Help Odd location behavior

[weshallscrimp]

I did a small road trip yesterday, and now my phone's location is stuck at one spot I drove past, which is about 100 miles from where I live.

I rebooted the phone, deleted Maps cache and data, and reinstalled Maps. I downloaded the GPS Status app, which allows you to reset your GPS data. I changed my location settings between WiFi, GPS, and cell networks. I turned off location services and rebooted.

The location still won't budge from that spot. Even if I open Bing maps in the phone's browser, it shows that same wrong location.

Here's the weirdest thing: I'm at home on a laptop connected to WiFi, and maps shows the wrong location on here too! Some people have had issues using the same SSID/router in a new location, but that is not the case with me.

I went outside and reset the GPS data, and once it fixed on GPS signal, the location was corrected for a moment. Then I went inside to see if the location on my laptop was fixed, and it wasn't In maps (in Chrome) I clicked "update location" and it didn't change. Then my phone reverted to that same wrong location.

Really confused by this one. Anybody have thoughts?

Nexus 4 - 5.1.1 - no root, no mods

 

[The_Chief]

Maybe your phone's GPS chip became self-aware, jumped out of the phone and there it sits?

Seriously, that's a bizarre issue! The only thing I can think of is that the GPS chip in the phone somehow suffered a power spike at THAT location and hung up there. And that's its last known good location, and the one the phone is reporting to any browser polling for GPS location. The only thing I can possibly think of to try is a full factory reset, to refresh the system. If THAT fails, it's time for a replacement phone or a costly repair to replace the GPS chip. I know a factory reset is a total pain, but that will eliminate any potential software problems. If it persists, then you know it's a hardware issue.

 

[The_Chief]

By the way, if it turns out to be a hardware issue, here is a phenomenal sale on the Nexus 5:

http://phandroid.com/2015/11/24/expansys-refurb-nexus-5-all-colors-130-16gb-150-32gb-deal/

Good to have options! And I have never had an issue with a refurb that warranty didn't fix immediately. Nice to have a Plan B in place!

 

[scary alien]

Welcome to our AndroidForums, @weshallscrimp .

Can you try this (if you haven't already):

- turn OFF wi-fi
- try to re-obtain / set your location with your GPS again as you've described before
- see / verify if your location is now correct
- turn wi-fi back on and see if the location goes wonky again

I'm reading through this interesting page on stackoverflow.com where app devs are discussing "Android Location Updates get stuck" and there's a paragraph at the bottom that says:

According to the documentation of NETWORK_PROVIDER of LocationManager class "This provider determines location based on availability of cell tower and WiFi access points. Results are retrieved by means of a network lookup". It uses all N/W sources. In FusedLocationProvider, if you have your wifi on and you step out of a wifi NW, the location updates get stuck. Whereas if you operate updates with the LocationManager and NW provider ONLY, it does not get stuck – geekoraul

Have a read through (despite it having a programming-related slant to it) and see if that jostles any ideas to try.

Cheers!

 

[weshallscrimp]

By the way, if it turns out to be a hardware issue, here is a phenomenal sale on the Nexus 5:

http://phandroid.com/2015/11/24/expansys-refurb-nexus-5-all-colors-130-16gb-150-32gb-deal/

Good to have options! And I have never had an issue with a refurb that warranty didn't fix immediately. Nice to have a Plan B in place!

You're right, that is a good deal on the Nexus 5. I just got one for my wife, and it was something like $180 used buy-it-now.

I stayed at someone else's house last night and now the location seems to have corrected itself. I'm glad it's good now, but spontaneous solutions are lame because you never find out what went wrong.

On that road trip, I went outside of my T-Mobile coverage. The phone must have grabbed one last cell tower (or maybe a wifi network?) and then lost all service, and somehow that caused my location to stick. What's weird is it did so across all my google services, including, as I mentioned, on a laptop on my home wifi network. Also, I would figure that with no cell service, it would revert to regular GPS and maintain your location (even if it couldn't draw the map anymore without data), but it didn't do that.

That stackoverflow thread is interesting and it mentions the lag before GPS gets activated. They also talk about how "getLastKnownLocation" uses only cached locations. That, plus whatever opaque stuff google does on their end, may help explain the bug.

Another thing I tried is I went into Google's location history and deleted that spot. It tried to reappear a few times because it was still "detecting" that I was there, maybe because my phone was still updating that location. I don't know. Very odd.

Anyway, thanks for the responses, I'm glad I started an account on AF and posted here.