Related
There are a few threads on the various Froyo releases, their features bugs etc. but nothing that touches on Froyo's GPS issues specifically.
I'd like to know whether anyone has successfully changed the 'look ahead' behavior that all the Froyo firmwares come with so far.
For those who have not experienced, i.e. not YET noticed this 'feature', here is a brief description:
On Froyo the GPS is showing you exactly where you are even while driving at speed. There is no delay whatsoever. All is well while you are going in a straight line.
The problems begin when you either stop abruptly or take a sharp turn. It then takes the GPS up to a few seconds to come to terms with what just happened. I can only assume this is due to some software component 'smoothing' the path by making up positions, i.e. looking ahead.
I uninstalled JPH and JPK. GPS doesn't do me any good when I see myself still driving down the same road after I took a right turn 5 seconds ago. JM8 and a number of other Eclair firmwares do not suffer from this.
Has anyone successfully 'downgraded' the GPS component of Froyo? Is this even possible? Is there a way to disable the 'look ahead'.....somewhere hidden in settings or some hidden menu?
ewok666 said:
Has anyone successfully 'downgraded' the GPS component of Froyo? Is this even possible? Is there a way to disable the 'look ahead'.....somewhere hidden in settings or some hidden menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you turn on the "Use Sensor Aiding" feature? That's new in Froyo. Try turning that off. It's in the Location menu.
hardcore said:
Did you turn on the "Use Sensor Aiding" feature? That's new in Froyo. Try turning that off. It's in the Location menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I thought I had that disabled. Is this on by default? I'll give that a try next time I load a Froyo firmware....if there was a quick way to nandroid back without an Odin restore, EFS fixup plus all the Voodoo conversions that would be sooner rather than later ;-)
ewok666 said:
Thanks. I thought I had that disabled. Is this on by default? I'll give that a try next time I load a Froyo firmware....if there was a quick way to nandroid back without an Odin restore, EFS fixup plus all the Voodoo conversions that would be sooner rather than later ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The default is off
It greatly helps when it's on I think
Arkanius said:
The default is off
It greatly helps when it's on I think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't it meant to aid while walking? I can see that this may be causing when driving.
Well, there is absolutely no reason this option to decrease performance.. At least shouldnt be, unless Samsung screwed something up as usual. (which actually may be the case)
I had mine set to "off" by default. There is next to no difference while driving.
xan said:
Well, there is absolutely no reason this option to decrease performance.. At least shouldnt be, unless Samsung screwed something up as usual. (which actually may be the case)
I had mine set to "off" by default. There is next to no difference while driving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said in the OP, I've always had the issue that GPS took seconds to realize that I changed direction or suddenly stopped. I'm just guessing that something that is intended to help stabilize GPS at slow speeds (walking, swimming with the dog, etc.) might cause a similar effect while travelling in a car.
swimming with the dog? I shat bricks ;d
Anyway, yes that right. Since its like phone is calculating from the sensor (compass, g-sensor -> speculating here) reads the approximate direction and pace you are moving at. It *might* be a problem with g-sensor read, becouse I find it quite flaky (using gps testing utilities exposes its terrible lag and low sensitivity)
BTW is it better after disabling it?
xan said:
swimming with the dog? I shat bricks ;d
Anyway, yes that right. Since its like phone is calculating from the sensor (compass, g-sensor -> speculating here) reads the approximate direction and pace you are moving at. It *might* be a problem with g-sensor read, becouse I find it quite flaky (using gps testing utilities exposes its terrible lag and low sensitivity)
BTW is it better after disabling it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there was a guy in another thread who claimed his Galaxy GPS was spot on. To proof that he uploaded a track of his walk with the dog and it clearly went right through the river a couple of times........I thought THAT was hilarious! ;-)
I might flash Froyo once again and play with that setting......still hoping that the Galaxy CAN do acceptable GPS. :-|
i'm mostly happy with the gps software on JPK (compared to JM8 which was already better than "official")
but the lag you're speaking about is killing me. there's waaay too much delay. sure it makes nice recorded tracks, but using it you'll see its crap
going to try my track with aiding stuff off tomorrow although im not sure its going to help
Well i am using JPK and the MOTONAV is running......ok, but i got "GPS LOST SIGNAL" every 10 minutes and the map jump around, after 10 seconds it will find signal again and back on track. anoying.
I borrowed an iphone 4 to test that thing's GPS and compare it to the Galaxy.
