Develop Bugs

GPS Compass really messed up!

I am really concerned about the GPS compass issue (not the magnetic one). It makes navigation applications like NDrive and Sygic unusable. While I am driving the nav app would suddenly recalculate the route on a different road then a few seconds later it comes back to my actual location, and it keeps doing that even if u are not moving.
This is really irritating, do any of u face a similar issue? Do u think its a hardware or a software problem?

mbushnaq00 said:
I am really concerned about the GPS compass issue (not the magnetic one). It makes navigation applications like NDrive and Sygic unusable. While I am driving the nav app would suddenly recalculate the route on a different road then a few seconds later it comes back to my actual location, and it keeps doing that even if u are not moving.
This is really irritating, do any of u face a similar issue? Do u think its a hardware or a software problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install GPS status from market and clear agps data. Worked for me !
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

matmar said:
Install GPS status from market and clear agps data. Worked for me !
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please provide me with the market link, I really would appreciate it
EDIT: I got it, and cleared the agps data but still the same issue. The wierd thing is that while I stand still, the speed keeps increasing and descreasing at very high number.
I tested another one x and it was far more accurate and stable than mine I think mine is defective :S

Mine is quite amusing it says i'm at home then you will see it move at light speed and place my gps target in a whole other country whilst saying its got 5m accuracy, have tried clearing aps to make no diff
mbushnaq00 said:
Can you please provide me with the market link, I really would appreciate it
EDIT: I got it, and cleared the agps data but still the same issue. The wierd thing is that while I stand still, the speed keeps increasing and descreasing at very high number.
I tested another one x and it was far more accurate and stable than mine I think mine is defective :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Pyung said:
Mine is quite amusing it says i'm at home then you will see it move at light speed and place my gps target in a whole other country whilst saying its got 5m accuracy, have tried clearing aps to make no diff
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Click to collapse
+1: GPS is unusable...

escalator said:
+1: GPS is unusable...
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Click to collapse
The best way to test GPS is to put the phone in airplane mode, turn off GPS, and reboot it. After it reboots then activate GPS. That way it won't be using aGPS (wireless or Wi-Fi) and be relying solely on the GPS chip for location.
Download an app from the Market called GPS Test. When I run it I see the phone's kind of screwy. It sees 16 satellites immediately (excellent) and locks on about half of them (average) but then keeps changing which satellites it's receiving from.
It will get down to 9' in accuracy which is actually very good but it's odd that it keeps shifting satellites instead of staying locked on the ones it has previously identified and read. I set a route in CoPilot using nothing but the GPS chip and it seemed fine; my origin remained stationary. When I go out later I'll actually try using it in the car for a full route.
It's really hard to say whether it's h/w or s/w at this point.
Edit: After doing all the above I noticed I lost a pretty hefty amount of battery. Looking in the battery stats Android OS was the number one battery user exceeding even the display. That's abnormal which leads me to guess the issue is probably s/w.

What is a "GPS compass", please? (There's no such thing.)
Used GPS for the first time yesterday, for a two hour trip with Sygic maps' 12.1 beta. Worked perfectly the whole way.

BarryH_GEG said:
Edit: After doing all the above I noticed I lost a pretty hefty amount of battery. Looking in the battery stats Android OS was the number one battery user exceeding even the display. That's abnormal which leads me to guess the issue is probably s/w.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could be a red herring. A rather large issue has been discovered with the battery stats that it does not go down correctly when the phone is on standby (screen off). When it suddenly realises the true battery status, it plummets to the correct level.

Yeah. There is something strange going on with the compass and GPS.
Google Maps has my arrow moving around a lot and also changes direction significantly even when I'm stationary. Not sure what is going on there. There is a certain amount of uncertainty and jitter when using GPS but it should be smoothed out.
I've tried disabling the WiFi/Cell location system and only using GPS but it doesn't affect it. Resetting the AGPS data doesn't help either.

