yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] syintiphic:
Hi,

I have a simple GPS fix that worked for me. After posting and sharing in other forums this fix has also worked for many others who were frustrated with their GPS' not working, not locking onto satellites, and their phones acting erratically while navigating. Although this method seems too easy to be true, trust me it works and many people have confirmed that this method worked for them too and are now happy that their phone has a functional GPS and in some cases improved call quality.

I as well as many others performed many of the other fixes such as flashing back to stock, performing numerous battery pulls, using aGPS patches, making numerous edits to the gps.conf file, reprovisioning our phones, checking different ROMs, uninstalling/reinstalling Google Maps, clearing data for Google Maps and Google Service Framework, and so on. So before you do all of that please give my method a try.

I discovered this simple fix when I was trying to perform one of the other GPS fix procedures. The procedure required me to pull my battery. I noticed that when I removed my back cover the back frame that has all the screws (10 total) was slightly loose on the left side. Once I tightened them all my GPS worked immediately! Like I said, this method has been tested by many people and most of them report great success just by tightening their screws. If this method works for you you'll also notice that in addition to getting faster locks your navigation will work and won't drop your GPS signal.

Like I said it may not work for everyone but I would recommend that if you have a Samsung Galaxy S III definitely check the back frame of your phone and make sure you tighten the screws and make sure everything is secure. You too should now be able to achieve GPS locks consistently.

I hope this helps. If it does, as it has many others, please click thanks.

Cheers,

Syintiphic
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hypnosis4U2NV:
Re: Easy Simple Fix for your GPS on your Samung Galaxy S III

The fix worked for me.. Night and day difference in getting satellite locks after tightening the screws..

Edit: In case anyone wants to know my theory behind why it works..

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=39570338

Edit2: If you find the screwdriver fix doesn't work for you, or you find yourself tightening screws all the time, you can try this simple mod..

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=44725977

Sent from my Commodore 64..

READY.

load"*", 8,1
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jbdan:
Re: Easy Simple Fix for your GPS on your Samung Galaxy S III

I was skeptical as most would be about this fix. Boy was I a doof for believing that. This made 2 SGS3's (wife and mine) Gps go from inconsistent frustration to pure perfection. Cheers OP and thanks for sharing!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] trott33:
Re: Easy Simple Fix for your GPS on your Samung Galaxy S III

It works People!!!!! Believe it! Thanks again for sharing this!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bobAbooE:
Re: Easy Simple Fix for your GPS on your Samung Galaxy S III

I don't have any issues yet but I have this bookmarked in case I ever do. Thanks.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Sizzlechest:
I was pulling my hair over this issue. I replaced the phone with another one through T-Mobile for $20 and it had the SAME PROBLEM! All I ever did was flash the root injected version of the latest stock firmware. No upgrades to a 4.2.x rom. I tried reverting to the 4.0.4 rom. I tried a different gps.conf file. I was just about to do another warranty replacement when I found this thread. I almost wasn't going to attempt it because I thought it was a placebo. BOY WAS I WRONG! This fixed my phone. I'm still in shock!

EDIT: Well, I also discovered one more thing that was causing me grief with GPS. My wife's case! The case was interfering with the signal.

http://imgur.com/r7KPygA
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] prenedo:
Definitely works.... Instantly. I was standing outside of my house, with 0 locked out of 23 found (using GPS status), tightened screws (with GPS status still running) turned phone around and was locked onto 13/23.

My GPS stopped working about a month ago to the point that I could only get 1 or 2 locks wherever I was at. Thank you so much for posting such a simple fix.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Deleted member 2776902:
Worked for me!

I have been battling this GPS issue since I got the phone, and it has been very annoying since September - November. But it really hit me this week traveling 300 miles out of state when using Navigation, I would randomly fly off the highway and into the streets with the navigation program throwing a fit about where to turn. It just couldn't hold a solid lock for anything. Luckily I had my Nexus 7 packed with me, and it's GPS is always spot on.

