Database Users

GPS Reception is terrible

Just curious if anyone else has issues with GPS reception on their sprint touch. I upgraded to the latest htc rom earlier in the week and everything is great except I cannot get GPS to hook up - I've had it work only once.

i upgraded too and i'm using GPS with GoPilot Live, iGO8 and Garmin Mobile XT and it works without issue.
what GPS program are you using with your touch?

Google maps is the only application i've tried. It will search (and search, and search) but doesn't find any or only 1 sat.

Make sure all your settings are correct and try using something like GPS Viewer to get the initilal lock.

Any hint on which settings, and what the the correct values for those settings would be?
Thanks for the tip on GPS Viewer - I will def check it out!
Thanks,
Tim

First, make sure you have the proper Radio/ROM, I assume you do.
Second, under System Settings>External GPS
Programs>COM4 Port
Hardware>(None) Baud Rate>4800
Access>Check Manage Automatically
Third, under Personal Settings>Phone
Services>Location Setting>Location On
Fourth, the Registry
I know of only one value that may help if you change, there are more, but haven't seen them, and I believe it's different on some carriers, like Sprint
HKCU>Software>HTC>SUPL AGPS>GPS Mode
For the inital sat lock, make sure you stand outside on a clear sky and wait at least 5 min, if it takes that long.
The first time I did this, I was trying from inside, finally tried it outside after 3 days of no luck, but now it works quite well. I usually get connected under 30 seconds. As long as your in the same area when you reconnect it should be quick, the first is usually the longest. And I personally use LiveSearch for the directions.
Change from 2 to either 4 or 1, this may help, never really guarenteed though

I was in Boston this weekend and noticed the GPS on my Touch would not lock in a signal in the financial district surrounded by tall buildings. But when I have a clearer view of the sky it works fine. Are you in an open area when you are using it?

hapa_dude said:
I was in Boston this weekend and noticed the GPS on my Touch would not lock in a signal in the financial district surrounded by tall buildings. But when I have a clearer view of the sky it works fine. Are you in an open area when you are using it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It surely helps! Any obstructions will make it harder to pickup the signal.

TheChampJT said:
First, make sure you have the proper Radio/ROM, I assume you do.
Second, under System Settings>External GPS
Programs>COM4 Port
Hardware>(None) Baud Rate>4800
Access>Check Manage Automatically
Third, under Personal Settings>Phone
Services>Location Setting>Location On
Fourth, the Registry
I know of only one value that may help if you change, there are more, but haven't seen them, and I believe it's different on some carriers, like Sprint
HKCU>Software>HTC>SUPL AGPS>GPS Mode
For the inital sat lock, make sure you stand outside on a clear sky and wait at least 5 min, if it takes that long.
The first time I did this, I was trying from inside, finally tried it outside after 3 days of no luck, but now it works quite well. I usually get connected under 30 seconds. As long as your in the same area when you reconnect it should be quick, the first is usually the longest. And I personally use LiveSearch for the directions.
Change from 2 to either 4 or 1, this may help, never really guarenteed though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having problems with mine too until I did the 4th one and changed it to a 1 from 2 and it works much better. Try it and see you can always turn it back to 2

This helped me
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173024

My apologies if this has already been posted somewhere. I did a search and came up empty...
So like a lot of people, I've been having some major problems with the GPS's reliability on the Touch (yep, last week's flavor of the week). It connects only when it feels like it, and numerous resets seem to temporarily solve the problem. Well, changing the following registry value seemed to solve all of my problems:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 8-5FF7-4bc1-80F6-5DA7870BB1AA}\Connections\Phone as Modem]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000"
Change the value to 0, and soft reset.
It appears that the GPS, by default, makes use of the "Phone as Modem" data connection to take advantage of aGPS, but if a "Sprint PCS" data connection is already active, the GPS doesn't swap connection methods and ultimately hangs. This problem is exacerbated if you have Push services or other data connections running.
I personally haven't noticed any problems with disabling PAM, but as usual, your mileage will vary. For me, I get GPS locks within 15 seconds when I'm in a reasonably accessible location, and I no longer have to reset-and-pray to get this thing working.

