would like to know how is the GPS on these phones? How fast does it lock and for those who are coming from SGS, can you see a big difference in GPS performance? I am currently using a SGS vibrant on tmo-us and GPS is very bad on it. Thanks
better than thge galaxy s.
First time i used it it took like 10 minutes to lock on lol, but then each time after that pretty much instant (or close enough)!
Not perfect for mine, sometimes under the sky also cant lock any satellite or scan no satellite in car. But other people are getting pretty good result though. That's why i am not sure it's my problem or not.
I edited the gps.conf file for my location (not sure if neccesary, but had the file from my previous HD2 so figured wtf..)
gps locks in 15 seconds when outside
Mine is MUCH snappier than my previous HTC desire
Best gps I've experienced on a phone. Better than my omnia, hero and my wife's galaxy s, which is terrible
Thanks for the quick replies. I am sure with some new updates the performance will improve even better. I cant wait to get my hands on G2x now.
Also extremely happy with the GPS. Using MileageTrac everyday, and the GPS locks within 3-4 secs every time.
GPS is perfect. It locks satellites in 7-20 seconds. Accuracy is 5m.
so a few more uses and yeah still instant. thumbs up!
for those who got fast gps fix time, may I know what baseband are you guys using?
Can it be used for car navigation like the Desire HD? Anyone tried it?
I think I fixed mine.
Solution was (at least one among them)
- push appropriate gps.conf to /system/etc
- modify APN type of Mobile data to "default,supl"
- turn off wireless while aquiring GPS fix
My GPS now fixes within seconds with mobile data enabled.
Have any of you tried GPS Status? It helped alleviate slow-to-lock AGPS issues on my Incredible. If you launch the app, it forces a new download of the carrier's GPS file. GPS lock went from 2-3 minutes on some buggy ROMs to under 20 seconds.
It's not the most elegant of solutions, but it works.
pascaliut said:
Can it be used for car navigation like the Desire HD? Anyone tried it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, quite a few times works great.
I agree. Use it everyday. It seems more stable than the DHD with better signal lock.
The demo unit at the T-mobile store I went to yesterday had a horrible GPS.
It would freeze up google maps and wouldn't lock AT ALL when the satellite antennae was turned on.
With the antennae turned on, google maps worked, but the circle for your location was huge (obviously).
Tarzanman said:
The demo unit at the T-mobile store I went to yesterday had a horrible GPS.
It would freeze up google maps and wouldn't lock AT ALL when the satellite antennae was turned on.
With the antennae turned on, google maps worked, but the circle for your location was huge (obviously).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you trying to use it indoors or did they let you take it outside to test it out?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Tarzanman said:
The demo unit at the T-mobile store I went to yesterday had a horrible GPS.
It would freeze up google maps and wouldn't lock AT ALL when the satellite antennae was turned on.
With the antennae turned on, google maps worked, but the circle for your location was huge (obviously).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try GPS on any other phones? Signal could have been bad inside the building.
Being a Vibrant owner, with all its GPS issues, I'm very interested in how the this works on the G2X before I consider switching.
Thanks.
Worked fine whilst I was out today. Only problem was a lack of a data connection.
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk
Since the JB update, my phone can never get a GPS fix. I have used both GPS Status & GPS Test which, after 30 min outside in an open area, briefly found up to 7 satellites but no GPS fix. Maps and Nav refuse to work without a proper GPS fix. Suggestions?
EDIT: Here is a video of how I got it working, which seems hardware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6XyGOrO6-4
I always have raved on how great the GPS is on my S4. It will lock onto satellites with 10' accuracy in the house. It was always spot on and never gave me any issues. That was until the 4.3 update. (I am not positive this was the reason - but it is around that time).
I am a runner so I use my phone 3-4 days a week to track my run 3-10 miles each time out. Before it was always perfect. Now it will lock on and track for a various amount of time.. from a few minutes to 15 minutes - but it will eventually just stop working. If I turn on the phone to look, the GPS icon at the top is not there, and the app does not know it lost gps signal. I can touch the screen and then the gps icon reappears, blinks, reconnects and all is good. I turn off the screen and go about my run and it will work for some period of time and then off again.
It "seems" like to me some app is using the gps and then not playing friendly and turning it off for the other apps. I don't know if that is what is happening but it seems that way.
I get the same results no matter if I use Google Maps, Waze, Runkeeper, or GPS Test... so it is not application issue persay.
I restored to factory and installed only what I need to run (Runkeeper and Google Play music) and it worked without a hitch for the entire 6 mile run. Great! Fixed! So I re-installed my apps and now it is doing the same thing again. So that seems to indicate another app not playing nice like I mentioned above. So I uninstalled any apps that I thought might be an issue and it is still there. So I fear it might be one of the ATT bloatware apps that I cannot uninstall.