I have attached the Horror kml track file. It's no better, if not worse, than the Froyo stuff. I certainly did NOT expect that!
The kml can be viewed with Google earth and other GPS programs.....
And for the record....I did drive ON the road at all times ;-)
There is a new trend obviously. The more expensive the phone, the more messed up the GPS. LOL
What a total fail for the high-end devices these days.
bilboa1 said:
i'm mostly happy with the gps software on JPK (compared to JM8 which was already better than "official")
but the lag you're speaking about is killing me. there's waaay too much delay. sure it makes nice recorded tracks, but using it you'll see its crap
going to try my track with aiding stuff off tomorrow although im not sure its going to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did not help ;D
bilboa1 said:
did not help ;D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bummer......
Maybe they looked at the iPhone and thought it was a great 'feature'.
Oh man, if 2.2 firmware didn't get the GPS issues resolved, then it's pretty much useless for me. I'm happy with the overall phone as it is, minus the GPS issues.
stan28 said:
Oh man, if 2.2 firmware didn't get the GPS issues resolved, then it's pretty much useless for me. I'm happy with the overall phone as it is, minus the GPS issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPS issues will NEVER be resolved - it's a hardware problem. You probably just won't ever get Samsung to admit it, now they try those lame "sensor aiding" dirty fixes, but that's just another proof that it's a hardware problem - why else would they spend time doing the sensor aiding?
EDIT: I hope Samsung proves me wrong
MoWa22 said:
The GPS issues will NEVER be resolved - it's a hardware problem. You probably just won't ever get Samsung to admit it, now they try those lame "sensor aiding" dirty fixes, but that's just another proof that it's a hardware problem - why else would they spend time doing the sensor aiding?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PROVE IT!!! You are presenting hypothesis as fact, and that might be acceptable in places such as Digg, but it is inappropriate on developer websites.
Also, how do you know that sensor aiding required much much work? After all, it's predictable polling from already working/predictable sensors, unlike GPS sensors which pick up a fuzzy idea of where you are, is affected by satellite coverage, etc.
Sensor aiding can assist even GOOD GPS receivers indoors, tunnels and in areas where signal can drop (heavy trees, huge skyscrapers). Yes, even on Garmin units, this can be handy. We all know that the faster you travel the greater inaccuracies which are incurred, and this can help reduce inaccuracies in those scenarios. There are plenty of reasons to implement this functionality, and not all point towards bad hardware. Samsung probably has a few groups of programmers being thrown at different problems, because programmers aren't scalable, and there is a limit to the number of developers which can work on a specific issue/bug/improvement.
andrewluecke said:
PROVE IT!!! You are presenting hypothesis as fact, and that might be acceptable in places such as Digg, but it is inappropriate on developer websites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't prove it - but I can use my brains to put together the circumstantial evidence. Sorry if that isn't good enough for you.
MoWa22 said:
I can't prove it - but I can use my brains to put together the circumstantial evidence. Sorry if that isn't good enough for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You SAID "The GPS issues will NEVER be resolved - it's a hardware problem", and spreading random rumors like that makes XDA appear unprofessional, and benefits nobody. I've just simply noticed a recent trend towards guesses being slowly changed to fact here in XDA developers, and I'd like to try to reduce the frequency of that happening
I have two SGSII phones on T-Mobile. I just came from Sprint where I had a SGSII as well. I have had T-Mobile for 2.5 weeks and have traveled twice since then and both times were a distance of 800 miles or so. During this time I needed the GPS as expected and had countless problems.
The problems are very inconsistent and numerous to mention them all...
The generalization of it would be problems locking on to the Sats. In addition to that the GPS also has problems fully functioning when there is a Data loss. It seems to handle a loss of data differently then my Sprint SGSII did.
I am often having inaccurate locating, being off several hundred yards.
Sometimes it will lose the GPS signal altogether, and when I check the GPS app it shows 20-30 SATS visible and 0 connections etc.
With all this said again the Sprint version performs very differently, something is off. Also since I have two of these I was able to test better, and the results are almost identical. There were times that the performance was worse on one then the other as well.
Just to add, I have tried several different ROMS hoping the performance would be better with no luck. I also have tried the aGPS patch that is on here, however I believe that is more successful with the international SGSII and the ATT one.
I encourage anyone experiencing GPS issues with this phone to please post here. I also encourage any DEVS that read this or experience this issue to please check it out for us.