bill22 said:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173024
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies if this has already been posted somewhere. I did a search and came up empty...
So like a lot of people, I've been having some major problems with the GPS's reliability on the Touch (yep, last week's flavor of the week). It connects only when it feels like it, and numerous resets seem to temporarily solve the problem. Well, changing the following registry value seemed to solve all of my problems:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 8-5FF7-4bc1-80F6-5DA7870BB1AA}\Connections\Phone as Modem]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000"
Change the value to 0, and soft reset.
It appears that the GPS, by default, makes use of the "Phone as Modem" data connection to take advantage of aGPS, but if a "Sprint PCS" data connection is already active, the GPS doesn't swap connection methods and ultimately hangs. This problem is exacerbated if you have Push services or other data connections running.
I personally haven't noticed any problems with disabling PAM, but as usual, your mileage will vary. For me, I get GPS locks within 15 seconds when I'm in a reasonably accessible location, and I no longer have to reset-and-pray to get this thing working.

Link not working, repost.

hate to tell you this, but if you are using the builtin GPS, a clear view of the sky does nothing to improve your gps position locking. our phones have AGPS which means it is fake GPS. It uses the distance from cell towers to triangulate your position, not satellites. Thats why you can get a lock inside with no view of the sky.
some ROMs have different settings on them so following the above directions should work. Or you can do like me and find a better ROM

No GPS sat lock

I've had the imagio for about 2 weeks not. and can't get the GPS to work. I've tried every reg edit I can't find. Tried useing GPSID.dll rather then GPSID_HTC.dll. I tried installing the GPSModDrivers. Ran QuickGPS. Done Hard resets and half a dozen flashes. Nothing. The only program that works in Verizon's VZ Nav. TomTom, Google maps, Bing never get any sat lock. I'd say it was my phone but my dad's and the floor model at our Verizon store all have the same problems. The guy at Verizon said it was an issue with a lot of them and HTC was working on an updated rom for it. But that could be crap. Any ideas?

You probably have a faulty unit - my GPS always locks pretty quickly.

Agreed. My GPS works flawlessly. I use it all the time with TrackMe.

Never had the first problem with the GPS , works great with Google and Bing maps. Yours Dad's phone must be defective , swap it out for a new one.

Just wondering...
Start/Settings/System/External GPS on Access tab, did you marked
"Manage GPS atomatically (recommended)
If you don't do this, have you tried setting the Com Port Manually? I have a felling that if VZ works that is just a configuration issue.
As a last resource, you could use a terminal program like Token2Shell Mobile (free 30 Trial) to read the Com port "Usually Com4" and 4800 Baud and check the NMEA string coming in, here is a example from mine.
$GPGGA,204838.8,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,1,08,1.20,19.00,M,-2.00,M,,*56
$GPRMC,204838.8,A,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,21.60,268.00,021109,,*27
$GPGLL,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,204838.8,A*22
$GPGSA,A,3,02,04,05,09,10,12,17,27,,,,,2.60,1.20,2.40*08
$GPGSV,3,1,10,12,45,313,30,04,55,028,25,10,31,174,24,02,69,293,21*72
$GPGSV,3,2,10,09,21,243,21,05,24,182,21,17,27,080,20,28,03,143,16*7F
$GPGSV,3,3,10,27,19,237,14,30,11,319,14*7B
The bold is the amount of Satellites, in this case 8
Hope this gave you some ideas, let us know if it works for you...

Sorry for the double post working from device.

