Google Navigation "Searching for GPS..."

[Jimmy706]

When trying to use the Google Navigation app it just displays "searching for gps..." at the bottom of the screen and never locks in on my location. In the location and security settings both "use wireless networks" and "use gps satellites" are checked. Am I doing something wrong or is there a problem with the phone?

Thanks!

 

[Edaze55]

When trying to use the Google Navigation app it just displays "searching for gps..." at the bottom of the screen and never locks in on my location. In the location and security settings both "use wireless networks" and "use gps satellites" are checked. Am I doing something wrong or is there a problem with the phone?

Thanks!

Are you indoors? It could be its just not penetrating the building you're in. Try it outside and see if it locks?

 

[Jimmy706]

Are you indoors? It could be its just not penetrating the building you're in. Try it outside and see if it locks?

Nope, not indoors. Had it in the cradle on the dash for a while.

 

[QrafTee]

Nope, not indoors. Had it in the cradle on the dash for a while.

Is your car composed of lead?

 

[Jimmy706]

Is your car composed of lead?

No

 

[chdstk]

I'm having the same problem. It worked the first time i tried it, then every time after that it just says that it is searching for the gps satellite. Anyone find a solution?

 

[Fadelight]

My phone sat on that screen for a bit more than half an hour before finally picking up the signal. I'm not sure what would cause it, but you might try just leaving it alone for a longer period of time.

 

[bobmarker]

I thought my GPS just plain didn't work, but after leaving it alone for 3 hours I came back to see that it found my location. However, 3 hours is a wee bit much for turn-by-turn navigation.

I hope this doesn't become a major deal breaker because if this doesn't get better, I'm going back to my iPhone and the dreaded AT&T. GPS HAS to work. That is the main reason I bought the phone.

If anyone gets a solution to this PLEASE pass it along!

 

[cej7122]

Having the same issue. Can weather/clouds or geographical location be an issue... I live in west central Florida near Clearwater. Had the same problem with HTC Winmo 6.5 phone... When vacationed out in. Wyoming the winmo phone would lock on satelites in seconds.

 

[quixand]

Having the same issue. Can weather/clouds or geographical location be an issue... I live in west central Florida near Clearwater. Had the same problem with HTC Winmo 6.5 phone... When vacationed out in. Wyoming the winmo phone would lock on satelites in seconds.

Theoretically weather should have nothing to do with gps ability to function.
Going indoors, or tunnels will. Physical obstructions.

Unless of course moto cheaped out and used shitty gps radios.
Which I'm sure they wouldn't do.

 

[Fadelight]

I thought my GPS just plain didn't work, but after leaving it alone for 3 hours I came back to see that it found my location. However, 3 hours is a wee bit much for turn-by-turn navigation.

Hey man... step back from the phone and take a deep breath. Even car GPS units work like this... just not as slow. Here is why:

When you first get your phone, it has absolutely NO idea where to search for satellites. It has to check 360 degrees on nearly every axis all around it until it finally locks in to your location.

This only happens the first time. From here on out, it will pick up your signal within a minute or two after you turn your GPS on... assuming you are in the same area (state etc.)

Dedicated car GPS units get around this by pre-programming units with what is called "GPS quick fix" files before being shipped for sale. The GPS quick fix is nothing more than a file which eliminates any of the lines the GPS would normally search that are unneeded. (if it were to try to find GPS signals in Japan, for example... the lines would be different than in Ohio). This allows the units, on "cold boot" (no basic idea of the signal), to find it within 5-6 minutes.


Once you let the phone find your GPS location for the first time, it will have your basic area. If you turn it off and fly across the country... it may take 10-20 minutes when you activate it there since you are so far away. Otherwise, you should be fine.

This is the exact reason your phone asks for your wifi connection, as well. it uses your wifi to narrow down your location, and thus, make the connection time shorter. If you don't have wifi, or if it has a shoddy connection, this won't help. Perhaps why yours took more than 3 hours, and mine took 30 minutes?



In any event... like I said... I wouldn't worry about it too much once you've done it for the first time.

 

[kabbie_mcfeely]

Anything that can block the sattilite signal can cause your GPS to be off from a couple feet to miles.

Can weather

YES

clouds

YES

Granted your average cloudy day should not disrupt the signal. Very tall/thick clouds can disrupt your signal.

or geographical location be an issue

YES

If you are in an "urban canyon", mountain valleys, indoors or in dense tree cover, the signal can be reduced.

Just go outside (bring a chair), sit down, turn the GPS on along with a map app and just give it a few minutes.

 

[Jimmy706]

Just go outside (bring a chair), sit down, turn the GPS on along with a map app and just give it a few minutes.

I gave it a few hours. Nothing. Brought it down to the VZW store. They tell me the phone needs to calibrate itself. I'll give it till tomorrow and then I'm bringing it back again. It's obviously not working correctly. Called a friend of mine who bought his at the same time. His navigation is working perfectly.

 

[CRPercodani]

Yea man I would really bring it back. I got mine from walmart yesterday morning and when I walked out to my car and started the app it was locked on in the time it took to walk to the car. No wifi or anything either, I have used it twive today and it is almost instant. Oh and its great how you don't lose your map/route when service goes out, I had no service for almost 10 minutes and the GPS kept working fine with the map and all. It caches the route very well, prolly why it comes with a 16GB sd.

 

[Jimmy706]

My issue has been resolved. After arguing with the tech guy at the VZW store they finally agreed to swap out the phone. He insisted that no VZW phone uses satellites for navigation. Only cell signals. Whatever. Navigation on the new phone worked immediately.

