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Searching for GPS / always-active GPS ?

G

garyfritz

Newbie
Until recently, the GPS icon only appeared in my status bar when I was using GPS -- running Maps or GPS Status or similar.

Recently -- probably after the recent 98.18.94.XT907.Verizon.en.US update? -- it's started running all the time. The icon is in the status bar, and it says "Location set by GPS" in the pull-down status screen. It also seems to have trouble getting a GPS lock, since last night at the airport the icon was flashing in "searching for GPS" mode for 20 minutes or more.

The phone makes a lovely hand-warmer when it's doing this, but it burns through 25% battery in less than an hour.

For now I've turned off GPS access so my battery lasts a full day. But surely there is a better answer?


Phone: Moto Droid RAZR M
Carrier: Verizon
Firmware: 98.18.94.XT907.Verizon.en.US
Baseband: SM_BP_101032.021.32.80P
Kernel: 3.0.31-gef7deb8 hudsoncm@il93lnxdroid86 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Sep 25 15.22.18 CDT 2013
Build: 9.8.1Q-94
 
Right, I did that. It's a bit of a pain to have to manually turn it on/off every time I want to use navigation. (I travel for business fairly often, so I use navigation a LOT.)

The point is, I never HAD to do that until the last week or two. It used to turn on the GPS when I launched Maps, and turned it off when I exited Maps. Now it's on all the time unless I turn off that switch in Settings. Why? Can I get it to work like it did before, so it only runs in hand-warmer mode when I'm actually using the navigation?
 
Look for another app that is running with the GPS ... perhaps in the background.

If you are on Jelly Bean you can run in Safe Mode (disabling all apps you added without uninstalling them) and it can give you a hint if its being caused by an app you added.

... Thom
 
Hm. I'd looked at the Watchdog list of processes/services and I didn't see anything that looked like a GPS app. But when I booted into safe mode, there was no GPS icon. Boot in normal mode, and the GPS icon shows up fairly early in the boot process.

But wait. Then it went away.

So maybe apps like The Weather Channel and the Circles widget access the GPS when you boot up & occasionally after (hence the GPS icon during the boot process) but most of the time they don't access the GPS? And apparently the phone occasionally gets confused (or some other app is running in the background) and it keeps the GPS active?

For now at least, it's doing what it should. Maybe a quick reboot is the easiest solution if it does it again.
 
There are some "games" that are always loaded and hibernate. They then wake up and determine where you are and give you the next move.

The solution to your problem is to determine what you actually have installed and authorized to do this manipulation of GPS.

I had a similar problem with the Bionic. If GPS was enabled it would just eat battery. I had to manually disable it. That was Jelly Bean 4.1.1. I did not have the problem with the same apps on Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.1. I do not have the problem on the Maxx with 4.2.2.

... Thom
 
The thing is, I haven't installed any games -- or really anything else -- for at least a month or two. The only change lately is the recent upgrade.

Is there some hopefully-not-too-painful way to check through all apps and see what could be opening the GPS?
 
The Weather Channel app will keep your GPS running. Turn off the enable location. The new update was supposed to improve GPS.
 
Thanks kmf, I've turned that off now.

Thom, the update that got pushed out last week (or so) was the one I listed in the first post:
Version: 4.1.2
Firmware: 98.18.94.XT907.Verizon.en.US
Baseband: SM_BP_101032.021.32.80P
Kernel: 3.0.31-gef7deb8 hudsoncm@il93lnxdroid86 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Sep 25 15.22.18 CDT 2013
Build: 9.8.1Q-94
 
Thom said:
What was the upgrade you installed?

... Thom
Click to expand...

It was in the OP. The latest OTA update for the XT907 that just rolled out in the last day or so.

I have had my Gnex show the GPS icon sometimes in the notification bar as well. All I do is just swipe it away.

good luck
 
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