GPS Issues

[optimizt]

For the past few weeks, almost every time I look at my phone the GPS icon is in the task bar. Battery life has been not as good and I blamed it on this. Starting around the same time, whenever I try to use Google Maps, it takes several minutes to find my current location so that it can plot a route. If I happen to already be on the road when I start to plot my route, I may as well forget it.

Any thoughts? Is it possible to figure out which app is pulling GPS so much?

 

[STSVA]

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Do you leave GPS enabled all the time? Are you manually turning it off but later find it running? Please give some more specific information.

 

[optimizt]

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Do you leave GPS enabled all the time? Are you manually turning it off but later find it running? Please give some more specific information.

Yes, I have GPS enabled all of the time. But on my old Thunderbolt, GPS only seemed to kick on if I had opened an app that was using it (updating weather, using G-Maps, etc). And in the first few weeks of having my S4 it was similar to the Tb. In the last month, it's almost every single time I look at my phone (pull it out of "sleep"), it seems to be checking for my GPS location. If it's a specific app (like I know that GoogleNow does this) that's always searching for my location, and imho I feel it only needs to know my location if I open the app, and I'm content with waiting those few extra seconds for it to update then, then I can tweak the settings on that one app. But since I'm not sure why my phone is always searching for GPS, I don't know what to tweak. So my question then, is if there is a way to find out which app/setting is telling my phone to keep such close tabs on me, or if this is just a Verizon S4 issue that everyone has?

The G-Maps piece, with it not being able to identify my starting location, is annoying, and I feel related. If my phone is constantly updating my GPS location, how can G-Maps not know where I am?

 

[STSVA]

Thanks for clarifying. I suspect this is an app issue, not an S4 issue. Something is using the GPS. You might try the Wakelock Detector app - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector&hl=en - it will let you know what apps are active while the phone is asleep, and the list will probably include the app causing your GPS issue. I'm guessing it will be one of the Google apps that uses GPS, but maybe not.

On the other hand, it may be that what's happening is normal, and that the phone is just syncing the GPS signal when it wakes up regardless of app activity. I only turn on GPS as needed, so I'm not sure what the normal behavior is.

EDIT: I just tried a test by turning GPS on; nothing showed up to indicate it was running. I then opened Google Maps and the GPS icon appeared in the notification area showing it was trying to acquire a GPS position. That makes me think my first guess, that an app is causing this behavior, is correct.