But after I saw a random post a few days ago about tightening the screws, I was at first skeptical, and had to wait until I was back home to get to my small screwdriver, but once I tightened all 10 screws, viola! It worked instantly! :laugh:

I now get a lock within a few seconds, and even indoors. Saved myself a trip to VZW too. Thanks guys!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] soohyunk83:
Thanks! Sounds crazy but seems like multiple people got it to work.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] MicahJamesNRCAL:
wow

For MONTHS I've been dealing with BAD GPS. Never less then 35feet lock with all satellites in Yellow (mediocre reception)

I just did this, and most of my screws seemed like they were pretty tight already but i found the perfect philips head bit and really tightened everything max. Went outside and ran same test. 10 feet accuracy lock with majority of satellites in GREEN.

WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!??? Wow Samsung, im a bit disappointed

BUT grateful for OP

thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] dmudd:
Re-tighten?

I posted in another thread that this helped my gps lock significantly. I was getting around 10/21 locks with fluctuating accuracy, but after tightening the screws, I got 21/21 lock at 9 feet accuracy.

However, for me, it seems like I have to loosen and retighten the screws every 2-3 days because I notice my gps getting worse. But as soon as I retighten them, it's back to being great.

Does anyone else have to keep retightening the screws?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jbdan:
Not yet on 2 GS3's. Hope I don't have to.

I did pose the question in another thread where this threads talked about beginning began : wonder what is happening when we tighten these screws....
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hypnosis4U2NV:
Well here is my take on what I think the problem is and why the screw fix works.. Understand I'm not making any assertions that this is the cause or that I know what the hell I'm talking about..

The back of the case (not the battery cover) appears to have an antenna.. This area has a copper contact point which sits in the area where the GPS of the phone is located.. If this part of the phone is loose, it doesn't make a solid contact with what I believe is the GPS antenna..

View attachment 1833782

View attachment 1833783

View attachment 1833784

Sent from my Commodore 64..

READY.

load"*", 8,1
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jbdan:
Thanks Hypnosis for your insight. Makes sense to me! Appreciate you posting this
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] syintiphic:
Thanks Hypnosis for sharing, this makes sense to me too.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] cnlson:
Amazing. I saw this link in another thread. Intermittantly I have decent GPS with some serious issues where it won't work or doesn't work well. So last night right before I went to be I tried it in our basement. Normally I don't see more than 1 or 2 satellites when in the basement but last night I got lock on 13/18 in 20 seconds or less repeatedly. I checked my wife's s3 against mine as hers is usually better but it was still only getting 3-4 and no lock. So I quickly tried the same fix and again her phone could suddenly see more sats and got lock.

this was also an issue on the fascinate and some of the original galaxy's iirc.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nyyankees1237:
Well thank you very much sir/madam! This worked like a charm!!!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] timnexus:
This is the funniest thing in the world!!!!! I was having problems with my weather apps not locating me and I did this and it took a whopping 1/2 sec and it locked. Who know that this would be a fix to GPS. LOL

Thanks for the share!!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] soohyunk83:
Did anyone ever figure out how or why this works?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hypnosis4U2NV:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=39570338

Sent from my Commodore 64..

READY.

load"*", 8,1
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ronen80:
Works!

No joking !

It works!

I just tighten the screws like you said - in my phone the screw closest to flash was really loose

I did it while the phonw working and GPS status on and immidiatly i saw it locking to 8 satellites

before that it was barely showing 2 not even thinking about locking

Great, Thank you very much for discovering!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] rahatbek:
it's simply work. i'd problem with gps, after this post look into my phone and saw all screws are loose.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caiodepaula:
What can I say.. It works! Thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] aleeyan:
Simple is better

Sometimes the most simplest fixes are the best ones. Thank you so much. I had spotty reception with my GPS for a long time and during our last trip it simple stopped working. Tightening those screws made it work again!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lexluthor:
Another happy customer. My GPS had been working terribly for a few months now. When driving, it would frequently lose the GPS lock.