Keep in mind that some of the things you may have installed to correct the issue may have negatively affect registry settings, sync your contacts and do a hard reset on the device. And do not set up VZ nav when you bring it up.
Then do this:
Install Google maps
Make Sure your Location Setting is "on" in the phone settings. If it is on then toggle it to "911" hit okay on upper right corner then go back into it and toggle it back on and hit okay.
Soft Reset and let boat up completely
Open Google Maps And make sure USE GPS is not checked.
Click "X" in top corner to let it run in the background
Run Quick GPS and select "Download"
Open Google Maps again and select "USE GPS" make sure you have a clear view of the sky and it should take less than one minute to lock
Sometimes a soft reset is required to get a gps lock.
Actually, It is a known issue with the particular gpsone chipset. It's an issue with location caching with agps, but this phone comes stock with agps disabled. However, I have not heard that many complaints on this forum, of course not everybody uses gps. If you soft reset before you try and use you shouldn't have issues. Trust me this is my third HTC touch series phone with this issue (diamond, touch pro, imagio). With my imagio it suddenly stopped having this issue, wierd. I used to use a program called HTC gps tool on my touch pro that would clear the cache for you without having to soft reset each time you might want to do some searching, not sure if it works with wvga screens.

bastukee said:
Just wondering...
Start/Settings/System/External GPS on Access tab, did you marked
"Manage GPS atomatically (recommended)
If you don't do this, have you tried setting the Com Port Manually? I have a felling that if VZ works that is just a configuration issue.
As a last resource, you could use a terminal program like Token2Shell Mobile (free 30 Trial) to read the Com port "Usually Com4" and 4800 Baud and check the NMEA string coming in, here is a example from mine.
$GPGGA,204838.8,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,1,08,1.20,19.00,M,-2.00,M,,*56
$GPRMC,204838.8,A,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,21.60,268.00,021109,,*27
$GPGLL,2949.9400,N,09532.6595,W,204838.8,A*22
$GPGSA,A,3,02,04,05,09,10,12,17,27,,,,,2.60,1.20,2.40*08
$GPGSV,3,1,10,12,45,313,30,04,55,028,25,10,31,174,24,02,69,293,21*72
$GPGSV,3,2,10,09,21,243,21,05,24,182,21,17,27,080,20,28,03,143,16*7F
$GPGSV,3,3,10,27,19,237,14,30,11,319,14*7B
The bold is the amount of Satellites, in this case 8
Hope this gave you some ideas, let us know if it works for you...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur if it was a hardware issue VZ nav wouldn't work.

Sweeny Russ:
I being looking for a program to manage the GPS chipset, I use many kinds of GPS devices for work and it would be the first time I see a GPS device I can't program/manage. Gpsone chipset is the GPS on board device? Do you have a link for this HTC GPS program? I wonder if I can actually program with it...worth asking

One of my friends had the same problem as you mentioned. I asked him to do a hard reset and after a HR, the GPS has been working smoothly. Please try a HR!
I have no complain about my Imagio's GPS because it works much more than I expected. I can get 7-8 sattelites fixed in house, near the window where my old phone Touch HD could not fix any sattlelite.

I'm about to try bastukee suggestion. Giakhoa are you saying do a hard reset after a hard reset?

bastukee This is what I got, any ideas?
$GPGGA,,,,,,0,,,,,,,,*66
$GPRMC,,V,,,,,,,,,*31
$GPGLL,,,,,,A*11
$GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,50.00,50.00,50.00*35

bastukee said:
Sweeny Russ:
I being looking for a program to manage the GPS chipset, I use many kinds of GPS devices for work and it would be the first time I see a GPS device I can't program/manage. Gpsone chipset is the GPS on board device? Do you have a link for this HTC GPS program? I wonder if I can actually program with it...worth asking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know how this pans out. I haven't used this new version but it will allow you to play around with some setting my gps locks instantly so I'm not going to mess with it I just now it works on vga, you might need a screen rotate app to read all settings.
Original Post where I found it is here

Sweeny, Program works nice. it's an easier way to see the data then the program bastukee gave me. But sadly I don't know what half the options do and it still gives me the same date I posted in #12. Thoughts anyone?

That's exactly what you would get when satelites are not being seen, in fact you can't even see a Clock. Once I finish this 3 day trip to India and settle I will try that program and see how my settings look like and post screenies. "I'm a zombie atm"

Thanks for the help. I'm going crazy trying to get this to work.

