Google Navigation "Searching for GPS..."

[barry99705]

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.

It's the anti IR coating. Usually your windshield will have a gold or purple tint to it from the outside.

 

[lamarbrantley]

SIDE NOTE FOR ALL FORMER ALLTEL CUSTOMERS:
Just spent 2 days and went through 2 droid phones at the verizon store. Finally a high level tech support rep admitted that former Alltel customers are not able to use the GPS navigation on the droid. It is a known issue but oddly enough they are not making it known up front. This was after they had me switch from my great alltel plan (that verizon does not have) to a new verizon plan to try to fix it. I also had to trash my blackberry curve and my wife and daughter's phones and buy new phones for them because of the switch to the verizon plan.

 

[QrafTee]

SIDE NOTE FOR ALL FORMER ALLTEL CUSTOMERS:
Just spent 2 days and went through 2 droid phones at the verizon store. Finally a high level tech support rep admitted that former Alltel customers are not able to use the GPS navigation on the droid. It is a known issue but oddly enough they are not making it known up front. This was after they had me switch from my great alltel plan (that verizon does not have) to a new verizon plan to try to fix it. I also had to trash my blackberry curve and my wife and daughter's phones and buy new phones for them because of the switch to the verizon plan.

So those phones weren't CDMA phones or something?

 

[lamarbrantley]

So those phones weren't CDMA phones or something?

you had to pay for gps on alltel as you did on verizon but something inside their system is not allowing former alltel customers to get the gps unlock. They literally told me that my only immediate solution was to trash my account and get all new phone numbers. The sales rep knew that wasn't an option for me as I have had this number for about 15 years and it is my business number. There was really no solution or timeframe for a fix.

 

[QrafTee]

you had to pay for gps on alltel as you did on verizon but something inside their system is not allowing former alltel customers to get the gps unlock. They literally told me that my only immediate solution was to trash my account and get all new phone numbers. The sales rep knew that wasn't an option for me as I have had this number for about 15 years and it is my business number. There was really no solution or timeframe for a fix.

Your wife's and daughter's phones needed GPS as well?

 

[lamarbrantley]

They did not. Here is the story:

I wanted the Droid for the $199 price but had no phones eligible. To be eligible, they made me give up my alltel plan and choose a verizon plan otherwise I woudl have had to pay $599 for the droid. We had a family plan. To switch my phone, I had to switch them all (this is the case even if i just wanted to buy any new phone with verizon as an alltel customer). So I had to buy all new phones because the old phones would not work once the plan was switched to a verizon plan.

 

[BCK]

Last night around 8pm Central time seem like there is Server outages. The GPS my location keep searching and did not get the info for a long time. At 10pm, everything works perfect.

Droid uses Verizon server to assist the GPS to get the info fast.

With the flooding of new Droid users, I can see that Verizon is working overtime to tweak the network for User data.

That is probably also why the Exchange data sometimes is not syncing.

Just my speculation though

 

[QrafTee]

They did not. Here is the story:

I wanted the Droid for the $199 price but had no phones eligible. To be eligible, they made me give up my alltel plan and choose a verizon plan otherwise I woudl have had to pay $599 for the droid. We had a family plan. To switch my phone, I had to switch them all (this is the case even if i just wanted to buy any new phone with verizon as an alltel customer). So I had to buy all new phones because the old phones would not work once the plan was switched to a verizon plan.

Hm, that's a shame. One would assume that only your phone needed to be changed considering only you needed GPS and their phones are CDMA phones. Sprint phones can be unlocked and used on Verizon, so I don't see why Alltel customers can't do the same. Maybe Alltel forgot to give Verizon all their unlock codes when they were bought out?

 

[diord]

SIDE NOTE FOR ALL FORMER ALLTEL CUSTOMERS:
Just spent 2 days and went through 2 droid phones at the verizon store. Finally a high level tech support rep admitted that former Alltel customers are not able to use the GPS navigation on the droid. It is a known issue but oddly enough they are not making it known up front. This was after they had me switch from my great alltel plan (that verizon does not have) to a new verizon plan to try to fix it. I also had to trash my blackberry curve and my wife and daughter's phones and buy new phones for them because of the switch to the verizon plan.

i also was an alltel customer and my gps does not work. but what i dont understand is i had to switch to a verizon plan , i bought a new phone so why would it matter? not doubting what your saying lamar just trying to figure this out.

 

[droid82]

i also was an alltel customer and my gps does not work. but what i dont understand is i had to switch to a verizon plan , i bought a new phone so why would it matter? not doubting what your saying lamar just trying to figure this out.

me too. some people earlier replied that they switched phones and worked fine. You were also a former Alltel customer? If so did you switch plans?

 

[chdstk]

I was on alltel also, but what is weird to me is the fact that when i walked out of the store with my droid i used google nav and it worked perfectly. Then later in the day it stopped working, and i have now gone through two phones with no gps...

