GPS activates itself (Drei Austria / Italy)

Yes, I’ll be there but we can also meet earlier to get the data collected if you have time

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Hi!

Unfortunately, I’ve the same issue with my FP1 (my provider is also Drei) since January 5. That day I updated my phone from Cherry 1.6 to Kola Nut 1.8.7. I figured out that the app System-Ui is responsible for turning GPS on. Maybe this information is somehow helpful?

I hope we will find a solution soon!
Annia

Ok, this is super annoying. I have been experiencing the same issue as everyone for a couple of weeks now. I have been a proud fairphone user for years now but this and the pending android update is bugging me :frowning:

So, @Annia, the problem was not existent in Fairphone OS 1.6?

Ps: System UI is the user interface (UI). How did you find out that it is related to GPS?

Apparently not, at least I never had any troubles with GPS until the update…
When the GPS icon is shown in the notification bar, I slide down and press long on searching for GPS, then App-Details is popping up and then System-UI appears. When I’m forcing it to end, it stops searching. But unfortunately not for long…

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Something else I noticed: in my case, GPS activates itself way more often when I’m not in Vienna (as compared to while I’m in Vienna).

So, it happened very often when I was in my hometown in Tirol, and it happened often the last weekend when I was somewhere in rural Niederösterreich. In Vienna, it rarely happens.

Above you said that you were on T-Mobile. Maybe T-Mobils falls back on the 3 network, if reception is bad.

maybe (though it would be strange because t-mobile IIRC used to have way better coverage in my hometown than 3/orange)

can i somehow find out if t-mobile does fall back to the 3 network?

Just wanted to say that for me it happens many, many times a day and I am in Vienna most of the time. My provider is Drei.

I think you sort of can find out using the app SatStat:

MNC 01 is A1:

Edit:

T-Mobile […] roams on 3’s UMTS network where no UMTS

@Lars and I took adb bugreport and adb logcat -b radio -v time on his phone today. We sent the logs to beta[ät]fairphone.com :slight_smile:

Hi,

It seems for me the GPS activation problem (see my post from Jan 23rd) has been solved somehow, at least I haven’t noticed it for 1-2 weeks now. So I’m starting to actually believe it :wink:

Anyone who had the same experience or knows what has been changed? I am not aware of any changes made by myself (except for regular updates of apps).

Katharina

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We could reproduce it on @Lars’ phone still on Feb 28th.

It’s still happening to me. I also believed that this was over because it didn’t happen on my for phone for a couple of days (see my posting above). That was a false “alarm”

Hi all!

I am “sorry” for registering in this forum and writing in this thread - as I am (unfortunately) not a Fairphone owner but …:

I’ve a ZTE Blade Q Mini, not rooted, with some quite vanilla Android 4.2.2 on it, since some time. This device has a “Mediatek MT6572” chipset (that’s why I researched for solutions like the “assert modem” setting, which is also mentioned here, as the FPs also seem to have Mediatek chipsets). And I assume this circumstance (and obliviously my carrier/provider) brought me here :slight_smile:

My carrier/provider is - what a surprise - Drei Austria (I’m in Burgenland/Eisenstadt, by the way) and since many weeks (could be about middle of January, unfortunately I can’t tell it exactly) I have the exact same issue: GPS activates as soon as I get an UMTS/3G/HSDPA/HSPA+ connection! I could not say it is always the case, when I make or get a call - but I am also not always checking in which kind of connection I am (eg. if I get a call in the car). But I can clearly reproduce it - every single time - when I deactivate 2G/GSM (for not getting “roamed” to T-Mobile, I don’t have the best reception with Drei in my flat, so that happens quite often) and connect to 3G. Also if I activate and deactivate WLAN … and thereby reconnect to 3G: tah tah … same thing, GPS activates as if by an invisible hand.

And believe me: I checked and tried a lot of settings with A-GPS, EPO Assistance, GPS-provided time, etc. etc. … because: even if I already had the suspicion that this issue has something to do with my provider (first I thought about this “Inlands-Roaming” between Drei and T-Mobile), I could only be sure after some excessive Tests with my wife’s and father’s phones (they have the same model, but different carriers/providers and didn’t have these issues), I also made a full reset on one of them; but as soon as I put my Drei SIM in one of the phones and activate mobile connection (with 3G): same thing, GPS activates.

Actually I’ve is a quite old “Orange”-SIM (Orange was overtaken by Drei some time ago), maybe this could be the reason? But I read in the thread that someone changed their SIM and had no success either …

What might also be interesting for you guys: I got at least two research results with the same issues, both Mediatek-related:

The first with Vodafone Australia (attention: Austrialia - not Austria : ) in June 2016 https://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Android/GPS-turned-on-by-3g-connecting/td-p/411824 (a real fun thread to read, if you are the paranoid type … and honestly: I also thought I might have some issues with “Carrier IQ”) - the “solution” there was a statement from Vodafone basically saying that there was a frequency change and the assumption (? or also stated by Vodafone?) by the forum user that the new frequency affects the processor/operating system combo and causes the GPS to be toggled when they connect through the Vodafone 3G

The second was with Globe Philippines in September 2014 https://community.globe.com.ph/thread/76419 where it seems that the carrier could solve the issuses!? Maybe this carrier was more interested to solve the issues, as on the Philippines might be slightly more customers using phones with Mediatek chipsets …

I thank you so much for all your postings and descriptions!! I already started thinking I might be crazy … but now I am nearly sure: Drei (Austria) changed “something” (whatever it was, maybe resulting from the EU guideline for free Roaming in the European Union effective since January 2017?!) what causes (some?) Mediatek chipsets to undesirably switching on GPS. But before I change my phone I’ll change the carrier - and if it works there - I’ll buy a Fairphone. IN YOUR FACE, DREI AUSTRIA :grin:

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@schurl Welcome to the forum! :slight_smile: Check out this quote from our bug report:

Thanks for the detailed report! If your theory with free Roaming is correct, we might be able to do free calls in Australia and the Philippines! :laughing:

oops … I hope my English isn’t that bad (or you just made a quite creative joke : ) … what I guessed was that Drei made some technical changes, because of organisational reasons … somehow related to the EU roaming regulation. I was just some wild guess … (e.g. to get better compatibility with phones from other countries’ carriers, with which they have better billing contracts or whatever). And it shouldn’t make a big difference, in which other countries the same issues occured … it seems to affect (some?) Mediatek chipsets, used by various phone manufacturers (and operated with certain Android versions as 4.2.2?) … and to be carrier-related.

Does Drei really know about the issue? Where did @Rene_Sendlhofer get this information from?

I was trying to joke! :wink: The quote by @Rene_Sendlhofer was there to confirm your theory of the cell update. He called them and that’s what they said.

PS.: Maybe if more people contact them, they will do something to solve the problem (or at least help Fairphone devs to solve the problem in our firmware).

Have the same problem with my FP1 and Drei as a provider. My husband has A1 as a provider. He does not face that GPS problem. Maybe, only switching the provider will help?!

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Interestingly then I haven’t had the problem at least the last 3 days, no idea why since I still have 3 and the same old sim card but seeing Mathildes reply then the issue is still there