yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] TimSmall:
G5 back case design changes for GPS

FWIW, this shows along-side two different versions of the back cover of the G5 (H850 European model). I noticed the differences whilst troubleshooting GPS problems. Swapping the backs between two phones fixed the issue for me. There look to have been some design changes during production for these phones.

You can currently buy new OEM backs on a popular online auction site at around £10, but being a cheapskate (and not wanting to wait for one to be shipped internationally) instead I got a reliable fix by buying a used one for a little under £4 (approx USD $5).

This photo shows the phone screen/midframe/motherboard at the top, the replacement (working GPS) back next to it, and finally the original (non-working-GPS) back at the bottom (sitting on top of the working one).

[IMG="LG G5 work GPS back (centre) and non-working GPS back (bottom of photo)"]https://buttersideup.com/files/LG-G5-back-design-changes-2.jpg[/IMG]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tmd2BVSsF3EXp8JH9

The differences are - in the new one:

The square gauze to the left has been moved to the right of the photo, and sits partly directly on the aluminium phone back, and partly on a black rubber pad (I tried making this mod on the old phone, but it wasn’t successful - that’s why the old gauze looks a bit battered and you can see some adhesive residue where I used double-sided tape to fix down a rubber pad).

The brown/grey conductive pad (on the new back - in the centre of the photo) seems to come up a bit higher, and completely replaces the tiny PCB with the pad on which the old back has. The surface-mount component on that tiny PCB may be a capacitor, because I can’t get a resistance measurement across it (I don’t have a capacitance meter here, but I’ll try and check it out at some point). The four vias (square pattern) that you can see on the tiny PCB measures zero-ohm to the metal of the case. On the new back the the brown/grey pad is zero-ohm to the metal of the case.

From looking at the other photos on this answer, it looks like the GPS antenna and contacts went through at least two design changes during the production runs of this phone!
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] totalnoob34:
First of all, thanks for the very insightful post. I'll tear my H850 down at some point and fix this damn issue. I suspect I have a first model, since GPS is effectively unusable. Do you think I could get or DIY a rubber-like conductive pad?

I'm really not sold on aluminum foil wizardry, so I'd like to try and replicate the final iteration of the antenna design before going the replacement back route.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
H850 Indeed
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
I finally rebooted after 2 weeks because the phone was becoming laggy. Standard smartphone first world problem. GPS failed to keep continuous lock after the first reboot. After 3 reboots, it finally behaved. Have no idea why some boots it does and others it doesn't. I don't think the wifi locate setting does anything. I don't think any setting you change after it's booted changes anything actually.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] kteddyv:
I was having the same issues in Google Maps and I was actually able to solve it.

I read a Google thread about people who had phones that upgraded to Marshmallow. Their GPS units worked fine until the update and a little bit down the thread someone stated that it had something to do with Doze. I went into battery and looked at power optimizations and made Google Maps one of my exceptions. Apparently Doze kills off GPS in Maps if its using too much battery or something like that. After turning off optimizations my GPS in Google Maps was able to find my location in under 10 seconds and held a steady signal until my destination. Hope that helps for some of the issues! That was my only issue and I love the phone, I was actually thinking of exchanging it but this fixed it.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
The new phone seems to be much better. I will be testing it in the next few days, but it looks like I got a faulty unit \o/
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
I've been documenting my GPS issue over at Reddit but I'll follow here now too. I recorded a video showing what happens using GPS Status app. Find the link at Reddit or I linked my channel in my profile where you can find it.

Essentially it appears the GPS system in the phone is resetting itself every 1 to 4 minutes. I show this in the video. What seems to happen is that polling of the GPS system fails at some point. (note the last gps update time in the video just before a reset) Then the GPS resets, and then it re-acquires a lock.

What I have found:

#1 - The time between no longer providing GPS data, resetting, and re-acquiring can be as long as 1 minute. Not good if you are getting navigation in a city and miss your turn, or miss your exit on a highway.

#2 - I did a Factory Reset, and after that GPS did not seem to have the problem anymore. But once I rebooted the phone a couple times the problem came back.

# 3 - The problem appears to be always happening. It feels like it is a hard software/firmware problem. Almost like it is some bad code that causes a deadlock, and a watchdog is resetting it.

