yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Interesting, but Google shouldn't have anything to do with the GPS should they? My phone does seem to know where I am if I have the Google location services on (at least in Tyler) but I have GPS turned off completely. Doesn't that work by reading the towers and Wi-Fi connections close to you? Basically it sounds like you need Verizon's towers + Google's tracking services to work, and in that case, it does seem to be able to get my location on Google Maps. But if I try to use the navigation app, which refuses to work without GPS, and I turn on GPS, then it tells me navigation is not available in my area because it thinks I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ldjr:
I live around Canton and have the same issue on m DX. I didnt notice it until Sat. afternoon. It wouldve been nice if i wouldve found this thread before the 5 factory resets and 3 SBF's. Ive been chasing my tail since trying to figure it out. I called VZ and they are sending a replacement tomorrow but it sound like that isnt going to help me out any. The lady on the phone at VZ said she checked for any outages and that there werent any reported. The only way I can get a lock is if im connected to a wifi network. It will pin point my location within 5 secs if i connect to my home wifi. But what good is that if im in the car.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mike.s:
Doesn't everyone?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chocoyo00:
This might sound silly, but the only way i was able to get a lock on gps every time and improve accuracy is by rotating the phone around the axis, like in an alpha sign pattern, works every time!
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Tried it again yesterday while sitting at the Azalea post office. Turned on airplane mode, so no 3G and also turned off Wi-Fi. Opened GPS status, reset the aGPS cache and DID NOT download updated data (no data connection was available) and after 60-90 seconds, it locked onto 8 satellites. So there is no way anybody can convince me that it has anything to do with Google or their database or any of that.

As before, turn off airplane mode, and it can find 2 or 3 satellites but it thinks they're in the north and it never locks.

My brother was sitting right next to me with his Droid X, and his could not see any satellites at all, whether in airplane mode or not.

I guess we'll find out in the next day or two if the New Mexico thing is actually part of the problem or not. My guess is that if it is, it's only part of the problem. Otherwise, everybody from Dallas to Denver to Phoenix would be complaining about the same thing.

In case you haven't seen the FAA map people are talking about, this is it:

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2011/Apr/WSMR_11-05_GPS_Flight_Advisory_Released.pdf

I don't think it is Google or the FAA. The only thing I've heard that makes sense is that it is a Verizon issue, something to do with the Alltel tower conversions in East Texas. Even that doesn't make sense, but it's the only one I can't logically rule out.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] angry english:
Seems like this phone has issue`s like the Galaxy S does, ive just got a thunderbolt, well 1 week ago, i did have a vibrant galaxy s but my company changed SP`s so i took the TB.

The Vibrants i had was useless with GPS, i had 3 phones, the 1sy would see 6-7 sats and never lock on, the next 2 the gps just would not work at all, yet my friend had the same phone but a newer build and hos worked great.

Now my TB`s GPS is great, i lock on in seconds, even in doors with accuracy as low as 15ft, yet my boss has the same phone and he can be sat right next to me in the same office and struggle to get 2 sats in view while i show minimum 7-8
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Hey Tylerites, mine WAS working great at about 6:00... anybody else? I had Verizon, Google, and aGPS turned off. I wasn't in airplane mode, and I was connected to bluetooth and wi-fi. I was getting a fix on 11 satellites from inside my house.

The first time I did it, it took about 2 minutes to get a lock, but after that, it took 2-4 seconds and was working like I would expect it to. I could launch Maps, Navigation, etc. and it would immediately get a lock.

At that time, my brother's Droid X still was not working. He could only see 2 or 3 satellites, and he couldn't get a fix on any of them.

As of 6:45, my phone is not working again. I can't get a fix no matter what I try, even if I put it in airplane mode.

I noticed that 3G is down today. I wonder if it could have been working because 3G was out and not interfering with the GPS signal or something?

This is all just really weird. Verizon has to be up to something and just isn't telling anybody.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I didn't test mine until now. I occasionally see 4 sats but can't get a fix.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I talked to the local Verizon office again today. They said that a week ago they were told it would be fixed in a week or 2. So if it isn't working tomorrow, it will probably be another week.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Hopefully yours will start working soon. Mine has been working for about 2 hours straight now. Getting somewhere between 6 and 8 locked in. Finally, it seems to remember the satellite locations, so when I load up GPS Status or Maps or Navigation, it is getting a lock pretty quickly.

But it was also out for about 2 hours between my previous post and the second time it started working, so I'm hoping it will keep it up from here on. I'm not going to push my luck and do anything stupid like restarting my phone!
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Still not working on mine. Are you running a custom ROM?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Not working again this morning. I am running stock, but I am rooted and I updated the NTP server to the US pool as suggested in another thread, but that didn't help before.