The GPS issue seems to be big and i use GPS and Navigation too often with my phone. Tonight or tomorrow i am getting my One X and i hope they will sort this out sooner.

zekit said:
The GPS issue seems to be big and i use GPS and Navigation too often with my phone. Tonight or tomorrow i am getting my One X and i hope they will sort this out sooner.
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Click to collapse
That's debatable. I have no noticeable issues when actually moving (even at walking pace), and get an accurate lock. When sitting still, the GPS does show slight motion, but only in the area immediately around my actual point, and even my dedicated GPS receiver does that to a degree. It's a fact of life that consumer GPS doesn't give better accuracy than a couple of yards.

I used Google navigation yesterday for a 25 mile trip. No issue. I've not tried it for walking but then I never really use it for that. Maybe I can have a go and report back.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I too am noticing an issue with GPS accuracy as detailed in my post here using sports trackers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1599057
Hard to say if its a software issue or hw issue... I havent "Tracked" myself over a long distance so it could be the GPS getting confused with only small changes in distance?
Can someone track themselves on a long-ish road that doesnt have many/any slow moving areas so we can see the accuracy of it?

I'd be curious to know what cases people with problems are using. We've already had one report of reduced wifi range with a third-party case, not beyond the realms of possibility that it could also reduce gps reception.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA

Guys, I just replaced my phone yesterday, I have to say the replacement has far more better accuracy than the old one. It seems to be a hardware defect and if you have the same problem then have it replaced asap.
To check, just download speedview, stand still outside with clear vew to the sky, and see how the speed jumps. If its between 0 to 5 and mostly 0 then you have a good unit, otherwise if goes to 20 then 40 and even 220!! then u definitely need to replace the device. I dont think any method u try will resolve this issue cuz its a hardware problem and not software.

+1: GPS is unusable...
and 1.28 yesterday did not better my gps stability

zilmer said:
and 1.28 yesterday did not better my gps stability
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Click to collapse
If GPS is unusable, you most likely have a hardware problem. Get the phone replaced.

Tiersten said:
Google Maps has my arrow moving around a lot and also changes direction significantly even when I'm stationary.
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Click to collapse
+1 to this as well, the compass isn't working correctly, maps showing me in completely different direction.

Got bored and decided to film it.
Makes me laugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcbtRUHBo40
Sitting on my desk right under the window. Nexus one right next to it doesnt do this.....

Demented-Idiot said:
Got bored and decided to film it.
Makes me laugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcbtRUHBo40
Sitting on my desk right under the window. Nexus one right next to it doesnt do this.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's funny to watch. Here's what I've found. When you download and view GPS Tracker you can see that the phone's not staying fixed to specific satellites and is instead bouncing around between them. The weaker the signal (indoors) the more it bounces. Outdoors with a clear signal it's fine. But because it's still locking on satellites, even randomly, it still maintains its accuracy. My accuracy indoors is 9' vs. 15' for my SGS2. I haven't compared it to another One X so can't comment on whether they all behave the same way.
You might want to run GPS Tracker on both your One X and GN to see how differently they perform. Also keep in mind that the way GPS works in flight mode (no aGPS support) is very different than when it's using Wi-Fi or a wireless signal. The former is the best way to test the GPS chips function. To really test the GPS chip put the phone in flight mode and then restart it. It'll be much slower to lock (they all are) and the results you'll be seeing are the GPS chip working on its own.

Need GPS Help / Advice.. best rom, or android version for GPS on T989??