Before I undertake the very tedious task of restoring to factory, running 6 miles, installing 1 app, running 6 miles, repeat --- until I find the culprit - I was hoping someone might no a quicker solution?
Thanks!
Obeg said:
I always have raved on how great the GPS is on my S4. It will lock onto satellites with 10' accuracy in the house. It was always spot on and never gave me any issues. That was until the 4.3 update. (I am not positive this was the reason - but it is around that time).
I am a runner so I use my phone 3-4 days a week to track my run 3-10 miles each time out. Before it was always perfect. Now it will lock on and track for a various amount of time.. from a few minutes to 15 minutes - but it will eventually just stop working. If I turn on the phone to look, the GPS icon at the top is not there, and the app does not know it lost gps signal. I can touch the screen and then the gps icon reappears, blinks, reconnects and all is good. I turn off the screen and go about my run and it will work for some period of time and then off again.
It "seems" like to me some app is using the gps and then not playing friendly and turning it off for the other apps. I don't know if that is what is happening but it seems that way.
I get the same results no matter if I use Google Maps, Waze, Runkeeper, or GPS Test... so it is not application issue persay.
I restored to factory and installed only what I need to run (Runkeeper and Google Play music) and it worked without a hitch for the entire 6 mile run. Great! Fixed! So I re-installed my apps and now it is doing the same thing again. So that seems to indicate another app not playing nice like I mentioned above. So I uninstalled any apps that I thought might be an issue and it is still there. So I fear it might be one of the ATT bloatware apps that I cannot uninstall.
Before I undertake the very tedious task of restoring to factory, running 6 miles, installing 1 app, running 6 miles, repeat --- until I find the culprit - I was hoping someone might no a quicker solution?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure it's not staying connected but not displaying the icon? Ie, if the app hasn't realised the connection has dropped, maybe that's because the connection hasn't dropped, just the icon has? In tech terms, to solve a problem you must first find it by isolating the cause, which would be the tedious task you're referring to.
Even then, it is possible it's a hardware or firmware issue, so a factory reset still might not fix it. Have you tried an app like this? It ill set your NTP Server without searching for it so that it connects quicker, maybe (I'm not sure) it will be able to keep it connected to that server.
Do you have CWM? You could flash a different ROM.
I can confirm this problem. It is intermittent. GPS loses the location fix. I had a similar problem with certain Motorola Attic ROMs that had something to do with a conflict with the "Use Wireless Networks" setting. I'm those ROMs, I could turn that setting off, and GPS would work fine. That workaround doesn't work for this ROM. I only mention it to help rule some things out. I thought that it worked fine right after I updated, but I may not have used the GPS much our maybe I just didn't notice. Yesterday, it was barely usable. I remember that epinter, in the Atrix 4g forums, had a tool that reset some GPS settings. I'm see if I can find it and test it. I will report back.
Update: Today, GPS works perfectly fine. Seems to be intermittent.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
Still having the issue. Reset my phone to factory again this time taking the extra step to format the SD card to just in case. By the way - I am running stock AT&T 4.3. This time when I reset I did not connect to the WiFi so it would not automatically install / update any apps.
I then added only 2 apps - Runkeeper and Play Music and went for a run. The GPS tracked perfectly for a 5 mile run.
I then installed GPS test and let it run for an hour or so. It never lost connection.
So I updated GMAIL. Repeat GPS Test.
Updated Hangouts. Repeat GPS Test.
And so on.. finally after about the 10th app it failed. The last app I had installed was Facebook.
So uninstalled. Failed again. Uninstalled the previous app to that which I think was My Fitness Pal.
It seemed better - it would go hours before failing... and then only seemed to fail when a phone call came in. So thought I could live with that.
So went to the gym and to test it I used Google Maps to navigate. Terrible! Would not work for more than a mile. I finally gave up.
When I say it is not working - I mean the GPS says it is on. The GPS Test app says the GPS is on. But the icon at top goes away and Google Maps says "GPS Signal Lost." In my Run Keeper app - same thing - icon goes away and no more mileage is recorded. If I turn on the phone, open Runkeeper - it then restarts the GPS and all is good for another few feet or maybe a mile and then it does it again.
I tried turning off the Use Wifi for GPS option and that has not helped. Thanks for the suggestion though - you gave me hope.
