Droid failed me. Can't find GPS satellites today.

[Vanilla Tarantino]

*PROBLEM RESOLVED* - SOLUTION - The app GPS Status was able to see and lock on to the satellites. All other programs tested which use the satellites (and were previously unable to find them) were then able to find the satellites within seconds of searching.

I really needed Google Nav earlier today since the one route I knew of to get to my destination was closed for construction and the detour signs were abysmal. Of course, today, for some reason, my Droid has been completely unable to find the GPS satellites. I ended up driving around, lost, for about 30 minutes before I finally figured out where to go, and the Droid was searching the entire time. When leaving, I knew where I needed to go, but still fired up Google Maps again to see if the Droid could find the satellites when I was outside, stationary, under a completely clear sky. After 5 minutes, nothing. Now I decided to try again, and my phone has been searching for the past 10 minutes and still can't find them. I've cycled the GPS radio and restarted the phone, but those don't work either. Google Nav was a huge part of my decision to get this phone and my Droid has completely let me down today. I've never had the problem before, and I've made no major changes to my phone since the last time I used the navigation (last weekend). Does anybody have any suggestions as to why it might not be able to locate them?

I'm running Cyanogen 5.0.5.3 with the upgraded baseband if it's of use.

 

[Vanilla Tarantino]

And I should specify, yes, "Use Wireless Networks" is checked. It can locate my rough location, but not my fine location.

 

[Backnblack]

Do you have another app that uses gps to try?

 

[eliwellis]

Restarting the phone always sets mine straight.

What does "cycling the GPS radio" mean?

Do you know have the GPS Status app?

 

[Vanilla Tarantino]

Do you have another app that uses gps to try?

Well that's an interesting fix for the issue...

I first went into Compass because I thought that for some reason the compass might need to be calibrated. I calibrated it and waited about 3 or 4 minutes to see if it would lock on to my address. It did not. Just for fun I then opened up GPS Status. It hung at 2 satellites, no locks for about a minute, then jumped to 8 satellites, 7 locks. Going back into Maps, it now locked in a matter of seconds. I killed all apps that could be using GPS, reopened Maps, and it again found my location almost instantly.

I honestly have no idea why that might have worked, but lesson learned. Thank you for that suggestion! I'll have to make sure I can get satellites before hitting the road next time. I was afraid I might need to go back to my old Garmin. :icon_eek:

 

[Vanilla Tarantino]

Restarting the phone always sets mine straight.

What does "cycling the GPS radio" mean?

Do you know have the GPS Status app?

1) Yeah, that usually takes care of any little issues, but as I said, the restart did nothing for me.

2) By cycling the radio, I just turned it off then back on from the Power Control widget.

3) I do and that did the trick. It must do something differently, and that's very good to know for the future.

 

[Backnblack]

Glad it worked for you!

 

[wernst]

About once a week I find I must restart my Droid to make the GPS lock onto satellites again.

I see there is a recommendation for a program called GPS Status, but I see that there are two of them in the Market.

Which one are you guys talking about?

-Warr

 

[eliwellis]

I use the free version of GPS Status.

It's likely that GPS Status did not "fix" your problem. This app just listens to the data that the phones GPS sensor produces ( or doesn't produce) and displays the data in a neat user interface.

Interesting that the problem cleared up right after you used the app.

 

[Vanilla Tarantino]

wernst - The one I used is the one by EclipSim. It's the first result when I search for "gps status".

eliwellis - I'm also rather surprised that it seemed to have fixed my problem. It's possible that the problem just happened to resolve itself and it was just coincidence that I ran the app a minute or two before it cleared up. If I end up with this issue again, I'll test it once more and post my result.

 

[takeshi]

I suspect it to be coincidental as well. I've definitely have a couple instances of this where running the app did not help with getting a GPS lock.

 

[ccps]

I was recently in Salt Lake City for a week. GPS locked while I was there and it worked fine. Still version 2.01 at that time. When I got back to Maryland it took two days for my phone to figure out I was not in Salt Lake anymore. And I tried all of the suggestions I could find in this forum to get it to lock in.

 

[Trever1t]

I can't seem to get a GPS fix today either. Tried restarting no help. .

 

[JCo352]

Every here that has problems with GPS needs to understand that it's not always the phone's fault. Sometimes the time of day can be a problem, because of where the satellites are positioned. I have ran GPS powered John Deere 650j Dozers, that at some points during the day, my signal would go out.

 

[ccps]

Okay. A signal loss during certain times of the day. But two days worth in my case! It was stuck in Salt Lake. When I landed and I was in the car trying to nav to Annapolis it told me it was 1900 miles and it gave me directions? From Salt Lake City to Annapolis!!! And I was sitting at BWI airport when it did it in Maryland. When I got home and started investigating the forums I did all of the suggestions. weatherbuig and other GPS apps un installed or disabled blah blah blah. Something else is going on.