Help Can't get gps lock?

[dknees]

I have not been able to get a gps lock in some time. I honestly don't know if it's a result of the update or if it's been going on longer than that. I turn on the gps, and when I hit the navigation app, all it says is "finding your location" (or something like that) but never actually knows where I am. Is there a fix for this, or do I need to do a reset? thanks!

 

[Frisco]

I have not been able to get a gps lock in some time. I honestly don't know if it's a result of the update or if it's been going on longer than that. I turn on the gps, and when I hit the navigation app, all it says is "finding your location" (or something like that) but never actually knows where I am. Is there a fix for this, or do I need to do a reset? thanks!

Hello dknees. I don't think a reset is necessary, but it's good to have that as a resort to go to if removing the sim (powered down of course) and then putting it back in doesn't work. Doing that and clearing caches in the involved apps/widgets really helps to wash out various issues.

Give it a try... keeping the factory data reset in the back of your mind, of course.

 

[acejavelin]

I don't believe this is a (direct) result of the upgrade, people would be howling like mad if the update broke GPS.

I would suggest getting the app GPS Status & Toolbox and playing with that... at least you can see if the phone can see the GPS chipset and service and if it is attempting to lock, age of the aGPS data, etc. It is something to start with anyways.

 

[dknees]

Thanks so much! I will give those a try.

 

[zazan]

GPS Status and Toolbox is a great app. There is also a similar app I use called GPS Test. It also allows you to see all the available satellites at your location. If this indicates that you have satellites then your GPS detection is working so there may be another reason causing the inability to get a lock. It no satellites are found then it probably means that you have an issue with a radio receiver circuit.

Sometimes there is a simm card issue so check this out as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[dknees]

It's working now, so pulling the sim must have done the trick. I downloaded the suggested apps, so if I ever have this trouble again, I have a place to start looking for answers. Thanks again!

 

[powerhousepro]

I have had an issue with getting a GPS lock with absolutely every android phone that I have ever owned. I'm on my seventh android phone now. Apps like Gps status usually don't fix this problem. I have been searching for years for a solution to this problem. It's the assisted GPS. That's the problem. It's ironic that Google calls it assisted GPS and it actually stops the GPS from obtaining a lock. Leave it up to Google to ruin the GPS operation with their spyware infrastructure. I now have a HTC One Max from Verizon. It is rooted and its still running the original 4.3 Rom that it shipped with. FIRST... go to SETTINGS then LOCATION and turn off Google WiFi and mobile network location. Just by turning that off doesn't disable the A-GPS but it should. Google doesn't want you to disable their their ability to spy on you. SECOND ...Your phone must be rooted to perform this next step. Download Root Explorer from the market. In Root Explorer navigate to /system/etc and find the file gps.conf and rename it to anything that you want. ( I just renamed it to gpsxxx.conf). When this file is not accessible by the system the A-GPS cannot work. I now get a GPS lock very fast and the overall navigation works better and is more responsive. I hope this helps some people. All of us consumers need to demand that our phones not be locked down. It is criminal. They are locked down so you can't disable all their built in spying apps. Google, the phone manufacturers, the cell service providers and the govt. all spying on us. That's the only reason they lock our devices up. Just say no. No to the illegal spying on the American people. After renaming the gps.conf file if you ever use an app like GPS. Status that downloads the A-GPS file (gps.conf) you will need to go back into root explorer and rename or delete it

 

[acejavelin]

I have had an issue with getting a GPS lock with absolutely every android phone that I have ever owned. I'm on my seventh android phone now. Apps like Gps status usually don't fix this problem. I have been searching for years for a solution to this problem. It's the assisted GPS. That's the problem. It's ironic that Google calls it assisted GPS and it actually stops the GPS from obtaining a lock. Leave it up to Google to ruin the GPS operation with their spyware infrastructure. I now have a HTC One Max from Verizon. It is rooted and its still running the original 4.3 Rom that it shipped with. FIRST... go to SETTINGS then LOCATION and turn off Google WiFi and mobile network location. Just by turning that off doesn't disable the A-GPS but it should. Google doesn't want you to disable their their ability to spy on you. SECOND ...Your phone must be rooted to perform this next step. Download Root Explorer from the market. In Root Explorer navigate to /system/etc and find the file gps.conf and rename it to anything that you want. ( I just renamed it to gpsxxx.conf). When this file is not accessible by the system the A-GPS cannot work. I now get a GPS lock very fast and the overall navigation works better and is more responsive. I hope this helps some people. All of us consumers need to demand that our phones not be locked down. It is criminal. They are locked down so you can't disable all their built in spying apps. Google, the phone manufacturers, the cell service providers and the govt. all spying on us. That's the only reason they lock our devices up. Just say no. No to the illegal spying on the American people. After renaming the gps.conf file if you ever use an app like GPS. Status that downloads the A-GPS file (gps.conf) you will need to go back into root explorer and rename or delete it

Wow... This information is so wrong. I am sorry that you have GPS issues, but your "fixes" are all wrong. I am surprised you can even get a single lock on one satellite with the changes you've made, in many phones deleting/renaming gps.conf will cause the GPS to not function at all since it has no timeserver reference.

