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Help GPS Stopped Working

I took my house GPS coordinates and compared it to what my Incredible was reporting through the app GPSFix. It seems to get the Latitude correct, but not the Longitude. See attached Excel picture.

Maybe they changed the algorithm such that upstate NY causes some weird calculation error.
 

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Same problem here in Syracuse ny
Verizon rep here said I was just one of the unlucky ones who had a Droid with this issue
Sounds like more and more phones are having this problem
My phone is a Droid incredible about 10 months old
 
I live in Binghamton NY Work in Norwich NY.. NEVER had any problems until Wed. I just took a trip to Philly and the second I got within 10 miles of Scranton the GPS lit up and locked in... All weekend no issues at all even used the Navigation even when I did not need it just to test. No problem.s The very moment I got within the NY state line I was moved to 22125 Lauguana something or other in Spain. At lest I now now it will be 90 damn degrees there on Monday. Thanks to the weather app thinking Im in Europe.

Using a Droid Incredible.
 
In a way, I'm glad I'm not the only one... but in a way I don't feel glad, because this seems to be a huge, huge problem.

I'm also in New York State (around Rochester, but I drove between there and Syracuse today and it's effective everywhere). Nothing from Google Maps or Nav except for the "Coarse" location... which has me somewhere in the south of France!... and back again.

What's baffling is that GPS and the cell tower data should be independent of each other, yet other apps that ONLY use the GPS are effected by this too (GPS Test). All day long I could not get a coordinate mapping on that to come up either...

What I just tried: Leave GPS turned on, but go into "Airplane Mode". Then try any app that uses GPS only (like GPS Test). When I did this, I got my coordinates back. Then when I turned the network back on, I was getting Google Maps to lock on with GPS again.

HTC Weather still has me in the south of France, however, so I wonder how long this lasts...

I had tried literally every other fix before this, including reboots and a battery pull. What I don't get is, why should only Verizon be effected? Or with apps that only use GPS, why would the network matter at all? :mad: And I still don't know if I stumbled on a fix, or just a temporary patch...
 
homerpez said:
In a way, I'm glad I'm not the only one... but in a way I don't feel glad, because this seems to be a huge, huge problem.

I'm also in New York State (around Rochester, but I drove between there and Syracuse today and it's effective everywhere). Nothing from Google Maps or Nav except for the "Coarse" location... which has me somewhere in the south of France!... and back again.

What's baffling is that GPS and the cell tower data should be independent of each other, yet other apps that ONLY use the GPS are effected by this too (GPS Test). All day long I could not get a coordinate mapping on that to come up either...

What I just tried: Leave GPS turned on, but go into "Airplane Mode". Then try any app that uses GPS only (like GPS Test). When I did this, I got my coordinates back. Then when I turned the network back on, I was getting Google Maps to lock on with GPS again.

HTC Weather still has me in the south of France, however, so I wonder how long this lasts...

I had tried literally every other fix before this, including reboots and a battery pull. What I don't get is, why should only Verizon be effected? Or with apps that only use GPS, why would the network matter at all? :mad: And I still don't know if I stumbled on a fix, or just a temporary patch...
Click to expand...


Try this it actually worked for now. WOW strange.... It is nice to be home!! Spain sucked.
 
Hudson Valley NY, same problem.

I just got my replacement phone Wed. through Ausurion and I've been thinking the GPS was broken all week. Apparently its just all NY GPS.

Hopefully they won't see this as a waste of time and fix it.
 
homerpez said:
..... What I don't get is, why should only Verizon be effected? Or with apps that only use GPS, why would the network matter at all? :mad: And I still don't know if I stumbled on a fix, or just a temporary patch...
Click to expand...
Maps and Nav are assisted GPS so when you start GPS it goes to the network to get A-GPS info to get started.

Word is that VZW pushed an update to their servers in support of the 4G upgrade in NY that broke the A-GPS feed. This is not confirmed but sounds logical to me with the timing.
 
NilsE said:
Maps and Nav are assisted GPS so when you start GPS it goes to the network to get A-GPS info to get started.
Click to expand...

I think this may have been the fix... maybe.

Using the "GPS Test" app, and the rest of the phone in "Airplane Mode", I went into the settings and tapped "Clear AGPS", then "Update AGPS". It was after that when I checked the GPS coordinates, and it all seemed to work again.

So now I am thinking the whole Android system runs on that "assisted" AGPS, and that's what messed everything up up.

