GPS Problems

[michael angelo99]

i am using waze and i also think waze started the problem. usually gps will lock fine with google navigation but never with waze.

also i think waze does something to the phones gps radio like permanently damages it.

i have downloaded an app called "gps status and toolkit" and it will show you how many GPS satellites you are connecting to.

my stock samsung galaxy ace2 connects to 17 gps satellites in 10 seconds !!
my stock lg optimus 4x hd connects to 6 satellites after 2 minutes!
my rooted custom rom cynanogen optimus 4x hd does the same only 6 after 2 minutes.
my dad also has same problem with his samsung galaxy i9000. takes long time to lock gps satellites and does not connect to many.
my mums lg l3 connects to 10 gps satellites after 20 seconds!

have reset the gps data on all and same problem.

it does seem that there is a hardware or software problem and it doesnt look like its limited to a manufacturer but it looks like its linked to android software operating system. because my phone is LG and my dads is Samsung and both have the same problem!

 

[Kdubbn]

I had this same frustration GPS problem. I did not have Yahoo Weather installed, but I have A LOT of other location-based apps that use the GPS.
I *think* I fixed it -- so far, so good, at least -- by doing this:
* I opened the GPS Status app to see if the device was finding any satellites. After 30 seconds or so, no.
* So I opened the app manager and started going through all the running apps that use location.
* I stopped one app, went back to GPS Status to check the sats -- no location found after 20-30 seconds.
* So I went back to the app manager, stopped one more running app that uses location, then back to GPS Status to check the sats.
* ...and so on, until finally I stopped a running app (GeoNotes, as it turned out), and now I'm instantly finding to 10-20 sats, and not losing the signals (not yet, at least).
So the lesson is that you could have one or more buggy apps installed that are messing with the GPS on your device somehow. Go through them one by one -- quit app, check status, quit another app, check status...until you get sat signals from 22k miles above you.

Circle T: you B]are a genius[/B]. I knew it was a 3rd party app jank'n with the GPS on my Note 2. I have tried so many "fixes" for my Notes (over the years I've owed 2 Note's and 5 Note II's) and I would eventually always have an issue with the GPS and I would end up sending it back to AT&T or Samsung. Following your steps I appear to (appear being the operative word) be locked on to 18 satellites out of 21 that it can see. I really hope this is the fix, which I should have figured this out...then again so should have at least one of the 15 different phone reps I've spoken with regarding this.

Thank you very much, I have racked my brains on this and it has been a serious pain in my a** and so far it seems you've fixed it.

~KDubb~

 

[Avron Rodriguez1]

If anyone wants better GPS you all need is this app it's called GPS status and toolbox its a free app in the playstore then open the app press the menu button, tools and then GPS data and GPS Is fixed.

 

[pizzafrog]

I had this same frustration GPS problem. I did not have Yahoo Weather installed, but I have A LOT of other location-based apps that use the GPS.
I *think* I fixed it -- so far, so good, at least -- by doing this:
* I opened the GPS Status app to see if the device was finding any satellites. After 30 seconds or so, no.
* So I opened the app manager and started going through all the running apps that use location.
* I stopped one app, went back to GPS Status to check the sats -- no location found after 20-30 seconds.
* So I went back to the app manager, stopped one more running app that uses location, then back to GPS Status to check the sats.
* ...and so on, until finally I stopped a running app (GeoNotes, as it turned out), and now I'm instantly finding to 10-20 sats, and not losing the signals (not yet, at least).
So the lesson is that you could have one or more buggy apps installed that are messing with the GPS on your device somehow. Go through them one by one -- quit app, check status, quit another app, check status...until you get sat signals from 22k miles above you.

This did the trick. I had to do a lot of trial and error, but I *think* I finally traced the problem down to my cyman Mark 2 app. I haven't had the problem since I uninstalled that app. Too bad. I really liked that app. But I like GPS a hella lot more.

 

[iamnotapop]

I had a similar problem after updating to 4.4 on my GT-i9505. I tried everything but on gps toolbox there were absolutely no satellites at all!!! In the end I found that flashing the DVUAMD8 Modem firmware solved the problem yay!!

(I found the modem file here: [REF] GALAXY S4 (I9500/I9505) GSM / NON-HLOS - MODEM'S Collection (Odin/CWM/TWRP) - xda-developers)

 

[Kenny Hall]

Mine is doing the same thing, it will lock on for about 5 min then lose gps connection, does same on my friends s4 too, I heard it was an issue with the android update

 

[clh42]

I've never had any trouble with GPS on my S3 until I recently got the 4.4.2 KitKat update. Now, specifically and only Google Maps kills the GPS. If Maps is not running, I can use GPS in any other app, but as soon as I start Google Maps, Maps locks on to my location where I am at the instant I start the app, but won't track my moving position, and after about 2 minutes I get "GPS signal lost", and then no other apps can use GPS until I turn GPS off and back on. But again, as soon as I start Google Maps, it kills GPS again.

I appear to have solved mine by turning off Auto-Update for Google Maps in the Play store app, and then uninstalling updates to Maps to put it back to the version that came with the base Android 4.4.2 update.

 

[clh42]

Well, I was wrong. It worked for about 2 days after uninstalling updates for Google Maps, but then it died again. So my GPS is useless right now.

 

[raymcgill]

s3 on verizon....
Here is what I can figure...
I just had this phone rebuilt due to breakage, and now no GPS. Probably hardware.

Hardware:
The tightning screws issues mysteriously works for many. This is because of corrosion in two places, the bottom middle screw for the main board and the connection at top left for the GPS anntena. Tighting screws temporarily gets through corrosion. Real fix is clean main board ground pads paying attention to the two aforementioned places with detail.

Software:
I tried toggling GPS enable and nothing changed.

BTW I am using free GPS Status from eclipsim. Seems to work well to see satelites and such. I can see that I have 0/28 Sometimes one or two will register, so I think it is the antenna connection.

 

[James Anderson15]

Try this, I tried everything else and only this worked and works perfectly now. Take battery cover off phone and look for the screws which have Philips heads on them. Get a small screwdriver and tighten all of them. It worked straight away for me!

 

[RiverSAR]

Brand new Samsung S4 from Verizon. Out of the box had this issue. The offending app is called Nearby Service. You can force stop it and it stays that way until a restart. It cannot be turned off.