While bastukee is on his trip, anyone else have any ideas?

hackthis02 said:
While bastukee is on his trip, anyone else have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
be sure ur using com port 4

There's where I got the data that matched the data bastukee showed me. And the one in the settings.

I might be pointing out the obvious but, did you try this outside? After like a minute?

Issue 5715 (GPS), Please star at code.google.com

Yesterday I experienced issue 5715 (just looked it up) pretty badly. http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=5715
I switched on my GPS in a city 300 Miles away from where it was last on, then waited for 1 hour with the phone by a window.... No GPS fix. All it sees is one or two satellites. (as seen by 'GPS status').
Later in the evening I had to walk to a new location thats about 0.5 Miles away...No GPS fix in the open! Restarted my phone as I knew this had worked before (many times). Unfortunately it still didnt work. 'GPS Status' showed 3 connected/4 found and a fix 200+ Miles away with a ground speed of 271MPH, Was funny looking at my location (blue dot) flying across the map so fast while I was stationary. (I was standing at the intersection of two streets, no tall buildings or obstructions anywhere)
I finally managed to find the location by just looking at the map.
Later that night I restarted the phone one more time and the GPS is working fine. (6 connected/ 6 found)
Please "star" the issue linked above if you've experienced this too.
If anyone knows if this is fixed with the newer/custom ROMS please let me know.
Thanks.

I had the same problem last year when I flew from Jersey to Oregon. After I arrived, I went to navigate with my Touch HD (Windows Mobile 6.5) and the map put me in Michigan traveling at 600mph. I chocked it up to a flaky custom ROM.
I wonder if theres a common link here, in that its not the software, but in fact the GPS's ephemera data that needs to be purged and/or updated?
Later that day I ran the satellite update software, rebooted a few times, and all was well again.

I'm in Dublin, Ireland and for some reason in both Maps and Google Earth it says I'm somewhere near to Alicante in Spain!!
I installed Secure Wave today and hit the track button on the site and guess what, it said Alicante as well!!
How can it be this wrong guys?
Cheers,
M

rotohammer said:
I wonder if theres a common link here, in that its not the software, but in fact the GPS's ephemera data that needs to be purged and/or updated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for a GPS reset/Clear data app.

I remember the GPS on my N95 thinking I was doing about 200mph when I was in my house before, wonder if it's more a general GPS glitch than the N1's fault.

I had this problem before the update. Haven't seen it since. I'm not saying they are related, I'm just putting it out there.
I did notice a couple of things (that could be unrelated or user error) - 1. if I had a Google Nav or directions course mapped, exited the Maps app and then went back in, my location would sometimes jump from the actual to the cached Nav starting point (make sense?) 2. If I left the GPS widget enabled, I had much better performance in Google Maps (duh! - but I mean no glitches in showing my location).
My pocket theory was it had to do with the assisted GPS portion - the checkbox that says 'use wireless networks - location determined by WiFi and mobile networks'. If any of those networks are reporting a bad location (IP source or Phase 1 location on a mobile tower) - maybe that is what's throwing the maps off? The thing is, the iPhone uses the same location enhancements (Skyhook plug in) and doesn't exhibit the problem, so who knows.

rvinny said:
My pocket theory was it had to do with the assisted GPS portion - the checkbox that says 'use wireless networks - location determined by WiFi and mobile networks'. If any of those networks are reporting a bad location (IP source or Phase 1 location on a mobile tower) - maybe that is what's throwing the maps off? The thing is, the iPhone uses the same location enhancements (Skyhook plug in) and doesn't exhibit the problem, so who knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspected this, so I turned off the "use wireless networks" option before rebooting. Didn't help, The GPS was still lost.

Are you actually obtaining a lock (solid GPS icon rather than flashing)?

Rusty! said:
Are you actually obtaining a lock (solid GPS icon rather than flashing)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't check that (think it was flashing), however 'Gps Status' reported a "fix" after the first reboot and it was wrong. Showed 3 connected/4 found.
Waited for atleast 15 minutes in the open...freezing.

anyone found a work-a-round or fix for this problem? Trying to use my NBA league pass but says it shows I'm in Espoo ( no idea where it is) instead of in the US.