What I don't know is how you could do the same thing without using the "GPS Test" app... I can't seem to find any setting elsewhere that clears the AGPS info. All I know for now is that "GPS Test" has it. :)
 
None of this works for me. I'm in airplane mode, cleared agps, udpated it, and still doesn't work. GPS test i can't even tell if it is working as nothing happens.

edit:
Oh nice I got it working now. I had to go and turn on wifi and everything works now. Put it out of airplane mode and it still works.

homerpez said:
I think this may have been the fix... maybe.

Using the "GPS Test" app, and the rest of the phone in "Airplane Mode", I went into the settings and tapped "Clear AGPS", then "Update AGPS". It was after that when I checked the GPS coordinates, and it all seemed to work again.

So now I am thinking the whole Android system runs on that "assisted" AGPS, and that's what messed everything up up.

What I don't know is how you could do the same thing without using the "GPS Test" app... I can't seem to find any setting elsewhere that clears the AGPS info. All I know for now is that "GPS Test" has it. :)
Click to expand...
 
I'm in Gazost, too. Apparently I've been there all day while traveling in NYS from the Adirondacks to Rochester. Such World travelers we are! HTC Eris on Verizon, here.
 
prostude said:
Same problem here in Syracuse ny
Verizon rep here said I was just one of the unlucky ones who had a Droid with this issue
Sounds like more and more phones are having this problem
My phone is a Droid incredible about 10 months old
Click to expand...
Here in Albany, NY, it never stops searching for GPS, and never finds a route. Interestingly enough, the Maps app doesn't have a problem finding new addresses.

I also have that strangely-named (even for Spanish) city in Spain, but this only appears as the weather location for my Sense (yeah, isn't that a hysterical name) clock. I have lots of weather apps and widgets, and none of them are impacted by this ridiculous screwup. I went and tested other location-dependent apps because I believed that it was Sygic which had knackered my stock map system.

Sygic is an alternate navigation program on the Market, but it falsely purported to be free, and I found out that it wasn't after it downloaded new maps and then failed to perform. I was about to blame this app for destroying my navigation ability, and am actually glad that it isn't something which I should have read more about before installing. Still, if anyone is considering other navigation apps, this one is trialware, and pricey, and it won't fix this problem. Somehow I doubt that VZnavigator, that dumb forced app which you would pay to use works any better!
 
OK confirming this workaround works... not a fix as when phone is restarted you have to redo the "fix".

worked on two android phones...

turn on gps

activate airplane mode

run gps test by mike lockwood - menu>clear aiding data

exit airplane mode

satellites seen and lock
 
Glad to hear it helped someone (temporarily)... I felt it would probably would only work for a while, it seemed like a fluke when it happened to me.

HTC Sense still has me hiking the Pyrenees...

I hope this ends up being fixed not only on the system, but just the way it functions. I hate how we're all tied into this one system, so we all lose a basic function all at one time. I know using my phone as a GPS is probably the #2 reason I even HAVE a smartphone in the first place. :confused:
 
csg261 said:
Same here in central ny state...
Theories:
Solar flare...no...my Magellan sees and locks to GPS satellites. phone does not ..tried different gps apps and no satellites in view is reported by apps
Tried a few verizon phones - none will lock to gps
Verizon network problem - have not checked any others with different carriers but assume verizon only problem
4g probably not as 4g is on all over with none of the problems unless items below relate
- strike - shortage of staff to find and address problem and fix?
-sabotage by striking union workers?
Click to expand...

There are probably fewer VZW employees on strike than the number which that slimeball company would downsize, so I don't blame it on the labor. Nobody who actually does work for a living works under fair conditions any more, and stressed conditions don't help the network quality one bit. They should cut most of the executive and sales staff, but the engineers and techs who make it work in any way deserve a fair deal as much as anyone.
 
Stretch2m said:
WHOA! You guys are having the exact same issue as me, and I too am in upstate NY (Rochester). I thought it must be my GPS hardware but I find it hard to believe that we would all be having the exact symptoms (location shown as somewhere in France) and be located in the same geographic area! What is going on here?
:eek:

EDIT: I just talked to a Verizon tech support rep who said that they are getting calls about this issue. They stated that it is something wrong with the Android OS for certain phone manufacturers and that they (Verizon) contacted Google and Google is "looking into it".
Click to expand...
Stock.
Im from Rochester as well and am having the same troubles. I can not aquire a satellite signal. Please help!
 