I have have been a software developer for 20 years and this just smells like buggy code somewhere and not a hardware issue. Either something to do with the new OS update from ATT (but why is no one else complaining) or some combination of apps I use. Runkeeper. My Pebble. Something. But it is driving me nuts. The GPS really is the main app I use on this phone... so it is making for a really expensive mistake at this point and I hate to admit that since I love Samsung and Android.
I should have updated my status again. The problem is intermittent, but it happens often. Like you, I am fairly certain that the ML2 update brought bugs with it. My GPS always worked perfectly before that. Now, even when it does work, it doesn't work well. The fix is jumpy and slow to update. My guess is that others also have the problem, and they don't use their GPS often enough to notice or care. I bet that Samsung is aware of it, but so many people had problems installing the last update that they will not be so quick to provide an update that doesn't affect many people. I guess a better way to put it is that Samsung probably doesn't want to take a chance that a small update might break more than it fixes.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
I also have same GPS issue since 4.3 , same issues note 3 is having actually if I plug my active in while GPS is on it will stop working and when switching data network types it will lose GPS signal
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
Convinced it is the 4.3 ATT Active update now after repeated and very controlled resetting and testing.
Frustrating and makes my phone fairly useless to me for my main purposes. Today during a 7 mile run - it lost connection at least a half a dozen times. I have to run with the phone in my hand and restart the gps constantly.
Some people said they had success using Odin to flash the MF1 modem bin file. The thread discusses it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2691264
However, this did not fix my issues with GPS unfortunately, but thought maybe I'd post it in case it helps someone else.
So it appears that it is, as suggested, the radio that causes this issue.
A "workaround" for using the GPS is to put the phone into airplane mode (turning off the Radio and WiFi) fixes the GPS 100% in my testing.
However this is not a real fix for real use of the GPS to navigate since you have no access to data.
It appears these are the circumstances that cause my GPS to drop:
- Cell radio changes towers (which happens a lot in my remote area)
- WiFi changes antennas
- Phone is plugged in or unplugged
- A phone call is received.
So yeah - as long as your don't use your phone as a telephone - you are grand!
The new HTC One is looking mighty nice to me right now. First non Samsung component (phone, laptop, TV, etc) that I have considered in years...
Obeg said:
So it appears that it is, as suggested, the radio that causes this issue.
A "workaround" for using the GPS is to put the phone into airplane mode (turning off the Radio and WiFi) fixes the GPS 100% in my testing.
However this is not a real fix for real use of the GPS to navigate since you have no access to data.
It appears these are the circumstances that cause my GPS to drop:
- Cell radio changes towers (which happens a lot in my remote area)
- WiFi changes antennas
- Phone is plugged in or unplugged
- A phone call is received.
So yeah - as long as your don't use your phone as a telephone - you are grand!
The new HTC One is looking mighty nice to me right now. First non Samsung component (phone, laptop, TV, etc) that I have considered in years...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's weird that even in airplane mode my Active won't get a gps signal. Used a few apps to test as well: GPS Status, FasterGPS, GPS test, and all say no satellites in site.
I was getting GPS issues for quite some time, until I tightened the screws at the back of my case. It was supposed to be a fix for the S3 but it worked fine on my S4 as well.
Hope this helps
trenzterra said:
I was getting GPS issues for quite some time, until I tightened the screws at the back of my case. It was supposed to be a fix for the S3 but it worked fine on my S4 as well.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On your S4 Active? I'll try. Thanks!
TransformixS4 said:
On your S4 Active? I'll try. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was a normal S4 but I guess it might be the same on the S4 Active as well
trenzterra said:
Mine was a normal S4 but I guess it might be the same on the S4 Active as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried tightening up the screws a bit, which they did, but still no GPS for me. Going to do a backup and another full wipe and restore.
AT&T fixed my phone
I too had the GPS signal lost issue after the 4.3 update on my S4 active on AT&T. I called AT&T yesterday and they advised me they were aware of the issue. Their instruction was to take my phone to Best Buy where they have a "Samsung Solutions / Experience" dept / kiosk. So I did. They flashed my phone to 4.4.2. I am happy to report that all GPS problems are resolved. I drove for over an hour using Google Maps this AM with no problem at all.
GPS is a big deal for me too. I drive in a lot of unfamiliar towns. I'm also a sportsman and spend a lot of time in unfamiliar woods. I rely on my phone to allow me to retrace my steps back if need be. I also use it to set waypoints and mark areas for possible future hunts. The woods look a lot different at night then during the day. So I rely on the phone to help navigate off the beaten trail and get to my tree stand. GPS failures are not an option. Pure and simple. I can get out of the woods with a compass - but I may not find my tree stand in the dark without my phone.