I had heard about this at one point, but never really looked into it. Don't know why I waited. Just did this and went outside and got a near immediately lock on around 15 satellites with a 10 foot accuracy. Wow.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] scelera:
None of these methods have worked for me. When I get home I'm going to try this though. Very informative video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI4hs19riRM
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] robsonr:
I guess as most of us I tried to avoid taking the cell phone apart at all cost, so I tried all the other methods, but nothing worked. As the last resource I attempted this fix. I couldn't believe that such problem ever could occur. Is it a design issue? Anyway, after I done it, my GPS issue was fixed instantly. Thank you very much for posting this extremely helpful info.

---------- Post added at 06:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

Thank you for extremely helpful info. It worked 100%. Thank you.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DCiobanu:
I found this post on google but only tried as a last resort because I couldn't believe you're serious ...

So add one more that tested it and it worked. My phone is a Galaxy S4 though.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] thepiecesfit:
I will try this tonight. I took my phone recently for repair and had GPS problems since. Notice the top left has some play. I can push it in with my finger and there is some play there. Will tighten it when I get home don't have a screwdriver. Good idea I thought my phone was on the way out. Very frustrating constant loss of signal while driving, had to switch to my standalone GPS.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Evilm:
ok my fix was i put litle paper under gps, and my gps works perfectly now :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] agFinder:
This worked ... THANK YOU

Couldn't be happier! The GPS on my S3 SGH-I747 was totally out. Couldn't lift the contact pad on the removed cover to raise it with paper but I could (and did) bend the contact on the phone body for better contact. Nice !!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] junksecret:
Same for me, screw fix didn't work. I tried prying upr the tab on the cover but it seamed to be tearing and I stopped before I got to the copper connector. I instead pried the contact on the phone and raised it slightly and that appears to have done the trick!

Thanks man, you're the best!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] agFinder:
Update : went back out

UPDATE: GPS went back out within days so I ended up inserting a small piece of folded up paper under the antenna contact (the bent metal one on the phone body, same as in the quote) to keep it flexed upwards and firmly in contact with the antenna. Note that your paper 'shim' under the contact *cannot be any wider than the contact*. The removable shell has a small 'gutter' into which the contact has to fit (the antenna contact pad is in this gutter), and your shim has to fit in there too or you'll probably just be making the problem even worse.

Has worked great for a week now even after dropping once and taking on a mountain bike ride.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Jeremy.Stewart85:
Thanks Hypnosis! A couple of months ago I dropped my phone about 25 feet and it somehow didn't shatter to pieces, but my GPS was never the same afterwards (not that it was ever that great to begin with). I had tried the screw trick and didn't see an improvement so I finally worked up the courage to perform this minor surgery on my phone and I couldn't believe how much of an improvement it was. Went from taking 1-2 minutes to get a half-assed lock on 2 sats w/ 200m accuracy to locking into 16 within seconds down to 10m.

I did have the same issues as agFinder and junksecret with prying the connector up. Mine was just a thin film tape covering the contact and it did not release cleanly like your pictures show. I am assuming there are differences in models and such, mine was a first gen from the original verizon batch so age might have something to do with how easy the adhesive is to remove too. At this point my GPS was basically unusable anyway so I went for it and just kept at with some tweezers and patience it until I got the connector separated and stuck some paper underneath. Hopefully I never have to do that again!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ATGkompressor:
This works like a charm...I did it the other day for the second time. Gps locked faster than Master!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sk8erord:
Screw fix worked great for me, thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] filipepro:
GPS (hardware) module location

Hi everyone.

For me, nothing worked. This all started after a small amout of water got into the phone. After the usual cautions, the phone worked perfectly, but GPS show cannot find any satelites. (GPS status app or GPS test) wont show a single one detected, as if the GPS hardware was not present).

Does anyone knows where the "GPS module" or anything (hardware) that can be replaced to make it work again?

Thanks
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] XdrummerXboy:
I Get about 3/20, but still no lock.