Thanks for taking the time out to read this or participate. Also when you post please include which color you have and roughly when you purchased the phone.
For me navigation is one of the most attractive features of a smartphone. So far my experience was very good with the T-mobile SGS SII. I am using stock firmware with removed bloatware, primarily CarrierIQ, social networks and Samsung media services.
I've found that T-mobile version can use Glonass satellites along with the US GPS giving it higher accuracy and faster lock.
Recently on my ocean trip I've used Navionics US east application in offline mode and it worked as fast and accurate as Google maps. That app is using preloaded maps without online data assistance.
In my experience Google maps worked in Europe as well as in the US.
This phone has drastically better GPS performance compare to the Samsung Vibrant.
It might be that success is dependent on a particular application because all of them do position data interpretation in its own way.
For clear comparison it might be useful to mention what apps were used for testing.
Glad I'm not the only one.
For whatever reason, the AGPS patch completely destroyed my GPS and its ability to lock to anything, so I had to hard wipe my phone after. Tried every single version the OP had in that thread.
As much as I love this phone, the HTC phones of last year had far better GPS.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989
The only time I EVER have GPS problems is when my phone is left on WiFi with the GPS off, or if my GPS icon doesn't start flashing when GPS is requested. Flicking GPS off then on fixes that.
If left on WiFi and GPS tries to locate me, it will never lock on.
For those that "dont have problems", how long does it take to lock and do you ever have issues where accuracy goes down for no reason?
Also if you have posted please post the color of the phone. As silly as it seems, I have heard that the white model has different issues. The only way I can think that would matter would be a batch manufacturing issue. Either way the info would help. Also a general timeframe of when you purchased the phone could help as well. Thanks!
DeeXii said:
For those that "dont have problems", how long does it take to lock and do you ever have issues where accuracy goes down for no reason?
Also if you have posted please post the color of the phone. As silly as it seems, I have heard that the white model has different issues. The only way I can think that would matter would be a batch manufacturing issue. Either way the info would help. Also a general timeframe of when you purchased the phone could help as well. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Locks in under 5 secs usually to 20ft or less. with or without wifi but on Juggs 5.0 & Stock
Titanium, Sept 2011 manufacture date.
i'm really shocked to hear about GPS issues on this phone.. my GPS has been solid since day one.
AUTX_buckeye said:
Locks in under 5 secs usually to 20ft or less. with or without wifi but on Juggs 5.0 & Stock
Titanium, Sept 2011 manufacture date.
i'm really shocked to hear about GPS issues on this phone.. my GPS has been solid since day one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's hope for me. The Sprint one I just had was solid as I mentioned prior.
well my gps on stock had no problems, un juggs no problems, i was having problems on darkside with no locks at all, but yesterday i installed the agps patch on darkside rom and im now having locks pretty much instantly so my guess is that it might have something to do with kernel or build or something.
to be honest if your in stock i wouldnt flash the agps patch, i would only do it on a custom rom that is having gps issues.
pb3000 said:
well my gps on stock had no problems, un juggs no problems, i was having problems on darkside with no locks at all, but yesterday i installed the agps patch on darkside rom and im now having locks pretty much instantly so my guess is that it might have something to do with kernel or build or something.
to be honest if your in stock i wouldnt flash the agps patch, i would only do it on a custom rom that is having gps issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again what color phone do you have and when did you purchase it?
DeeXii said:
Again what color phone do you have and when did you purchase it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
white december 23
Try going to accessory greeks and check out the wireless Bluetooth receiver they have in stock for 99.99$ it's NMEa, I have three globalsat bt-359 genuine and it was very cheap and it responds very slow on my s2 andI wind up missing turns, but it should work anywhere you get clear sky, except the Sahara and a few other treacherous Arizona and Nevada stress areas probably buying one of the ones on accessory greeks retail do a custom tailor job. Happy trails.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
My phone is black if it can help you
In regards to how fast I can tell that it locks in 5 to 20 sec with accuracy up to 9 feet.
In my experience the best results I had with the stock T-mobile ROM.
T_mobile is also the carrier that makes use of Glonass navigation satellites, not sure that others do the same. Typically I can see more than 21 satellites of both systems.
I would suggest to look closely at the software running on your phone.
Samsung included test software allowing to check signal to noise ratio and locking speed of raw hardware. If you find SN better in the range 22-34 and reasonable lock time your phone is fine.
