Orientation in unfamiliar terrain, both in a huge metropolis or a small town, and in a village, in an open field, today is mainly carried out using a smartphone. It is much easier for a person to buy a phone with a built-in GPS module than to deal with maps, ask strangers for directions. Enter the coordinates - here's the complete route from point A to point B. But not everyone can figure out with modern gadgets, especially if they have not previously used such devices.
In this article we will tell you how to configure GPS on Android, what programs can and should be used for navigation and what to do if GPS stops working correctly!
GPS - a help or a panacea for the user?
Before proceeding to the description of the correct settings, it is worth mentioning this system, namely, its advantages and disadvantages. As you know, the geolocation system allows anyone to know their location, wherever they are. But at the same time, two negative factors can be distinguished:
- If you use the GPS option a lot on your Android, you will see that the battery will drain pretty quickly.
- The GPS system constantly monitors your movement, and all the data, oddly enough, is stored under your Google account. They even have a special service with which you can see where you were at a certain time, which places you visited, which countries you were in, and much more. And who knows what else remains with Google when using this module ...
Initial setup
And so, you bought a phone with built-in GPS or relatives gave you a gift. How to configure it? In principle, the service is disabled by default and you only need to activate it to configure it. To do this, go to the "Settings" item and find the tab "My location" and be sure to allow the system to access geodata on your smartphone. Also activate items "By network coordinates", "By GPS satellites".
In the future, you will only need to tap down on the start screen of your device to bring up the quick access menu and activate the GPS service. There are usually buttons, tabs for working with wireless networks, mobile networks, phone brightness. Separate widgets can also be placed on the desktop to manage services.
The Android operating system usually comes with a location software installed by default. This can be, for example, Google Maps or Yandex Maps, depending on the developers. Despite the fact that all Android phones are initially certified by Google, the software is supplemented by companies that use this operating system in their phones.
Setting up GPS on phones with a Media Tek processor
If you're not in the know, all Android phone models are developed and equipped with different processors. Today, one of the leading companies is Media Tek, which provides processors of various configurations for smartphones. It also uses its own technology for the correct and stable operation of GPS-modules.
Above, we described the standard GPS settings that are present in almost every smartphone. If your device is powered by a Media Tek chipset, then in addition there will be an item "GPS EPO auxiliary data" in the settings. Activate this tab and go to the "EPO Settings" menu. Are you here? Fine! Now activate the Startup tab. Moreover, if at the time of setup you have the opportunity to connect to the Internet, you can immediately download special data that provides information about the position of the satellites. To do this, in this menu, you will need to click the "Download" button at the very bottom and wait until the files are downloaded.
GPS setup for advanced users
Attention! This subsection implies not only setting up, but also accelerating the operation of GPS in general on your smartphone. The fact is that the speed and accuracy of determining your current position is affected by information about satellites, namely, about their location. As a rule, in most smartphones this data is out of date due to an old software or operating system update.
Another reason is Chinese phones. In such devices, by default, the settings for the location of satellites for their country are prescribed, respectively, using GPS in Russia, the GPS module works much longer, because the data in it is written incorrectly.
Have you ever noticed that your location is determined in 5-10 minutes? We usually attribute this to "phone performance", but far from it! What to do in this case? We suggest that you configure GPS on your Android with a little "hack".
Slow GPS performance is solved with A-GPS technology. Its essence is as follows: data on the position of satellites are stored on special servers and using the Internet your smartphone can connect to them and receive all the information in a matter of seconds. Thanks to this data, the GPS connects much faster and determines your location more accurately.
But, as mentioned earlier, in some models of smartphones, especially Chinese ones, data for their region is registered by default. To change them, you need to find the gps.conf file!
How to work with the gps.conf file! You can change the data in this file manually or download a ready-made one for a specific country. If you don't want to bother, then download it for your country from the link -
If you are going to edit gps.conf yourself, then find instructions on the Internet that describe each line and what it is responsible for. To edit, you will need to use the Root Explorer application and Root rights.