I don't know about rooting this ROM, etc as I don't have need to root my phones. But it did fix the GPS issue and the phone seems a little faster with battery battery life too. YMMV.
Thanks for your post! Did you l lose any data with the update to 4.4.2?
I have the same exact problem with my S4 active, definitely a software issue. For a while I used the airplane mode work-around which was great, until a recent update to Google Maps causes maps to crash when airplane mode is on, so now I'm back to having no navigation. I'm frustrated that AT&T has dragged their feet on getting an update out to the public. They must have zero QA to let a bug this obvious get into the public. I wonder when they'll push 4.4.2 out as a regular update?
AtrixInFL said:
Thanks for your post! Did you l lose any data with the update to 4.4.2?
I have the same exact problem with my S4 active, definitely a software issue. For a while I used the airplane mode work-around which was great, until a recent update to Google Maps causes maps to crash when airplane mode is on, so now I'm back to having no navigation. I'm frustrated that AT&T has dragged their feet on getting an update out to the public. They must have zero QA to let a bug this obvious get into the public. I wonder when they'll push 4.4.2 out as a regular update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I did not lose any data or apps. I have no complaints. Phone is working great. I'll never accept another update OTA though - I don't care if I have to root to avoid them.
I got the 4.4.2 over the air update, and it fixed my GPS problems. No new problems.
Hello everybody,
i would like to get some estimations regarding the quality of the GPS.
Please on the hardware- and the software end.
Last years i used a samsung I9300 and the GPS was fine.
Then i switched to an Elephone P9000. I think from the hardware end GPS was fine, but
it didn't work very well, maybe due to bad software? And it seems to be a common mediatek problem?
I didn't find anything in the internet, what do you think, does the GPS in p9 plus work well?
THX a lot,
Henning
As per my experience my P9 Plus has one of the best GPS I've ever experienced and it even works in the airplane pretty much accurately when comparing to airplane instruments. I'm based in SE Asia and have reception of American, Russian and few Chinese satellites and fix is pretty fast. No complaints here whatsoever.
Yes. GPS is great...
Hi,
in the meantime i also bought this phone.
I can confirm now that the GPS is very good.
It is even possible to see the two tracks on the road next by next if you drive
to a destination and come back the same way.
Also, had never this accurate GPS before...
lg
Henning
Model number?
Great to hear that you all have a good gps signal. I just bought the p9 plus too. But strangely the gps signal seems like "not so good" , in my opinion. The story has to begin with my previous Huawei's phone.
I had previously owned the mate 7, which it was came with KitKat version and the GPS worked flawlessly. I updated it to lollipop then and the GPS still work perfectly, once turn on the gps, it takes only seconds (yes, it's really seconds, less than 5 seconds to be more appropriate...) to locate where I am. Those day I enjoyed using the gps as it was super fast and accurate. But things changed after I updated it to marshmallow recently. It became very unstable, very inaccurate. So I install the app "GPS test" and found that the accuracy is upto 150 feets which is very inaccurate (I can assure that the accuracy on KitKat and lollipop were only few feets or the most 10 plus feets, It was really super fast and accurate previously....). I know that weather, such as cloudy situation will affect the accuracy, numbers of satellites working etc so I tried to find out if that's the case but nope, I compared it with my cheap Elephone gps and under the same time same condition, I open the app and tested the gps, Elephone gave me the accuracy of 12 feets !
Sometimes when I try to use maps, it even can't detect where I am and if it does, it shows a wrong location. So I thought it is the problem of marshmallow as I searched on other forum and discovered that people also facing gps issue on Nexus phone with marshmallow version. I tried fixing it with another app "gps status & toolbox" , and also found out that "use wifi to improve accuracy" had to be turned on but the accuracy still only about 50 plus feets.
Then I bought the p9 plus, and hope that everything shall be very good just like the mate 7 KitKat and lollipop version, but it is not! The accuracy is also 50 plus feets after doing all the improvement work as above. So dear fellows I would like to ask what is your version of marshmallow and what is the accuracy of your p9 plus? Mine is VIE-L29C20B100. I am thinking if my version is not updated to the latest? And if there is a latest version , does the gps work good?
Hey guys!
I´m not really pleased with the performance of the GPS on my P9 plus ... but the app itself could be to blame. I was traveling on the highway and the navigation got confused and thought i´m traveling on the road parallel to the highway (surely minimum 100m distance between them). I´m using OSMand+ for navigation and it worked fine with other phones so far. Which app are you using?
I use Google maps, it works great imho, I came from a Galaxy S5
Try to create a new user profile on the phone. Switch to the new user and check if the GPS still behaves as you mentioned.