I can explain each of these items more thoroughly if you wish when I am at a PC as they will take some time to explain, but to other users, I recommend not trying these changes if you have GPS issues.

 

[powerhousepro]

Wow? I'm not lying. My GPS now works great! Sure I'll take any additional information. I use Google maps heavily 6 days a week. It was constantly having issues getting a lock and now it works all the time and gets a lock quickly. And to the other users If your phone is already rooted its no big deal to rename a file then change it back if it doesn't work for you.

 

[acejavelin]

Wow? I'm not lying. My GPS now works great! Sure I'll take any additional information. I use Google maps heavily 6 days a week. It was constantly having issues getting a lock and now it works all the time and gets a lock quickly. And to the other users If your phone is already rooted its no big deal to rename a file then change it back if it doesn't work for you.

(edit, sorry for the long read, but it looks like I got busy rambling and got off topic in some areas, my bad)

I never meant you were a liar at all, if it works for you that's great but I would never recommend this to anyone, but since it's working by all means stick with it if you chose... I have been working with the AICP development team on GPS issues with G2 and have a pretty decent understanding of it.

First off, GPS issues are not common, especially among HTC devices, but of course a few handsets have had issues over the years, and some have issues and others don't. If you had seven in a row, that's just bad luck, no, more than bad luck, that's horrendous luck. I have had about the same number of devices, the only one that gave me issues was the LG G2, and I have found a work around for that for most people.

Let's tackle your fixes one at a time... First aGPS... Assisted GPS is a system that is used to help the phone lock on to satellites and is used to improve startup time and get a fix faster. It is Mobile Station Based and uses Secure User Plane Location information from a network server (usually Google, sometimes the carrier like T-Mobile, or the manufacturer like Nokia) in conjunction with NTP time servers to help the GPS receiver in the phone lock on to satellite signals faster, once the lock is achieved, only timeserver data and GPS are used. "Officially" aGPS should never slow down lock, although it will not help unless you using a valid time server for your area, you have a stable mobile data connection (for NTP timing reference), and your aGPS data is current. That being said, it has been shown slow down a lock, if the aGPS data is severely outdated or your reference timeserver is unavailable or severely inaccurate. All this information is stored in your /etc/gps.conf file. Disabling aGPS is generally considered a bad idea, if the chipset supports it and the gps.conf file parameters are good enough for it to work.

Google location services (ie. 'WiFi' location) and mobile network location are not part of GPS, although Google Location Services will use GPS and mobile location services (ie. Mobile Network location or tower based location) as part of it's location information... Mobile Network Location is an approximate location service used to determine within ~5000m your general location based on your carrier's tower's, a common use of this service is weather widgets and other services which do not require specific location information.

Google Location Services is a service that runs in the device that aggregates it's own location information based on SSID's that are visible cross referenced to a proprietary database, plus mobile network location, and GPS data to provide either an approximate location or precise location based on the app's request to it for location information. This service really likes an active data connection to work, but will use other sources to get location. Many apps now days use this service as the default location provider, often with GPS or MNL as a backup location provider. Maps uses this service as it's primary location provider, and GPS or MNL as a backup if it is unavailable. I will just barely touch on this but many people dislike this service, because they feel Google is "spying" on their location (this can easily be disabled in Google Services Location settings, but will take away some location based features of apps like Now/Search), and it can be a battery drainer. In and of itself it does not draw a lot of battery, all the other stuff it does and apps that request information are the real problem, like Now wanting to know where you are constantly. The WiFi scanning it does also is not a battery draining thing, it uses a low power scanning only mode, leaving WiFi available for scanning when sleeping is not a significant source of battery drain.

Now to the real heart of your fixes... delete/rename gps.conf... If you do this you have taken away the GPS systems "instructions" on how to function, like where to look for aGPS data, what time server to reference, what format of SUPL data and where to find it, what provides the NEMA data, etc. etc.... basically, all the location and carrier specific settings for it's variant of your device. Deleting this file forces the GPS system to disable most of it's advanced features and operate in what is essentially a dumb mode, without access to anything that isn't hard coded in the firmware. And what is hard coded into the firmware varies a lot, since this is proprietary data, little is known of what exactly is each individual chipset specifically, some handsets seem to have a full-functioning generic set of defaults, others seem to have nothing but bare-bones GPS signal only configurations. Usually, if you buy a handset from a your carrier (or one specifically for their network) the gps.conf is somewhat optimized for use in their service territory, if you have an unlocked handset or one from a different carrier or significantly different geographical region, the gps.conf file will need to updated with the appropriate information, typically the timeserver is the most important here.

Modern smartphones rely on a mobile data connection, GPS can suffer severely if you don't have an active connection to help get the lock.

I am really glad your fix worked for you, but I have never heard of anyone else doing it, and I would be really hard pressed to recommend to someone else either. It would be better to figure out what is wrong with your setup and fix it... Your GPS can be very fast and extremely accurate if it is setup correctly.

 

[powerhousepro]

Thank you for all the information. I also had the same problem with a droid razr max. That phone right now has no data connection or service at all. I put copilot on there along with the maps and it works perfectly as a GPS. I understand what you told me. But the issue totally vanished when I renamed gps.conf