I must say, I love my T989 except for the GPS. It is by far the best phone I have ever owned.
Problem is, I use GPS daily for my job. The GPS just always seems to be problematic in that while driving, using Google Navigation, the GPS signal randomly drops out. I will be driving, and miss a turn because the GPS seemingly lost signal, then after 30-90 seconds, it regains signal and the Navigation catches up. The entire time I am driving, the blue circle around the blue arrow in google navigation seems pretty big. This circle indicates how accurate the GPS is and it seems I never get really good accuracy. It seems like I just get low GPS locking ability and thus it's not always exactly accurate and frequently drops for a 30-90 seconds.
I have tried Jedi Knight ROM based on 4.0.4 and it was the worst, nearly unusable, took forever to lock and dropped a lot.
I am now using Jedi Mind Trick based on 4.0.3 and it seems to lock decently fast, but still never gets entirely accurate like my HTC phones all did, and it still drops for 30-90 seconds often, making it very hard to rely on for Navigation.
Many times I have flashed AGPS.zip and that helps lock faster, but the GPS still drops often and never seems to get reliably accurate.
I know this fixes it for many, and has made Jedi Mind Trick usable for me, but still not very dependable.
Does this phone just have a crappy GPS Receiver?
I haven't tried roms before 4.0.3, did GPS work better on earlier versions, or before ICS?
Is there any roms I should try that might work better with GPS Navigation?
Anyone using GPS daily without any drops at all? If so, what ROM?
Should I try different Radios or something?
- Mike

aGPS patch works wonders. Which version of it are you using?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

TheLastSidekick said:
aGPS patch works wonders. Which version of it are you using?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Google Specific 3.1 No SSL
That was the only thing that got my GPS usable.
It now locks fast, but just doesn't seem to ever have a strong signal and is very prone to dropping out.

Try downloading the "GPS status" app from the play store. Hit menu>tools>manage A-GPS> and Download.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

I had similar problems with jmt and other ROMs, even after trying several of the GPS fixes.
I've been using cm10 nightly 10/12 build now and GPS is perfect, nearly instant locks and no drops during navigation.
The only downside I've found is battery life, its not horrible but its no jmt either. Expect 12-16 hour battery life.
To me, jellybean offers so much that I'm willing to forgive battery life for the first time.
Hope his helps
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

I dont know why some of you have issue with GPS. The issue is not from the rom. I think your phone might be in a bad batch or your GPS files are not set up correctly.
For me, GPS on our phone is very great. It locks fast and never loses signal. The accuracy is within 20 feet.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Alarmmy said:
I dont know why some of you have issue with GPS. The issue is not from the rom. I think your phone might be in a bad batch or your GPS files are not set up correctly.
For me, GPS on our phone is very great. It locks fast and never loses signal. The accuracy is within 20 feet.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
No, it is the ROM. With every ROM flash GPS files get over written but never cleaned up. I constantly have to flash the aGPS fix to get GPS back. That goes for every other android phone I've owned too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium

wmblalock said:
I must say, I love my T989 except for the GPS. It is by far the best phone I have ever owned.
Problem is, I use GPS daily for my job. The GPS just always seems to be problematic in that while driving, using Google Navigation, the GPS signal randomly drops out. I will be driving, and miss a turn because the GPS seemingly lost signal, then after 30-90 seconds, it regains signal and the Navigation catches up. The entire time I am driving, the blue circle around the blue arrow in google navigation seems pretty big. This circle indicates how accurate the GPS is and it seems I never get really good accuracy. It seems like I just get low GPS locking ability and thus it's not always exactly accurate and frequently drops for a 30-90 seconds.
I have tried Jedi Knight ROM based on 4.0.4 and it was the worst, nearly unusable, took forever to lock and dropped a lot.
I am now using Jedi Mind Trick based on 4.0.3 and it seems to lock decently fast, but still never gets entirely accurate like my HTC phones all did, and it still drops for 30-90 seconds often, making it very hard to rely on for Navigation.
Many times I have flashed AGPS.zip and that helps lock faster, but the GPS still drops often and never seems to get reliably accurate.
I know this fixes it for many, and has made Jedi Mind Trick usable for me, but still not very dependable.
Does this phone just have a crappy GPS Receiver?
I haven't tried roms before 4.0.3, did GPS work better on earlier versions, or before ICS?
Is there any roms I should try that might work better with GPS Navigation?
Anyone using GPS daily without any drops at all? If so, what ROM?
Should I try different Radios or something?
- Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also use the GPS almost daily to track my runs with Endomondo application, and sometimes specially when running slow the GPS gets fixed to a location and will not update until 15-30 seconds after, maybe the same happens to you when driving in the city and you are very slow.
There is a feature called "GPS Static Navigation" that Samsung disabled by default in some of their phones, basically on the ones using a SirfIV GPS Chipset. The problem here is that our phone (SGH-T989) does not us that type of GPS Chip(set).
I've been trying to find a way to know the status of the GPS Static Navigation in our phone, but I haven't found anything about it just the info got from pdadb.net which is the following;
Satellite-Navigation
Built-in;GPS_module: Supported
GPSrotocol: NMEA 0183
GPS_Antenna: Internal antenna
Complementary-GPS;Services: Assisted GPS, QuickGPS, Geotagging, Simultaneous GPS
Navigation:Chip(set): Qualcomm gpsOne
Since this Chip(set) works with Assisted GPS, trying GPS Status application from Google Market and going to Menu / Tools / Manage A-GPS state / Download; it will help you a little bit since it will download the A-GPS XTRA Data (works better and faster if you do it while using Wi-Fi) that will help GPS to lock faster and get accurate positioning while on the road, it will last some days but it is not a definitive solution.
I still researching on knowing more about how "GPS Static Navigation" works in our phone, I even opened a question discussion about it @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1940294
Please let me know if some of you know more about this,
Thanks, and hope this give you a bit more insights about it!