GPS and Cell/Data reception have been pretty bad for the past year or so. I thought it was just a Cyanogenmod issue, so I tried going back to stock to fix the issue.

Turns out the issue still persists. I tried tightening down the screws pretty tight, as tight as I was comfortable doing, with no result. Then I REALLY cranked them with a smaller screwdriver as to not strip them, and the GPS still doesn't lock after 10 minutes of letting it try.

I tried prying the antenna on the main board up a bit as well, as others have stated. No go.

Are there any other Ideas people may have to fix this? A new plastic frame (under the back plate) or something?

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 PM ----------

AOSP 4.2 was about when I noticed my issues, so might have some truth
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Shakkuras:
Another happy customer

Another recommendation for this method. I just picked up a GS3, and the GPS stopped working at about the same time as I flashed CM11 M11. No software fixes seemed to work, but shimming the antenna connector for better contact took me from no lock at all to 6+ within 10 seconds outside. Thanks, Hypnosis!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] XdrummerXboy:
Just kidding, GPS seems to be locking pretty well. Data is still poor signal though
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] roaddog665:
I used an eraser to clean all the contacts on the motherboard and back cover. I was having trouble getting and keeping a GPS lock and only getting 7 or 8 satellites, now locking in 3-4 seconds and getting 17+ satellites consistently. Seemed to help wifi and cell signal too, but I didn't think to check my signal strength before. Not sure if it was the eraser that helped or just moving stuff around and getting better contact.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] winlinand:
You are the man, I've been an electrician for years and was taught to trouble shoot from the basics up and you have proven this to be wise advice, thanks a million, !
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] aka.kluster:
Thanks man,

this trick also worked for me on my Galaxy S4 mini.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hpka:
This has worked like an absolute charm. I went from abysmal GPS fix times to within a few seconds. I also really like how simple this fix was.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] efjeber:
How about Samsung Galaxy Notes 4? :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hallstevenson:
Will probably give this a try later today. My GPS just started acting flaky about a week ago - I was running a CM-based ROM and a recent update, so I initially blamed it on that. Trying an older build seemed to solve things, for a few hours.... Then it acted the same. I resorted to flashing a "stock" ROM (Alliance) and again, it seemed to be the solution. GPS lock again became hit or miss. While driving, WAZE will report "No GPS..." and then GPS works. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I've tried the tighten-the-screws fix but they aren't loose. This is probably my last resort so I hope it works !
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Sportster007:
GPS Status: "No Fix" and "0 in view" / "0 in use"

Hi,

I had tried to fix the GPS issue but no luck. How can I restore the GPS? Any idea?

Many thanks.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hypnosis4U2NV:
Don't know bit it looks like it looks doesn't work hardware wise. That X means that it's not even trying to get a lock. That fix wouldn't do anything to help it.

Sent from my Commodore 64..

READY.

load"*",8,1
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hallstevenson:
I tried that but chickened out. That contact pad was too difficult to grab a hold of so I simply ended up bending the corresponding metal tab 'up'. Needless to say, GPS is still hit or miss (more miss than hit !). I searched around more and according to one fix I read, what you have labeled as the GPS antenna is actually the WiFi antenna. The GPS antenna is actually under the cover that you show being removed in the 2nd pic in post # 13. The GPS antenna runs side-to-side vs up-and-down, if that makes sense.

Either way, this is hopefully putting me on the right track, so thanks for the info !
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hypnosis4U2NV:
Interesting. Let us know your results. I still have the phone and wouldn't mind taking it apart again and test.

Sent from my Commodore 64..

READY.

load"*",8,1
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hallstevenson:
Damn, still no improvement. I "pried" open all of the prongs - including the two in the upper-left corner (one being under the narrow, top-most cover), the two sets of three prongs along the bottom.