Attention! The file is located in the / system / etc directory... As soon as you replace it or edit it manually, save all the changes and download yourself the GPS Test app. This is a special utility with which you can clear all old satellite records and check if GPS is working correctly. Just install it, launch it and click the AGPS tab, restarting your smartphone after that. Once your phone is restarted, open the program again and check the location speed.
Modes of operation of the GPS module in Android
And the last, no less important point, which concerns GPS operating modes. Each smartphone has separate settings for this technology, which can be set at your discretion.
Go to Settings on your phone and select the Location tab. Please note that the menu items may differ slightly on different versions of Android. Then click on the "Operation mode" item. You will have three of them:
- "According to all sources"
- "By network coordinates"
- "By GPS satellites"
Now, specifically for each item!
The first mode is "By all sources". The GPS system will automatically connect to all possible networks, namely: wireless Wi-Fi points, mobile networks, satellites. This, after all, is the A-GPS technology, which provides the highest accuracy of the received data and increased operating speed. But at the same time, do not forget about the cons! Battery power will be consumed much faster in this mode!
The second mode is "By grid coordinates". Basically uses information only from access points and towers. But at the same time, the correctness of determining your location is slightly distorted. About a few meters, sometimes tens of meters.
The third mode is "By GPS satellites". Completely deactivates A-GPS technology. Your smartphone will only determine your location using satellites. Moreover, if you enter any building, the connection will be lost or temporarily interrupted.
Which mode to use is up to you. If you need to accurately determine the coordinates or location, then activate the first item. If the battery charge is low, but you need to somehow determine where you are, then activate the last item.
As you can see, GPS setting can be done in different ways and ways, depending on the version of Android, software, manufacturer. Over time, an increasing number of various applications and "hacks" appear on the forums to enhance the work of GPS, to introduce additional options into your smartphone. Stay tuned for updates and test!
Often when buying a new smartphone for Android (especially from Chinese manufacturers), users are faced with the problem of GPS not working. And if, you do not use this functionality, then it's okay, but if it's the other way around, then the problem needs to be solved.
We will tell you why GPS does not work on Android and how to fix the situation.
Why GPS doesn't work on Android
The most common reasons for this unpleasant phenomenon are:
- Weak (defective) GPS module
- A cover that shields the GPS antenna and degrades the signal reception
- Invalid parameters in the system file GPS.conf
- Broken firmware
If there are problems with the GPS module (hardware), then only repairs can help, which can only be carried out by the specialists of the service center.
You can always remove the cover and check if the GPS is working correctly. And if there is a problem with the firmware, then just flash the device (how to do it, read here).
But we will not focus on this, but move on to the third point.
Automatic GPS setup
The easiest way is to set geolocation settings automatically using a special application, for example, FasterGPS:
You just need to choose your continent and region - the program will do the rest for you.
Manual GPS setting on android
You can also configure GPS manually. To edit the GPS.conf file you need Root-rights (how to get them -
Pocket geolocation is a fairly common business and has recently become commonplace. Now all models of modern phones have a GPS system. But often users have questions about it. For example, they are interested in how to improve GPS reception on Android or IOS in order to receive more accurate information about the location or more convenient to play games that require detailed geolocation. Let's analyze this problem and find out what can be done.
GPS is a system that allows your smartphone to use navigation apps and locate your location in order to get the best route to your destination. Based on receiving data from satellites in outer space.
Why do I need it?
GPS navigation is used by navigation apps. Together they help to get to the desired place without detailed study of paper maps of the area and interviewing others on the topic "Where to go next and where to turn?"
The most famous free "Yandex.Maps" or "Yandex.Navigator", GoogleMaps and MapsMe. You can also find a pirated version of Navitel on the Internet. But the program may be of the old release year. In this case, she is able to lead you to non-existent roads and under the "brick". In addition, the program can be infected with a virus. Then there is a possibility that it will "break" the system of your smartphone, and you will have to change not only the navigator, but also the phone or at least its firmware.
