[Q] Google phone finder working with no GPS/SIM ?? - Desire HD Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all,
long time lurker, first time poster. Back from the days of O2 Flame.
I've a HTC Desire HD thats been relegated to experimental status only.
The other day I had some flavour of Android 4.x running on it so I did an
experiment.
GPS was turned off, no sim card was in, it was configured to log into
Google Play or whatever automatically, location services were turned off
and I was inside my house so poor GPS, if any, reception and it was
connected to the Net via my Wifi/ADSL. I live in the boonies with only one
other Wifi nearby so crowd sourced wifi gps locations seems unlikely.
I went online to the Google phone finder or whatever it is called.
The service nailed my location within 5 or so seconds to
25 metres or so.
Can someone explain how it was to do this considering all the steps I
took to supposedly stop this from happening. I must admit I had quite
a few moments of Big Brother/1984 after this.
Many thanks.

If it might be able to scan for cell towers it could use that.
But i dont know if that'll be possible.

HanZie82 said:
If it might be able to scan for cell towers it could use that.
But i dont know if that'll be possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool,
thanks for the reply HanZie82.
Was hoping for a bit more interest but at least I scored
some info.

Hmm.. I think it forces the GPS on without consent (my thoughts, no actual proof but just an idea) or it could USD cell/WiFi triangulation (again, not 100% sure but just an idea, although triangulation seems much more likely and viable)
-Sent from Guy's phone via Tapatalk
>Sammy Note 10.1: stock, no root
>Sammy S3 stock, no root

Related

T-MOBILE DASH help with GPS!

So I have the T-Mobile Dash and use Google Maps a lot for phone numbers, maps, directions and what not...but the GPS "My Location" setting never worked. So I figured the Dash didn't support GPS.
However, i upgraded to WM6.1 on this site, Kavanas i found on here, and as it wiped out the phone and I started using it again.....google maps DID let me use the my location GPS setting and now I can see the dot on the map where i am, and it moves and works, so I figured my phone indeed had GPS now...
I am trying to use a golf GPS application, and I never get a signal....do i have GPS? shouldnt it work if google maps uses GPS? should I manually set it up using the COM ports and rates it allows me to manually enter instead of checkin automatically use windows default gps settings?
I am pretty sure that (1) an upgrade would not simply give you GPS and (2) the dash (1st generation not 3G) does not have GPS built it (as it is a major 'improvement' to the Dash 3G).
If that program started to work for you, it may have been using triangulation calculations by locating the 3[+] towers your phone is connected to at one time (at least for T-Mobile this is so)and finding your coordinate.
The problem could be lack of signal in the Golf Course, or maybe you are switching between towers too fast, or possibly the trees are interfering, or a final problem could be that the towers you are connecting to do have any position data being emitted, so the program can't gather coordinates.
Those are my 2¢ (i may be wrong)
i agree with cyclone. i believe in my limited knowledge that our dash's do not have gps, rather an estimate with trianglation which is why in googlemaps im usually 2-3 streets from my actual location. and it does not work for bing's gps
The dash does not come with GPS.
Google maps and similar apps do indeed triangulate and/or guestimate from cell towers. I'm no golfer, but I suspect that this is never going to be accurate enough to be of any help on the course - your position is going to be, maybe, 500 yards/metres out.
You can, however, pick up little bluetooth GPS units on eBay for about £15, $20 or so. These work very well with the Dash. I have one myself - the only problem I've had with them is they get lost easily and some have lots of flashing LEDs on, you get funny looks from security people if you have it in a shirt pocket!!
ratstrangler said:
The dash does not come with GPS.
Google maps and similar apps do indeed triangulate and/or guestimate from cell towers. I'm no golfer, but I suspect that this is never going to be accurate enough to be of any help on the course - your position is going to be, maybe, 500 yards/metres out.
You can, however, pick up little bluetooth GPS units on eBay for about £15, $20 or so. These work very well with the Dash. I have one myself - the only problem I've had with them is they get lost easily and some have lots of flashing LEDs on, you get funny looks from security people if you have it in a shirt pocket!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in the middle of town GMaps puts me out in the sticks about 5-6 miles away lol
Didn't notice you was Welsh shwmae
Diolch butt.
Keep a secret?
I'm a Scouser, only been down here for 20 years.
Shh!
ratstrangler said:
Diolch butt.
Keep a secret?
I'm a Scouser, only been down here for 20 years.
Shh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hay we all have to be born somewhere
I get Diolch not the butt, i lived down poppit sands for a while so only knowz what the local's would say, labouring
Butt/butty = buddy.
It's probably a Valleys thing.

