Navigation nearly completely unusable on Moto G tl;dr: Is there any known / reported problem with navigation on Lenovo Moto G / Android 6.0 or in the GPS network general? I found navigation completely useless in my case, because it keeps GPS fix and shows actual location of my device for no more than 5-10% of entire trip.



I've been using Android about 3-4 years ago, ending up on Google Nexus and Android 4.3.3. When I needed navigation, I couldn't find better solution (I even sold my separate Mio navigation system) than offered by my mobile phone: easy, fast and accurate.

For some reasons I left Android for 2+ years to Windows Mobile and recently have returned to it, by purchasing Lenovo Moto G (2 pieces) with Android 6.0. And I found navigation completely useless.

No matter if my trip is 10 minutes / 10 kilometers or 2 hours / 200 km long, no matter, if I drive by a car, walk or use public commuters, I can always get clear GPS fix and accurate location for no more than 5-10% of entire trip. For remaining part I'm getting "GPS signal lost" or completely mistaken location, even 10-20 km away from actual one.

This happens everywhere. I have experienced it in both very dense rural / deep city area, with a lot of high buildings, other cars, many mobile devices and anything else you can name that may influence GPS signal (propagation, deflection, reflection etc.). And I have also experienced it in a complete wilderness with dozens of kilometers around me with nothing but a flat area, fields etc. No cities, no buildings, even no trees and no other cars or devices (traveling Sunday early morning).

At first, I thought that this is a purely technical issue and that GPS hardware on-board my phone is simply broken / malfunctioning. But I have received exactly the same experience on both my Moto G Plus and on Moto G3.

Is there any bug report about recent problems in GPS in Android 6+? Or are there any reports about GPS network going down / being overloaded? Or anything else that could be a cause for described behavior?
On contrary to this answer, solution to my problem was exactly opposite --> I had to disable 4G networks / block my phone from connecting with them.

Settings > More > Mobile networks > Preferred network type > 3G.

In a moment after that my location become fast, permanent and accurate. No more problems with GPS fix, no troubles with finding location, extra fast location / route updates in Google Maps.

More information (on original solution -- disable 3G networks -- and problem itself) here:


https://android.stackexchange.com/a/184217/20449
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2198319
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37012926


The TopNTP application was mentioned in some sources as possible aid to similar problems.