GPS only works with WiFi

Question

On my Blackview Crown with Android 4.4.2 my position is only ever available when I am logged in to a WiFi network. Using google maps outside works in general, but unless there is a working WiFi connection it just stays where it last had one or does not seem to find my position at all.

I've tried all three possible GPS settings (phone only, with mobile Internet, and with WiFi and mobile Internet) and they don't make a difference when outside. Connected to a network only the one using WiFi works, and does so instantly. It is not enough to have it turned on, I actually have to be connected.

The phone is a bit less than a year old and used mostly as an MP3 player, for playing free games, and, well, as a phone. I don't know a lot about Android and GPS in general and I'm running out of ideas.

mattm · Answer

Basic GPS can take 12.5 minutes to get a first fix from a cold start. Yes, this is slow, which is why most systems are built with other features to speed up the time to first fix.

With a data connection, your device will try to use assisted GPS to get a fix faster. Your device uses local infrastructure to learn which satellites are in view for the current location and corrections. The time to first fix can be reduced to seconds.  
With WiFi, normally the first location fix is based on WiFi location; your device queries a large global database for the MAC addresses of WiFi infrastructure and gets back a answer quickly. WiFi location accuracy is worse than GPS, but it is much faster. Once you have this WiFi position fix, it can be faster to get a GPS fix.

Michael P. · Answer

It seems to me that the GPS antenna/hardware is just too slow to find a GPS fix that fast.

I would recommend using an app like GPS Test to see how many sattelites your phone detects.

So just switch to "high accuracy" or "gps only" mode under Location Settings and open the app. There should be some grey bars at first and after a while these bars should become colored. Each bar stands for one sattelite. You need at least 4 sattelites "in view" to get a GPS fix ("in use").

Well, based on your description about your experiences with Google Maps it may indeed take some minutes until you get a fix.

This may be either caused by a bad hardware or bad/misconfigured software - especially "china phones" sometimes have GPS software configured for eastern countries.
There is a file with these settings under /system/etc/gps.conf (by googleing you can find a lot about this topic). But you need root privileges to edit it. Alternatively, you can also try the option "Update aGPS" in the menu of the "GPS Test" app.

If that all does not improve your first-fix-time, theres basically not so much anymore you can do.

GPS only works with WiFi

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