This morning i found what appears to be a fix for the gps on my droid x not working. It worked for me. I traveled from florida last week, back into central new york. I discovered my gps was not locking in to anything. Today i found someone who had posted a remedy. Find and download "gps test" on the app's. Us the one developed by mike lockwood. It is free. Once downloaded, open and hit start. Then hit the "clear aiding data" button. I am not sure what it does, but in a couple of minutes of standing outside in clear view of the sky, the satelites started showing up and locking in, on the screen. I then checked my navigation and it is back working again. This did work on my phone. :d
 
I also tried the GPS Test workaround and it was successful on my DINC.:) Now both Endomondo and RunKeeper lock onto GPS. I'm in Orange County NY and since Friday have had no GPS; and the location in HTC Sense is showing up as Valdegorfa, Spain!
 
hey guys . . im a tech at verizon and the issue is Indeed a problem with google. .installed vznav on the phone and its able to be located and gps works fine with vznav app. of course there is no ETA for the issue ..
 
csg261 said:
Verizon network problem - have not checked any others with different carriers but assume verizon only problem
4g probably not as 4g is on all over with none of the problems unless items below relate
- strike - shortage of staff to find and address problem and fix?
-sabotage by striking union workers?
Click to expand...

Let's put this one to rest to start with... Verizon Communications and CellCo Partnership dba Verizon Wireless are two separate companies with different executives, employees and labor contracts. One is unionized, the other is not. So their ability to find the problem and fix, has nothing to do with people striking... more likely, unprepared level 1 telephone representatives that don't have a clue, who get scored by minutes they spend on the phone and are often scared to escalate calls because they feel it makes them look bad... that and people often willing to accept the blame being passed around.

This has to be an aGPS problem with NY towers related to the 4G rollout in Albany and Syracuse. Whether they broke their own tower data, or Google needs an updated database of those tower locations, if your device starts looking for satellites in the sky with latitude data but without longitude data, you'll end up in the Pyrenees if you live along the 90, give or take about 30 or so miles N/S.
 
I find it hard to believe the techy from Verizon saying it's a Google problem... Co-workers with iPhones running the same Google maps service sitting in the same building as I am have no problems locking onto multiple birds and using the nav service...
 
I was having this same problem late last week. I'm in Rochester, NY. I installed Gingerbread 2.3.4 on my Indrideble yesterday. I followed these instructions and have not seen the GPS problem since.

NOTE: This worked for me, I'm not positive it will work for you. This will wipe all your info from the phone and you will have to start over. Of course all of your Gmail contact will be brought back. If you don't know what these terms in the link mean, you probably shouldn't do it. If you screw up your phone don't blame me.

HTC Incredible Official 2.3 Gingerbread Update Leaked [Download] | Android Community
 
Have those of you who have tested the workaround used it to actually get to a destination? I did the workaround and my location was found, but by the time I drove 5 miles it had lost it's coordinates already.
 
I have just spoken to a VZW tech who denied having heard anything of this issue in Upstate NY. I refered him to this thread, but he conVENIENTLY claims to have no outside web access from his call center in Washington State.

He said there was a known issue in Pennsylvania, but I am in Albany. That's a long way from PA, but not very far from Syracuse, which I'd say isn't so close to PA either. I've noticed there were at least a couple of posts in this thread from Syracuse, and no less far away in Rochester.

So, after some in Verizon have already embarrassed themselves by saying "it's Google's fault" or "it's the sunspots" (as if the sunspots only mess with the Verizon network) here is how they are handling it now: they play dumb, evading the facts which you present them with, and insult the user with their "troubleshooting" game when there's simply no way the news would have failed to reach them since Sunday. You know the cause of this had to be some slimy VZW executive overworking his engineering staff, refusing to maintain adequate personnel levels to ensure that his precious 4G got launched without stepping on anybody's toes.

Now we are not getting all that we paid for, and VZW wouldn't care if we never get to use Google Navigation again without buying a 4G phone. Well, I'm not about to do that when there's still another year on my contract. I went through the hassle of a factory reset before finding out that this time it wasn't anything done on my end, and now I'm severely PO'd. There are now few things I want more than to make VZW own up to what they caused, and redress it with the respect which we deserve as consumers. There must be something which we can all do to make them acknowledge us, but what? We need to get through to their executive level somehow, and the call centers don't give out numbers for anyone on that level.
 
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