RushAOZ said:
No, it is the ROM. With every ROM flash GPS files get over written but never cleaned up. I constantly have to flash the aGPS fix to get GPS back. That goes for every other android phone I've owned too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
That's weird. I have flashed jedi, AOKP, CM, and i never had problem with GPS. I also own Galaxy S 4G, which has a crappy GPS due to the hardware failure. No Rom or app can fix that. That's why i think it is not Rom issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Was stock rom GPS any good? Try stock first and go from there to pinpoint issue
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Alarmmy said:
That's weird. I have flashed jedi, AOKP, CM, and i never had problem with GPS. I also own Galaxy S 4G, which has a crappy GPS due to the hardware failure. No Rom or app can fix that. That's why i think it is not Rom issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the Vibrant S and I know what youre saying!

I agree that it's possibly your GPS at fault. I've tried multiple ROMs (using Jedi Mind Trick X now) and have always very fast GPS lock and great accuracy when using ICS ROMs.

[Q] GPS jumping around

Is it normal for the GPS to jump around when indoors? I am testing out some speedometer apps and they seem to think the phone is moving even though it is not. My compass also jumps around when GPS is locked onto a few satellites. If not the compass works normally. I tried clearing A-GPS data using GPS Status & Tools then rebooting but it makes no difference.
I will go outside and test tomorrow when it's not cold, dark and raining/snowing. But just wondering if it's because I am indoors that this is not working properly.

Update your rom to the latest
Sent from my LT15i using xda premium

TouchWiz GPS vs Aosp GPS

Would someone be able to identify why my gps locks quicker with aosp roms but not with TouchWiz roms?
With TouchWiz roms it will usually take 30 secs to 3 mins or even 5 mins to lock.
While with aosp it will be less than 4 secs.
Thank you
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

In my opinion Samsung's GPS radios suck. I think I had problems with the one in my Galaxy Nexus, probably had problems with my S4, and the one in my Note 3 constantly thinks I'm moving even when I'm standing still! I'll be standing in one place and the 'person' indicator will be moving around in about a 2-3 foot radius of where I'm actually standing. Extremely annoying when I'm trying to play Ingress or use walking navigation.
It seems I have these problems on both TW and AOSP ROMs. Your issue may be due to the GPS config file in AOSP having your country set whereas the TW one doesn't.