Try flashing this, it may help.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1476962
Sent from my SGH-T989
Edit: nvm... I realized that you already tried this
DeeXii said:
I have two SGSII phones on T-Mobile. I just came from Sprint where I had a SGSII as well. I have had T-Mobile for 2.5 weeks and have traveled twice since then and both times were a distance of 800 miles or so. During this time I needed the GPS as expected and had countless problems.
The problems are very inconsistent and numerous to mention them all...
The generalization of it would be problems locking on to the Sats. In addition to that the GPS also has problems fully functioning when there is a Data loss. It seems to handle a loss of data differently then my Sprint SGSII did.
I am often having inaccurate locating, being off several hundred yards.
Sometimes it will lose the GPS signal altogether, and when I check the GPS app it shows 20-30 SATS visible and 0 connections etc.
With all this said again the Sprint version performs very differently, something is off. Also since I have two of these I was able to test better, and the results are almost identical. There were times that the performance was worse on one then the other as well.
Just to add, I have tried several different ROMS hoping the performance would be better with no luck. I also have tried the aGPS patch that is on here, however I believe that is more successful with the international SGSII and the ATT one.
I encourage anyone experiencing GPS issues with this phone to please post here. I also encourage any DEVS that read this or experience this issue to please check it out for us.
Thanks for taking the time out to read this or participate. Also when you post please include which color you have and roughly when you purchased the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have similar problems as you especially with inaccuracy and sudden loss of GPS signal In GPS Status I see, the error being as large as 150-200m in the beginning. It narrows down, gradually in a minute however its still is as large 15-30m. Sometimes its down to 3-4m from there. Sometimes it doesn't lock at all as it sees no satellite or sees them but unable to lock. It is very very unreliable as you have said.
I have Titanium version of t989 which I'm guessing is couple of months old. I got it from eBay recently. Also i'm not using any case at the moment as according to some people it limits it range.
For comparisons sake, I had HTC amaze short while back and it would lock down in 5-15secs at same place with error usually within 4-8m.
I tried aGPS patch but i don't see any improvements with it. Additionally it sometimes make the GPS act weird, like GPS status will show it locked on 1 satellite, if I open up google maps, my location had error of couple of 1000s miles, lol. I was being shown in CA (I'm in mass)
@For people having more issues with aGPS patch, no need to hard reset, it simply updates GPS.conf. You can restore your original gps.conf from my earlier post using root explorer. Its present in /systems/etc folder
First I thought it is GPS driver implementation problem with this phone but
could it be, in our phones the GPS antenna is damaged as it doesn't make any sense as most people have excellent gps performance ?
I purchased a black SGS T989 in March. I have zero GPS issues, usually lock in <5s to 4-8m. I find the spectrum of different experiences with GPS on this phone interesting, I use my phone as a daily driver (quite literally, it's my GPS too!).
Just sharing my experience, I am currently running the ICS Perfection Rom. And I was/am having GPS problems until today. I downloaded the app faster fix off of the play market and did a quick reboot>ran the app> then full restart. And now I get a pretty solid lock around 10-14 satellites.
Just sharing my 2cents. I think the problem has to do with the NTP. If that makes sense.
Sent from my ICED up Samsung Galaxy S2.
no issues on my black one, only really use GPS Status for ~2-5 min at a time , locks on to 10+ sats in ~10 sec max. While driving down highway mainly, if it makes a difference , using Darkside 2.3 and whatever kernel it came with
Guys I had similar issues with GPS until I narrowed it down by doing various experiments with different ROMs/ back to stock/ hardware etc. It turned out to be my CASE!!! I had bought this case with shiny metallic coating on the inside and it was causing the issue. With the case off I get a lock in less than 5 seconds...Hope this helps.
On AOKP M6, locks in a few seconds, accurate to between 10 to 20 meters, I've seen it as accurate to 6 meters!
