GPS problems

[u7mg0]

on google maps when i am trying to navigate, it always says Searching for GPS and has my location streets away. i am outside the GPS is on. so Fin useless. i hate this!!!

 

[dylanthecat]

Is the little satelite dish in the notification bar blinking green or solid green?

 

[u7mg0]

blinking green

 

[dylanthecat]

That means it is not linked up and still looking for satelites. Did you try a reboot and/or battery pull?

 

[u7mg0]

that worked!! thaks so much.

is this a common occurrence? PITA to do this all the time to get teh GPS to work

 

[dylanthecat]

When in doubt, reboot I always say. My GPS has always worked fine and locates me really quick and is freaky accurate most of the time. If happens a lot to you i would take it back for a replacement. Good luck and happy GPSing.

 

[Project37]

Glad I saw this thread. I was going nuts! Turning it off/on didn't work, so I'm doing a battery pull (read on the Google forums to wait a few minutes). Fingers crossed.

I thought I'd left battery pulls behind when I said goodbye to my BB Curve. Not that I'd *ever* go back, though...

EDIT: Didn't work. Tried powering off/on and then holding shift-alt-DEL. No go, still getting the green blinking GPS symbol.

EDIT AGAIN: Now it's working. Hmm!

 

[KevinJ]

Is this a recent problem? Perhaps it's due to the earthquake in Chile.

The quake was so big/deep, the whole planet rang like a bell. Earth has actually altered its rotation speed, and shifted its figure axis. The change was extremely small, but it could affect the GPS satellites for a while (I think).

 

[jsh1120]

For those without previous experience with GPS units, it's worth noting that getting a GPS location is a deep dark mystery process that involves multiple uninterrupted communications between your device and multiple satellites 22,000 miles away.

There are many, many, many factors that can disrupt that communication for at least a few minutes, if not longer. Some involve your device; some involve the satellites, and in all likelihood some involve some guy in a bunker in Nebraska who controls gps communication over the entire globe.

In short, it is not 100% reliable communication 100% of the time. Your device may lose communication with a particular satellite. It may hiccup. The gps hardware/software may decide to take a coffee break. Get used to it.

 

[tommyz]

I had the same problem today. Then all the sudden it started working. This is not the first time it has happend to me. It almost seems random.

The GPS is very usefull than all the sudden it will not work at all.

I was without a working GPS for about 3 hours today.

I was hoping it was a firmware issue that someday motorola will fix.

 

[NaterGator]

Seriously. While your device may have issues, we are also entering a period of increasing magnetic and high energy particle emissions from the sun.

This means the GPS satellites you depend on for a fix are being bombarded by waves of electromagnetic radiation and noise which is causing interference. There are concerns the activity may become so intense civil and some military GPS systems will fall offline.


Reboot, wait a while and see if it comes back. I don't doubt there are incremental improvements to be made with the hardware/software, but you are also asking your device to track time signals from quite a few orbiting satellites and calculate the differential offsets in the signals. See here: Global Positioning System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia All of this is happening through the background noise of the atmosphere.

Keep that complexity in mind next time it takes a while.

 

[tommyz]

Seriously. While your device may have issues, we are also entering a period of increasing magnetic and high energy particle emissions from the sun.

This means the GPS satellites you depend on for a fix are being bombarded by waves of electromagnetic radiation and noise which is causing interference. There are concerns the activity may become so intense civil and some military GPS systems will fall offline.


Reboot, wait a while and see if it comes back. I don't doubt there are incremental improvements to be made with the hardware/software, but you are also asking your device to track time signals from quite a few orbiting satellites and calculate the differential offsets in the signals. See here: Global Positioning System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia All of this is happening through the background noise of the atmosphere.

Keep that complexity in mind next time it takes a while.

There is a problem with the Droid. I have used many different GPS units before and currently. I have never had the problems I have with the Droid.

I currently have two other GPS units and neither one has the same problem. There is something going on in the Droid, whether it's software or hardware, I don't know.

 

[KevinJ]

For those without previous experience with GPS units, it's worth noting that getting a GPS location is a deep dark mystery process that involves multiple uninterrupted communications between your device and multiple satellites 22,000 miles away.

Just an FYI, you're off about 10,00 miles.

GPS satellites are in medium earth orbit, not geostationary/geosynchronous. Average is 12,000 mile orbit.

 

[Shadez]

Is this a recent problem? Perhaps it's due to the earthquake in Chile.

The quake was so big/deep, the whole planet rang like a bell. Earth has actually altered its rotation speed, and shifted its figure axis. The change was extremely small, but it could affect the GPS satellites for a while (I think).

I get that once in a while too, I just hit the my location button again and usually it corrects itself within a few mins..

What I dont like is when you are just looking at the map and driving, then say your at a light and check mail or take a call, then go back to maps, it doesnt keep you in the center, you drive right off the map until you hit my location again..

 

[josh]

I've had problems with my Droid's GPS, and it is currently my biggest complaint with the phone. Every few days (more or less) GPS will just stop working, and I can only use cellular location (I'm assuming based on the inaccuracy of my location and the large blue circle around it). I've found that rebooting the phone will fix the problem: without going anywhere, I can reboot the phone and launch maps and it will almost immediately pinpoint my location.

At least rebooting will consistently fix it, but it's very annoying to have to do so.