Now the most widespread and modern phone models are the IOS-based IPhone and phones that support a different system ("Android"). They use GPS in a more advanced form - A-GPS. This is a function that increases the speed of the application during cold and hot starts, due to other communication channels (WI-FI, cellular), and also increases positioning accuracy.
A situation where the phone cannot connect to new satellites when the application is turned on. In this case, it works autonomously according to the data transmitted during the previous switch-on by those satellites to which it was connected. Hot start - when the satellites are immediately included in the work. They appear on the application screen or in a special tab for tracking their work and receiving data.
The first option for improving the signal
There are a lot of ways how to improve GPS reception on Android or IOS. Let's analyze the 3 most famous ones. The first and easiest way to strengthen the GPS signal is to enable the appropriate mode in the phone settings. To do this, we do the following steps:
- Turn on GPS (geolocation) and go to the phone settings.
- Find the "Geodata" section.
- Select the top button "Mode".
- A window with the name "Detection Method" opens.
- We select the item "High accuracy".
The performance of your phone will increase by enabling precision. At the same time, the operating time without recharging can be reduced by several times. The thing is that the included navigator will simply "eat up" the battery.
The second way to improve GPS reception on Android
The second option is more complex. But he helps as often as the first. Need to download GPS data cleansing app. After updating the satellite information, the navigation system will work better than before. But this option may not work for some phones due to incompatibility between the application and the model, lack of space, etc.
The most difficult but reliable method
There is also a third, most difficult solution to the problem, how to improve GPS reception on Android. It is more suited to computer geniuses. Its essence lies in the alteration of the system file that controls the operation of the phone's GPS system. Let's figure it out in order:
- It is necessary to extract the GPS.CONF file located in the system / etc / gps / conf folder through special programs that give access to system files. Then we move it to the internal memory of the phone or to the SD card so that it can be opened on the computer in the future.
- Changing the GPS.CONF settings is carried out through the Notepad ++ program on a regular PC. And the phone is connected to the computer via a standard USB cable.
- Next, you need to change the settings of the NTP server, with which the time is synchronized. Usually they say something like this - north-america.pool.ntp.org. The entry must be rewritten - ru.pool.ntp.org or europe.pool.ntp.org. As a result, it should look like this: NTP_SERVER = ru.pool.ntp.org.
- Also, it will not be superfluous to enter additional servers without making any changes to them: XTRA_SERVER_1 = http: //xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin, XTRA_SERVER_2 = http: //xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin, XTRA_SERVER_3 = http : //xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin.
- Next, you need to decide whether the GPS receiver will use WI-FI to amplify the signal. When entering the ENABLE_WIPER = parameter, you need to put a number that will allow (1) or prohibit (0) the use of a wireless connection. For example, ENABLE_WIPER = 1.
- The next parameter is connection speed and data accuracy. There your choice is as follows: INTERMEDIATE_POS = 0<—— (точно, но медленно) или INTERMEDIATE_POS=1 <—— (не точно, но быстро).
- In the type of data transfer use, knowledgeable people advise to put the User Plane, which is responsible for the wide transfer of subscriber data. Then DEFAULT_USER_PLANE = TRUE is written in the program line.
- The accuracy of GPS data is monitored through the parameter INTERMEDIATE_POS =, in the line of which you can set both taking into account all data without exception, and removing errors. If you put 0 (zero) after the "=" sign, then geolocation will take into account everything it finds, and if 100, 300, 1000, 5000 - it will remove errors. Programmers recommend setting 0. But if you want to try it, you can use error removal.
- The use of the A-GPS function, as mentioned above, is supported or automatically enabled on all modern devices. But if you still want the function to work exactly, then in the A-GPS enable line you need to put DEFAULT_AGPS_ENABLE = TRUE.
- The final version of the file must be saved and dropped onto the phone, and then reloaded.
An important point: if you do not want to do this all yourself for various reasons, for example, because of laziness, fear of breaking something in the system, etc., then you can find the GPS.CONF file with the parameters you need and just copy it to your smartphone. All that remains is to reboot your phone and use the improved GPS.
