Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Gps problem

[Supacat]

I also have the problem. Hard reset the phone and it did not help. Downloaded GPS status app and no help either. Really sad as I love this phone but use GPS daily and haven't had a problem with a phone (GPS wise) in more than 4 years.... Scared this might be a hardware issue. Might have to sell and get a Sony Z3 or something else... For those that say it is working I am wondering if its due to not being in a city? Usually in cities the GPS signal is weaker due to the buildings and that when this is really failing (NY and SF). I am wondering if the signal is just not as strong as my previous phones? This is just a guess...

 

[pantlesspenguin]

I also have the problem. Hard reset the phone and it did not help. Downloaded GPS status app and no help either. Really sad as I love this phone but use GPS daily and haven't had a problem with a phone (GPS wise) in more than 4 years.... Scared this might be a hardware issue. Might have to sell and get a Sony Z3 or something else... For those that say it is working I am wondering if its due to not being in a city? Usually in cities the GPS signal is weaker due to the buildings and that when this is really failing (NY and SF). I am wondering if the signal is just not as strong as my previous phones? This is just a guess...

I'm in the Kansas City suburbs. There are several buildings around, but no skyscrapers. Regardless, GPS doesn't work even when I'm on the interstate with no buildings around. I've also used about a dozen phones with working GPS in my city so this is obviously a Samsung issue. The last phone I had with crappy GPS was the Samsung Vibrant. I REALLY wish GPS would work since the large and bright screen is perfect for GPS navigation.

 

[LaTuFu]

I'm in the Kansas City suburbs. There are several buildings around, but no skyscrapers. Regardless, GPS doesn't work even when I'm on the interstate with no buildings around. I've also used about a dozen phones with working GPS in my city so this is obviously a Samsung issue. The last phone I had with crappy GPS was the Samsung Vibrant. I REALLY wish GPS would work since the large and bright screen is perfect for GPS navigation.

Take that bad boy back! My GPS works great. You're right, the screen is perfect for Nav.

 

[Duffin]

I just had a thought. I always thought it was weird that my GPS problems seemed to randomly just start recently. Then i realized that I also recently got the Qi charging back for the Note 4. Anyone else here have that as well? I wonder if maybe the back is somehow interfering with the GPS signal. It would be weird since the Note 3 one didn't cause that issue, but maybe Samsung made a mistake with it somewhere. I'll try switching to my old back and test navigation for a few days. If it makes an obvious difference, I'll let everyone know.

 

[Supacat]

I find it hard to believe we all have bad devices. This is looking like it is more wide spread as there seems to be more people with GPS issues than not. Bringing it back does not seem to help as there are numerous reports on XDA of people getting them replaced only to have the same issue with the replacement. So far there are reports of this happening on TMO and AT&T. It is really sad as this device looks to have an issue with GPS

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Take that bad boy back! My GPS works great. You're right, the screen is perfect for Nav.

I have...3 times! Every one has had the same issue. I've had the firmware reflashed at the Samsung store in Best Buy, cleared cache, factory resets, and hours on with T-Mo and Samsung support. There's just no fix .

 

[LaTuFu]

I have...3 times! Every one has had the same issue. I've had the firmware reflashed at the Samsung store in Best Buy, cleared cache, factory resets, and hours on with T-Mo and Samsung support. There's just no fix .

I remember you saying that already, now that you mention that. That sucks.

I find it hard to believe we all have bad devices. This is looking like it is more wide spread as there seems to be more people with GPS issues than not. Bringing it back does not seem to help as there are numerous reports on XDA of people getting them replaced only to have the same issue with the replacement. So far there are reports of this happening on TMO and AT&T. It is really sad as this device looks to have an issue with GPS

Regardless of whether or not it is something you want to believe, its either bad software or bad hardware at this point.

Given that only T-Mo and AT&T devices seem to be having persistent issues with it, though, I am leaning towards some sort of firmware issue. Hopefully it is something they're working on correcting with an update very soon.

 

[Supacat]

Regardless of whether or not it is something you want to believe, its either bad software or bad hardware at this point.

Given that only T-Mo and AT&T devices seem to be having persistent issues with it, though, I am leaning towards some sort of firmware issue. Hopefully it is something they're working on correcting with an update very soon.

My point is bringing it back wont do a thing as like you said it looks to be hardware or firmware. I am hoping for the latter...

 

[LaTuFu]

My point is bringing it back wont do a thing as like you said it looks to be hardware or firmware. I am hoping for the latter...

Oh gotcha. yeah I totally understand your point on that.

 

[cadcoke5]

My GPS seemed to do well for the 1st month, but the last week or so, I have had ongoing problems with it. A reboot seems to solve it though. The only thing I think may have influenced it was that I had installed a new car stereo that has Bluetooth. I can't say it was the exact day, since I don' t use my GPS that often.

I will also mention one other thing that I was told in regards to my old Droid X, though it has no bearing for my own GPS performeance, since I have always had both Cell Data and WiFi on. I was told my one tech at the store that keeping Cell Data turned on will help the phone find its GPS location. This is because when it searches for satellite's it first tries to find satellites that happen to be near where the GPS last had a lock. If it doesn't find one, it starts expanding its search. The Cell Data connection was suppose to help the phone get a rough idea of where it was. I wonder if WiFi also does that, since Google has a map of various WiFi broadcasters. (thy got in trouble in Europe when they were discovered to be logging that information as they collected the street view mapping) Though, obviously, you need to be fairly close to a WiFi source to use that.