I guess I just got lucky yesterday and it was able to ping the satellites. Now that the positions have changed again, it's just like it was before.

From what I have read, doing a "cold start" of GPS can sometimes take up to 15 minutes, which is what I'm basically doing because I have the aGPS data cleared and all the Verizon/Google services turned off. But for whatever reason yesterday, it just happened really quickly.

This morning, I can see maybe one satellite.

Still, the only way I can get it to work consistently is airplane mode, reset aGPS, download aGPS over wi-fi. Why that doesn't work when airplane mode is off, I have no idea. I wouldn't believe that it worked yesterday with the radio on and aGPS off if I hadn't seen it myself.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] moosez3:
I know you didnt ask me lol but..

I was having kinda slow GPS locks stock, but now Im running BAMF 1.5 with the new RUU I am getting GPS locks on average 2 seconds. Without exagerrating this is the fastest GPS locking I have had or seen on any device.

Here in Orlando I usually get 12 satellites, as per speedview, I dont know how this is happening, but even in buildings it locks on, its kind of ridiculous actually. So the ENTIRE network isnt bad, at least here in Central Florida its great.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
I'm pretty sure he said that's what he is running in another thread, and it didn't help. For whatever reason it does seem to have something to do with just our area, even though none of us can figure out why it would only be a regional issue.

At least nobody can blame the New Mexico testing anymore. That ended yesterday.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I guess we are going to have to wait another week, going by the info from the local office. :mad:
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elude79:
Hey

I use the same ROM BAMF remix 1.5 and have no problem with GPS. I did 2 step to get my GPS to pinpoint at the right location.

1. Use GPS Status ( menu -tools - Manage A-GPS -Reset ) do the same step again but this time hit Download.

2. Goto Good Map and hit menu - more - cache setting - clear map...

This will get u lock in....

My phone is ROOTED withBAMF 1.5 remix... GPS work on the dot.

have fun

4G back on in Los Angeles Area ( Slower Speed compare to before the crash )
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] moosez3:
Yeah I havent been to that area, so I have no idea, it is weird that the different area would effect the GPS.

I really have no idea how the phones sync with the satellites and where they are, but it doesnt seem like it should be THAT different.

Anyone else in Florida having problems?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wilydodger:
Well, it was supposed to be resolved this Wednesday (according to my local Verizon store), no luck on my end yet though. From the sound of thing, everyone else is still out too?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Still broke for me too. The local Verizon store told me it could be another week.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] boristhebladexx:
when I had trouble connecting to Google maps and getting turn by turn navigation, I downloaded gps status from the market, got instant lock, switched back to google maps and got instant lock. try it and see what happens
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dyskinesia:
working for me in Tyler on both Droid 1 and Incredible. since Thursday AM
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Still out for me (Thunderbolt) and my brother (Droid X). It did work briefly for me on Wednesday afternoon, and then by Thursday it stopped again.

I have flashed the new radio, and as expected, there is no difference. I installed an app to sync my clock with the NTP servers (Verizon's network time is about 14 seconds off). I even installed a packet sniffer to watch what's going across the wire, and I can see it downloading the XTRA data from xtra1.gpsonextra.net (whether in airplane mode or not). I thought possibly if you were on Verizon's network it was downloading from somewhere else, but no. And I don't see anything accessing Google other than analytics and ads, so these threads saying it's something about Google's database can't be right.

Still, in airplane mode + wifi, I can repeat the procedure and get it to lock every time, and it will remain locked until the current satellites move out of position. If I do the exact same thing with the radio on, it can see the satellites but it thinks they're in the north and never locks.

EDIT: Apparently, it even works without wifi and aGPS. I turned it all off, reset my cache, went in airplane mode, and it got a fix within 30 seconds or so. Tried the same steps with the cell radio on (wifi and 3G off though), and it saw the same 6 satellites or so, but it never got locked because they all appeared in the north.

I'm stumped. At least if I HAD to get GPS to work, I could try the airplane mode trick, but as discussed before, that only works on my Thunderbolt and apparently doesn't have any effect on the Droid X or probably any others.

If I thought I could actually get a technician with a clue, I'd call the support line. I called customer service on Thursday, and they gave me the number for tech support, but they also said that they had not heard anything about a GPS issue in Texas. After hearing that, I decided there's no point in even talking to them.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kuwlness:
Best bet is to download GPS Status from the Market. Disable/Force Close any Apps that use GPS, then turn off GPS.