[Q] GPS lock problem after kk

Seems to have GPS lock problems after kk update. Very difficult to get lock, and even when lock is eventually found, signal drops off easily. Anyone with this problem and have a solution for this?

koj012 said:
Seems to have GPS lock problems after kk update. Very difficult to get lock, and even when lock is eventually found, signal drops off easily. Anyone with this problem and have a solution for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much

i'm not on kitkat, but i have problems with gps.
however, problems occurs only when recording a track with "my tracks" from google.. as navigation apps works fine, no issue with the signal. only my tracks is giving me huge gaps between checkpoints..

I dont have gps locking problem in kitkat, but with directions while navigation, gps marker points in opposite direction.
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

xclub_101 said:
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have actually had the same problem, I thought it was only me. I ran stock Italy ROM 4.3, but don't see any improvement under 4.4.2 Poland. Even GPS Status app does not seem to help.

xclub_101 said:
To be honest I have seen that on my 4.3, where GPS lock takes more than twice longer (sometimes 5-10 times) than on my S3 - there is another thread on that somewhere. I was hoping 4.4 to come with improved firmware on that one, but apparently not so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, my GPS lock in MapsWithMe Pro is almost instantaneous. About 5 seconds, usually. Unless I'm indoors, but you can't blame a phone for the laws of physics.
N9005 DBT 4.3 MK2/MJ7/MK2
If I use Google Maps, it will only triangulate if I turn on 'Use WiFi', 'Allow Google Location' and more of that rubbish, and even then it takes about 5 minutes to get a lock.
My advice: Stop using Google Maps.

ShadowLea said:
Interesting, my GPS lock in MapsWithMe Pro is almost instantaneous. About 5 seconds, usually. Unless I'm indoors, but you can't blame a phone for the laws of physics.
N9005 DBT 4.3 MK2/MJ7/MK2
If I use Google Maps, it will only triangulate if I turn on 'Use WiFi', 'Allow Google Location' and more of that rubbish, and even then it takes about 5 minutes to get a lock.
My advice: Stop using Google Maps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I almost NEVER use Google Maps (OK, maybe for testing stuff) - and I can only wonder how you got that idea anyway Generally I am very happy with Sygic and I also use GPS Test for quick testing, also Accurate Compass (for very quickly calibrating the compass).
2. I have now tested MapsWithMe for like 2 days and I can guarantee you that the "instantaneous GPS lock" is COMPLETE bullsh*t - the program is only caching your last position (which generates huge problems if you move between locks), then it tries to use location data from your WiFi connection if that is active; if not it then tries to use some very basic and EXTREMELY INACCURATE positioning based on GSM cell towers (at which point the error displayed for my position was in the order of 1-2 km); during all those steps the program also fires-up the GPS - but it acquires the lock EXACTLY with the same speed (or complete lack thereof) as any other program attempting GPS lock
3. What still remains a little surprising for me is that sometimes (like well over 50% of time but NOT 100%) my GPS lock is MUCH, MUCH faster (in any program) if I have the Mobile Data connection active (which normally I rarely have); once I have the GPS lock I can then stop the Mobile Data connection and the lock remains perfectly good. EDIT: However the WiFi connection does NOT seem to make ANY difference on GPS lock whatsoever.

Isn't this basicly what AGPS should be doing. It requires a data connection to get the positioning fix faster than just using the GPS. once it gets the location it does not need the data that much. Except for google maps to download the map and navigation information, and this is why it needs a data connection all the time.
Sygic does not need a data connection for the map nor navigation. But, of course, having a data connection well get the fix faster.

