[Q] GPS Sporadic after 4.3 update

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Obeg

Member
Jun 25, 2007
11
1
I always have raved on how great the GPS is on my S4. It will lock onto satellites with 10' accuracy in the house. It was always spot on and never gave me any issues. That was until the 4.3 update. (I am not positive this was the reason - but it is around that time).

I am a runner so I use my phone 3-4 days a week to track my run 3-10 miles each time out. Before it was always perfect. Now it will lock on and track for a various amount of time.. from a few minutes to 15 minutes - but it will eventually just stop working. If I turn on the phone to look, the GPS icon at the top is not there, and the app does not know it lost gps signal. I can touch the screen and then the gps icon reappears, blinks, reconnects and all is good. I turn off the screen and go about my run and it will work for some period of time and then off again.

It "seems" like to me some app is using the gps and then not playing friendly and turning it off for the other apps. I don't know if that is what is happening but it seems that way.

I get the same results no matter if I use Google Maps, Waze, Runkeeper, or GPS Test... so it is not application issue persay.

I restored to factory and installed only what I need to run (Runkeeper and Google Play music) and it worked without a hitch for the entire 6 mile run. Great! Fixed! So I re-installed my apps and now it is doing the same thing again. So that seems to indicate another app not playing nice like I mentioned above. So I uninstalled any apps that I thought might be an issue and it is still there. So I fear it might be one of the ATT bloatware apps that I cannot uninstall.

Before I undertake the very tedious task of restoring to factory, running 6 miles, installing 1 app, running 6 miles, repeat --- until I find the culprit - I was hoping someone might no a quicker solution?

Thanks!
 
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I always have raved on how great the GPS is on my S4. It will lock onto satellites with 10' accuracy in the house. It was always spot on and never gave me any issues. That was until the 4.3 update. (I am not positive this was the reason - but it is around that time).

I am a runner so I use my phone 3-4 days a week to track my run 3-10 miles each time out. Before it was always perfect. Now it will lock on and track for a various amount of time.. from a few minutes to 15 minutes - but it will eventually just stop working. If I turn on the phone to look, the GPS icon at the top is not there, and the app does not know it lost gps signal. I can touch the screen and then the gps icon reappears, blinks, reconnects and all is good. I turn off the screen and go about my run and it will work for some period of time and then off again.

It "seems" like to me some app is using the gps and then not playing friendly and turning it off for the other apps. I don't know if that is what is happening but it seems that way.

I get the same results no matter if I use Google Maps, Waze, Runkeeper, or GPS Test... so it is not application issue persay.

I restored to factory and installed only what I need to run (Runkeeper and Google Play music) and it worked without a hitch for the entire 6 mile run. Great! Fixed! So I re-installed my apps and now it is doing the same thing again. So that seems to indicate another app not playing nice like I mentioned above. So I uninstalled any apps that I thought might be an issue and it is still there. So I fear it might be one of the ATT bloatware apps that I cannot uninstall.

Before I undertake the very tedious task of restoring to factory, running 6 miles, installing 1 app, running 6 miles, repeat --- until I find the culprit - I was hoping someone might no a quicker solution?

Thanks!

Are you sure it's not staying connected but not displaying the icon? Ie, if the app hasn't realised the connection has dropped, maybe that's because the connection hasn't dropped, just the icon has? In tech terms, to solve a problem you must first find it by isolating the cause, which would be the tedious task you're referring to.

Even then, it is possible it's a hardware or firmware issue, so a factory reset still might not fix it. Have you tried an app like this? It ill set your NTP Server without searching for it so that it connects quicker, maybe (I'm not sure) it will be able to keep it connected to that server.

Do you have CWM? You could flash a different ROM.
 

dibeachdude

Senior Member
Jan 30, 2009
183
66
Dauphin Island, AL
I can confirm this problem. It is intermittent. GPS loses the location fix. I had a similar problem with certain Motorola Attic ROMs that had something to do with a conflict with the "Use Wireless Networks" setting. I'm those ROMs, I could turn that setting off, and GPS would work fine. That workaround doesn't work for this ROM. I only mention it to help rule some things out. I thought that it worked fine right after I updated, but I may not have used the GPS much our maybe I just didn't notice. Yesterday, it was barely usable. I remember that epinter, in the Atrix 4g forums, had a tool that reset some GPS settings. I'm see if I can find it and test it. I will report back.

Update: Today, GPS works perfectly fine. Seems to be intermittent.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

Obeg

Member
Jun 25, 2007
11
1
Still having the issue. Reset my phone to factory again this time taking the extra step to format the SD card to just in case. By the way - I am running stock AT&T 4.3. This time when I reset I did not connect to the WiFi so it would not automatically install / update any apps.
I then added only 2 apps - Runkeeper and Play Music and went for a run. The GPS tracked perfectly for a 5 mile run.

I then installed GPS test and let it run for an hour or so. It never lost connection.

So I updated GMAIL. Repeat GPS Test.
Updated Hangouts. Repeat GPS Test.

And so on.. finally after about the 10th app it failed. The last app I had installed was Facebook.
So uninstalled. Failed again. Uninstalled the previous app to that which I think was My Fitness Pal.
It seemed better - it would go hours before failing... and then only seemed to fail when a phone call came in. So thought I could live with that.

So went to the gym and to test it I used Google Maps to navigate. Terrible! Would not work for more than a mile. I finally gave up.

When I say it is not working - I mean the GPS says it is on. The GPS Test app says the GPS is on. But the icon at top goes away and Google Maps says "GPS Signal Lost." In my Run Keeper app - same thing - icon goes away and no more mileage is recorded. If I turn on the phone, open Runkeeper - it then restarts the GPS and all is good for another few feet or maybe a mile and then it does it again.