#4 - This feeling comes from the fact that the 1-4 minute clock always seems to be running. Sometimes I will start up GPS and it will work for 20 seconds, then the freeze, then reset, then re-acquire occurs. But if I wait for the next one it will be 2 to 4 minutes from that. So I think this problem may be related to slow locks, i.e. if you happen to try to use GPS

I just used the Doze settings for GPS Status, Maps, and Waze.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] csahsu:
new phone fixed issue for now

found this thread helpful to at least know that it wasn't just me so thought i would share...

i'm on a verizon lg g5. gps just would take a very long time to lock on and then when it did it would cut out intermittently even when standing still outside.

i ended up calling verizon and getting a replacement. i'm on day 4 of the refurb and have been pretty actively using gps to test it out and haven't seen any issues. gps locks on within 3-5 seconds maximum. i lock onto a lot more satellites than i did before at a much faster rate. i even rolled the dice and installed the latest system update from verizon. No degredation so far.

i'll report back if it digresses in performance, but at least for now i'm optimistic that it's a build thing that only affected some devices. let me know if there's any other information someone would like to troubleshoot their issues.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
Try and reboot your phone a couple times and see if the problem stays gone. I had it gone for a while but it came back after phone reboots.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
After reading these few pages of reports, I think there are 2 distinct GPS issues being discussed here.

The first is the GPS not locking on very fast or at all. On any modern, functioning smartphone GPS, it should take 10 seconds at most to get a lock, if you are outdoors. Particularly with the advent of aGPS, this really helps phones know what satellites they should be looking for. Once fix has been attained, it should stay locked. Some users here are describing waiting minutes to get a lock. Probably a hardware issue on these phones. These users have described this problem: [MENTION=2594558]scottricketts[/MENTION] [MENTION=7424735]bdogi[/MENTION]

The second is the inability to keep lock despite having many satellites. It goes from perfect lock, then suddenly it's like GPS is turned off and back on again, and it takes a while to regain lock. Once it gets lock again, it will cut out for no reason. This cycle repeats randomly. Users with this issue are ALL on T-Mobile as far as I can tell: [MENTION=4083190]btothec[/MENTION] [MENTION=4717772]Avohkah Tamer[/MENTION] [MENTION=2562936]waylo[/MENTION] [MENTION=7468926]mike8675309[/MENTION]
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
T-mobile yes.

I see both issues. Issue one seems to be me asking for GPS when it is in the middle of issue two.

Doze setting changes did nothing to resolve this. Going try to get a replacement G5 at t-mobile tomorrow.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
Okay, good luck. If it's outside the return window, they'll probably send you a warranty replacement refurb.

---------- Post added at 09:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 PM ----------

Any non-Tmobile users, can you upload a copy of your gps.conf file? Whether or not you have GPS issues.

It's located under /etc in the system partition.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] stuart0001:
Here's mine from an EE UK H850

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3UP2wYpmnQWcE94dlBlR3B6dFk/view?usp=drivesdk

My GPS has been rock solid & I use it on average 4 hours a day.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] gie62001:
Same here - awesome GPS performance. Always stays locked at around 3 metres accuracy. Yesterday I drove to London and back and never had a single drop. I've had my nexus 5 to compare and nexus was on average at 10-12 metres accuracy and that was still great. If anyone needs wants me to do some testing on unbranded international (UK) H850 do let me know as so far it only seems that issue might be with the US variants. I was dreading to have GPS issue as i use it a lot but so far it's only been awesome.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
Thanks. I was researching issues other folks have had with MM and GPS. Not sure they're related at all, but figured looking at gps.conf was not a bad place to start. There are a few changes between the H830 and H850 gps.conf, ignoring the regional GPS servers, that could be worth pursuing.

Intracarrier, I also compared the Tmobile G4 settings with the G5. Maybe some changes there are also worth investigating.

But again, this doesn't explain why certain boots I have perfect GPS, and other boots it is downright ****.

However, none of this makes a difference because we can't edit gps.conf on a non-rooted phone!
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] dh3lix:
H850 International Version from Germany here. All good before the latest updated rolled in. Since then the GPS is temp unreliable like sh1t. Tried enabling disabling all location based Settings. Nothing helped so far.

Gesendet von meinem LG-H850 mit Tapatalk
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
I can confirm that the new G5 that amazon sent me does not have gps issues. It maybe lacks a bit of precision, but nothing I can't live with \o/
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] dh3lix:
Maybe usefull if everybody with and without problems posts the firmware version? V10c here with gps issues.

Gesendet von meinem LG-H850 mit Tapatalk
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
I had the issue on V10a and V10c
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] gie62001:
V10c - no issues at all. All works great. International H850.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] albenex:
i came from a Z5c which had a stunning gps module , getting fix into the house with +-10m error.

g5 instead got abount 12m error while outside and clear sky.

among small streets it just loose signal and goes by wifi location.

pretty similar to oldish LG Nexus 5.. so i just sentenced "hey, that's lg"

using Gps status and toolbox and comparing to other phones it seems that antenna get low signal strenght and thus obtaining an imprecise position.

tomorrow i will test on a bike run either with strava and runtastic apps, i'll keep you updated. if it will fail i will sell it!
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] dh3lix:
I just created an RMA at amazon germany for my device to make sure it is not a Hardware issue.

Gesendet von meinem LG-H850 mit Tapatalk
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Freshgeardude:
I'm on verizon and having constant gps dropping issues. Newest software version.