Sent from AOKP Goodness :-D
I may be skewing from the main topic but hear me out. I owned an SII for about 5 months before switching to the Galaxy Nexus however still have two Tmo SGSIIs in the same household. When I had my SII I would in fact encounter the aforementioned GPS issues. They were completely sporadic which made the GPS feature highly unreliable. Spending some time with the GN I have not encountered any GPS issues, GPS locks within seconds and no loss of connection. I was curious as to why my SIIs GPS was very fickle so I did some simple, field tests if you will. They consisted of the placing of the phone in certain positions while driving for example. I found that with my SII, I had to constantly keep the phone in my hand or close to windows or the dashboard, otherwise the GPS connection would simply drop. The same if placed upside down, the accuracy radius increased dramatically ( distance-wise). However on the GN the signal remains strong in situations where the SII would lose GPS connection. To say that those affected by this issue have a hardware defect would be inconclusive but I do feel as though its not software defect.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I'm thinking of returning my Nexus 7, as I intended to use the GPS function extensively for road navigation. It's useless at the moment between the loss of gps lock and the random rebooting. Too bad it doesn't randomly reboot every time the GPS drops out.
I understand there were some issues on the original Nexus 7. I'm wondering what the consensus is on whether Google and Asus are going to fix the software or not. I'm pretty sure I'm going to return it and wait to see if fixes come out. I've had supposed top-tier smart phones over the years with non-functioning hardware that never got fixed, and I'm not looking to get burned again.
Hi! I'm planning to buy the LTE version of this phone tom. I wanna ask what are the common issues that I need to check and or common issue after months of using like screen unreponsiveness or not accurate touch screen deadpixels so I can think for other options or I can live with the issues if there is a work around.. Thabks in advance!
kimdarrel said:
Hi! I'm planning to buy the LTE version of this phone tom. I wanna ask what are the common issues that I need to check and or common issue after months of using like screen unreponsiveness or not accurate touch screen deadpixels so I can think for other options or I can live with the issues if there is a work around.. Thabks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the 'potential' problem you list may or may not happen to you/anyone with any phones...
The only real problem with the S4 mini is the KNOX protection. Which prevent you modding your phone, as a triggered knox voids warranty.
Got this for about two months now, only issue that I couldn't fix is GPS... Gps is very unstable as for me. Also there is not that many roms with this device. I wouldn't buy this now... In general no samsung devices for me...
kodyro said:
Got this for about two months now, only issue that I couldn't fix is GPS... Gps is very unstable as for me. Also there is not that many roms with this device. I wouldn't buy this now... In general no samsung devices for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's at least 8 ROMs if not more for the S4 mini... How many more you want? I have Sygic on mine, and it works perfectly.
However I may agree with the idea with no Samsung, but all the reason you given is not a valid one.
well i have to say, i don't really have any issues
Battery issue is a big problem. People talking around of it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2775477&page=2
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2779448
in certain circumstances the battery drains very quickly.
Other than that, there is a custom roms, mine GPS working fine.
And i do not undurstand the fuss about KNOX, because if you want to replace it you can electrically shock the device, and no one can tell what rom did you had on it...
daywalker1914 said:
Battery issue is a big problem. People talking around of it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2775477&page=2
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2779448
in certain circumstances the battery drains very quickly.
Other than that, there is a custom roms, mine GPS working fine.
And i do not undurstand the fuss about KNOX, because if you want to replace it you can electrically shock the device, and no one can tell what rom did you had on it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That a software problem... particularly a kernel one. It not the phone itself. And if you want to talk about software problem, I want to know which phone doesn't have one? Even Google Edition phones that uses AOSP has problems.
Yes, all smart phones has software misgivings in one or another way, but all phones are comprised both of software and hardware, and for me, i cannot give hardware disadvantage to this one, i can only share my opinion on the problem with the battery (no one actuality confirmed 100% where the problem is, almost everybody suspects that it is a software - kernel, problem), because for me, the battery drains some times fast, some times slow, and this is really awful. I cannot relay on this phone.
TNCS said:
There's at least 8 ROMs if not more for the S4 mini... How many more you want? I have Sygic on mine, and it works perfectly.
However I may agree with the idea with no Samsung, but all the reason you given is not a valid one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
basicly i've tried most of them, however it was device fault.
I'm sure people are going to flame me and adamantly disagree, but please hear me out. No one wants this to be wrong more than me. I really like this phone, but I can't live with a broken GPS.
I have tested this two days in a row. I go to work for 9 hours, all radios are on. I never turn the GPS off. When I get home, I change clothes and go on a four mile walk. I use Runtastic to track this. Two days in a row, the GPS symbol comes up, but never stops blinking. If I toggle GPS off and back on, it gets a lock immediately and the GPS icon stops blinking. It will hold the lock for the rest of the walk. Rinse and repeat. Launching Maps or GPS test does not help it get a fix. It stays blinking until I toggle the GPS off/on.