Why doesn't GPS work on Android yet?
There are other reasons for the problem as well. It happens that GPS does not work on "Android" at all (does not turn on, does not search for satellites, etc.). The demolition of the system to the factory settings can help to sort out this problem. This is done through the phone settings. In addition, the gadget can be reflashed or given to the service center employees who will "dig" into electronics and correct the defect.
You won't surprise anyone with the presence of a GPS navigator in Android smartphones or tablets. The GPS navigator on mobile platforms also has an advantage - it can work without connecting to a satellite, but only by working with mobile towers, but in this case you can only get the coordinates of the location. To determine your location globally, you will have to connect to satellites, as it was in the classic portable GPS.
GPS does not work on Android
In fact, there can be a lot of reasons why GPS does not work on an android, so we immediately exclude hardware failures (technical problems), only the service center will help here.
- Incorrect GPS setting... This happens most often. can be read here. You can test the correct GPS settings using the app GPS Test
- GPS does not work after flashing... In this case, the GPS settings fly off. How to return the settings - we read in the article at the link above, the article will have a video in which everything is described in detail.
- The primary binding to satellites is not made... In remote areas, this process can take a long time, up to an hour. But for this, you need to put your phone or tablet on the street or on a windowsill. After binding, the GPS will work faster.
- GPS on android does not work in enclosed spaces... More precisely, it can work, but rather weak. For correct operation, the GPS module must be outdoors and see the sky.
- Hardware problems... If, after all the manipulations with the GPS settings, the module still did not show signs of life, then you should contact the specialists at the service center.
Android phones contain a GPS module that allows a wide range of applications to determine location as well as navigate the area. The functionality of a GPS phone is higher than that of a standard external handheld GPS. But they still need to be able to use it correctly, so that there are no questions about why gps on android does not work.
How GPS works on your phone
A little about how GPS works in a smartphone, so that it is clear what settings to set.
- Android apps can find location using mobile network towers.
If you go to the location settings of your Android phone, you will see two definitions to choose from. One of the definitions is called a network location. It is this option that calculates the coordinates using mobile towers or via Wi-Fi. The advantages of this method include the fast speed of work, while the disadvantages are not an exact indication of the location. A slower way is GPS satellite navigation.
- Android phones and tablets use Assisted GPS (aGPS).
This technology allows you to find out the satellite position using the network and at the same time receiving data much faster.
- Android GPS can work without a mobile connection.
From the managers of various mobile networks, you can hear that GPS does not work on an android if it is not in the area of mobile towers. Maybe, but this requires the correct satellite navigation setup.
- The first determination of the position (first snapping) in too remote areas takes time.
This process in various places can take from ten seconds to an hour. The first time is always longer, but with the next connections everything will go much faster
- Maps matter when Android GPS works.
If you open Google Maps without a network connection, the smartphone will display the error "This application requires an active tariff plan." This happens with other applications, if the application uses Internet maps, then a constant connection to the network is required.
- Android GPS needs to see the sky well.
Few know this rule. But those who have worked with portable GPS are familiar with this. Why is GPS not working? Everything from the fact that these positions are transmitted from satellites, which means that the transmission quality will be better if the signal is not interfered with by floor slabs of houses or meter layers of earth in the metro.
- Android GPS drains your tablet or smartphone battery.
Everything is simple here. Want to extend the life of your smartphone? Then turn off the GPS module. This also applies to other modules. Of course, no one will say the exact data on how long the battery life will last after turning off, but in any case it will not be superfluous if you do not use GPS too often.
These are the basic principles regarding the question of how GPS works in a smartphone and tablet.
All modern tablets and smartphones have a built-in location sensor (GPS). With it, you can plot a route to the desired geographic point. This feature of your gadgets is especially good if you find yourself in unfamiliar areas. This device has only one drawback - the GPS sensor drains the battery. To help your smartphone or tablet work more economically, you can turn off this function. But, you can do smarter and correctly configure the GPS sensor. In this article, we'll show you how to do this.
