The Samsung Galaxy S24
Blackjack II's profile

Mentor

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58 Messages

Tuesday, November 19th, 2013 4:12 AM

Closed

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 GPS Issue

Anyone else having issues with their Note 3 GPS? I'm having an issue were every time I plug or unplug the charger from my phone the GPS drops out. I have to then toggle the GPS on/off in my quick settings to get it working again while navigating. It also seems to drop the signal when I get an incoming phone call while using the navigation app. I have confirmed this same behavior on 2 other friends Note 3's. I'm hoping this is just a software issue that will be fixed in a future os update.

Teacher

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19 Messages

10 years ago

I have the same problem too. I replace my note 3 once. And it has the same old problem. I wished ATT and Samsung would do something about this. It is true, for an expensive phone it is really frustrating to find out it is just defective. not really worth the money or the switch from my previous iphone.

 

Ill probably start putting negative reviews on the device on all of the review boards so it gets some steam. I got mine when they release the phone and until now it has no solution. Really ridiculous....

 

Guys I suggest each one of us go to these site and post a negative review just to make noise. We all deserve better for our money and time.

Mentor

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38 Messages

10 years ago

So.. this is an AT&T issue..   does anyone know if it is a Tmobil problem as well?   anyone have a T-Mobil sim card they can put into a (reset) AT&T Note 3 ???

 

 

I NEED the GPS to work...     if this is an AT&T issue,  can I take my $800 phone toT-Mobil, and by pass this problem?

 

Danny

 

Teacher

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16 Messages

10 years ago

Problem here too. I clicked the I have the problem too button in first post and PM'd the support person who posted in here.

 

I just bought my Note 3 on Friday and problems crept up yesterday while driving. Now it also happens when using Endomondo to track my walking/running. Endomondo worked just fine on Friday afternoon.

 

I don't want to root as I don't want to void my warranty (I've rooted phones before, so I'm not a stranger to doing it; just don't want to void my warranty on such an expensive phone).

 

I love the Note 3 other than this GPS issue, but I have to have a solidly working GPS. It's now a race to see if they can fix the issue before my 14 day return period is up. Might just be switching to a different phone even though I really don't want to.

 

Explorer

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16 Messages

10 years ago

I am just coming back to add that this is not just a GPS issue with this phone. And my phone can be plugged in the entire time or unplugged the entire time; I still have the issue. The compass often gives the wrong direction. The wifi always gives off a warning that the signal is unstable regardless of the network. Fortunately you can turn off auto switching. In general this phone just has issues locating signals. Fortunately, my calls don't drop. The only reason I didn't call AT&T re this issue is because I don't want to start all over again from scratch and I don't want a refurbished unit! It's sad because this is as close as I've seen to a phone that meets all my needs. Laptop no more.

Explorer

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16 Messages

10 years ago

I have the white Samsung Note 3. I have had the issue in multiple instances driving 175 miles south to Americus, GA, to Georgia Southwestern University, and 200 miles west to Augusta, GA, Paine College. I have missed exits or turns as a result. I have the issue close to home as well.
Phone charging status is irrelevant to my phone. My compass is off as well. A 180 degree turn on the phone registers as 150 degrees instead. Sometimes its unable to locate N,S, E,W for more than a few minutes after a reboot and Google Sky only works the first time I run it after a "Clear Data" in App Mgr.

Explorer

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16 Messages

10 years ago

It will also lose signal when I'm not moving anywhere for a few minutes.

Teacher

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5 Messages

10 years ago

In driving from Austin to Houston I lost signal a dozen times. But only two times during the country part of the drive, most drops were in the cities. Reset of GPS using pulldown tray worked, except maps crashed after one of the drops. Got two notes running, both have same problem but not at same times.

Scholar

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63 Messages

10 years ago

25.5 hour mark since I installed all my apps and started fully using the phone, minus the SIM card (tethering for data). And the gps still works...

I'm going to let this run another 24hrs, with no sim card just to make 100% sure. Too bad I don't have a t-mobile SIM card I could use. I winner how much their pay as you go costs...

Mentor

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28 Messages

10 years ago

@james27007 It's a P.I.T.A. what you're doing man, way to take one for the team. I'd say stay on no SIM with all your apps loaded for 48 hours just to make sure. In one of the threads over at XDA, one person mentioned that AT&T swapped out his SIM and that seemed to have solved the problem for him, seems highly unlikely that we'd all have a faulty SIM but I'm putting it out there. But from your experiment it's pointing more and more to having something to do with the SIM or mobile data. I still think it's done sort of sync the phone does, just don't know what. Some sync that happens over mobile data but not WiFi.

 

The one thing that is abundantly clear from your experiment is that we can lay to rest the question of hardware or software. It was already clear from in the information we had before, but there were still people who was convinced it was hardware, this should lay all doubts to rest. 

Scholar

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63 Messages

10 years ago

@goldendrag0n thank you. I'm just glad I have my old Galaxy S2 as a backup 🙂

About 3 hours till the 36hr mark and GPS is still working perfectly. I haven't be able to test the 4G to LTE switch yet since I don't have my sim card in, but this unit did have the plug/unplug issue, so I've been using that.

I'm still going to wait the full 48 before I put the sim card in. However, I'm convinced after all this that it has to do with the A-GPS data. A little research found that the phone can only download the A-GPS data when on a cell signal, not wifi, which explains why I have not had the issue yet. Also when the Captivate had all those GPS issues, one thing that helped a lot was using the files from the Vibrant and changing where the A-GPS data was downloaded from. I think we have the same issue here where it is a combination of bad A-GPS data corrupting bad system files. The fact that replacing those 6 GPS files fixes the issue 100% (verified on XDA), backs up my theory. Superbfox verified this when they replaced the GPS files and the issue went away WITHOUT having to do a factory reset. Just dropped in the new files and all went well 🙂

Seems like a simple fix that would take AT&T no time to package and send out!
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