The moral here is that I would have to toggle the GPS off/on every day before I walk. I have not tested this with navigation yet because I ride a motorcycle most days, but I intend to before sending it back. This is strangely similar to the (known) issues that my AT&T Note 3 had.
Please tell me that some of you have seen this. I don't see how it could be a faulty unit. My GS5, G3, and Z3c do not have this issue under the exact same circumstances. The GS5 being the most similar in hardware/software.
I used GPS in the car today and it never lost a lock. I haven't used the app that you speak of however. Is there anything that I can do to help test?
This happened to my note 3. The GPS chip was bad. The hardware was the problem. If you call att they can connect to your phone remotely and see what percentage you are connecting the GPS chip. They told me I was only getting 60%. Sent me a new phone within 2 days...
WizeGuyDezignz said:
I used GPS in the car today and it never lost a lock. I haven't used the app that you speak of however. Is there anything that I can do to help test?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know it didn't lose the lock on your drive. My Note 3 used to jump around all over the place.
Honestly, I'm not sure what you could do. I don't think it's the app. When it gets like this, Maps, GPS Test, etc. will not get a solid lock until I toggle GPS off and on. The only reason I notice it on Runtastic is because that's when I use the GPS every day.
Something is happening with the GPS chip. It's either going to sleep and not waking up, or it's getting stuck on old GPS data or something. Like I said, I can reproduce it every day just by using it normally and then trying to use the GPS when I get home from work.
b0Ne83 said:
This happened to my note 3. The GPS chip was bad. The hardware was the problem. If you call att they can connect to your phone remotely and see what percentage you are connecting the GPS chip. They told me I was only getting 60%. Sent me a new phone within 2 days...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had the Note 3, but from what I read it was software. I never did get my unit replaced and I sold it that way.
I bought my Note 4 through Amazon, so I'll have to do a return through them, if it really is defective.
It's possible. I hope you can get it to work. My note 4 is running flawless
Here's the thing too, guys. After I toggle the GPS off/on, the thing works flawlessly for the rest of the evening and through most of the next day. Like, it gets a lock inside within seconds.
That's the thing. It's not that it doesn't work at all. It just sort of goes on strike at the same time every night and has to be woken up again.
Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk
How can anyone here, including me, make declarative statements about what a device that's been out less than a week is or isn't doing across the board? Here's my GPS experience and I use it a lot. I use "GPS only" with Wi-Fi and carrier network sensing turned off. The GPS is slow on first lock; slower than my Note 3 was. Once it's locked it stays locked with the exception of losing signal when it encounters obstructions. That's normal and a byproduct of GPS technology not anything specific to the Note 3 or 4. I never had the issues with my Note 3's GPS that some people reported. Other than the slower initial lock I'd say, based on my experiences, the Note 4's GPS is significantly more stable and better at holding a signal. I use Here Beta a lot and the only other issue I've encountered is when the app's out of focus and comes back to the foreground it takes about a second for it to reorient itself. All that said I'd rather have the Note 4's GPS than the Note 3's (keeping in mind my Note 3's GPS served me well).
BarryH_GEG said:
How can anyone here, including me, make declarative statements about what a device that's been out less than a week is or isn't doing across the board? Here's my GPS experience and I use it a lot. I use "GPS only" with Wi-Fi and carrier network sensing turned off. The GPS is slow on first lock; slower than my Note 3 was. Once it's locked it stays locked with the exception of losing signal when it encounters obstructions. That's normal and a byproduct of GPS technology not anything specific to the Note 3 or 4. I never had the issues with my Note 3's GPS that some people reported. Other than the slower initial lock I'd say, based on my experiences, the Note 4's GPS is significantly more stable and better at holding a signal. I use Here Beta a lot and the only other issue I've encountered is when the app's out of focus and comes back to the foreground it takes about a second for it to reorient itself. All that said I'd rather have the Note 4's GPS than the Note 3's (keeping in mind my Note 3's GPS served me well).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually just hoping that someone may have noticed similar behavior. I always seem to be the first to discover issues because I get my phone early and really test it. Often times, I post something like this and no one replies or reports the same issue, then months later a new thread blows up about it or my thread gets resurrected. I'm just trying to determine if this is a real issue so I can return the phone, if necessary. I can't life with a buggy GPS. I use it way too much.
