"Record location data" gets switched off sometimes, why?

• According to a blog post and associated comments at Built-in GPS in Nikon D5300, the Nikon D5300 internal GPS is turned off when it is connected to an external GPS, which may include your phone.

  If you connect your camera to your phone, the camera GPS may be turned off, even if your intention was not to use your phone's GPS. For instance, you could have been transferring pictures or using the phone as a remote shutter release.

• Another possibility is if the camera cannot get a GPS lock after a number of tries, it may turn off GPS to save battery.

  You may be able to increase the likelihood of your phone locking onto GPS by updating the A-GPS data.

  To avoid having to reacquire GPS locks, you can try keeping GPS active by turning on location logging. However, it would likely cause your battery to run down faster. (Consider buying and carrying around multiple batteries.)

• As a work-around for when you don't catch the problem in time, you can use Google Location History to geotag your photos. Accuracy isn't great, but it's better than nothing.

• Consider keeping a paper journal of date/time, charging/use schedules, indoor/outdoor use, gps status, etc? A pattern might stand out in a written record that otherwise wouldn't.

You can use your phone GPS for logging your position and then sync photos by time with GPSBabel or similar software. Another option is external GPS tracker like GisTEQ, they usually have their own sync software. Works with any camera (obviously), all you need to sync camera and tracker time and timezone before the shooting session. Both options are better than 5300 GPS, which is unreliable and inaccurate.