Thanks, Robin, any videos or information I can supply I’ll be more than happy to, I should say I already performed all the EPO and A-GPS suggestions and had one day old EPO files.
Hi yes I’ve tried that in the past when travelling more that 500 miles and it gives me faster fixes for a while, but then maybe the next day will take ages again. It doesn’t make a difference to the inaccuracy when driving though.
Once thing I notice is that when I use GPS Status and toolbox, sometimes it says ‘GPS Disabled’ even though the GPS is enabled and I see the symbol flashing in the top left.
I also experience issues when using GPS:
1- receiver seems to be very insensitive; when driving sometimes there are no fixes for quite a long time.
2- I seem to be driving in the fields along the highway quite often. And then all of a sudden I hop back on the road 
Both issues have been present on all firmware revisions, also on the actual 1.6
is your phone charging while navigating?
i have troubles when connecting the Phone to the charger it will get no Fix for a long time… Unplugged it works better…
I indeed have always charger plugged in. Will try without next time.
If that would indeed improve things, this is a serious bug. Let’s hope this to be software and not hardware related.
I’m answering to this topic using this two version:
for English speaking people and for native German speaking (as I am)
Ich antworte in diesem Topic in 2 Versionen: für englischsprachige Menschen und für Menschen (wie ich) die Deutsch zur Muttersprache habe.
[English Version]
I received my FP last Sunday and especially the GPS setup took me some time to set everything up with free software (not using googleplaystore). There are a lot of how to do and proposals in different places on the net and I think the way I managed it could be helpful for others, simply because I succeeded at last :
- Installation fasterGPS.apk (from F-Droid) and setting it up with my dates (continent & country)
- Activate your GPS on the FP (if you haven’t so far) [update 14-09-28)
- Manuel installation using the advice described here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Fairphone_Fairphone/Guides#How_to_improve_the_GPS_signal
-> Download EPO files: EPO.DAT & EPO.MD5 - Installation of a Root capable Explorer, because to my knowledge the integrated FP Data Manager doesn’t have root access (I recommend SimpleExplorer from F-Droid) [update 14-09-28]
- Copy EPO.DAT & EPO.ND5 to the folder /data/misc
- Type on your phone
*#*#3646633#*#*and ! don’t press the receiver - wait till you are in ‘EngineerMode ! - Swipe to the right until you reach the “Location” menu
- Select “Location Based Service
- Select “YGPS” and go on to the “Information” tab
- Press the buttons “hot”, “full” and “AGPS restart” in exactly that order
- Make sure you do this when you are outside and have a clear view to the air!
- Go back to the “satellites” sub menu and wait till you get a fix
- When you have a fix you can Close YGPS with the homebutton
- Using the freeware Satstat (download from F-Droid) and be happy everthing is working.
Kind regards
Rob Doc
[Deutsche Version]
Ich habe mein FP letzten Sonntag erhalten und insbesondere der GPS setup nahm ziemlich viel Zeit in Anspruch, vor allem, da ich freie software nutzen möchte (ohne den googleplsystore zu verwenden). Es gibt jede Menge Hinweise an verschiedenen Plätzen im Internet und ich dachte meine Vorgehensweise kann für andere hilfreich sein, da sie letztendlich erfolgreich war :
- Installation fasterGPS.apk (von F-Droid) und meine Angaben eingetragen (Kontinent & Land)
- GPS auf FP einschalten (falls noch nicht getan) [update 14-09-28]
- Manuelle Installation unter Verwendung dieser Hinweise: link s.o.
Hinweise sind auf Englisch, daher hier kurzgefasst wie ich weiter vorgegangen bin
-> Download EPO files: EPO.DAT & EPO.MD5 - Installation eines Root-fähigen Explorers, da der integrierte FP Data Manager meines Wissens keine Dateien in der Root anzeigt – auch wenn man versteckte Daten anzeigen aktiviert ( (Empfehlung: SimpleExplorer aus F-Droid Shop) [update 14-09-28]
- Kopieren der EPO.DAT & EPO.ND5 in den Ordner /data/misc
- Am Phone Zeichenfolge
*#*#3646633#*#*eintippen und ! nicht den Hörer abnehmen, sondern kurz warten, bis man im ‘EngineerMode ist ! - Nach rechts wischen bis man sic him Menü “Location” befindet
- Auswählen “Location Based Service”
- Auswählen “YGPS” und zum Reiter “Information”
- Die Knöpfe “hot”, “full” und “AGPS restart” in genau dieser Reihenfolge drücken
- Sicherstellen, dass sich unter freiem Himmel aufhält (Garten reicht, muss kein Berg sei)
- Zurück klicken auf as Untermenü “satellites” und abwarten, bis man einen “Fix” bekommt
- wenn der “Fix” da ist (d.h. die Position bestimmt ist) YGPS mit dem Homeknopf (unten Mitte FP) beenden.