Word of Warning

So recently i went to Japan for a 3 week holiday. It was good blah blah blah
I decided to take my desire as it would be useful to use when wifi was availabe
However, on many occasions, mostly when drunk....I decided ''**** it, i'll turn off airplane mode and check my e-mails'' I did it more than a few times, but not enough to worry about my bill
So today, i got my phone disconnected by t-mobile. This promted me to immediately call them and ask what's up. They said my account was disconnected by the fraud department as my account seemed different from usua. I told them that i'd been in Japan so maybe it was just because i was now back in uk, the bells started ringing and that nothing was wrong and they should reconnect my line.
I asked how much my bill was
£580!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg!!! apparently i racked up £400 just through data usage!!!! and the rest in calls
I knew it was £7.50 for 1mb but i didn't realise that checking my e-mails now and then would rack up such an amount
so word of warning....next time you visit somewhere outside your home country....either leave your phone at home, or don't use data or even answer the phone
The worst part was i had to pay them there and now just to get my line reconnected.
second word of warning, always have a spare bit of cash in your bank for a rainy day/extremely expensive phone bills
it makes you wonder what the Desire does when it connects.
ps
I still don't believe anyone that says they got more than 12 hours of battery with normal usage. I seriously need to keep everything to a basic minimum to get a day out of it. but if i use it just normally...then yeah...12 hours is optimistic
ouuuuch!! thats my input to this thread.
You sure you didn't go on porn while you were drunk also?
Uuuuuu!!!! That really sucks!!! Something similar happened to me once when i went to Cuba but it wasn't as terrible as yours, the again, my phone didn't have data back then!!!
ps; i can get 3 days of batt on normal use (includes gmail on push, ocasional word on g-talk, couple of messages a day, couple of calls a day and 10 mins of browsing a day and the ocasional game) and if i happen to push the phone a bit more i still get 2 days easily so there must be something sucking your battery dry!!!!
Just as an example, i havn't used the phone much these days and i'm on my fouth day and i'm pretty sure it'll reach tonights charge no problem.
Barff1984 said:
£580!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg!!! apparently i racked up £400 just through data usage!!!! and the rest in calls
I knew it was £7.50 for 1mb but i didn't realise that checking my e-mails now and then would rack up such an amount
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That only works out at 17mb data per week ( £400 / £7.5 / 3 ) which is actually a pretty small amount of data. I'd expect my phone to burn through that in less than a day for my email usage.
If you really want to know how much data your Desire chews through, install a net counter, but of course in your particular case it's rather closing the stable door after the horse has bolted!
Regards,
Dave
I think T-Mobile has ripped you off. When I was also in japan, I was using data including gps but my bill was nowhere near yours. I am on Vodafone.
I would never wanna check my email that much! Ha ha
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Barff1984 said:
I still don't believe anyone that says they got more than 12 hours of battery with normal usage. I seriously need to keep everything to a basic minimum to get a day out of it. but if i use it just normally...then yeah...12 hours is optimistic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch, that bill hurt.But s**t happens. You should not have to go into airplane mode by the way: There is a checkbox that enables data connections while roaming, just keep it unchecked.
Anyway, about your battery: you should check your partial wake usage. I had trouble with the battery on my desire, until a recent OTA update to 1.20.207.3. Everything seems to be fine ever since then.
You can check your partial wake usage by:
- dialing »*#*#4636#*#*«,
- then going to »Battery history«,
- with dropdowns at »Other usage«
- and »since last unplugged«.
Look at »Running«. This shows useful data, especially if you have been on battery for some time – like 30min – with your phone in stand-by. Some application/service may be blocking the sleep state of the device. Then you will notice »running« at 100% or at least very high – even though the phone was supposed to be in sleep state.
Also search the forums for »potential cause for excessive battery usage«. Since I am a noob here, I cannot post the link, so please use search...
dzire187 said:
Ouch, that bill hurt.But s**t happens. You should not have to go into airplane mode by the way: There is a checkbox that enables data connections while roaming, just keep it unchecked.
Anyway, about your battery: you should check your partial wake usage. I had trouble with the battery on my desire, until a recent OTA update to 1.20.207.3. Everything seems to be fine ever since then.
You can check your partial wake usage by:
- dialing »*#*#4636#*#*«,
- then going to »Battery history«,
- with dropdowns at »Other usage«
- and »since last unplugged«.
Look at »Running«. This shows useful data, especially if you have been on battery for some time – like 30min – with your phone in stand-by. Some application/service may be blocking the sleep state of the device. Then you will notice »running« at 100% or at least very high – even though the phone was supposed to be in sleep state.
Also search the forums for »potential cause for excessive battery usage«. Since I am a noob here, I cannot post the link, so please use search...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, every time you come out of Airplane mode (to make a call or whatever) your phone will try and sync because it knows it's been "out of the loop".
Just keep data roaming off or delete the APNs.
coochan8 said:
I think T-Mobile has ripped you off. When I was also in japan, I was using data including gps but my bill was nowhere near yours. I am on Vodafone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahem! Vodafone used to have a "reasonably sensible" (and I use that term loosely) data roaming package - you should see Vodafones new data roaming tariffs that come into effect in June!
Regards,
Dave
P.S. GPS in and of itself doesn't use any data, though certain apps that use GPS may consume data themselves. For example. Google Navigation will use data to pull down maps, whereas Copilot uses maps on SD card and thus consumes no data.
yea it does suck especially since i'm planning on going back to japan for 5 weeks in July. Lol, wont be checking my e-mail half as much.
How do i know if there's an update to my rom? I use the phone to check if there are updates but it always says it's fine. Should i actually check online instead? I know with Winmob it never said there was an update even when there was. I'm kind of hoping android is a bit better for that.
I'll check which rom etc i'm using and see if there's an update.
Ive got a netcounter. However i use task killer a lot because i'm convinced it saves the battery a little. So if i use that, obivously it kills the net counter too.
I'm sure someone is about to say ''you're using android, you don't need a task killer'' however, when i see so many apps running in the background, regardless if people say ''but they're not using memory'', they do. If i kill them all, my phone goes quicker again. So yea it does work.
Barff1984 said:
Ive got a netcounter. However i use task killer a lot because i'm convinced it saves the battery a little. So if i use that, obivously it kills the net counter too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most task killers have an option to exclude certain apps, so if you must insist on using one ( ), set it to ignore your net counter.
Regards,
Dave
Barff1984 said:
How do i know if there's an update to my rom? I use the phone to check if there are updates but it always says it's fine. Should i actually check online instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That just means your operator is not offering an update. You may wish to check out the battery history, it may give you some information about what is draining your battery.
Barff1984 said:
I'm sure someone is about to say ''you're using android, you don't need a task killer'' however, when i see so many apps running in the background, regardless if people say ''but they're not using memory'', they do. If i kill them all, my phone goes quicker again. So yea it does work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Android is designed to use all the RAM available, which is a good thing - speaking of software design. There is no reason to keep RAM free on a well designed operating system, because once RAM is required, an unused app is ditched in favour of the new one. As this takes virtually no time there is no need to use time and resources to clean up. In fact, task killers use system resources, resulting in battery usage.
Anyway, what you are seeing is bad design in applications, and that is real: Some apps are active, even though they should not be. Either because you do not want them to, or because they do not properly communicate that they will be running in the background, doing stuff all the time. Android adresses the issue by exposing details about battery usage to the user, thus forcing bad developers to choose the defaults for their apps more carefully.
Again, check out *#*#4636#*#* to identify software that is running all the time. Maybe it's something you do not need that is causing your phone to lag and drain the battery...
Can't you tell t-mobile to disable internet usage on your account when your in another country?
JAmes.
No offense but this isn't anything new data roaming bill have been in the news allot. You really should of known better.... also you should of picked up a pay as you go sum or rolling contract sum for the duration of your trip...
I also hear many counts airports have special visitor sum packages.... you real should of looked into this
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Sim damn auto correction.... oh and country
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3 ftw ... pay them 15£ and all ur inclusive allowances work abroad
i know what you mean but...
I went on honeymoon to Italy for 10 days with my wife and my desire.
I am with Vodafone and was charged 5 pounds a day for data. They allow 25mbps for a fiver which I think is reasonable. However my.bill breakdown of data usage was shot to sh*t ...some days showed 24mb others 100+, all I was doing was this website, the BBC, and a beekeeper one. I complained, they checked the bill and gave me 35 quid back. Also another 30 off next months bill too.
Overall my 10 days cost me 50 quid.
Sam
This is why when abroad always always get a local sim card if you need calls to come in divert your number its soooo much cheaper.
lumpaywk said:
This is why when abroad always always get a local sim card if you need calls to come in divert your number its soooo much cheaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sage words.
sounds like the OP has the desires full suite of syncing going on.
With my old HD I got lost in europe and fired up google maps, it was set to satellite mode and it cost me 5 quid just to find out where I was and that was about 30 seconds usage.
There is a 'data off' app out there. It just kills all data connections until further notice.