I haven't change gps config file in aosp rom. I'm currently running Will slimkat rom. Also tried cyanogenmod as well. Aosp has instant lock while it will take forever for TouchWiz to lock. I've tried different TouchWiz roms as well. All with similar results without changing any settings.
I think it's either software issue or my location. I'm from Canada...
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

I get lock in under 5 seconds in my house, and nearly instantly outdoors with touchwiz.
Suggestions:
1) make sure the baseband (modem and non-hlos) and bootloader match the firmware revision you're on. (NF1 for NF1, etc)
2) do a factory wipe, power off, but into odin mode, and do a full reinstall of stock using desktop odin
3) turn off gps (location) and wifi in settings, power down phone, pull battery (and sim), power up (without sim), perform the nv reset procedure, then power of phone when prompted, pull battery, put sim back in, power it back up and re enable your toggles and try again.
hopefully one of those helps.
Sent from my leanKernel 3.8 powered stock 4.4.2 (NF9) SM-N900T

Thanks, I try it out. I get a lock in 4 secs with aosp. So I know it's not the hardware...
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

Just a wild guess, but could it be that on aosp something else is accessing GPS, before you actually use it and on the other ROM it isn't? It takes much longer to get the fix from cold start, than it takes from warm start (warm being GPS was used very recently and has all sat, time and location info and cold means it wasn't used for a while and needs to update). GPS is not working, unless some program requests the location data and maps are not the only program using it. So for example if Google + is using GPS to report your location just before you're using map, it will be fast due to warm start, if nothing uses it for hours, it will be cold start and will take longer and if cell network access is slow, it will take even longer to assist GPS.
As far as GPS showing standing person is moving 2-3 ft, that's normal, since under best sat. coverage consumer GPS accuracy is about 5-10ft. I did some tests with geological markers and usually if you stand still for about min or so the GPS will keep on averaging and will pin point location to about 3 feet at best. I'm not even sure consumer GPS stores location at accuracy less than 1 yard.

I'm on Touchwiz as well and get an almost instant lock for GPS.
Might it be the rom you use?

shank007 said:
I haven't change gps config file in aosp rom. I'm currently running Will slimkat rom. Also tried cyanogenmod as well. Aosp has instant lock while it will take forever for TouchWiz to lock. I've tried different TouchWiz roms as well. All with similar results without changing any settings.
I think it's either software issue or my location. I'm from Canada...
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea the ROM chef adds them in, not you.

Thugnificent69 said:
I'm on Touchwiz as well and get an almost instant lock for GPS.
Might it be the rom you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried tweaked vision x and effortless roms. And I'm using Canadian note 3 with Rogers.
All with the same results.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

brando56894 said:
Yea the ROM chef adds them in, not you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually get a delay lock in Stock rom too
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

pete4k said:
Just a wild guess, but could it be that on aosp something else is accessing GPS, before you actually use it and on the other ROM it isn't? It takes much longer to get the fix from cold start, than it takes from warm start (warm being GPS was used very recently and has all sat, time and location info and cold means it wasn't used for a while and needs to update). GPS is not working, unless some program requests the location data and maps are not the only program using it. So for example if Google + is using GPS to report your location just before you're using map, it will be fast due to warm start, if nothing uses it for hours, it will be cold start and will take longer and if cell network access is slow, it will take even longer to assist GPS.
As far as GPS showing standing person is moving 2-3 ft, that's normal, since under best sat. coverage consumer GPS accuracy is about 5-10ft. I did some tests with geological markers and usually if you stand still for about min or so the GPS will keep on averaging and will pin point location to about 3 feet at best. I'm not even sure consumer GPS stores location at accuracy less than 1 yard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that might be my problem. I have issue with locking after I boot up my device or haven't used gps for a while. Once the satellites are locked, I have no issues in locking again if I attempt again within short period.
So is there a way to keep the gps in 'warm state'? I usually leave my gps location on by default.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

GPS problems when power connected.

So I have been experiencing this weird intermittent GPS dropping problem for months now. I thought it was due to corrupted AGPS, but I recently isolated it using the GPS test app.
When running on battery, I get decent SNF of high thirties and accuracy within 10 to 13 feet.
As soon as I connect the power cable, SNF drops to 15 or below on all satellites and my accuracy shoots up to over 300 feet. Also, Waze/Maps drop and are not able to lock or even figure out my current location.
Is there a way to fix this?
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app