y2kkingboy said:
Isn't this basicly what AGPS should be doing. It requires a data connection to get the positioning fix faster than just using the GPS. once it gets the location it does not need the data that much. Except for google maps to download the map and navigation information, and this is why it needs a data connection all the time.
Sygic does not need a data connection for the map nor navigation. But, of course, having a data connection well get the fix faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I had no surprise from the fact that aGPS can work
What I might have not mentioned above (fixed that now) was:
- a WiFi connection never improves things
- my old i9300 never needed the mobile data connection (or any kind of connection - that made basically no difference on it).
Those two seem to suggest that the Note3 "GPS driver stack" is worse than the old i9300. Also the fact that the mobile data connection does not improve things in 100% of the cases was IMHO interesting to note.

xclub_101 said:
1. I almost NEVER use Google Maps (OK, maybe for testing stuff) - and I can only wonder how you got that idea anyway Generally I am very happy with Sygic and I also use GPS Test for quick testing, also Accurate Compass (for very quickly calibrating the compass).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, miscommunication. I did not mean you used Gmaps, I meant people in general. Gmaps is a nightmare, on 50Mbps LTE it still barely loads... Even on my homenetwork of 120Mbps WiFi it takes ages to load the map itself, surely the packages are not 1GB a piece?
2. I have now tested MapsWithMe for like 2 days and I can guarantee you that the "instantaneous GPS lock" is COMPLETE bullsh*t - the program is only caching your last position (which generates huge problems if you move between locks), then it tries to use location data from your WiFi connection if that is active; if not it then tries to use some very basic and EXTREMELY INACCURATE positioning based on GSM cell towers (at which point the error displayed for my position was in the order of 1-2 km); during all those steps the program also fires-up the GPS - but it acquires the lock EXACTLY with the same speed (or complete lack thereof) as any other program attempting GPS lock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I travel an average of 600KM a day.
Yes, MWM caches the last position. Which is hilarious from time to time, last week it thought I was still in Zurich when I was actually in Berlin. If you click the gps icon three times again, it repositions. Waiting for it to refix automatically takes ages.
I do not have WiFi on the Autobahn, (If only! ) and 70% of the journey I do not even have a mobile signal.
3. What still remains a little surprising for me is that sometimes (like well over 50% of time but NOT 100%) my GPS lock is MUCH, MUCH faster (in any program) if I have the Mobile Data connection active (which normally I rarely have); once I have the GPS lock I can then stop the Mobile Data connection and the lock remains perfectly good. EDIT: However the WiFi connection does NOT seem to make ANY difference on GPS lock whatsoever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing suprising about that. It uses the celltowers to triangulate by sending a data package, as opposed to attempting to connect to three satelites. If the network is fast enough (UMTS and above) it is much easier to get an accurate position. GPRS doesn't work all that well, nor does having 1 bar of signal on anything but LTE.
WiFi only helps if there are active points nearby (no need to connect to them, detecting them is sufficient) and you have 'use wireless networks' enabled under Location Settings.
I just tested: WiFi and Mobile Data off, No network signal, on the Fyra (Highspeed train. Or as much as the NS can manage, anyway.) from Schiphol Airport to Breda @160kph. Got a lock with SpeedView in 15 seconds, detected 24 sats. Not instantaneous, but then you can't ask for that at such speeds.
I do have to say, on the previous firmware it took much, much longer. About 1-2 minutes. And I tried a Dutch Note 3 yesterday, it required almosylt a minute on the same firnware version.
The weather also influences the signal, clear skies vastly improve things. As does solar activity. Last October you could wait an hour and not get a lock, due to a solarstorm causing too much magnetic interference in the atmosphere. Even my GPS locator itself took almost half an hour.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

ShadowLea said:
...
Nothing suprising about that. It uses the celltowers to triangulate by sending a data package, as opposed to attempting to connect to three satelites. If the network is fast enough (UMTS and above) it is much easier to get an accurate position. GPRS doesn't work all that well, nor does having 1 bar of signal on anything but LTE.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually original aGPS doesn't quite work that way at all - here is some info from some of the guys doing some of the Linux kernel drivers for aGPS devices (I can not guarantee it is 100% accurate but fits OK with other info that I have seen):
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Hardware:AGPS
And another thing to remember when testing GPS - after a successful GPS lock it is very likely that you will have a MUCH faster 2nd GPS lock for up to about 2 hours. So any such immediate 2nd lock should be see in the above context, also the lack of it