GPS sensor is an important component of modern mobile devices. Indeed, besides the fact that it helps to correctly navigate the terrain, it can be used to activate reminders "tied" to a specific area. Some applications generally "refuse" to work on smartphones or tablets without enabling the location function. Therefore, you will not be able to completely disable the GPS sensor and fully use your gadget.
You can turn GPS on (and off) in the Android notification bar. It is activated using this icon:
In order to determine the mode of its operation, you need to go along this path:
This will bring up a menu with three options:
- "According to all sources"... This is the most accurate mode of operation of the GPS-module of your device. But, it is this “accuracy” that wastes the energy supply of your battery. This mode uses satellites, Wi-Fi and mobile networks to determine your location. If you have this mode enabled, it means that the module responsible for the operation of this function is constantly in the active position. It monitors the space and easily helps to determine the location not only outdoors, but also indoors. Unlike navigators, devices that are used to plot routes, smartphones have the ability to use not only satellites, but also other sources. For example, the Internet. With its help, and with the help of certain utilities in your gadget, it can show the location even without connecting to satellites.
- "By network coordinates"... Actually, this mode is described in the previous paragraph. But, unlike the All Sources mode, it only uses wireless networks (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile networks). When this mode is selected, communication with satellites is disabled, which can significantly save battery power. At the same time, the accuracy of positioning is not critically affected.
- "By GPS satellites"... Unlike the previous mode, with the help of this, only the GPS satellites and the device module, which processes their signals, become involved. By choosing this mode and entering the room, your gadget will be "lost off the trail", since the signal from the satellites will be lost.
If you want to increase the life of the device from one battery charge to another, then set the "By network coordinates" mode. Also, it will not be superfluous to deactivate the location mode in the notification panel of your device.
If the battery of your smartphone or tablet can handle the load, then turn on the "By all sources" mode. Thanks to it, you can not only more accurately determine your location, but also use personalized Google searches.
Setting through the engineering menu
Unfortunately, not all devices can quickly find satellites, connect to them and keep a stable connection. Some cheap smartphone models cannot boast of a flawless GPS module. And this can affect at the most inopportune moment. For example, when you need to figure out where to go in an unfamiliar area.
One of the reasons for the problems with the GPS sensor is its incorrect operation in the latitudes of our country. This is especially the case with cheap Chinese smartphones. But, this situation can be corrected with the help of simple manipulations with such a sensor through the engineering menu. To do this, you need to have superuser rights (How to do this? Read).
Turn on Wi-Fi and GPS and go outside. A balcony can also be used for this purpose.
Above are three engineering codes. One of them should fit your device. But, if none of the listed codes came up, then use the program Mobileuncle ToolHero... With its help, you can go to the engineering menu from devices that do not support the above mentioned engineering codes.
Mobileuncle ToolHero
In the program you need to select a bookmark Location... To do this, you need to scroll a little to the left. In this tab, go to item Location Based Service.
In the tab EPO need points Enable EPO and Auto Download make it active. EPO is a file in your system that is responsible for the coordinates of satellites and their trajectories. It is initially not active on all devices.
Now you need to go to the point YGPS(to do this, go back to the previous level). In the Satellites section, you can see the layout of the satellites at the moment. If satellites are visible on the diagram, then the device also "sees" them.
Go to the tab Information and choose full... We wait a couple of seconds and press AGPS restart.
Let's go back to the satellite layout (Satellites tab). The points next to the satellites should turn green. This means that the device can connect to them.
IMPORTANT: Sometimes, even with the correct GPS settings, the device cannot always connect to satellites. This may be affected by interference, bad weather, or other situations.
Reboot your device. After the above steps, it should receive the signal better. Gps, find and quickly connect to satellites.
As you can see, configure the module Gps and choose the most optimal mode of operation of the function "Location" simple enough. If you still have any questions regarding this article, be sure to write them in the comments.