Taking the Epic to Europe

My brother (a fellow Epic owner) is taking a trip to London next month. Wondering what tips or tricks anyone may have for staying connected. He's shooting a film over three weeks and will need to text and email. He'll have access to wifi intermittently.
What apps or services can you suggest? Also, he's not rooted yet and was wondering how he could benefit from it (other than the general awesomeness of some of these roms).
Any help is much appreciated.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
If your brother would like to still use his Epic to communicate while overseas, my first tip, without even rooting, would be sign up for Google Voice and get GrooVe IP from the market.
This combo will allow for calling over WiFi...I haven't used it in a couple of months, bit I used it quite frequently prior to that...It worked fairly well.
Google Voice will also allow for sending and receiving texts.
xanthinealkaloid said:
If your brother would like to still use his Epic to communicate while overseas, my first tip, without even rooting, would be sign up for Google Voice and get GrooVe IP from the market.
This combo will allow for calling over WiFi...I haven't used it in a couple of months, bit I used it quite frequently prior to that...It worked fairly well.
Google Voice will also allow for sending and receiving texts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This exactly.
Just note, that if he wants to be able to receive phone calls, GrooVe IP needs to be left on, which may be detrimental to battery life.
RandomKing said:
This exactly.
Just note, that if he wants to be able to receive phone calls, GrooVe IP needs to be left on, which may be detrimental to battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also just to sure, the calls/texts are only received when there's an active WiFi connection.
As for the battery impact, GrooVe IP seemed fairly good as a background service not sucking up the battery too much...I may not be a the best judge of that one though because I'm a person who uses 2 batteries with little care about what how much is being used. However, it certainly seems the WiFi calls themselves use slightly more juice then a standard call.
In the long run, it may not really matter though because in this situation you're probably going to want to make sure the phone radio is turned off, since it serves no purpose.
This is funny I see this post...something interesting on this. I am getting ready to travel to the Dominican Republic and I am researching this very thing, a free way to stay in contact with my business and the kids that were left far far behind... I did a google search (cuz he's the smartest guy I know) for "calling voip from my smartphone from the dominican republic" and I was on a website reading travelers inputs (don't know which one as I looked at 50 of them). A guy mentioned he was on sprint and did the google voice thing and incurred data roaming charges on his bill the next month after he got back off the trip. Whats the scoop...anyone with first hand knowledge? This would be nice. I downloaded skype and mobilevoip and both need lowcost minutes but I was hoping for free and easier than setting up accounts with a voip servicer.
Edit: Question, does Google Voice/GrooVeIP do video chat like skype? computer to computer or should I say Epic 4g to laptop/pc?