- Programm Satstat (download über F-Droid) starten und sich freuen.
Herzliche Grüße
Rob Doc
[Edited by Moderator: Updated the formatting for the engineer mode number so it displays correctly]
7 Likes
Thanks, RobDoc, that was a most helpful and detailed information. I’ll consider trying this, at least if things get worse.
For my own part I have noticed that GPS is not FP’s strength - it’s the only thing that worked better on my old HTC. But I have never had those really serious difficulties described in this thread. I may have to wait a minute or (aat worst) two for a fix but then it’s pretty stable. e.g. while driving and using Google Map’s navigator function.
Trying to download new EPO data files can be a nuisance and occasionally I’ve downloaded them manually.
After trying a lot downloading the files via PC and installing manually was for me the best (and only ;-)) way. I won’t use googleplaystore or the fix offered - I only want apps on the phone I hopefully understand what they do (and what not).
Triggered by this post I did a trip without the charger connected in the car. And indeed: GPS-behaviour is much better then. No more fix-loss observed and I’ve not been driving in the fields this time
Now the question is: what causes this? The current going through the USB-cable? Because it is on the top of the phone, so close to the receiver?
Any work-around for this, as a long trip without charging is a no-go?
I can report that my FP1 now does have working GPS, however it takes on average about 105 seconds (getting on for two minutes) to lock on to the correct location. I’ll try it later without the mobile networks contributing.
As has been said by others, the FP’s GPS is disappointing compared with previous phones (my HTC also locked on in about 15 seconds).
Would be great if this could somehow get fixed in the next update. Is there any way I can contribute to bug reporting or that sort of thing?
This has been reported to the support team. You can always open a support ticket yourself, but due to the multiple reports, I don’t really see that would be necessary. Unless you have specific problems that haven’t been reported here.
I wonder if it can have to do with the charger and thus related to the problem described here: Touchscreen Goes Crazy While Charging
Personally, I have not experienced that charging affects my gps - I use a bog standard 3rd party car charger - from Belkin, if I remember correctly.
It’s an interesting thought that the placement of the usb jack - on top - could add to this. I’ve always seen that as a design mistake, and it’s really annoying when you have the phone mounted on your car dashboard. Moving it to the bottom would be a great improvement.
Whatever the cause (and possible solution) is: if I would have known or even guessed that the GPS would behave so poorly, I would never have bought the phone. No matter how fair it is 
what the… really?? thats very interesting, I always have it plugged in in the car, I’ll try this next time. The accuracy is the main reason I gave up on it, long GPS fix times are annoying but bearable, inaccuracy when driving was a killer though.
I had the same problems with the GPS that have been described in the forum (EPO files did not download, fixing my position was impossible etc). After the Cherry 1.6 update it did not (seem to) work neither.
A couple of days ago I just switched on the GPS on while waiting at a bus stop - and here we go: GPS works all of a sudden. Fixing my position within seconds: no problem. Tracking, navigation: no problem and with high accuracy. It just stops working as soon as I’m indoors.
It sounds too simple, but try the GPS outside! (no need to download EPO files before)
That would have spared me a lot of frustration, hopefully it helps some of you.
1 Like
Update: Gravitybox half …
danke, aber …
bei mir gibts da eine Fehlermeldung:
Box “USSD-Code wird ausgeführt” oder so, dann “Vebindungsproblem oder ungültigerMM-Code”
Wat nu?
Franz
Da hat die Foren-Formattierung zugeschlagen; die Zeichenfolge muss *#*#3646633#*#* heissen
After initially being so impressed with the FP1, a couple of recent car journeys has made me realise what people were talking about… the GPS is just terrible. So I’m working through the solutions suggested above.
One thing… from @RobDoc’s list, when I try “Copy EPO.DAT & EPO.ND5 to the folder /data/misc” I get a “permission denied” alert. Presumably I don’t have root access? Could anyone tell me what I need to do here?
Seriously, though… my previous phone (a 2009 HTC Desire) does GPS perfectly without any need for data backup. How does a £300 phone (a very good one in most aspects) get to this stage with such an obvious flaw?
You will need a file manager app that offers you to make use of your root privileges. FP’s default file manager does not. X-plore is one app that does this, but there are of course a lot more.
Even if I haven’t had any really big issues with FP’s GPS myself - save for the delay in getting a fix (1-2, sometimes even 3 minutes) - I suspect that the explanation can be the chipset used (Mediatek). Or maybe other HW parts, e.g. GPS receiver. Which means that it will be very difficult to solve the problems through a software update.
Oh, and there.s a small typo in robdoc’s post: Should be EPO.MD5, not ND5! Probably obvious…