-Joe

 

[Supacat]

Hi guys, Just an update here. As mentioned earlier I downloaded GPS status
This time I left the GPS status app opened for a long while. For like 30 minutes. Also, as soon as you run the app select reset GPS and the select Get Xtra Data. I noticed the longer I kept it open the lower my Error field got. It started at 30m and now stays from 3-5m. I opened the app and left it on driving home from work. It seems to have significantly improved the performance. I only has one loss this morn. It is no a guaranteed fix as I need more time to test but for the people with issues please give it a shot and let us know. I think the key is to leave the app on for a while to get as much satellite data as possible.

 

[Supacat]

Scratch that, GPS is still losing signal. Got excited too quickly and needed to drive around a little. The GPS on this thing will send you off a cliff as numerous times it went bonkers on me and didn't know what direction I was heading oh well, now what to do? Keep it and hope for an update and that it's not hardware related or sell it like a hot potato while it's hot and get something else and then comes the question if so then which Android device comes even close?

 

[nk_blu]

Hi everyone,

I have the Koodo Mobile Note 4 (N910W8), and I've had identical GPS issues. Google Maps would lose signal, or would take ages to lock the signal. By this time, I'm already half way to my destination.

I've noticed that I see the GPS locking notification every now and then. At first, I thought it was just Google Now trying to remember my parking location, but it happened even though I haven't driven all day.

I disabled the built-in yahoo weather widget application (inside application manager), and I have noticed significant improvement in GPS performance. Google Maps would lock in while driving in vehicle and would hold the signal without "losing signal". I can now get GPS signal inside my house as I did for all of my previous smartphones. I would give this a try. The weather widget I disabled is the one that's preloaded on my Note 4, and the icon has the purple Yahoo "Y" logo and the green android bot. Also, I have not received any OTA system updates since I first turned on my phone.

Fingers crossed!

 

[FBA]

It's strange, but I have zero GPS issues on mine Rogers Note 4, running on Koodo...

It locks on instantly in Google maps and stays on with no signal loss.

 

[magfl]

pantlesspenguin -

I had this same issue with the note 2, and skipped the note 3 because of it. I ended up getting a note 4, and had it for about 10 days before the gps went crazy. I have a nexus 6 now, but I am missing the hell out of my removable battery. I wish that samsung would at least acknowledge this problem, so that I could go back to a note 4. If it's an acknowledged bug, I would at least be able to swap out for a new phone with samsung instead of working through the carrier.

At this point I'm wondering why only a select few of us are noticing this gps issue. Are we doing something different with our phones than the vast majority of users are? The only thing I can figure is that I was swapping batteries out every day instead of keeping my phone plugged in to a charger - maybe that affected it in some way?

 

[Supacat]

pantlesspenguin -

I had this same issue with the note 2, and skipped the note 3 because of it. I ended up getting a note 4, and had it for about 10 days before the gps went crazy. I have a nexus 6 now, but I am missing the hell out of my removable battery. I wish that samsung would at least acknowledge this problem, so that I could go back to a note 4. If it's an acknowledged bug, I would at least be able to swap out for a new phone with samsung instead of working through the carrier.

At this point I'm wondering why only a select few of us are noticing this gps issue. Are we doing something different with our phones than the vast majority of users are? The only thing I can figure is that I was swapping batteries out every day instead of keeping my phone plugged in to a charger - maybe that affected it in some way?

Its not really a select few. It is a lot more wide spread than that and occurs on every Note 4 I have tested. XDA is filled with posts about it. For the people that say it is working I wonder how they are really testing as if I try it at home it stays locked. The problem occurs at various times along a 20 mile drive. No consistencies as it will lose it in an area that it was perfect in the day before. So far, I have seen this issue on all the carriers in in the US using the Note 4 so it does not seem to be a carrier related issue. Today, I stopped by a SF TMobile store and the rep told me they had 3 returns since last week all complaining about the spotty GPS:-( I pray this is a firmware thang...

 

[sparksd]

Drove 20+ miles today using GPS without a problem.

 

[Supacat]

Drove 20+ miles today using GPS without a problem.

I guess some of you have the Willy Wonka Golden Note 4 I honestly don't know what it is and can only talk about my experience. It does seem that more have the issue than not and this dates all the way back to the Note 2. On the Note 3 it was proved to be hardware as there was a manual fix on XDA to fix it for people brave enough to open theirs up. I hope that is not the case here...

 

[sparksd]

I guess some of you have the Willy Wonka Golden Note 4 I honestly don't know what it is and can only talk about my experience. It does seem that more have the issue than not and this dates all the way back to the Note 2. On the Note 3 it was proved to be hardware as there was a manual fix on XDA to fix it for people brave enough to open theirs up. I hope that is not the case here...

These kind of issues suck and I recognize that they are real. I have a 2013 Nexus 7 and users have had issues with GPS there too:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-7-tablet-2013/300566-gps-problems-nexus-7-2013-a-12.html#post4102438

Again, there I was lucky in having one without a problem.

 

[Supacat]

I hope Lollipop will fix this. One can pray cant they?