Now turn on GPS, immediately open GPS Status, Hit Menu, Tools, "Manage A-GPS state", Reset (i do this twice if i'm having problems), then I restart my phone before downloading the Data.

After restarted, open GPS Status again, do the same as above -- yes Reset data again -- then download data from the same menu you were resetting the data from.

Not sure if it's a phone thing, but my GPS has almost always locked within a few seconds. But GPS Status has definitely helped since i started playing with custom ROMs.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
This is a regional Verizon issue. If you aren't in east Texas then it doesn't affect you. There is nothing we can do except wait on Verizon to fix it.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] movielover76:
My thunderbolts gps doesn't seem to work on the 605.7 roms only on 605.6 if I install any new roms I can only get a cell phone triangulation lock

With 605.6 I get blocks down to 3 meters
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Anyone have GPS in East Texas yet? At lunch today I had 8 satellites in view, but was still unable to get a fix. I think it was because I didn't have any satellites in one of the quadrants. After a few minutes it went back to only 1 in view.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Exactly the same thing still happening for me. I got 6 of them at 0 north, and then it reset and went back to 1 and seemed to just give up.

The only difference I see is that with airplane mode, right at the point it would give up and reset back to 1 in radio mode, it repositions them in all the quadrants and gets a fix.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FMTesla:
This is a known issue. Beginning 5/3 VZW and HTC are rolling out an update to fix a number of issues, including GPS locking. If you are impatient, you can use the "Settings>Software Update>Check New" button every few minutes. :)
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Has anyone seen this update?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
I assume he's talking about the new radio and the OTA update Verizon was supposed to be rolling out (but delayed now) because he posted the same thing in another thread.

If so, the new radio (the leaked version) does not fix the GPS issue in our area.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] PWEB18:
clearing the cache has worked fine for me...should tide you over til the update comes out
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
thewayne01,

I don't know if this is coincidence or not, and my brother's Droid X which is using EVDO.A is still not working on GPS here, but my Thunderbolt has been working since I switched from eHRPD to EVDO.A mode (actually I was doing this to try to fix battery life). Who knows, it may stop working 5 minutes from now as it has in the past, but this is what I did and it worked last night and still works this morning:

http://www.thatsiebguy.com/2011/04/htc-thunderbolt-revie/

1. Dial ##778#, enter edit mode, enter password 000000

2. Go to modem info, select "Rev. A" and switch from eHRPD to "Enable" and then hit menu and commit the changes

3. Switch antenna to CDMA auto (PRL) instead of CDMA+LTE, either using the dasBAMF control panel or PhoneInfo or LTE OnOff.

I think you have a similar setup as I do (flashed CDMA radio .7, dasBAMF 1.6, modified NTP server, etc.) so maybe it will work for you too.

EDIT: This did not seem to affect the GPS issue; it was coincidental.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I tried this a week ago and it didn't work. I have switched back to these settings now and can't get a fix. However I am in a large building. Hopefully once I go out at lunch it will be working.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Awesome! I finally have gps.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Great... so does any of that tell us anything useful? :)

Now that I can get a lock by doing a cold start without aGPS, if I turn aGPS on then it gets a fix almost immediately... don't even have to wait 30 seconds or whatever.

I even cleared it out, rebooted my phone, and it came back up immediately. I also re-enabled eHRPD (which shouldn't matter because we don't have 4G in Tyler) and it still seems to work, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

EDIT: Got my brother's Droid X to work finally also. Maybe Verizon finally fixed their problems. I guess switching the eHRPD thing was coincidental. I also bet we'll never know what the actual problem was, either.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Broke again....
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Yep, mine is still working fine for now, but my brother just got in his truck to go somewhere and his is out again.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Well, when I left work, I had GPS again. I was able to use navigation all the way home.

This is very weird.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Makaveli1490:
So me having a GPS problem isn't anything new. I just used it on bamf 1.6.2 and its not working
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Yeah, I had navigation all the way from Tyler to Carthage around 3 pm, then a couple of hours later I had lost it all and back to the same old issues.