Signal & GPS Reliability

All -
I'm hoping for a clear honest assessment of the reliability of the signal and GPS on the E4GT. I use CoPilot a TON for navigation and absolutely need the GPS to get a reasonably fast lock and be both fast (in terms of true-to-location while moving) and accurate. I also need the phone to not be dropping calls (I left AT&T for this very reason).
The reason for my post is simple - I've done a ton of reading threads both here and other sites and at this point am a bit worried that my planned purchase of the dreamy SII may have a few flaws. I've read post-after-post about signal loss issues as well as posts about very unreliable GPS qualities. But many of these posts appear to have been from the September-to-December timeframe and potentially were fixed or were older hardware versions.
SOoooo... I'm hoping a few of you real-life current owners can quell the fear - I so covet that gorgeous screen and dual-core processor. But the fact of the matter is that my Evo 4G gets near instantaneous GPS lock and pretty much never drops a call. I don't want to buy the E4GT and end up hating it for the 2 features I need most.
Thank you all in advance for your time -
I came from an evo as well and the call quality isn't an issue but the GPS is non existent on the phone. To be fair some time it locks with a few minutes some times it won't get a lock for 30 minutes even when I use GPS tool box to clear data and download the agps assistance. I'm in So Cal, in the high desert where we only have 2 story buildings and a pretty clear view of the sky.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Rats... bad GPS is a deal-breaker for me Maybe you're alone and I'll get nothing but rave reviews, right? Right?
I use GPS 4 to 5 times a day. You just need to turn GPS on. Then reboot. It sometimes takes a few minutes but always locks and always gets me where I want to go. Miner glitch in otherwise perfect phone
best gps for getting to a known address
Never had a dropped call yet. Use the gps multiple times a day and takes 1-20s to lock on, usually if it takes longer than that then something is wrong with the address. One notable problem is when using Google Navigate to search for say a McDonalds,it might give an address only relatively close and you'll need to look up the real address manually and have it go to that one instead. Also remember all phones are build a little different too so result can be way different.
The turn on-reboot-wait method on the GPS is straight up a deal breaker for me. With my "OG" Evo, I turn on GPS, and by the time CoPilot is loaded (typically about 10 seconds) the GPS is locked and ready to rock. With a newer and significantly more expensive phone, I refuse to be taking steps backward. I so badly wanted this phone but I think I'll have to wait... Or try the 3D.
Again - thanks all for your input -
mybikegoes200 said:
I so badly wanted this phone but I think I'll have to wait... Or try the 3D.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of those areas that really has no definitive answer. Luckily my GPS seems to work fine with pretty instant lock (knock on wood). I've seen reports of others that can't get locks unless they stand on their heads and rub their bellys, lol.
The best advice I can give is to actually get the phone and try it... if it doesn't work you have 14 days to return it and go with another one.
I have only seen problems with my GPS using google maps but if i use telenav or just Nav which also came on my phone its comes up w/i 5-10 seconds. Signal is good but not bad, i had the EVO 3d which was horrible, moto photon was excellent but i would put this signal right in the middle of them at "OK". I havent dropped very many calls but i do travel in rural areas so i cant down grade the signal for dead spots from Sprint
I have never really experienced GPS issues... I have only had one time where it took it about a minute to lock and route address.
I'd say bite the bullet and go for it. Seems like many who don't get good GPS trade their phones in for another and then they get good GPS. Seems like a quality control issue with samsung and GPS. You could always trade yours in if it's no good.
For me, my GPS locks take a while, unless I use GPS Status first, which locks consistently in < 10 sec.
If you decide to take the plunge and your ET4G has crap GPS, have them exchange it. I have a YouTube video that shows my first copy (which was aweful) and my second copy that to this day is fantastic.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
I appreciate all the input. Maybe I've been spoiled by the GPS quality on the OG Evo - which pretty much never takes longer than 10 seconds to lock. I don't have to do any silly reboots or gps status or clearing this or that... I turn on GPS, click the link for CoPilot - and by the time CoPilot loads gps has a lock. I've talked to enough people both online and locally to have the heebie jeebies about the E4GT.
Soooo... Right or wrong, what I decided to do is buy an Evo 3D on Craigslist to try that and hopefully either wait for a consistently good report on E4GT or a different phone with a more reliable GPS. That way I can still upgrade via contract if and when that time comes.
Again I thank you all for your input -
I never had a problem with gps on the et4g. It works perfect. When I saw buddy got gps working on cm7 I couldn't believe it bc it never worked for me when I had the evo...
I believe this device had better gps quality..
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

