GPS is beyond screwed up

jaymzb0nd

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Feb 12, 2011
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I moved a week ago from OC to LA however my GPS keeps showing me as being at my old house. It's bizarre. I've tried resetting the phone, powering on/off my location settings, airplane mode, clearing the cache for apps like Maps, etc, and nothing is working.

Any ideas?
 

Rukbat

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Install GPS Status & Toolbox, so you can see what's happening. It sounds as if you're not getting a GPS reading (signals from the satellites) but some kind of "cache" from the GPS receiver. GPS Status will show you which satellites you're receiving (if you are). (It may take up to 5 minutes for the first fix after you install it, but after that the normal time-to-first-fix is normally on the order of 3-4 seconds.)
 

MizWylie

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I've tried everything I can think of to try and fix my GPS issues. I don't think there's a black hole in the middle of downtown.

Anyone with the same issue consider waiting for an update or getting the phone replaced?
 

Mike Dee

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I've tried everything I can think of to try and fix my GPS issues. I don't think there's a black hole in the middle of downtown.

Anyone with the same issue consider waiting for an update or getting the phone replaced?

When you say downtown I don't know where you're located but I sometimes drive into New York City/Manhattan and it works fine except for an occasional hiccup. Even when I'm walking in the streets. Not any different from any of the Moto, or LG devices. It was worse for me in Pittsburgh. A lot of deviation or trouble locking onto Satellites in urban areas with tall buildings especially with heavy cloud cover.

If you feel it's abnormal I would consider repair or replacement.
 

MizWylie

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When you say downtown I don't know where you're located but I sometimes drive into New York City/Manhattan and it works fine except for an occasional hiccup. Even when I'm walking in the streets. Not any different from any of the Moto, or LG devices. It was worse for me in Pittsburgh. A lot of deviation or trouble locking onto Satellites in urban areas with tall buildings especially with heavy cloud cover.

If you feel it's abnormal I would consider repair or replacement.
Yeah. It's just Helena, MT. Was driving the other day using Maps with my SYNC and it said "GPS Lost" and hasn't recovered since. Tried all the tricks I found online, a factory data reset as well. I have no idea what happened.
 

Mike Dee

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Yeah. It's just Helena, MT. Was driving the other day using Maps with my SYNC and it said "GPS Lost" and hasn't recovered since. Tried all the tricks I found online, a factory data reset as well. I have no idea what happened.

Not sure what SYNC means.

I dont get GPS lost very often. Mostly it just gets disoriented. Did you run any GPS apps to see if it is satellites are visible? Could be a bad antenna module or lose connection.
 

MizWylie

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Not sure what SYNC means.

I dont get GPS lost very often. Mostly it just gets disoriented. Did you run any GPS apps to see if it is satellites are visible? Could be a bad antenna module or lose connection.
SYNC is Ford's bluetooth service. When the GPS dropped I was using Google Maps on my phone.

I've tried a couple of GPS apps. Sats are visible until I get into heavy traffic areas. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I'm going to be taking a 1400+ road trip from California next week and not having functioning GPS would be a pain.
 

Ten Four

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In certain situations I have found it is best to turn off "Improve Location Accuracy" under "Google Location Accuracy." I use GPS a lot when on the water on a boat with a nautical charting program and Location Accuracy uses things like cell phone towers, which aren't out on the water so accuracy becomes degraded. I have experienced the same problem in areas on land with very few cell phone towers, like on roads in the Adirondack Mountains. I have found using GPS alone when in marginal coverage areas improves accuracy quite a bit.
 

jaymzb0nd

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I'm thinking it may be where I live. Just moved to downtown LA and even google maps on my laptop is showing me as being an hour away in my old home. Bizarre.
 

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