GPS or Global Positioning System is an elaborate technology combining tens of satellites and advanced machinery that work in together to provide location-based results on a smartphone. When you search for your location on a map, the phone’s GPS receiver intercepts radio signals transmitted by multiple GPS satellites at once along with the cell towers since smartphones use Assisted GPS (A-GPS) to provide a fine-tuned and accurate location of the user as well as other location-based results. But what would you do if the GPS stopped working? Would it be a problem for you or you are okay with it? Well, a majority of the people rely on GPS for their day-to-day tasks and thus, it would affect them and therefore, we have constituted this blog post containing all the troubleshooting tricks and tips that you involve in fixing the Gigaset GPS Problem that you might be facing on your phone.
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How To Fix Gigaset GPS Problem?
To explain how GPS works, the GPS satellites orbit the Earth in their geostationary orbit transmitting radio signals on the ground. When you activate GPS on your phone, it acts as a receiver intercepting the radio signals and calculating the location of the user. To pinpoint the location, at least 4 satellites must be located in the sight of the user along with the radio waves from nearby cell towers that collectively help determine the location of the user and provide underlying services. Now, that peep into the world of GPS problem that you can encounter and how to fix it.
Toggle GPS
It happens some time that the GPS doesn’t enable itself even after you have turned it on or even if it turns on, apps like Google Maps or any other app that you might be using, isn’t able to detect the location. This can be annoying but easy to resolve. You can simply toggle the GPS or commonly known as Location on your phone simply by tapping the icon under the notification panel several times and that must be enough. This should turn on the GPS on your phone immediately.
Reboot the phone
What would you do if the GPS isn’t enabling even after you toggled it many times, you can attempt to reboot the phone that although will force the phone to power down abruptly without saving any data that you haven’t saved yet, it will fix the problem then and there. In fact, rebooting the phone is known as one of the effective ways to get rid of any software-related issue including GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.
Toggle Airplane Mode
You are living under a rock if you don’t know what airplane mode does. The mode is used to disconnect the phone from any incoming and outgoing network while also inhibiting the phone’s ability to access wifi or mobile data. But it can also prove instrumental in fixing the issue since airplane mode is another trick that you can employ to force the ‘GPS’ to turn on.
Enable High Accuracy Mode
Many times, it happens that you are able to track your location but it is little off or slightly inaccurate. Well, this indicates that you might have disabled the high accuracy mode on your phone which although consumes an extra pound of battery life, it can escalate the accuracy of the location considerably. You can enable the High Accuracy mode simply by opening the Settings app on your phone and navigating yourself through Location >> Mode and check out for High Accuracy Mode. You have to enable it and check if the problem is sorted or not, if not, continue with this guide on how to fix Gigaset GPS problem.
Wipeout cache files from your device
It is a simple task to delete cache files from your phone and since it is recommended and useful too, you must do it at least once a day if not more. You need to clear cache files which you can do using these three procedures because there are three ways your phone stores cache files.
First of all, you need to proceed to Settings and dive into the Storage >> Cache Memory and delete when seen. The second method revolves around the same app too by this time, you’ll have to go to Settings >> Apps >> Downloaded and tap on an app. Here, you’ll get the option to ‘Clear Data’, ‘Clear Cache’ that you can do to get rid of it.
Finally, the third method revolves around clearing the cache partition which is accessible in the recovery mode. You need to follow the said procedure to enable recovery mode. Firstly, press power button + volume up button together to jumpstart the procedure and hold the buttons until the screen shows an Android logo. Now, you need to select the option that says ‘wipe cache partition’ and confirm the selection by tapping on ‘yes’ and that’s all.
Update the apps and firmware
It may not be surprising but updating the apps installed on your phone and especially the firmware must be a priority since outdated apps aren’t safe with constant hacks while these apps are susceptible to bugs that could cause problems such as screen freezing, restarting, error while opening an app or app/system crash, etc. Therefore, you must update these pieces of software as and when the updates are available.
To check if there are any apps that you can update, you can proceed to Google Play Store >> My apps and games >> Installed where you’ll get a complete list of apps that are installed and also a list of apps that have received an update. Check out for updates if any for the GPS driver installed on your phone if you can and update it as well. You can also instruct the phone to update apps automatically. On the contrary, the software updates for the firmware are available in Settings >> About Device >> Software Updates >> Check for updates or you can download an external file and update the system via recovery mode as there is an option available too. You can also install custom ROMs if you want to escalate the functionality of the device further.
Use GPS Essentials to find errors
Apps like GPS Essentials or GPS Status Tools can help a lot to find the possible cause of the issue. It could help detect if the problem is from hardware end or from software end for which, you can either buy an external GPS receiver or take help from a technician for the former or reset the phone if the software is the problem.
When you install this app, go to Satellites to see if there are any satellites visible on the screen. Now, if there are no satellites visible, it is probably a hardware issue or particularly the GPS receiver is either faulty or damaged or has gone haywire, etc. Similarly, if the satellites are visible on the screen, the problem is related to hardware is the majority of the cases and thus, you’ll have to narrow down the list as and when you proceed with the methods mentioned in this guide.
Reset the phone
Resetting the phone to its original factory settings can absolutely get your rid of any software issue but it also means that you might lose data stored on the device and thus, you must take a backup of the same. Resetting the phone has its own procedure which we have explained below so that those who aren’t familiar with it or those who are seeking guidance to perform a hard reset on their Gigaset smartphone to carry it out.
Step 01: The very first thing is to turn off the phone.
Step 02: Press power button + volume button together for a few seconds.
Step 03: Hold it until you don’t see an Android logo on the screen and then, leave it.
Step 04: In recovery mode, volume rockers are used to toggle and the power button is used to select an option since touchscreen doesn’t work here.
Step 05: Select ‘wipe data/factory reset’.
Step 06: Confirm by a tap on ‘yes – delete all user data’.
Step 07: Restart the phone and it’s over.
Buy an external GPS receiver
Buying an external GPS receiver could be worthy if you depend too much on GPS but aren’t getting accurate location-based results on your phone. You can check out e-commerce sites like Amazon to search for external GPS receiver for your smartphone and buy it. Although it is an investment, it will be worthy.
Call for help from the manufacturer
Still facing the same GPS problem, don’t know what to do? GetDroidTips recommends users to report the error to a service center and get it fixed. Do not attempt to unscrew the phone to reveal its motherboard thinking that you could make changes to the GPS-related components if you aren’t fully aware of it since it could damage the GPS or even the phone as a whole.