Minor bugreport:
When changing the GPS-settings to “only GPS” (no mobile data etc), it automatically switches back to “high accuracy” when I disable and re-enable GPS.
Can anyone but me reproduce this bug?
Yes, I can confirm this “bug”. May I ask: Why do you disable GPS?
Spielmops
I’m pretty sure that is intended behavior from Google so they can collect your data even if you think you are on GPS only.
1 Like
to save energy. I only need GPS for navigation, it does not need to be active in the background if I dont use it.
I usually disable everything I dont need (mobile data, gps, wlan, bluetooth, …). This way, battery running time exceeds 1 week by far. (And yes, google does not need to know every step I take 
)
2 Likes
I thought so. On my FP2 GPS is on (device only!) since I got my phone. GPS does not appear in battery usage and my phone works 6 days.
If any Google-service is enabled, then disabling GPS is important, if you don’t want to get tracked. On my phone Gapps are disabled.
Spielmops
16 days with minimal usage and GPS off.
Maybe the system is smart enough to only use GPS when needed, even if activated, havent tested it yet. Battery usage stats however are not that reliable as not everything is listed there.
On my old phone, disabling GPS extended battery for about 50%.
Anyway, deleting my settings by switching GPS off and on again is a bug, irrespective of the question why to switch it off.
Behavior confirmed - on a self-built OpenSource FPOS without Google Mobile Services.
It’s a feature not a bug 
It’s been reported a few times.
Feature my ***
cough
“Feature” still exists after latest update, just tested it.
2 Likes
Still an issue in FPOS 1.8.1.
I guess a lot of people don’t consider this a “feature” since you are asked to agree to this Google enhanced location stuff every time you enable location services. And it only takes a single moment of negligence, you accidently press on “Agree” and you’re stuck with this decision forever and can’t take it back anymore.
This is not a feature, this is enforcement.
You’re right, it’s not a feature, since it brings no benefits to the user. It’s an anti-feature - since it brings benefits to Google.
But it’s not a bug either since the behavior is intended.
One could write a #featurerequests::tag and hope FP changes this behavior, but I guess Google won’t allow it, so it’s mute.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but to my consideration Android is an open-source project which everyone may fork and create his/her own distribution of.
I admit, I don’t know under which license this particular part of Android is put (since Android consists of differntly licensed parts). But if the license allows modification as long as some basic rules are met (like the non-compete clause for apps published in Google Play), I don’t see how Google should forbid the alteration of such a little anti-feature. It’s basically just making the user’s action more convenient, so he doesn’t have to do it manually every time location services are enabled.
Yes of course the license allows it, but I’m almost certain Google would withdraw official support and without that there are no more monthly security updates and probably no upgrade to a higher android version - ever.
1 Like
I don’t know how Google thinks, but such an act just wouldn’t make sense.
I doubt that Google does provides any patches whatsoever for custom Android derivates. I mean, if I was a developer of an open-source software, I’d only support my official release, because I wouldn’t know how vastly my official release got customized. The patch which works for the official release might break the custom one.
In the end, Fairphone are the ones who know how much they cooperate with Google in regards to their OS updates. But for reasons stated above, I’d say that they have to adapt Android updates on FPOS themselves. How easily they are applicable depends on how well you structure, modularize and document your customizations.
Back on track, it’s not as if Fairphone would ultimately restrict something. An aware user would enable location services and switch to “Device only” directly after. The anti-feature behavior can also be prevented by apps which you can download in the Play Store. Just as there are apps which prevent the device from sleeping or transform it into a Star Trek tablet PC.
This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.