GPS activating often

[Randomhero180]

Today I noticed my gps location icon turning on a lot, every few minutes. No programs running, nothing new downloaded, and don't see any reason for it to be on.

Any ideas why? I feel like this would be a big battery drain.

Stock 2.3.4

 

[skyjjc]

Well, the first guess would be to improve the GPS performance and indeed my GPS performance seems improved.

Logic would suggest this will degrade battery life, but my battery life is major better with GB than it was before...go figure.

 

[lilapookie]

I have noticed the same thing. It seems to be draining my battery faster because it is running way more often.

 

[project.in.process]

if you're signed into Latitude on the device, it will ping your location in the background quite often even if you're not tapping through the Latitude app.

sign out of Latitude (actually tapping "sign out", backing out of the app doesn't suffice) & see if it still comes on.
when the location icon appears, even if you aren't running an app in the forefront of the phone, check your "running services" section to see what GPS type of application (maps, Places, four square, latitude, internet browser) is running to see which is using it.

also, are any of your Location Services check marked (Google Location Services, Standalone GPS Services, Phone Finder, VZW Location Services) ?

 

[natehoy]

Moss is, as usual, correct. Always trust the Moss.

The only reason GPS is running is because you have a background service that wants to use it. Latitude, even if you tried it once, can only be shut down by selecting "sign out". There's also the usual raft of location-sensitive apps like Opensignalmaps, Sensorly, Foursquare, etc etc ad nauseum that all poll your location on intervals that (usually) you set.

Anytime you have a location-aware app that you've told (wittingly or unwittingly) to poll at intervals, your GPS is going to crank up.

If you are not aware of any apps that should be using GPS, then it's probably a good idea to go through your list of installed apps looking for anything that requires the "precise location" permission that you don't think really should know your location, uninstall it, and see if it makes the problem go away (you may have more than one app doing this).