LTE Gnex Radio Problems? Try This

Background
This is by no means definitive, so don't everyone go get your panties in a wad and pitch fits like 12 year olds.
So several days ago I noticed that my GNex was starting to have issues with dropping calls and data connections. Basically, I was dropping data and voice despite having a connection to the network about every 2-5 hours, requiring a reboot. This happened over a 3 day period in a stationary position, in radically different places (like 80-150 miles apart). It was happening on 3G and on 4G so I was pretty confident that it wasn't just a localized outage or the local tower acting up. I'm no expert and certainly no /dev, but I've been around some Android devices a time or two.
I'm a big proponent that 95% of problems with an Android device are user error. That doesn't mean you're holding it wrong or that you're stupid, merely that something the user has installed or set is affecting something else, that affected something else. As an example, shortly after getting my GNex I installed TweetDeck. I had used Navigation several times to test GPS (first thing I did being a SGS owner) so I knew it worked and worked well. Anyway, immediately after installing and setting up TweetDeck, my GPS crapped. It would see satellites but not connect... even after 30 minutes....even after rebooting, clearing AGPS data, blah blah. Being objective, I decided to freeze TweetDeck with TB. As soon as I did, GPS returned. As soon as I unfroze it, GPS failed. I uninstalled TweetDeck and reinstalled from the Market, and had no more issues.
Solution (For me at least)
With that event in mind, and a crapped out radio, I went looking through my app drawer for apps that access the radio. I picked out Network Info II 0.6.0, Real Signal 3.5 and Network Signal Info 1.51. I rebooted and waited. Here it is three days later, and I have yet to have a single voice or data drop. If I've had one on the data side, I haven't noticed and it certainly wasn't for long.
I don't know how or why. All I know is that I've never had any form of radio trouble and those apps were recently installed, and that without them, the radio issues are gone. Take it for what it's worth, which probably isn't much. But if you're on 4.0.4, with 4.0.4 radios and you're suffering from radio problems, flip through your app drawer and remove or freeze applications that have the sole purpose of polling data from your radios. Who knows, maybe having 3 was 1 or 2 to many.
Thanks for the write up. And I really think the issue with certain apps interfering with OS-level stuff is a big issue, and one that nobody seems to want to notice.
There are a ton of posts, not only on this forum but on others, where people are saying they have so many issues with the Nexus and this and that. What a lot of people don't realize is that, yes, certain apps that are either poorly coded in general or not coded for ICS can potentially interfere with the normal operations of your phone.
A lot of people tend to use/stick with apps that they are used to, right? I came from the G1, the very first Android phone, so I've been using Android for awhile, and I bet that other people are too. Some apps are a staple of people's usage, meaning as soon as they get a new device, those same apps are the first to be downloaded and installed. However a lot of times those apps are abandoned by their developers, never to be touched again.
So of course an app that was coded on Froyo or even Eclair that calls the GPS or the radio or bluetooth stack or something else hardware related can potentially cause issues, especially with ICS being such a radical change from Gingerbread.
Question for OP. When you lost your data after 5 hours or so, was your 4G or 3G signal still showing as well as the data bars still moving like they are active but technically your data is not connected at all?
Was it apps you added that you froze or system stype apps? How did you see what accesed the radio?
[email protected] said:
Question for OP. When you lost your data after 5 hours or so, was your 4G or 3G signal still showing as well as the data bars still moving like they are active but technically your data is not connected at all?
Was it apps you added that you froze or system stype apps? How did you see what accesed the radio?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It was doing the typical thing you read about where people will have gray bars, 4G/3G showing, "Verizon Wireless" on the lock screen but no connection to anything at all.
The applications I froze are all 3rd party market apps. Check out the permissions for Network Info II as an example. My not so scientific hypothesis wonders if too many apps that can read "Network State" and "Phone State" going at once is too many. Again, not really based on anything at all, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that multiple apps or a poorly coded app constantly requesting Network/Phone State could throw radios into a tailspin and cause those radio crashes that we see from logcats.
And as a disclaimer, I'm not knocking those applications or saying that there's anything wrong with them. I make this post primarily to encourage people with the issue to think logically about the apps they have installed and experiment with removing some out of the equation. Going back to what I said eariler, 99% of people that install TweetDeck on their GNex probably don't have GPS issues because of it, ever. I did until uninstalling and reinstalling and haven't had issues since.
I see this as possibly being no different, at least in regards to a 4.0.4 Bootloader, OS and Radio Package.
Food for thought: Apps have not been updated to work 100% with ICS?
KWKSLVR said:
Yes. It was doing the typical thing you read about where people will have gray bars, 4G/3G showing, "Verizon Wireless" on the lock screen but no connection to anything at all.
The applications I froze are all 3rd party market apps. Check out the permissions for Network Info II as an example. My not so scientific hypothesis wonders if too many apps that can read "Network State" and "Phone State" going at once is too many. Again, not really based on anything at all, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that multiple apps or a poorly coded app constantly requesting Network/Phone State could throw radios into a tailspin and cause those radio crashes that we see from logcats.
And as a disclaimer, I'm not knocking those applications or saying that there's anything wrong with them. I make this post primarily to encourage people with the issue to think logically about the apps they have installed and experiment with removing some out of the equation. Going back to what I said eariler, 99% of people that install TweetDeck on their GNex probably don't have GPS issues because of it, ever. I did until uninstalling and reinstalling and haven't had issues since.
