Samsung Galaxy S4 GPS constant searching for location and GPS signal lost. What do I need to do to get it working?

[AC Question]

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPS constant "searching for location" and "GPS signal lost".

Hello, I have a Samsung galaxy S4 that I've had for about a year now. Ever since the most recent update, my GPS has not been working and this is causing me a lot of stress. Whenever I use Google Maps, it rarely finds my exact location, no matter how long I wait. It kinds of gives me an about location, but only for a few minutes before it says "GPS signal lost". I never had a problem with this before the update. My GPS was always spot on. Whenever I try waiting for it to find me, there is simply a perpetual "searching for location...". As mentioned before, this is really stressing me out, since I know I will not be able to find my way back home if I am ever lost. Please let me know what I need to do, and thanks in advance.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 GPS constant "searching for location" and "GPS signal lost".

No guarantee, but it won't cause any problems either, so try:

Open the Phone, as if you were going to make a phone call and dial -
*#9090# -- Diagnostic Configuration (*#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 fix could take up to 20 minutes (it's doing a cold start). Run GPS Status & Toolbox so you can see which satellites it's seeing a signal from [yellow] and which it's received a full transmission from [green]. Once you have about 5 green ones, you should see your latitude, longitude and the rest. From then on, unless you have the phone off and fly thousands of miles, a fix should take 2-10 seconds when you turn the GPS on. (I typically run around 4-6 seconds, but I stay around town.) The time to first fix is normal for the system (the GPS system - the receiver has to receive complete, uninterrupted transmissions from at least 5 satellites to first fix - the slightest bit of noise and it has to wait until the next transmission begins, and that's for each satellite), no GPS gets an instant fix from a cold start. The few seconds for a warm start is also normal. And you won't get more than about 1 fix per second - that's also normal.

AGPS, which is what''s used in cellphones (Assisted GPS) makes that cold start faster, but travel halfway around the world, turn the phone on and it's still going to take a while to that first fix.

 

[MeenaMinaMoe]

OP here. After clicking on NV Rebuild, the only options I'm given are as follows:

NV REBUILD
[1] Load default NV
[2] Erase All EFS1/2/3!
[3] Make Back-up
[4] Restore Back-up
[5] Erase only Backup

-----------------------------
Golden-Backup exist
You can Restore Cal/NV
-----------------------------

Where should I go from here? Clicking on NV REBUILD again doesn't show anymore options.

 

[Jwfb]

Hi I have a Samsung Note 3 and the gps navigation has never work reliably and could not be trusted. I tried just about everything even a factory reset. I was about to buy a new phone when I found a article suggesting that I install an app from Pay Store called TopNTP. I installed it and for the last 2 days my Google Maps have been perfectly. Maybe TopNTP could work for all the Samsung phones????

 

[meeoz]

Fixed - all i needed to do was make sure all 9 screws under the back cover were tight!
After months on no GPS - It now works perfectly

 

[xart5 xart5]

thank you so much. topntp is great program. now the gps works perfect/