Hi all,
just to give some updates on my findings. Recently I went through a youtube video comparing mate 9 and p 9 plus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0impUegGO0&t=2s), at time 10:32 it showed exactly the GPS app that I use to test the GPS signal and it also showed exactly the same results as my p9 plus. This being said, I believe there is no way we can further improve the GPS accuracy and I suspect it is due to mashmallow problem (as I had said KitKat and lollipop run very well in accuracy and Nexus user with mashmallow also complain their GPS accuracy is not good), not because phone GPS not good. So maybe we will have to wait till Huawei release firmware update for android Nougat and see if it improves the GPS accuracy.
However, having said that, I didn't really find the GPS signal "not good" in real life. I mean, when u use the GPS app test the GPS it gives "not good" accuracy, but when I open the map for navigation, what I experience so far is EXTRAORDINARY GOOD. I turn on the GPS and immediately switch on the map app, it instantly locate where I am, not even trying to "looking for GPS signal", really really fast, really instantly locate where I am. And it is super accurate. So I think maybe the GPS app is not something that we should use to gauge whether the phone GPS quality good or not, the real life performance will tell more truth. Just like Antutu does not always really reflect the real performance of the phone.
So for those who are having GPS problems when using map, I will suggest u all try to use another map app, maybe the problems really came from the map itself but not phone GPS problem. So for this moment I will stop looking for solution to improve the GPS accuracy (on the GPS app wise), and enjoy using my p9 plus, hope u guys too
Hi, as you say, forget tests, how does it actually work in real life.
Bought my wife one a few days ago and last 2 days testing gps driving around was only seconds to fix and no dropouts in about 1 hour driving. Thats my test.
Great phone by the way, and top quality finish.
If only it had an FM radio...
Sent from my HTC One_M8 dual sim using XDA-Developers mobile app
I find it's slow to lock or find a location, compared to my previous phone (Z Ultra).
If I'm somewhere (even outside, away from buildings, with clear view of the sky) it will take a good few seconds to lock onto my location. Old phone, and even my tablet, are almost instant, taking no more than 1-2 seconds.
This is using Google Maps.
Just a minor niggle, but can be annoying when in the car and needing to find directions quickly.
djyoshii said:
I find it's slow to lock or find a location, compared to my previous phone (Z Ultra).
If I'm somewhere (even outside, away from buildings, with clear view of the sky) it will take a good few seconds to lock onto my location. Old phone, and even my tablet, are almost instant, taking no more than 1-2 seconds.
This is using Google Maps.
Just a minor niggle, but can be annoying when in the car and needing to find directions quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Staying outside, especially without any buildings around or an empty land, could be harder for the gps to locate you. I am guessing... This sounds not logic but let me tell what I found again...
Recently I use an app which provide public transport info. This app needs gps in order to locate where are you and provide the info for the public transport at the area you are standing at. Just when I switch on the app and yet to switch on gps, my gf helped me to press the "locate me" button and I was telling her don't do silly things as I haven't turn on gps. But right after that the phone located where I was! I was like ehhh...... how come.... I double check and confirmed that I didn't switch on gps!
So again, recently I am adjusting the phone settings hoping to lengthen the phone battery (even though it's already very good. I can use it for 2 days per charge ). I found something very annoying in one of the setting - location services. Numeral time I have chose the 1st option "use gps, wifi and mobile networks (high accuracy)" and it keeps set it back to the 2nd option " use wifi and mobile networks ". I thought it was a bug of the phone but then later when I relate it to the event happened earlier (the public transport event mentioned above), I was thinking could it because I never turn on gps? then I turned on gps and yes, it automatically switch to the 1st option, and when I switch off gps, it auto switch to 2nd option again.
I then realized that other day when the phone located me without turning on gps, I was close to the MRT station which provide free wifi. And I am not sure do you guys ever experience that sometimes when you switch on the map app without turning on gps, the map itself locate where u r (maybe not very accurate but it's at the bearby area), just that when u try to use the map it will ask u to switch on gps.
That being said, I suspect the phone continuously locate where we are by using the wifi router(if any, at the nearby place) because wifi router is location specific? (not sure, maybe expert know this...) and that's why when u don't switch on gps, it is already "pre-locate" where u r and only if u switch on gps it will immediately give u the accurate position. And that also means if u stay outside without any buildings (and so without wifi too), the phone could not pre-locate u and it will solely rely on gps and that's why take some time to locate where u r?
Anyway this weekend I will be going for a long distance trip and will test the gps to see if the phone give good gps signal
just back from the long journey vacation. The phone gps works flawlessly without dropping off at all. And time to locate also excellent within 2 seconds