If I'm lucky, I get a fix on 2 out of ~22 satellites. Not enough to get a lock either. I'd almost think I made it worse, but it seems as though it's degrading every day for me.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hallstevenson:
...and this morning and just now, GPS is working. I'd like to think yesterday, after doing the fix, rebooting the phone 1-2 times, going outside, etc and it not working was a fluke, but I'm skeptical. Today though, it's worked each time I check it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] msk2982:
Just came here to say this worked. My GPS has been busted for a few months, and I never thought to check if the screws became loose. Opened the back and sure enough, 3 of the screws on the right were almost out.

Tightened them, and boom, GPS back online.

Thanks! :good:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] littlebriar:
Not sure if someone has already posted this solution but all I did was remove the cover, then put a small piece of tin foil folded about 4 times on the contacts. Closed it up carefully and things work great.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bobalay:
S3 GPS Fix

This fix worked like a champ. GPS went from never connecting to now connecting in seconds.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] arasarn:
So simple. So elegant. I can't believe this was all I had to do. I odined back to stock and then Kies back to stock firmware, factory wiped, cache wiped. Spent like two nights trying to fix the issue with software when all I needed was a little elbow grease.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] james homer:
samsung gps fix

hello

i've had an endless problem with gps on my s5 mini.

fixed now.

downloaded gps status app.

in settings look at filtering and set to no filtering.

works fine now

james:)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] artigbzh:
Works too

Too simple but it works

Thanks too much
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] himike:
simple fix

Wow - Can't believe it. I was at the end of my rope - ready to junk the phone. Tighten the screw?! - Could it be so easy? - Tried it and everything works!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hlamin:
Epic! Thanks a lot to syintiphic.

The simple fix help me with my sgs2.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] g.soki:
samsung a3 gps issue

Hi everyone!

I have bought a Samsung A3 phone few week ago. Recently i was using the gps very often. Its performance i have experienced it was very bad. searching for signal took ages., if there were 2 trees it has lost the signal. I am asking all of you who owns A3 how is the gps?

My girlfriend has a S4 mini. it has a better gps. with a gps test app the A3 finds half satellite than S4 mini.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] goyal.sanchit:
Thank you man! Thank you. Just want to confirm works excellently for Galaxy S4 as well.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sakthyprasad:
Many many Thanks.

Just now i came over your thread and its works like a piece of cake. I tried several things like custom rom and all other stuff. Thanks again.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Pseast:
That is the WiFi antenna according to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI4hs19riRM&list=FLAGl4l2TU4WdKUVe517ZxQA

If the video is correct, the GPS antenna should be next to the rear speaker in the top housing.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] flasheart49:
Yes it works! My GPS failed to lock on after an hour of searching in good open positions. It had worked perfectly until then. I took the back off and tightened the screws as suggested and it aquired GPS in a few minutes - as good as ever! Thanks for this information. 20/10/2015
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tpallone@yahoo.com:
Samsung GS3, SCH-I535 Nov 28, 2015: I just had a similar but somewhat opposite experience. The GPS could not find, let alone lock satellites. Screws already tight. I backed them out a quarter then a half and finally a full turn. Rebooted and tried GPS at each step. First two then four then 14 satellites!! Tightened again, no lock. Backed them out again and lightening fast lock on satellites. Like most electrical problems, contact issue. No nonsense, a fully reversible experiment today!! Hope this helps!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ctsbrasil:
Not work for G800H

Not work for Samsung G800H - Nothing Works to fix GPS in this phone!!!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] syintiphic:
Sorry mate. I'm not too familiar with that model. I know people with other Samsung versions were able to utilize the tighten screw method to fix their GPS issues.

Some times you can change the the gps config file or another method and it may help with your GPS issues. Search XDA and you might something that works for you. Good luck.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ctsbrasil:
Relax. It is known that there is a problem in GPS hardware in this model (Galaxy S5 mini - G800H). Hundreds of G800H owners complain about the same problem in several internet blogs out there. :(
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Rezallini:
Hi, I have a Galaxy A5, the back is fixed and there's no access to the battery compartment. I can't tighten the screws. Is there a solution or am ib"screwed"?