I'm considering calling for a warranty replacement
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] uberjon:
I stopped at a verizon corporate store today and had them mail me a replacement. Symptoms had been getting worse. Missing turns at 25mph when it says turn left in 1/4th a mile mid way through the intersection.. (Middle of nowhere clear view of skies gps only set)

I was worried it was going to work fine at the store, since its reliability fluctuates, but we couldn't even get a steady signal for two satellites...
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Freshgeardude:
I'm really concerned that this is a software issue, not hardware (phone specific) as I've seen here and on reddit people with the same issue on different models.

Hopefully we find a software fix for all soon.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Alainjpg:
In a forest Running, I compared the gpx track of my LG G5 with my Twonav sportiva. The LG G5 is just so bad!

Green = LG G5;

red = TwoNav Sportiva.

purple = map

h*p://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/img/1463573316.jpg

Total kilometers :

23,78km for the LG G5

19.89 km for th twonav sportiva.

+19,5% ! That's awful !
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] uberjon:
Considering all g5 models should be identical, except maybe the cellular antenna and the modem firmware/boot loader/carrier crap. I would think it points more to faulty hardware.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
Possibly, but each carrier has their own implementation of Marshmallow. Lots have extra software features included or taken out. So hard to make that determination for sure.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] dh3lix:
hi all,

just fyi : new device arrived - same settings - restored everything from lgbackup ... absolute identical setup side by side ...

and this is indoor on my couch where i normally barly get any other mobile to get a gps fix - so just talking for me this was definetly a hardware issue. i have now outside a error rate with free sky from 2 to 6meters - which is absolutly fine. with the old device i barly came below 10meter - generally around 15 to 25m.

--rgds marcO
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] uberjon:
My Verizon replacement came yesterday. I'm getting a much better GPS signal. Between 3 and 12 meters at 55mph. Individual satellite signals have improved drastically (old phone was lucky to have one in low/mid 20s! Now I see some in 30s)
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Freshgeardude:
I'm going to the verizon store tomorrow then. I need a replacement this is terrible :eek:
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] blarg:
I may be talking crazy but Im wondering if maybe the boot looping issue I had (as well as others) is related to this. Every time my G5 boot looped (and finally bricked) I was using some kind of GPS app.

I always use GPS only for location (call me paranoid, but I don't want my location shared with 3rd parties...GPS only location is just fine for me) and Alk CoPilot with offline maps but now that I think about it my boot looping always started when I was either driving ormy weather app was refreshing...

We'll see if it's still a problem when I get my phoneback from LG.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] scottricketts:
I think you're right. Going to set up a replacement with T-Mobile today.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
Good idea. Your GPS issues were far worse than those of us who lose lock while having full satellites for no reason, then regain lock, repeat. Will be interesting to see if your T-Mobile replacement has THAT issue.

For everyone, if your GPS has a LOT of difficulty getting a lock to begin with, the hardware is defective. Get a replacement! That's not a software issue.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Dickie-D:
This has just started happening on my phone now as well. Long time to get a location fix, then regularly dropping out.

The phone was fine for several weeks after I bought it But has been an issue for the last few days.

Restarting the phone does not seem to fix it.

I'm on EE in the uk.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] sreams:
Problems here as well. GPS has become pretty much useless. Seems like its gotten worse and worse over time since I purchased the phone. I don't necessarily notice a timed reset like others have mentioned. It just acts like I'm always in the a bomb shelter... with little to no signal pretty much across the board.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] daniel_86:
GPS Issues more info

Hi guys, i'm a new member and i got a Lg G5. I apologize for my bad English.

Also me got same GPS fix problem. I'm from Italy and my firmware was v10c open eur.

I flashed another stock firmware... v10b TIM version. now gps is very fast and stable. Another thing i see is that IZAT is a problem: also in v10b gps was not so accurate, i disabled it and got 6mt precision in very short time. I hope this can help someone..I became crazy with it....the best thing is that isnt an Hardware problem!Have a nice day people!

---------- Post added at 06:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------

Done another try...re-flashed the version v10c and gps problems came back. Buggy v10c update..i'm pretty sure!
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Dickie-D:
I phoned LG technical support, and spoke to a guy in the UK tech team today, interestingly it was the first he (they) had heard about this, and apparently I was the first to report this as an issue, not sure how many people this is affecting? However given the number of reports in this thread and elsewhere on the internet it looks like it's not an isolated incident.

I pointed him to this thread and he has sent a link to it to the dev team.

He suggested I send back the phone for them to look at, however seeing as I will need to factory reset it before I send it back, I thought I would try a factory reset here first to see if it solves the issue anyway. If it does then great, if I doesn't then at least they have a chance of seeing it happen first hand. I will post back here with results when I can make sure I have a decent backup (I never like factory resets as it always takes me ages to get the phone back to how I want, the restore functionality never puts everything back)

Interestingly today the GPS been working a bit better than yesterday, using Endomondo at lunch time did actually manage to track me... JUST, but the accuracy is pants (30-70m or worse) so distance travelled measurements were way off, it also stops responding for periods at a time so will jump me from one place to another.