I tried turning off the Use Wifi for GPS option and that has not helped. Thanks for the suggestion though - you gave me hope.

I have have been a software developer for 20 years and this just smells like buggy code somewhere and not a hardware issue. Either something to do with the new OS update from ATT (but why is no one else complaining) or some combination of apps I use. Runkeeper. My Pebble. Something. But it is driving me nuts. The GPS really is the main app I use on this phone... so it is making for a really expensive mistake at this point and I hate to admit that since I love Samsung and Android.
 

dibeachdude

Senior Member
Jan 30, 2009
183
66
Dauphin Island, AL
I should have updated my status again. The problem is intermittent, but it happens often. Like you, I am fairly certain that the ML2 update brought bugs with it. My GPS always worked perfectly before that. Now, even when it does work, it doesn't work well. The fix is jumpy and slow to update. My guess is that others also have the problem, and they don't use their GPS often enough to notice or care. I bet that Samsung is aware of it, but so many people had problems installing the last update that they will not be so quick to provide an update that doesn't affect many people. I guess a better way to put it is that Samsung probably doesn't want to take a chance that a small update might break more than it fixes.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

uselessbass

Member
May 22, 2012
23
3
I also have same GPS issue since 4.3 , same issues note 3 is having actually if I plug my active in while GPS is on it will stop working and when switching data network types it will lose GPS signal

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

Obeg

Member
Jun 25, 2007
11
1
Convinced it is the 4.3 ATT Active update now after repeated and very controlled resetting and testing.
Frustrating and makes my phone fairly useless to me for my main purposes. Today during a 7 mile run - it lost connection at least a half a dozen times. I have to run with the phone in my hand and restart the gps constantly.
 

Obeg

Member
Jun 25, 2007
11
1
So it appears that it is, as suggested, the radio that causes this issue.
A "workaround" for using the GPS is to put the phone into airplane mode (turning off the Radio and WiFi) fixes the GPS 100% in my testing.
However this is not a real fix for real use of the GPS to navigate since you have no access to data.

It appears these are the circumstances that cause my GPS to drop:

- Cell radio changes towers (which happens a lot in my remote area)
- WiFi changes antennas
- Phone is plugged in or unplugged
- A phone call is received.

So yeah - as long as your don't use your phone as a telephone - you are grand!

The new HTC One is looking mighty nice to me right now. First non Samsung component (phone, laptop, TV, etc) that I have considered in years...
 

ChristopherXDA

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2013
207
36
CT
So it appears that it is, as suggested, the radio that causes this issue.
A "workaround" for using the GPS is to put the phone into airplane mode (turning off the Radio and WiFi) fixes the GPS 100% in my testing.
However this is not a real fix for real use of the GPS to navigate since you have no access to data.

It appears these are the circumstances that cause my GPS to drop:

- Cell radio changes towers (which happens a lot in my remote area)
- WiFi changes antennas
- Phone is plugged in or unplugged
- A phone call is received.

So yeah - as long as your don't use your phone as a telephone - you are grand!

The new HTC One is looking mighty nice to me right now. First non Samsung component (phone, laptop, TV, etc) that I have considered in years...

It's weird that even in airplane mode my Active won't get a gps signal. Used a few apps to test as well: GPS Status, FasterGPS, GPS test, and all say no satellites in site.
 

trenzterra

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2010
378
43
I was getting GPS issues for quite some time, until I tightened the screws at the back of my case. It was supposed to be a fix for the S3 but it worked fine on my S4 as well.

Hope this helps :)
 

zackinma

New member
Dec 26, 2012
2
0
AT&T fixed my phone

I too had the GPS signal lost issue after the 4.3 update on my S4 active on AT&T. I called AT&T yesterday and they advised me they were aware of the issue. Their instruction was to take my phone to Best Buy where they have a "Samsung Solutions / Experience" dept / kiosk. So I did. They flashed my phone to 4.4.2. I am happy to report that all GPS problems are resolved. I drove for over an hour using Google Maps this AM with no problem at all.

GPS is a big deal for me too. I drive in a lot of unfamiliar towns. I'm also a sportsman and spend a lot of time in unfamiliar woods. I rely on my phone to allow me to retrace my steps back if need be. I also use it to set waypoints and mark areas for possible future hunts. The woods look a lot different at night then during the day. So I rely on the phone to help navigate off the beaten trail and get to my tree stand. GPS failures are not an option. Pure and simple. I can get out of the woods with a compass - but I may not find my tree stand in the dark without my phone.

I don't know about rooting this ROM, etc as I don't have need to root my phones. But it did fix the GPS issue and the phone seems a little faster with battery battery life too. YMMV.
 

AtrixInFL

Member
May 30, 2013
12
0
Thanks for your post! Did you l lose any data with the update to 4.4.2?

I have the same exact problem with my S4 active, definitely a software issue. For a while I used the airplane mode work-around which was great, until a recent update to Google Maps causes maps to crash when airplane mode is on, so now I'm back to having no navigation. I'm frustrated that AT&T has dragged their feet on getting an update out to the public. They must have zero QA to let a bug this obvious get into the public. I wonder when they'll push 4.4.2 out as a regular update?
 

zackinma

New member
Dec 26, 2012
2
0
Thanks for your post! Did you l lose any data with the update to 4.4.2?

I have the same exact problem with my S4 active, definitely a software issue. For a while I used the airplane mode work-around which was great, until a recent update to Google Maps causes maps to crash when airplane mode is on, so now I'm back to having no navigation. I'm frustrated that AT&T has dragged their feet on getting an update out to the public. They must have zero QA to let a bug this obvious get into the public. I wonder when they'll push 4.4.2 out as a regular update?

No I did not lose any data or apps. I have no complaints. Phone is working great. I'll never accept another update OTA though - I don't care if I have to root to avoid them.