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Help Urgent Help....Is GPS Status killing my battery?

T

TheRobster

Member
Hi guys.

Can anyone shed some light?
I installed GPS Status as suggested to get a better fix for mapping & navigation which has helped immensely.

But I have just looked at my battery usage:
10 h 45 mins on battery
GPS Status = 31%
Display = 18%
Android system = 15%
Android OS = 14%
Cell standby = 10%
Voice calls = 6%
etc.....

I have not used GPS status since the day I installed it. It is not running, and the force close button is not illuminated.

Why is it taking so much juice? Is it actually running? and if so how do I stop it?
And, if I uninstall it now, will I lose the satellite fixes, or are they kept in memory?

Cheers

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, this is the first time GPS status has shown anywhere on the battery usage "chart", and the first time that Display has not been at the top.
 
well i dont know if the satellite fixes will remain in ur memory, but i'd remove the app if i were u.. u could try monitoring it with another app too, just to be sure.. android assistant is a great app and shows detailed battery usage. personally, ive found GPS on the SGS2 to be great, without any help.. i get a lock (with assisted GPS from mobile network/wifi) in less than 15 seconds consistently which is great, for me at least
 
heshanj said:
well i dont know if the satellite fixes will remain in ur memory, but i'd remove the app if i were u.. u could try monitoring it with another app too, just to be sure.. android assistant is a great app and shows detailed battery usage. personally, ive found GPS on the SGS2 to be great, without any help.. i get a lock (with assisted GPS from mobile network/wifi) in less than 15 seconds consistently which is great, for me at least
Click to expand...


Yeah I think I will remove it. I only installed it because navigation was taking miles (litterally) to get a lock. GPS Status was suggested. Now it locks straight away, but as I said, today is the first time I noticed such usage.
It makes me wonder how accurate the battery usage monitor is.
Is that what android assistant does?
 
Gurba said:
Keeping the GPS active all the time will suck power just as BT and wifi.
Click to expand...

keeping ur GPS on all the time does not suck power like bluetooth or wifi, as it is only truly activated when an app such as Maps or foursquare needs to use it..

the battery usage is pretty accurate, i doubt its a problem with that, rather the GPS Status app is buggy and runs all the time even though no app is actually using GPS.. maybe thats how it gets its lock so fast? :D

android assistant does many things, one is a more detailed battery usage section which details all the processes (even widgets etc) that consume ur battery
 
heshanj said:
keeping ur GPS on all the time does not suck power like bluetooth or wifi, as it is only truly activated when an app such as Maps or foursquare needs to use it..

the battery usage is pretty accurate, i doubt its a problem with that, rather the GPS Status app is buggy and runs all the time even though no app is actually using GPS.. maybe thats how it gets its lock so fast? :D

android assistant does many things, one is a more detailed battery usage section which details all the processes (even widgets etc) that consume ur battery
Click to expand...

I know but the app he talks about will keep the uplink going and thus drawing power.
 
Go to GPS Status > Menu > Settings > GPS & Sensors > Auto-download AGPS data... what frequencey have you set for auto download?
 
ironass said:
Go to GPS Status > Menu > Settings > GPS & Sensors > Auto-download AGPS data... what frequencey have you set for auto download?
Click to expand...

I have now uninstalled GPS Status (maps & navigation worked perfectly with it removed)
Surprisingly, immediately it disappeared from the battery usage chart?

My main concern is, how can I tell what apps etc are REALLY running at any given time? as I had no indication that GPS Status was running but it used a LOT of battery.

BTW Gurba, if i had kept GPS Status installed would it still have used up battery power with the "Use wireless networks", Use GPS Satellites" unchecked in the Location & security menu setting?
 
TheRobster said:
I have now uninstalled GPS Status (maps & navigation worked perfectly with it removed)
Surprisingly, immediately it disappeared from the battery usage chart?

My main concern is, how can I tell what apps etc are REALLY running at any given time? as I had no indication that GPS Status was running but it used a LOT of battery.

BTW Gurba, if i had kept GPS Status installed would it still have used up battery power with the "Use wireless networks", Use GPS Satellites" unchecked in the Location & security menu setting?
Click to expand...

I fear that you may have, "thrown the baby out with the bath water", as they say.

I have used GPS Status for over a year now with no discernible battery use, unless I am manually trying to force a fix.

As you yourself have mentioned, it has never done this before and it would have been interesting to see if another app had conflicted with it or made a call upon it.

With , "Use wireless networks" and " Use GPS Satellites" unchecked you would have rendered it virtually useless and it may well have consumed more battery power in an attempt to obtain a lock.

The correct usage for GPS Status is oulined in my posting here:-

http://androidforums.com/2918122-post88.html
 
Ironass. I have those same instructions as a hard copy in front of me! It was those that I followed after downloading GPS Status!
Yeah, I am concerned that I wont be able to get a satellite fix. But there is obviously one built into the phone. Like I said, I tried maps & navigation earlier after binning GPS status and all seems well.
I do however take your point re the unchecked settings. Would you advise I tick them again in case other apps are constantly searching. (a bit like turning the flight mode on when travelling on the underground, as the phone would otherwise be searching for a networl signal)

As a footnote, I have just rechecked my battery status, and after being on for nearly 15 hours, and all the mucking around earlier, and going through all the phone settings with O2 (another story!) and the GPS Status app apparently using a chunk of juice.....My battery is at 50% !!!!!!!!! Best its lasted ever>
 
Personally, I would leave them ticked as I use my "location" for a whole host of app's and widgets (HTC clock/weather, News & weather, etc,) and not just for Maps, Latitude and Navigation.
 
Found this thread while looking at GPS stuff and went to download GPS Status from Play. I see that it says that one known issue is that on Samsung phones excess battery use is reported even when there is none when this app is installed. Perhaps this was what the OP was seeing?
 
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