 

[chdstk]

So I went into my verizon store today and got my phone replaced. Gps still didn't work. The manager said someone came in with the same problem earlier. We are thinking that it has something to do with coming over from alltel. They are going to look into it and ill go back in Tuesday to see if they have a solution...

 

[kabbie_mcfeely]

He insisted that no VZW phone uses satellites for navigation. Only cell signals.

This guy is a poster child for why you shouldnt listen to the min. wage store workers.

We are thinking that it has something to do with coming over from alltel...

The GPS has nothing to do with what company your phone is with. GPS on uses signal from sattilites. They only thing your carrier gives you is the maps via internet.


To either of you, have you tried turning off "use cell towers" ???? Try using GPS only.

It could be that you got bad GPS recievers in your phones.


I really hate to ask this and no disrespect intended, but did you try the GPS with google aps ? The reason I ask is, if you use an app not update for Android 2.0 it may not work with the GPS. Just a thought.

 

[syntrix]

Having the same issue. Can weather/clouds or geographical location be an issue... I live in west central Florida near Clearwater. Had the same problem with HTC Winmo 6.5 phone... When vacationed out in. Wyoming the winmo phone would lock on satelites in seconds.

The initial sync can take some time... IIRC mine took up to about 3 mins to lock on which is an AMAZING speed. Once it finds your location, it should be cached and work well the next time you use it.

Maybe try rebooting? Could also be weather/solar flares, but those are pretty rare.

 

[chdstk]

Well mine worked right after i got it but then stopped later in the day. I turned off the cell towers option so it would only use the gps and it couldn't find my location. I left it in my car dock overnight and it did nothing but drain my battery. I have tried multiple gps applications and none work. This is with two phones now. A bad gps receiver was my first thought, but on two different phones? I don't want to believe i have that bad of luck.

 

[morpheusfl]

I am having the same problem on 2 phones. Got my two Droid phones for my account Friday afternoon. It was not until Sunday late in the afternoon when we happened to try it just for giggles and poof BOTH phones without warning started to work on GPS. A few hours later they both stopped again and that is where they sit, no "Searching for GPS..." At first I thought maybe there was some type of problem getting the GPS alminac and when it came up 2 days later I thought maybe there was something wrong with the transfer and it just took an unusual amount of time. This theory was re-enforced when they both started working. When they stopped working again though a few hours later in the day, that idea went right out the window.

We did take the two units to VZW here and they changed one of them out and to make sure I wanted to confirm that it would work before we continued. It did not work, this was witnessed by both my sales rep and the store manager. So they went into a brand new unopened box and tried yet another phone. Same problem, it did not work. So that is 4 phones I have personally been involved with that has this GPS issue.

VZW has a call into Motorola about it. The poor manager I think is thinking worst case scenario only re-enforced by his sales guy saying come to think of it several phones we have sent out have not aquired a GPS lock when we showed the navigation.

I dunno what the deal is. I absolutely love the phone but if the GPS is going to be this fickle that will present enough of a problem that I won't be able to stay with it. Motorola please fix this!

 

[Kappy79]

I had this problem also, but I noticed it only happened if the GPS was off when I started Google Navigator. For some reason when Android brings up the Location settings page with the GPS box and I go back to Navigator, it hangs on "Searching for GPS" If I hit back again, and re-select my destination, it finds the satellites right away. The hang does not happen every time, but when it does, re-loading Google nav works every time.

I guess Win Mo taught me being impatient is a virtue sometimes. With WinMo, if it was too slow, just try it again, and it usually worked. Hope this helps.

 

[trick202]

Some windscreens are coated to prevent glare. I can't remember the name of the coating/system, but I know it can affect gps signal.

Just a thought.

 

[jdmba]

I am currently still locked into my AT&T contract for another 15 days or so, and was going to jump on the droid as soon as I am free, but after reading all the threads I am changing my mind.

However, my current phone, an AT&T Tilt, cannot GPS lock in any reasonable time either. A dedicated Car GPS is able to instantly lock for 2 reasons: 1) it is 99% of the time in the same place when you turn it on, than when you turned it off, so as long as it has relatively updated data as to where the satellites might be, it can lock on instantly. 2) They all have extendable antennae to help them lock better.

I have found that downloading the QuickGPS data on my Tilt does not help at all. I have run many many utilities to try to get the GPS to lock quicker, and it just won't.

I suspect that any GPS integrated phone is going to take substantial amounts of time to lock on, and that this is a given. It breaks my heart because I also need a GPS system and I thought the droid would be an incredible deal if it could double, but reading this thread, it clearly cannot.

Sigh.

 

[morpheusfl]

On my issue I can assure you the GPS is on, I have no problem with tint on the windscreen this happens in and out of the car riding or walking. As for locking on, I am not even getting so far as to see the satellites much less locking onto them. There are a couple applications that give you a "sky view" showing the GPS birds in the air in relationship to you. I see none it is almost as if the GPS is off even though it says it is turned on.

 

[Jimmy706]

On my issue I can assure you the GPS is on, I have no problem with tint on the windscreen this happens in and out of the car riding or walking. As for locking on, I am not even getting so far as to see the satellites much less locking onto them. There are a couple applications that give you a "sky view" showing the GPS birds in the air in relationship to you. I see none it is almost as if the GPS is off even though it says it is turned on.

That is what mine did. Showed the GPS icon but wouldn't connect. Tried one of the GPS test apps. It saw nothing.

My replacement phone connected immediately when I left the store. I used it this morning and it took about 10 seconds to connect. My Garmin takes longer than that!