I see this as possibly being no different, at least in regards to a 4.0.4 Bootloader, OS and Radio Package.
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Click to collapse
Alright, so will that app tell me what is accessing that feature or do I need to go through every app to find out and what exactly shoould t say in the access?
Help me out here please because this is starting to annoy me!
The fastest way to see what apps have what permissions is Menu > Settings > Apps then go through each app and scroll down to permissions. Or you could back up your apps with TB, do a Nandroid then completely wipe the phone and live with it totally untouched (minus your gmail account of course) long enough to see if the problem goes away.
Don't get me wrong, I've never seen an LTE phone that didn't occasionally disconnect for a few seconds. People that say, "OMG my Rezound never did" are either full of it or didn't pay attention. There are plenty of cases of Rezounds, Maxx's and Thunderbolts having brief and random disconnects. But there's a huge difference between that, and losing signal as often as I was and as often as many people here say they do. There's nothing you can do about the former, but hopefully this is something that can be done about the latter. I'm crossing my fingers that it may help and that it's a relatively simple fix because frankly, until I saw it for myself I thought a lot of people were being drama queens. I'm not a whiner, I'm a doer, so I encourage everyone to go do.
bk201doesntexist said:
Food for thought: Apps have not been updated to work 100% with ICS?
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Click to collapse
There are a TON of apps that haven't been updated. I have a paid app that hasn't been updated that is abandoned and still on the market. Works fantastic except on ICS.
I've thankfully been free of radio issues thus far on my GNex, but I want to thank you for this thread.
KWKSLVR said:
I'm a big proponent that 95% of problems with an Android device are user error. That doesn't mean you're holding it wrong or that you're stupid, merely that something the user has installed or set is affecting something else, that affected something else.
...
Being objective, I decided to freeze TweetDeck with TB. As soon as I did, GPS returned. As soon as I unfroze it, GPS failed. I uninstalled TweetDeck and reinstalled from the Market, and had no more issues.
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KWKSLVR said:
I make this post primarily to encourage people with the issue to think logically about the apps they have installed and experiment with removing some out of the equation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to jump up on too high of a soapbox, but I couldn't agree with you more.
It's very satisfying to read about people methodically, empirically testing. It's something that seems rare these days.
So thank you!
KWKSLVR said:
The fastest way to see what apps have what permissions is Menu > Settings > Apps then go through each app and scroll down to permissions. Or you could back up your apps with TB, do a Nandroid then completely wipe the phone and live with it totally untouched (minus your gmail account of course) long enough to see if the problem goes away.
Don't get me wrong, I've never seen an LTE phone that didn't occasionally disconnect for a few seconds. People that say, "OMG my Rezound never did" are either full of it or didn't pay attention. There are plenty of cases of Rezounds, Maxx's and Thunderbolts having brief and random disconnects. But there's a huge difference between that, and losing signal as often as I was and as often as many people here say they do. There's nothing you can do about the former, but hopefully this is something that can be done about the latter. I'm crossing my fingers that it may help and that it's a relatively simple fix because frankly, until I saw it for myself I thought a lot of people were being drama queens. I'm not a whiner, I'm a doer, so I encourage everyone to go do.
There are a TON of apps that haven't been updated. I have a paid app that hasn't been updated that is abandoned and still on the market. Works fantastic except on ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My signal does not go in and out but randomly after hours it might lose data. By looking at it you would never know because everything looks fine but behind the scenes data is not working.
So what we are looking for in permissions is what you listed in the 1st post and that is what will be listed?
I thought it might have been me running in tablet mode so I just switched back to phone mode. Would like to see if it is actually caused by what you say.
[email protected] said:
My signal does not go in and out but randomly after hours it might lose data. By looking at it you would never know because everything looks fine but behind the scenes data is not working.
So what we are looking for in permissions is what you listed in the 1st post and that is what will be listed?
I thought it might have been me running in tablet mode so I just switched back to phone mode. Would like to see if it is actually caused by what you say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I froze those apps, I picked them because I knew they had access to:
Network communication > view network state > Allows an application to view the state of all networks. The part in bold is the description of what the permission "View Network State" means. That permission is under the "Network Communication" Category. Some apps will have more than that single permission under Network communication, some with have none at all. "Real Signal" has the fewest permissions out of the three I froze, and maybe all three don't HAVE to be frozen, but I haven't tested that yet.
Another random thought. During that time period, I also had a BUNCH of random reboots.
Maybe on other devices 95% user error might be closer.
But, not on my Gnex! What if you bought a completely new phone and have not installed any apps. The first time you open up the stock browser and use it for 5 mins or so on 4G LTE next to the cell tower -75 db stationary and still lose connection of both data and voice with "the triangle of death" on 2 separate GNex with 2 new SIM cards? Is this a bad batch? To me, "bad batch" is when we say 1/100 is a faulty device but this is almost reversed with GNex. We should exchange devices until we find a "good batch"
All I am saying is we all should be a little more compassionate for people like me. A lot of problems are made by users, sure. But it sure isn't 95%....It's more like samsung/google/vzw 60% in this case..
