Samsung Galaxy S2 - GPS Signal Lost

Samsung Galaxy S2 - GPS applications worked fine when I first got the phone but much more recently the GPS was working well when first started up and then after driving only a short distance down the road one gets a "GPS Signal Lost" (audio message) or "Locating GPS Signal" (message at bottom of screen).  The phone is typically attached to a charger which is supposed to turn off power saver mode and needless to say the GPS radio is enabled (else it wouldn't have worked when first started up).

I think I've found the answer.  I think the fix is

  1. Settings | Power Saving Mode | Uncheck Turn off GPS (Turn of GPS when not in use).
  2. Power cycle the phone.
While this doesn't make a ton of sense that this would have caused the problem because when the unit is attached to a charger it says it's no longer in power saver mode. What's more the help string for this setting says that GPS is to be turned off only when it's not in use. 

Nevertheless, I think this solves what can be a very annoying issue.

Addendum: I think #2 above is the key. I hit this issue again even while the "Turn Off GPS" was unchecked.  But power cycling fixed the issue when i hit it again. I think I've seen some comments online that tended to point towards Android 2.3.6 as the culprit and the power cycle as the workaround.

Android version 2.3.6, Kernel version 2.6.35.7.

Addendum2: Upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version 4.03, Kernel Version 3.0.15) and rarely see this issue anymore. Won't go so far to say that it's entirely gone however.

Comments

John Glotzer said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
May 10, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Anonymous said…
This Worked!! Thank You! Thank You!
November 12, 2012 at 7:29 PM
Anonymous said…
I didn't use power save mode at all. I still having problem : (
December 23, 2012 at 9:19 PM
John Glotzer said…
What never fails for me is

1. Select Custom Power Setting.
2. Make sure "Turn off GPS" is turned off under Custom Power Setting.
3. If GPS signal not found simply power cycle (restart) GS2 - after a restart the GPS has always worked for me.
December 26, 2012 at 2:34 PM
Anonymous said…
thx, that did the trick.
December 1, 2013 at 1:35 AM
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