intermittent GPS issues with Galaxy S3 verizon

kjhman

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Mar 15, 2012
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HI everyone!

I was hoping someone could tell me what is going on exactly with my phone. I used to have the white 32gb s3 but i just traded it in for the blue one about last week. It seems like ever since i got the blue one (this could be a coincidence) that my GPS around my home is not working correctly. Within a 15 mile radius around my home, it cant pinpoint my location. I tried installing the gps tester app and it can only pull in about 1 satellite or not any at all. Once in drive towards work, which is about 30 miles away, once i get about half way there, my gps starts working great. connects to about 17 satellites. pinpoints my location in every gps app i try. Its been doing this for days.

so im wondering if there is something going on with GPS in my area. I called verizon and the person I talked to had no idea what to tell me.

I believe i've seen GPS not functioning correctly before in my area, but if so, then it was just for a day or 2.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

Keith
 

Devinator

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Do you have any other devices? If so, check to see if those devices can get a lock. That'd tell you if there is a problem with your area, or, a problem with the phone.
 

kjhman

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My friend has the galaxy s3 16gb and she has no issues with GPS in my area. I did a restore on my phone and it appeared to be working fine. Then it started acting up again. I guess im gonna have to go return it.
 

Devinator

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Definitely. If you are having problems after a reset and a friend isn't having problems on the same model of phone, you should definitely return it. Hope that fixes it!!

Sent from my DROID X2 using Android Central Forums
 

thomasmarcgodskid

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I'm having a similar issue. My GPS worked fine on my 32gb Blue Verizon Galaxy S3 for a month and a half then suddenly this week it stopped working. Might not be the same issue as when I use GPS Test my phone sees that there are 20+ satellites it's picking up. But the phone can't get a lock on any of them to identify my location.

I'm gonna factory reset (I've tried everything else with no success) and if that doesn't work, I'm going into Verizon to demand a replacement. I need gps and navigation!
 

Rukbat

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kjhman, just so you know, it's almost impossible to have a GPS problem "in your area". GPS is worldwide, and it's run by the government (not by your phone network). The GPS signals you receive come directly from 24 satellites up in the sky, and the ones over your head (the ones you see in your GPS test app) are constantly changing as they move. If there's a problem with the GPS system it gets fixed in minutes. There are a few very important things that screw up if there's a GPS problem - like ships at sea, commercial airliners and military vehicles (including missiles). The government is constantly (and I mean every single second) monitoring the system, and jumps on any problem as it occurs.

There are normally only 2 possible problems. 1) The time transmissions from the NBS to the satellites can stop or go bad (GPS is basically a measurement of "what time is it?" - to an accuracy of about 3 billionths of a second). There's backup that switches in immediately if that happens. 2) A satellite goes bad. The reason you see at least a few satellites in your GPS test app is to get around that. If one satellite fails you can still get your fix. If the problem can't be fixed from the ground, they'll launch a replacement satellite. Not so you can get your fix, but that ships, planes and the military can keep going.

So if you have a GPS problem, it's almost always your phone. Very rarely, there's interference in your area that's causing the signal to be useless. The FCC will be all over that if they're notified. (Same reason as above - military.) And probably never happen but possible - the AGPS data - where each satellite is at the moment, which you get from your carrier - could be bad. About the only way I can think of that happening is some really good terrorists.
 

ricklikesgolf

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Simple for me. Install gpsfix from market, then off the phone and pull the battery, restart the phone sand run gpsfix app. My GPS runs better than ever. Used gpstest app b4 gpsfix and no fix on even one satellite after gosfix I fixed on15.
 

Ryan Gillespie

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Tighten down all the screws on the back of the phone! I had the same problem. Tighten all 8 and restart your gs3. Problem instantly resolved! Hope this helps everyone
 

rustoman

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I had my GPS on my s3 stop. I tried reformatting, uninstall, reinstalling, GPS test all that were free. Nothing worked. After hours of headaches. I then remembered I had just reformatted my laptop to remove viruses.

When I ran malwarebytes antimalware and saw it had some corrupted files from my phone. I knew the problem was from malware on my phone.

To make this long story short and get to the happy ending I installed 360 security free at the play store, ran the cleanup until it was clean, ran the anti virus scan it had hundreds of bugs most removed by cleaning till my phone came up clean.Then ran the GPS test and Walla The satellites came in, GPS started working. And the navigation voice that was gone worked too.

Cure install 360 security clean clean clean, also run anti virus, the the GPS test. Hope this helps those who take time to read this. It really worked when all the suggestions here did nothing. B-)
 

rustoman

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I had the same problem. The problem is malware. I got mine working by installing 360 security and cleaning till it showed clean. Ran the GPS test and they all came in, and the Nav voice that was gone also returned too.

All is working great and none of suggestions here helped. But I was determined being a electronics Tech. was not going to let it beat me.
 

badhyme

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While that app you are promoting may be cool, tightening up the screws on the back took me from 1 or 2 satellites, to 14 immediately.
Thanks for the information. Waze now works great. :)
 

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