I hope I shed a little light on all the users that did not create user errors yet still have radio problems and VZW keep telling us to wait because issues are going to be addressed with the supposed firmware update that should have come in Feb, now March. Now...I don't know when.
Thank you for your post though, you rock
With anything, even product reviews, the people that have issues always make up the vocal majority. No one talks about how things work the way they should.
If my phone truly dropped 4G as often as it did when I had this application conflict, I'd be in the Verizon store every day until I either had a replacement or got banished from the store. If Verizon told me that it was "normal" and to live with it, I'd pay a visit to management at a different Verizon store and pay an online visit to the BBB. If that didn't do any good and I was really REALLY bored and had nothing better to do, I'd probably draw up a letter to Verizon's legal department about the liability Verizon could have when a consumer can't call 911 in the middle of the night because the radio crashed.
I still think it's an incompatibility hiccup with ICS more than necessarily an issue with Verizon's LTE network. I see GSM owners complaining too. And, as I said in the OP, I can only speak for a "stock" 4.0.4 bootloader/modem/radio experience. I've seen posts from people talking about how their problems have disappeared since making the move from 4.0.2 to 4.0.4. All I can speak of from my own experiences is that I've never had a problem from any version of ICS other than what I experience.
Come to think of it, I think I'll defrost all three of those apps and see what happens, especially since the phone in my hotel seems to be in working order.
OK, in the couple of hours since I've defrosted my cocktail of apps I've:
Opened the Facebook app, watched it poll for GPS and lock, then closed the Facebook app only to have GPS stuck on. Once I went into Settings > Apps > Location Services and tried to uncheck "GPS satellites" it rebooted. After rebooting, the phone showed 4G and a connection to Google's servers but I couldn't browse or use any app that is web based (like speed test, gmail, etc). After about 30 minutes of trying, I rebooted again and everything was fine. I have a feeling it's related to Real Signal looking at the plethora of stuff it monitors and that it's starting up on boot.
That's all I personally care to see. Needless to say, they're all frozen again.
I don't think there is a problem with real signal, I only installed it after having these problems to start with.
Since I got my nexus it works randomly drop voice and data. People would call me and get a fast busy signal. I tried many different radios and they all behaved the same. I switch my network to CDMA only and haven't dropped data or voice in two days.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
On 4.0.4?
I don't think it's necessarily just Real Signal. I think it's multiple apps polling data from your radios. After a few more days, I'll go through them one by one. So far in my experiences on my setup, there is something up with the combination of those apps.
Again, there's a solid chance that a combination of other apps could give other people similar issues.
I will say this, even if I had problems before installing those apps, this particular cocktail would only make them worse.
It's not ICM
Hi all - First post here, but have been having nightmares with my wifes Nexus - mine is fine and drops NOTHING - EVER.
Hers on the other hand - we are on our 2nd one and I was informed by Verizon today, that it's been 14 days since they replaced it and I"m stuck with it. I rooted her phone and installed 4.04, which fixed the random reboots she was having, and her signal LOOKED stronger, but she is dropping calls like mad and getting kicked off the network randomly.
Anyway, it does not appear to be a ICM thing - I was reading a review on IT World (I'm not allowed to post links till I've posted 8 times? ) - They are describing THE EXACT SAME THING the Galaxy Nexus is having. So there is a switching problem WITH VERIZON. The Maxx isn't ICM and the phone is a totally different manufacturer (Motorola)
I'm smelling class action lawsuit.
Woodk1 said:
Hi all - First post here, but have been having nightmares with my wifes Nexus - mine is fine and drops NOTHING - EVER.
Hers on the other hand - we are on our 2nd one and I was informed by Verizon today, that it's been 14 days since they replaced it and I"m stuck with it. I rooted her phone and installed 4.04, which fixed the random reboots she was having, and her signal LOOKED stronger, but she is dropping calls like mad and getting kicked off the network randomly.
Anyway, it does not appear to be a ICM thing - I was reading a review on IT World (I'm not allowed to post links till I've posted 8 times? ) - They are describing THE EXACT SAME THING the Galaxy Nexus is having. So there is a switching problem WITH VERIZON. The Maxx isn't ICM and the phone is a totally different manufacturer (Motorola)
I'm smelling class action lawsuit.
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Click to collapse
Yes, indeed.
I am very surprised to not see one yet!
It means all of us with this issue is actually being very patient at the moment.
Again, for anyone who does not have this issue at all, and curious to find out what issue we all are actually describing here by LTE Connection Drop + Voice Drop is:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24345
Man, why does everyone always pull the "class action lawsuit" line?
Firstly, you're not going to do diddly squat legally about it, so stop kidding yourselves (and us) when you say that you are.
Secondly, no service you pay for is "guaranteed" to have 100 percent uptime. My Comcast internet connection goes out every 3 months or so anywhere from 5 hours to one day. Do you think I have legal grounds to sue them? Nope. When a thunderstorm rolls in and you lose power for 12 hours, can you sue your electric company? Nope. In fact, I'm pretty sure in most ToS contracts or forms that you sign, it states that they do not guarantee you anything.
LTE is a relatively new technology, and Verizon is the first one to offer it. There's going to be hiccups and growing pains. It's been a year and it's A LOT better now than it was back when it started. 4 years ago we were all happy to get something faster than EDGE speeds, and now we get connections capable of 40/50 Mbps down at times and people are still unhappy.
I understand people's frustrations with the network/switching issues that are occurring between CDMA and LTE. But we live in an age where everyone feels entitled and important enough to immediately sue another company at the drop of a hat.
