Why is my Note 3 constantly searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade?

[AC Question]

Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

After I installed Lollipop on my Samsung Galaxy note 3, it started constantly trying to find a GPS signal. When the phone is locked and I turn it on, it will show "Searching for GPS" briefly on the lockscreen and then briefly slash "Location set by GPS", and then the lock screen goes black. Similarly, if the phone is unlocked, it will flash "Searching for GPS" briefly in the notification area, then immediately go to "Location set by GPS." It will do this non-stop I can't leave the GPS enabled because it will drain the battery quickly.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Try this:

Open Phone, as if you were going to make a phone call and dial -
*#9090# (*#197328640# if that doesn't work)
Menu, select Key Input, enter Q
Menu, select Key Input, enter 0000
wait for the next menu. (It takes a while.)
UMTS->COMMON->NV REBUILD->NV REBUILD->SYSTEM->PROTOCOL->GPS->IMS
or, if you don't have UMTS:
UE SETTINGS & INFO->SETTING->SYSTEM->NV REBUILD->ALL

Restart the phone.

The first (cold) fix should take about 20-30 seconds.

 

[DarrylGittins]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Woohoo! Thank you Rubkat, that seems to have fixed it! Can I buy you a beer?

 

[DarrylGittins]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Ugh. I spoke too soon. I see now that my Note 3 has started repeatedly polling GPS again, so I may be doing a complete rebuild.

 

[gozirra]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Before you do, see if just resetting the GPS and redownloading positional data fixes it?

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en&token=R_9uiJfV

Run that, then in the app, tap the screen, and when you see the menu bar appear, hit the wrench, then Manage A-GPS state, then reset. Then tap the screen again, wrench, Manage A-GPS state, download. Wait until it says it has downloaded GPS assistance data. Then restart the phone. It has always worked for me, across four generations of Android phones.

 

[emad1995]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Mines been doing the same thing, it's always looking for a signal

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DarrylGittins]

I think I resolved this. The cause was my own bad. When I reset the phone to factory defaults, I used the Google Play Store option to restore my settings and apps. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the option to select the device that I wanted to restore from. I have a few Android devices listed in that option and I failed to change it from the default device and select the Note 3. As such, Google restored the wrong device settings and apps to the Note 3. Anyway, I did another factory reset and chose the option not to restore anything, and then I installed the apps I wanted manually. More work, but safer! Anyhow, currently the problem does seem to be resolved and I'm also no longer seeing the multiple crashes that were also occurring (that I didn’t previously mentioned).

Thanks very much Rukbat and gozirra for the tips and advice! That helped me a lot to think the issue through!!

 

[Sch00n3r]

I factory rest my phone but as you mentioned the app data restore seemed to have restored this GPS bug.

Instead of manually installing all of my 100+apps again, I went into settings -> Location and saw that the google app, google play services and unified daemon (EUR) were listed in the recent location requests list. I went into each of those apps and cleared all of their data. GPS settled down after I cleared the data for the unified daemon (EUR).

In fact now, when I go into the location settings again I don't even see it listed there and GPS requests have settled right down to nearly nothing. It would seem that something in the backed up unified daemon settings causes the daemon to get bent out of shape after the upgrade.

Clearing app data for the google play service and google now will also wipe out your home screen config if you are using the google now launcher as I am. It will also disable google now cards... so you'll have to re-enable them. I would try just resetting the daemon data first.

Anyways, this prevents another factory reset and the need to manually install apps. I hope this helps someone else as I was getting quite frustrated with this issue.

Cheers!

Sch00n3r

 

[Sch00n3r]

Quick update... It is definitely the unified daemon (EUR) process. However clearing the data isn't a fix. It started searching for gps again so I disabled it in the application manager menu. Now the gps lookups have stopped. Hopefully disabling this service won't impact anything. I'm guessing that it is OK... Since Samsung blocks you from disabling core processes. The EUR tag suggests that it may be something specific to European countries. *shrug*. If I have any further updates I will drop them here.

Cheers,

SCH00N3R

 

[emad1995]

Quick update... It is definitely the unified daemon (EUR) process. However clearing the data isn't a fix. It started searching for gps again so I disabled it in the application manager menu. Now the gps lookups have stopped. Hopefully disabling this service won't impact anything. I'm guessing that it is OK... Since Samsung blocks you from disabling core processes. The EUR tag suggests that it may be something specific to European countries. *shrug*. If I have any further updates I will drop them here.

Cheers,

SCH00N3R

It has something to do with the weather widget that comes default

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Sch00n3r]

Good catch! Yep. I re-enabled the unified daemon and then turned off the weather option for my lock screen. No more gps updates. Disabling the daemon will break some widgets so not recommended.

 

[DarrylGittins]

Wow. I can't believe I reset my phone TWICE to try to figure this out. You're absolutely right: as soon as I enable that weather option for my cover (which also turns on the weather notification on the lock screen), the problem came back. It's off again now and I'm back up to two days of battery use.

Thanks guys!!

 

[sirknosie]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That constant cycling on and off was driving me crazy! I didn't even notice that it started after I put on the sview case. I disabled weather and presto! No more GPS problems.

 

[marcinek]

Unified Daemon - foud guilty!
Thanks, You've made my day after two day frustration after receiving Lollipop on my Note 3

 

[uraburr]

I have the same issue, Searching for GPS on the lock screen. For me I found it to be Sprint Zone. How? Open the Location settings that shows you the apps requesting your location. Leave that open and lock your phone. When you wake the phone and see Searching for quickly GPS unlock the phone. You will see the location settings you left open when you locked the phone. I found that every time I had the Searching for GPS message Sprint Zone was requesting my location. Now to remove that bloat ware.

 

[shanealbrandt]

How do you do this? I couldn't find Settings for my lock screen that included weather options? My phone is still constantly searching for the Location....my battery is lasting me about 3 hours on average. SO FRUSTRATED!

 

[uraburr]

I am not sure if you were asking me those questions or someone from above. if you want o disable the weather notification on the lock screen, open the default weather app (click on it), click the menu for it and then settings. uncheck the option for showing weather info on lock screen and S view cover.

Now if you want to actually find the app causing the Searching for GPS on the lock screen, I would do what I suggested:
- open Settings -> Locations. This shows you apps that recently requested your location.
- leave that screen open
- lock your phone - pressing power button
- wake up your phone by pressing power button or motion of you have that activated
- if you see Searching for GPS on your lock screen, unlock your phone
- your location setting will active showing you the apps that are requesting your location
- I would disable most of them and find out which one is active every time the message is on your lock screen.

For me I was able to narrow it down to Sprint Zone.

 

[JT Moss]

Settings --> Lock screen --> additional information --> weather

 

[Franksr2573]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

Neither one of those codes worked for me? Maybe because my Note 3 using Sprint? I can't turn "Locations" on now as it keeps "Searching for GPS" constantly and runs my battery down in 3 to 4 hours. Samsung doesn't even recognize there is a problem between the Note 3 and Android version 5!

 

[anon8380037]

Re: Note 3 constantly Searching for GPS after Lollipop upgrade

I don't have Lollipop on mine yet.
Just to say when there were GPS issues last year, possibly after KitKat, many found the app GPS Status (and toolbox - as was) very helpful in getting a sat fix quicker.

(Thanks to FBA for his knowledge).

I am sure it will eventually settle down, hopefully before I update.