I saw in another forum that zertsman finally got a lock on one of two phones in Tyler, and it has been coming and going all weekend. (http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/143008-gps-outage-east-texas-5.html)

Let's hope progress is finally being made even though we aren't out of the woods yet.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Back in Tyler now, GPS working again. I'm really starting to wonder if it's related to signal strength. When it's working, I'm noticing my radio signal is strong (low -80s dB or better). When it's not working, it seems to be weak (in the -90 dB range or worse). Add in that it works in airplane mode, and I'm wondering if the radio is having to spend too much energy communicating with the tower, which takes away from the processing power of the GPS (if indeed they share the same processor like that other thread suggested).
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I wondered this too. So I tested it while sitting at the base of one of their towers and still had no GPS.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jonakin:
Haha, I guess that answers that question! Well, it worked for me last night and early this morning, but I've got nothing right now, and I still have a strong signal. I was never able to get it to work in Carthage or Longview all weekend.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
I was in Carthage yesterday and never had a single sat in view.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] xdpurp:
good thing i found this. i was going about frantically trying to figure out why GPS was bad for me. i hope this gets resolved as i have gone about the dfw area with no success. T_T and yes i've tried many of the fixes suggested.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hippofisher:
Mine takes about 5 min to lock on. Running BAMF Remit 1.6.3. Verizon is supposedly fixing this in the next update
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] poptix:
I got into the Tyler area (Coffee City) on Friday night, road tripping from Minnesota. I can tell you that my GPS stopped working on Hwy 69 around Mineola and didn't work again until I left yesterday and hit Kaufman (Hwy 175). The local Verizon reps were clueless about the issue and suggested I call customer service for a phone replacement.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wilydodger:
Is anyone else finding this a bit ridiculous? My local Verizon reps in Tyler have been really rude to me about this. They can't seem to understand why I even care about it. They also can't seem to understand why I don't want to ads ten bucks more a month to my already outrageous bill for their crappy VZ Navigator service.

By the way, interfering with the function of the GPS network is illegal. Everyone should go here and file an FCC complaint: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm .

If enough complaint get filed, they will be investigated and forced to fix the issue. I think the best tack on reporting this is how it disables our ability to place e911 location assisted calls...

Edit: Here is another nifty little page that lets you email the Verizon executives. Maybe if they get enough emails about this... http://aboutus.vzw.com/leadership/executive/index.html

Edit 2: I just sent tips about this to the teams at Gizmodo and Droid-Life. If enough of us do that, maybe this will get picked up on their blogs. Think how fast this will get fixed then... Any other android sites that might be interested in this?
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adrynalyne:
If you guys really want to know if its a verizon issue, do this:

Turn off standalone gps. Turn off vzw location services. Turn on google location services.

Open google maps. If you get an estimation and are not on wifi, then Verizon is not at fault.

If you do not, then there is definitely a network issue at hand. Do not mess with vzw location services, as they authenticate ONLY apps approved by Verizon. The only one I know of is VZ Nav. I know this for a fact as I decompiled the framework and took a look.

Standalone GPS is not hampered by any data connection. If the above issue with aGPS is that its missing, then turning on standalone GPS will eventually lock. Eventually. Unassisted gps is slow.

There is nothing illegal about aGPS not functioning for google maps as long as e911 services work.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
We know this is a Verizon issue. The local Verizon reps have acknowledged that it was caused from the recent Alltel tower conversion.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adrynalyne:
You didn't read what I typed.

At all. Nothing Verizon does will keep you from locking. If you are not locking, it is one of two things, period.

1. Hardware problems. Sometimes firmware updates can help/fix this.

2. Atmospheric conditions, not limited to, the inside of a building.

Verizon reps will acknowledge many things, if they think its what you want to hear, and gets you off the phone. The stories I have heard....

*shakes head*
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
Not trying to be argumentative, but your wrong here. This problem affects all Verizon customers in east Texas and started when they migrated the Altell towers. There is no way that everyone is having hardware issues.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adrynalyne:
Tell you what. I will buy it, if you can give me one scientific explanation on how Verizon is blocking a sattelite signal to your device.

Keep in mind aGPS assists. It is not true GPS. At all. Nor is it required for GPS operation.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thewayne01:
It may not be scientific but here goes.

On my desk I have my Thunderbolt and Nexus One that was on AT&T. Launching GPS Status on both, I get a fix on 9 to 11 sats on the Nexus One in 30 seconds or less. The Thunderbolt only sees 1 sat in view. If I put the Thunderbolt in airplane mode with wifi turned on, I get a fix on 8 to 10 sats within 30 seconds. This location fix remains until I disable airplane mode.

The Nexus One has a stand alone GPS chip while the Thunderbolt's GPS is built into the cell radio chip. I am not a hardware engineer so i don't know exactly what affect this has, but I think it contributes to the problem.

I have spoken to several Verizon employees in person, and they are ware of the problem. They aren't just trying to blow me off. Verizon claims that this is a Google issue, and will not be corrected until Google updates their servers with the new tower info.
[Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] adrynalyne:
Both have true GPS hardware.

Turn off aGPS on both. As well as wifi.

Now see which one locks.