Least this problem isn't just me. Always used to track my rides with Endomondo without a hitch but I went out for the first time since KitKat and I couldn't tell you how many times it dropped out on that 2 hour ride ... but it was alot

Xalies said:
Least this problem isn't just me. Always used to track my rides with Endomondo without a hitch but I went out for the first time since KitKat and I couldn't tell you how many times it dropped out on that 2 hour ride ... but it was alot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be a very common problem. Read somewhere that this is a software issue and there is a fix if the phone is rooted by flashing a patch on it. But I'm not about to root my phone and lose the warranty. SAMSUNG please release an update quickly that fixes this problem.

koj012 said:
Seems to be a very common problem. Read somewhere that this is a software issue and there is a fix if the phone is rooted by flashing a patch on it. But I'm not about to root my phone and lose the warranty. SAMSUNG please release an update quickly that fixes this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am rooted (with knox 0x0 ) and I have looked into that patch - the one that I saw only sets a different AGPS server address and has minimal or no impact - actually I have a strong feeling that there is something in the CSC that overrides it, which explains why the AGPS server only improves things for me when connected only on mobile data and not over wifi.
IMHO that seems to be mostly a firmware / software driver issue - on my old S3 it looked like there was a lot more "caching" of the "GPS almanac" and slightly more pre-calculation of the "GPS ephemeris", possibly on the application CPU on the phone (which has humongous general-computing power compared with the CPU used inside the GPS circuit, which however is highly more specialized). On the Note 3 it seems to work in a "safer" approach in which older (than like 2 hours) GPS almanac data is considered inaccurate and so is the time otherwise used to pre-calculate GPS ephemeris (which time to be honest I have seen WILDLY inaccurate on some carriers, something like 27 seconds away; and of course if the time is not carrier-set the phone time can easily be tens of minutes away ).

GPS issue- No lock but many satellites

Hi all,
I revived my old xda account I made in 2011 for this I've never had to post on XDA for an issue and usually can just find a solution by searching the threads.
About a month ago, my gps stopped working. It will occasionally triangulate by position via wifi wignal, but the gps does not contribute. On the GPS test app, there are about 20 satellites in view, but no lock. Further, all of these satellites are read as having a weak signal.
Things I've tried:
Regular reset
Wipe and reset
Clearing and redownloading AGPS data
Taking out the sim and rebooting (apparently this has worked for people...no idea why)
Resetting network credentials
Finally I unlocked the bootloaded, flashed TWRP and rooted the phone via Magisk and modified the gps.conf file with the TopNTP app. Tried a generic file and Canada specific file
I am starting to think this might be a hardware issue Maybe some corrosion from all the condensation in my scrubs at work? Probably not great for a non-waterproof phone. Any other ideas would be awesome and appreciated!

airfalco said:
Hi all,
I revived my old xda account I made in 2011 for this I've never had to post on XDA for an issue and usually can just find a solution by searching the threads.
About a month ago, my gps stopped working. It will occasionally triangulate by position via wifi wignal, but the gps does not contribute. On the GPS test app, there are about 20 satellites in view, but no lock. Further, all of these satellites are read as having a weak signal.
Things I've tried:
Regular reset
Wipe and reset
Clearing and redownloading AGPS data
Taking out the sim and rebooting (apparently this has worked for people...no idea why)
Resetting network credentials
Finally I unlocked the bootloaded, flashed TWRP and rooted the phone via Magisk and modified the gps.conf file with the TopNTP app. Tried a generic file and Canada specific file
I am starting to think this might be a hardware issue Maybe some corrosion from all the condensation in my scrubs at work? Probably not great for a non-waterproof phone. Any other ideas would be awesome and appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you checked out this discussion https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-5/how-to/guide-how-to-fix-improve-gps-lock-t3815263 ?

That looks very promising! I'm going to try it tonight after work.

There is an app in the play store. I think it is called GPS Status. It has sensor testing functionality and can tell you if the GPS or other sensors are simply not working.