I would also say that overall this seems to have degraded over the last week and has got progressively worse... I was initially seeing just small inaccuracies in location, then over the last few days I've been having periods where I just couldn't get a fix at all.

Last night I did a side by side test with my wife's Samsung S4 both running GPS Status and Toolbox, and hers got a lock within seconds and an accuracy of 3-6 meters, mine took many minutes to get a fix then when I did my accuracy was up in the 10's of meters and would also drop the fix.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
As of today, GPS seems to have stabilized. I've rebooted my phone many times and the GPS no longer has the pauses or loss of GPS data ever 2 to 4 minutes. I'm not sure what changed. I did have some google updates for apps and I installed the 360 cam manager app from LG. But over the weekend and now to to be working correctly. Very weird.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] scottricketts:
Yes, that's the case. Was a little annoying after a couple weeks, now two months on, it's totally gone to ****.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] waylo:
Is this your original phone or replacement?
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] scottricketts:
Okay, went in and made sure I turned off Doze for anything involving GPS and location and any mapping apps. Turned off the Qualcomm GPS assist, and gave it a shot. Driving seemed like it would lose every two to three minutes but just be out for about 30 seconds. Give how widespread this is and how new phones seems to go fine for a bit and then go to crap, I have no idea if this is software or hardware. Being able to get logcat or throw an AOSP ROM on here for a comparison would help confirm.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
original phone. I didn't get a replacement since I can just reboot it a few times and it works again. Yet now it seems to just always work. No idea what is going on.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
I'm coming back with bad news. Amazon replaced the phone with a brand new one and it worked fine for a while, but now it's getting bad again. It's not as unusable as it was on the first one, but it's getting there. I am this close to changing brand, but I've already bought a few accessories and I don't want to lose all of it...
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Freshgeardude:
I can confirm that getting a new phone fixed all my issues. It's a hardware issue. Gps locks in 3 seconds now on my new phone. I'm on Verizon fwiw
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] edzilla:
I thought the same when I got a new phone, but it didn't stay fixed, unfortunately.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] mike8675309:
Yeah, there is seriously something weird with GPS on these phones. Mine is still working correctly now after initially not working correctly. It's been working fine for almost a week.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] scottricketts:
I'm betting this is software related. I'd kill for an AOSP ROM to double check. I got my GPS back when I powered off and changed batteries. Odd thing is, works great on my morning commute, in the evening, I can't get a fix to save my life.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Dickie-D:
I have a rather worrying observation

if you take the phone while running GPS status and are failing to get a fix, try tapping the top of the phone into the palm of your hand as if using it like a spade, or flat (You need to do it reasonably hard but not so hard as to damage the phone obviously... so just a swift tap). After this I have found that often the GPS starts to get a fix. However the resolution is still rubbish I get > 40m usually.

After a while it often stops working again. However tapping the phone against your hand in a different way will often cause the fix to be lost. :(

YMMV

I call hardware fault

---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:00 PM ----------

Ok I'm not sure how long this is going to last (fingers crossed) but my phone seems to be working better now

I have noticed the silver band around the edge if the back of the phone is split into three different sections, I am convinced that these are the antennas, however they are in a little groove which can feel sharp (as many people have commented). This groove seems to fill up with skin grease from your hands and I think is shorting out to the body somehow.

So I took a piece of cloth and cleaned it out by running it around the edge cleaning out this groove and now my GPS seems to be working much better with a fix within seconds and an accuracy down to below 10 metres.

Go try it

Edit:

Looks like I spoke too soon.... although it worked well for a while a couple of hours later and it was back to misbehaving again. Failing to get a fix, and then when it does dropping out or poor resolution (>50m sometimes up to 250m, and that's outdoors !!)
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Sensamic:
LG is known for having GPS issues. I had them on a G2 and had to return it. Many people had those too.

Enviado desde mi SM-G920F mediante Tapatalk
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] gbgadgets:
I tried numerous configurations with the location settings, scanning, smart settings, resets, toggle modes and the gps status app options. None seemed to work.

Then , I went to settings, apps, three dot menu for show system, then selected com.qualcomm.location.XT and selected storage to clear cache and data. Then reset phone, and gps has been perfect since. ymmv

I had good gps for 2 weeks, then the dropped / reaquired signal issue for about 2 weeks and now back to good gps. On T-Mobile with no root.
[LG G5 Questions & Answers] Dickie-D:
Didn't work for me, thanks though.

I was really hoping that would solve it. However when you say reset phone, I assume you only meant turn off then on again, not factory reset.