 

[diord]

me too. some people earlier replied that they switched phones and worked fine. You were also a former Alltel customer? If so did you switch plans?

yes i was ,and yes i switched plans but at 5:30 today my gps started working.hope it stays that way

 

[diord]

in one of the other droid forums there seems to be more than a few from FL with this problem. just wondering if anyone here besides me is from FL.

 

[randalleeii]

I live in florida and also alltel customer and having same problems as everyone else,been to verizon twice and swapped out phone with no fix. Also have been on phone three times and I think I know more about droid than any of the verizon employees. Has anyone found a solution for the gps?

 

[syntrix]

I forget what the verizon provisioning system is called, but most 1st level CS won't have access to it.

I was on alltel with a data card, and verizon's system provisioned it incorrectly (put an evdo data block on my data card and killed aaa authentication), and it took 3 months to figure out.

Gawd, I can't remember what verizon's system was called **sigh**

edit: my data card I terminated, but my droid was a new provision with a port, so I probably lucked out related to droid, but there's the fair share of alltel provisioning errors and account errors if you are transferring plans/equipment.

 

[diord]

well it worked last night but not today.i dont get it

 

[jer.lawrence]

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.

Don't think this is necessarily true. Mine took only a couple of minutes to lock on the first time, and works fine every time now. I've only used it maybe 5 or 6 times, though, and all within the Central VA area.

Just thought I'd throw that in for some of you thinking this is a deal breaker. I've also always been on Verizon, I wasn't coming from Alltel.

 

[droid82]

just got off phone with a level 2 tech for verizon. in certain markets depending on the cell towers in that area, the alltel plan does not work with gps (this is also an issue with google's visual voice mail and some other program he said). He stated that outside of my area (tampa bay) the navigation may work.

Give up my really great alltel plan, do without the navigation, or part ways with my droid???

 

[syntrix]

just got off phone with a level 2 tech for verizon. in certain markets depending on the cell towers in that area, the alltel plan does not work with gps (this is also an issue with google's visual voice mail and some other program he said). He stated that outside of my area (tampa bay) the navigation may work.

Give up my really great alltel plan, do without the navigation, or part ways with my droid???

that's BS. In those cases, VZ probably doesn't own the towers/equipment.

 

[randalleeii]

Well i talked to verizon again and they said it is a known problem with former alltel users. They said they are working on a fix, who knows how long this will take. In the meantime, now I have no data capabilities, no internet except Wifi. This is alot of BS. I wish I wouldnt have got this phone sometimes, even though it is cool as hell.

 

[syntrix]

If you are on an alltel plan, your authentication is different.

Again, I forget their provisioning system name (level 1 techs have no access), but they can view your account and make sure that there no evdo block on it, or that you account is provisioned properly. I'll bet you have a data block, and the 1st level of support can not see that.

I had a data card that wouldn't work month after month. Finally got someone decent at VZ, and they had to open a remedy ticket for someone familiar with alltel provisioning. It was late at night, but the guy called back that next afternoon and new exactly what the problem was.

I'm just sayin'

 

[diord]

i was told tonight by tech support that it was going to be fixed in an update on December 11th. I dont know what to believe from these people.I asked why it wouldnt work for 2.5 days then work for 1 night then stop working again and he said he had no idea.

 

[jraggio]

I also had some gps trouble today. Oddly enough it worked fine when driving to my son's party, but failed to acquire a satellite on the way home.

It was raining pretty heavily on the way home, and was a little nicer on the way out. Should that matter?

I also noticed that when we went into the building, I heard the nav app announce that it lost the signal. I tried rebooting on the way home, but no luck.

Should the nav app work in horizontal view without the vz dock? I have a plain dock that I used with my windows phone that can rotate, but the screen did not adjust.

Is there a way to get additional data from the nav app? In particular I would like to get ETA, total miles, etc. like I did with Tom Tom on windows mobile.

Are there third party nav apps worth trying? How about tools to view signal etc.?

Thanks,
John

 

[aaron19953]

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.

Wrong, wrong, and right ..

"Normal" weather does not affect GPS reception. If this were the case, you'd see all sorts of problem with pilots not being able to fly in the rain. Water will attenuate the signal, but that's really about it. Sat. TV and GPS work on totally different frequencies.

The problem with urban areas is a bit different.. The gps unit may be able to "see" the satellite, but the bouncing of the signal off the building will effect the timing and result in a false reading.

As far as your first fix taking forever, this is normal. Technically it's called emphris data. Your GPS has to know where to look for signal. I only know this because i worked for a surveying company who rely on GPS heavily.. I've learned more about GPS then i'd like to. hahaha.

-=<> Aaron <>=-

 

[smed1275]

Mine has worked flawlessly. I have been using the geobeagle app for geocaching over the last few days and Have been very impressed with the GPSr chipset in the Droid. My experience so far shows it is easily comparable to any of the 4 garmin units I own in reliability and accuracy.

Just my two cents.