It takes about 5 seconds to get a gps lock for me. And about another 10 to get the most accurate reception.
This is indoors, just tested it in my bedroom.
harlenm said:
It takes about 5 seconds to get a gps lock for me. And about another 10 to get the most accurate reception.
This is indoors, just tested it in my bedroom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, well thanks, but that's really not the issue here.
greyhulk said:
Yeah, well thanks, but that's really not the issue here.
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The topic is gps and initial locking, which I commented that I'm not having the issue.
If the OP is, then it's possible he has a defective device since I don't see that issue.
harlenm said:
The topic is gps and initial locking, which I commented that I'm not having the issue.
If the OP is, then it's possible he has a defective device since I don't see that issue.
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Click to collapse
The topic is GPS and occasional initial locking. Mine works fine when it works, but it's situational. Telling me that yours locks fine doesn't help me because mine does too, right now.
I'm trying to see if anyone else is experiencing times when the GPS simply stops working until they toggle it off and back on.
greyhulk said:
I was actually just hoping that someone may have noticed similar behavior. I always seem to be the first to discover issues because I get my phone early and really test it. Often times, I post something like this and no one replies or reports the same issue, then months later a new thread blows up about it or my thread gets resurrected. I'm just trying to determine if this is a real issue so I can return the phone, if necessary. I can't life with a buggy GPS. I use it way too much.
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I wasn't being "*****y" at you on purpose. For some reason the Note 4's forums have had a large number of "gate," "OMG!!!," and threads liberally using the royal "we" with much of what's said being baseless or exaggerative. My tone was carry over from the thread on the international forum where a guy launched a "Pen-gate" thread complete with video because his cheap-ass magnetic case was causing S Pen dead spots. So apologies. Notebook Check does thorough GPS testing and their review of the Note 4 should be up soon. Here's a sample from the Xperia Z3 Compact.
They tested the Note 3's GPS here...
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3-SM-N9005-Smartphone.104798.0.html
I just finished a 1700 MI trip I lost location once but it was in the back woods of Iowa. Much better than the note 3 I owned.
BarryH_GEG said:
I wasn't being "*****y" at you on purpose. For some reason the Note 4's forums have had a large number of "gate," "OMG!!!," and threads liberally using the royal "we" with much of what's said being baseless or exaggerative. My tone was carry over from the thread on the international forum where a guy launched a "Pen-gate" thread complete with video because his cheap-ass magnetic case was causing S Pen dead spots. So apologies. Notebook Check does thorough GPS testing and their review of the Note 4 should be up soon. Here's a sample from the Xperia Z3 Compact.
They tested the Note 3's GPS here...
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3-SM-N9005-Smartphone.104798.0.html
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Thanks, man. It may just be something in my environment or software setup, but it's definitely odd.
I see you on here a lot and I've always found you to be helpful, so no harm no foul.
I was having issues with my phone holding a lock too. It would find satellites, but would keep dropping out every couple of seconds.
I downloaded the "GPS Test" app, updated AGPS data from the settings menu, and now it locks and stays locked 100% of the time. And locks really fast, too.
May not help anyone else, but thought I would share.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A
I had a bad GPS chip in my Note 3, it wouldn't get a lock. Seems to work great on my Note4 so far, I use Waze every day driving to and from work.
One thing though is that if you have GPS accuracy set to also use WiFi/mobile networks you will drop GPS a LOT, that was something I noticed as it tried to lock onto WiFi carriers. I turned this off and only use GPS for accuracy and it works perfectly with the usual caveats, tunnels etc.
greyhulk said:
That's the thing. It's not that it doesn't work at all. It just sort of goes on strike at the same time every night and has to be woken up again.
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I haven't seen this myself. I just checked Google Maps and it displays my location immediately, without my having toggled the GPS today.
So I believe that you're having a hardware problem, but luckily it's not inherent in the Note 4, so you should be able to exchange for one with a properly working GPS.
Okay, guys. I'm an idiot. Turns out that this is all Runtastic. As long as the app is open in the background (during my runs/walks), the GPS icon blinks. Even opening Maps, GPS test, etc. will not give me a solid lock. As soon as I kill Runtastic, though, all is fine. It would seem that this is just how Runtastic uses the GPS and it overrides everything else. I had to do further testing to figure this out, but it would appear that I jumped the gun. For that, I apologize. I'm just glad I don't have to send my Note 4 back.
Thanks to everyone who participated.
Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk