GPS shutting down - Sony Xperia 10iii

Hi there,

Seeking advice with GPS shutting down on my Sony Xperia 10iii. Most often triggered when using Gaia. Sony have inspected it under warranty and can't find a problem.

The GPS often fails after sustained use (typically 3-5 hours).
Once it fails, it stays failed.
It appears that only a phone restart will get GPS working again.
I use the GaiaGPS app to locate my position and track my movements when bushwalking. It operates in Airplane Mode (maps are downloaded to the phone) to preserve battery life.
GPS has failed to provide my location on off-track routes in areas that are open space and not previously a problem. However, on the occasional bushwalk the GPS will work perfectly. You can understand this lack of reliability is a concern for me and my group.

Details for the most recent failure that occurred during a bushwalk on 25/02/23 are as follows:-

After prior failures I did a full factory re-set & removed unnecessary apps etc.
The GaiaGPS app was granted all necessary permissions.
I ensured the phone was in airplane mode and the battery saver in Android was switched off. Wifi was also turned off. Ensured that Location was still turned on.
On this occasion I also turned off “Improve Location Accuracy” in Android to ensure the device used strictly GPS and wasn’t interfered with by wifi or mobile network signals. This adjustment wasn’t made on previous GPS failures and evidently made no improvement.
The phone battery was fully charged at the start of the walk. It finished the day with more than 60% charge remaining.
I commenced recording our track on the app when we got underway at 8:57am. The app correctly located our position on the map and started tracking as normal.
I can see from the app data that at 1:59pm the app failed to receive a signal from the GPS. The app kept recording until we finished the walk at 6:42pm, but there was no further location data after 1:59pm.
At 1pm on the following day the GaiaGPS app + GPSTest app + GPS Test app were all still failing to receive any data from the GPS. They could not see any satellites.
As a test, I then removed the ‘location’ access from every app on the phone to see if that might release the GPS and get it working again. No luck – the GPS on the phone still did not work.
When I finally restarted the phone for the first time since the bushwalk the GPS test app immediately found satellites. A restart seems to get it working.

There have been several previous failures that have occurred both in the bush and when turning on my driving navigation app (Metroview) in Sydney city. There was no GPS signal, then finding no other GPS app would work either. So a consistent problem across all apps.

What have we missed? Thanks in advance.

rnestor

16 March 2023 12:23

I wonder which GPS satellite array is being used and/or if it's possible to force the Sony to use a different one. With the US GPS system you need to be tracking 4 satellites above the horizon that aren't masked to get a location - 3 satellites if you have a good ground station. A satellite may be above the horizon but if it isn't high enough in the sky it will still be masked in the software and not usable. Masking can also occur by terrain - tall buildings, mountains, heavy undergrowth, etc. In Gaia GPS you can get the status of the GPS satellite array that it sees by going to Trip and clicking on the little circle with the two bars under in in the upper right hand corner of the display.

I've had the problem of loosing GPS location in my car with my in-dash Garmin when it doesn't have enough satellites locked. In that case it usually goes into "coast" mode where it projects where I am from the last known good location using speed and direction. Typically when it reacquires signals it tells me to "make a turn back there" though.

Glider

17 March 2023 03:52 Edited

Thanks rnestor - I appreciate your thoughts. The Sony collectively uses GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS & QZSS. From experience it typically sees between 19 and 32 satellites at any one time, including by Gaia as you mention. When satellite location is working it's great. But it suddenly stops and stays stopped (like it tripped a breaker).

GPS shutting down - Sony Xperia 10iii

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