Here's an idea: If you are faced with severe LTE switching issues and it's a continuing problem, call up customer support. Tell them what is going on and let them help you. Yes, you are past your 14 day return policy, but you have one year of a device warranty, they will ship you out a replacement device. Since your Nexus works fine and your wife's does not, it leads me to believe that it's not a network issue in your area, and either: A. Your wife got two dud Nexus' in a row, which sucks but is not unheard of. or B. Your wife is using some sort of app or service that interferes with the radios. If you still have the issue after the 3rd replacement, call them up again and explain, and they just might be able to give her a different device altogether if the Nexus isn't working out for her.
Dear MMcCraryNJ,
hear my long plea if you have the time. If you don't that is okay.
Firstly, I am so glad you seem to be not affected by this issue on your GNex.
Every single day, I wish I was in your shoes.
On the brighter side though, with LTE Data/voice drop & severe vertical banded screen & one-way-microphone outbound issues, I have come to join in XDA forum. I've also gotten to know countless VZW / Samsung customer service representatives at all levels as well as local store customer service agents.
Secondly, I, and I am sure most of all the other GNex users with above issues, know that no product & service is guaranteed to work perfectly with 100% uptime. Personally, it takes a significant defect of any product for me to call customer service at all. I am one of those, who actually try to live with products that have minor flaws everyday. If GNex did drop my LTE 3-4 times daily, I'll live with out much complaint let alone 3 months that you've mentioned. 3 months of uptime would be heavenly, but I'll actually be perfectly fine with 3 hours uptime. Sadly, my uptime has been 5-10 minutes with LTE. If my one-way-outbound microphone cut off issue happened 1 out of 10 calls, I'll live happily. Sadly, nearly every other call makes my voice into a robot and I have to call back again.
I am personally coming from Droid Eris long long time ago when Android first came out with newest 3G technology back then. Eris wasn't issue free but my satisfaction with what I got was pretty much 95%. You see, as long as a product performs what it claimed to perform 60-80% of the time, I am happy. Claim and advertisement that Verizon made with CDMA Galaxy Nexus in the US as "The latest 4G LTE Pure Google ICS Smartphone meeting the most reliable 4G LTE network in the world" caught my attention, as many others, to actually decide to choose this new phone with my 2 year contract over countless androids that came out in the past 3 years.
Again, our frustration that is described on these post is described in detail here (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24345) it is not a LTE / 3G switch issue only. Switching issue is very small part of this problem. I will not go into any detail of one-way-microphone cut off issue at all, due to its unrelated nature on this particular post.
Just as you've suggested naively, your suggestions in order that you wrote them in were exactly the steps I thought and took from very first day I purchased GNex back 4 months ago from a local verizon store. I have stopped in at the verizon store to get exchanges of the actual device, SIM card. None of these replacements solved the data/voice drop issue. I am all talking about stock 4.0.2 without any apps installed on any of these GNex. It can't possibly be the bad batch as I received batches that were produced in completely different months. I loved whatever was promised with GNex so much that I was determined to find the one for me as no other devices Verizon offer at the time appeal to me at all. As 14 days has passed, the local verizon literally told me to 1) wait for the update 2) root your device to all different kind of ROMs and Radios 3) call VZW customer service. Which all of the advice I followed, I am still waiting, none of the ROMs and radios solved the issue.
Ever since then, I've been calling VZW and Samsung (when VZW transferred me), and talked to numerous customer service representatives at all different levels. (Level 2 & 3 and at some points I've been transferred and escalated twice to a person really higher up) With my efforts, I was actually able to tag all my calls, and send them screenshots (via e-mail), and follow through to actually make above mentioned issues officially put on VZW technical bulletin. It is a huge improvement, because when I first called about these issues, they told me "They've never heard of these issues.". Now, after all of our efforts, they admit there's over "120 technical bulletin reportings on these issues."
You do think that it is so easy to get a refurbished factory replacement phones with all my history right?
The answer is sadly No. They've been literally telling me to wait a little longer no matter how much I requested them to get me a replacement device. They are indeed very hesitant to keep replacing devices for all of us especially now days where the supposed update is going to resolve these issues. And on my end, I want to see first if the software fixes it, because I am literally burned out to get another screen protector install everything again, etc. Now the official answer is wait....for the update. If they don't keep their last promise of March update to resolve this issue, that is when my patience will run out and I'll jump to a different device. Although, I love this phone....
This is the longest online posting of any sort in my life ever. I hope this somewhat gives you a new perspective on what unlucky GNex user like myself had to go through in the past 4 months due to getting "bad batches"
Trust me, I hate to live in a society where anybody can talk about law suits against anybody. But, this was one of my first moments that I literally felt like I was hopeless & got betrayed by VZW / Samsung / Google. I started to fantasy about way to make them responsible for this poor product and service. All I wanted was at least 60 percent working "4G LTE Smartphone". (4G LTE is turned off due to connection drop, Phone is unusable as business purposes due to frequent one-way-cut off). After $299 and 2 year contract with $75 monthly service bill of 4 months with all the time I spent to help VZW/Samsung with this issue as a customer, my wildest dreams of thinking of participating in a class law suit, which will never happen, actually make me feel a little bit less helpless towards these major corporations as a customer.
Thank you for hearing my plea. I sincerely apologize for the length of this post.
Hope more of us can enjoy this great GNex in the near future.
After all, I love this device, I love this XDA forum and GNex community. I wouldn't want to switch to a different device just yet

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