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Gears S3 SM-R760 GPS not working

(Topic created on: 09-12-2016 01:02 PM)
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Kurkoko
First Poster
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I installed all samsung apps, updated.

Got my Gear S3 and I am only able to make work GPS 1 time, every time I perform a Factory reset and repair again.

All permissions a granted to Samgung Gear, Gear S plugin and Samsung service.

 

Tried, Yelp and HEREWego, even shealth to track a test.

On Gear S3 location is set to on (GPA+Wireless).

 

Sometime I see Gear S plugin running and locate me.

I find strange I need my smartphone to locate me, and even this rarely works.

 

Is frustrating.....

Android 6.0.1 Xiaomi Mi5

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hespeet
Journeyman
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I have the following experiences with GPS on my Gear S3. I've been supported by Samsung very well, and I used, amongst others, this forum and  this post to find out what my problem actually was. I want to share my experiences with others, so that they need not spend so much time on this
issue as I did.

 

My location determination was very erratic. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, sometimes not well, sometimes not at the beginning of a walk, but then it worked well further under way. It drived me crazy, because I bought the S3 also for keeping track of my activities, and for that you need a good-working GPS.Now I couldn't rely on it.

 

First of all: there are two methods of getting a location for your S3:
     1) WITH a bluetooth connection with your phone, on which location services is switched 'on' and the Samsung Gear S app is opened (in the background is fine), and
     2) WITHOUT a bluetooth connection with your phone, stand-alone. With this, your S3's own GPS-module is needed to determine your location from its contact with GPS-satellites

 

When I started to understand this from the fora (I believe it was this post, actually), I performed several tests, with and without a bluetooth connection with my phone (and on the phone the location services switched on and the Gear S app active).

 

So it turned out when I had my phone with me, option 1), my positon was correct (say, +/- 10m, the GPS resolution) and my walks were registered corrrectly. So no problems with option 1). After my 'training' (walk), the summary also showed my route on a map (at the bottom of the log).

 

(for the bluetooth connection, the 'LE' (low energy) connection with the phone is enough. There's also a 'non-LE' bluetooth connection, but this one is for a larger bandwidth. You can have a telephone conversation with this connection through your S3. This broader-band connection is not necessary for general information exchange like GPS-coordinates or Whatsapp messages.)

 

(During all my testing, when I didn't fully understand how it worked yet, I noticed that the Gear S3 'knows' your general gait-length. With this, it is able to also measure your walking-distance by counting your steps. I recon the S3 needs a good 'learning-period' first with correct GPS-readings, in order to draw conclusions about your gait-length (GPS-measured distance, divided by the number of steps). I seem to remember that in the beginning, I measured wrong distances while walking. It might have been the case that I had no GPS-coordinates (probably no bluetooth connection with the phone and no GPS-reading from the S3 itself) and the S3 didn't have a good avarage gait-length for me yet. It consistently measured a shorter walking-distance that it actually was.)

 

After reading on the fora how the location services worked on the S3, with and without a bluetooth connection with my phone (iPhone 6S, by the way), I started testing option 2). I switched off the bluetooth connection with my phone by switching on the airplane mode (swipe down on the default watch-screen and tap the little airplane) and started a walking-training. For this case to work correctly, the S3 needed to receive the GPS-information on its own. That didn't work at all. Whatever I tried, I didn't get a GPS-reading. It kept 'determining position', without finding it. Often I got the message that location could't be found, please move to an open area' (or something similar), although I was outside, under a clear blue sky.

 

I also downloaded the 'Quick GPS position' app on the S3. An app to show you your latitude and longitue coordinates, and nothing more. With this app, it was clear that a GPS-reading was not possible. It kept saying 'aquiring postion...', but didn't find one.

 

My conclusion was that the GPS-module/function of the Gear S3 must be broken. So then I accepted the fact that I needed to walk the 'Samsung service route'. I called Samsung and after walking the 'support scripts', the conclusion was that the S3 needed a warranty repair. I got a web-link for reporting my faulty S3 and starting a service request. It was all Dutch, so it probably works differently in other countries, but just to show the link:

 

https://samsung.drmobile.nl/sam_nl/device/

 

I reported my S3, the faulty GPS, uploaded my receipt and started to wait for the all free pick-up-and-return-service to happen. From that moment on, I was kept informed perfectly about the status of the transports and repair of my S3. They came to pick it up on a Wednesday evening (small cost for me, but I didn't need to take a day off from work for that). The following Friday, the bell rang on 8:30am. And there it was, my own S3, with a repaired GPS ('board-swap', the receipt said).

 

After several test-walks without a bluetooth connection with my phone, my conclusion is that it works perfectly now. It registers my location, keeps track of my route, everything!

 

I hope I have helped other people by telling my story so that they can skip all the Internet-searching, uncertainties about how it should work and quickly draw the right conclusions about whether the Gear S3 needs a GPS-repair or not.

 

Good luck!

 

Peter

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63 REPLIES 63
KellyM
Helping Hand
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Hello and welcome, Kurkoko!

 

Are you still having trouble with this? Where are you based?

 

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CraigE
Journeyman
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Hi Kurkoko,

 

You are not alone with this issue, as I have the same problem, as well as a growing number of disgruntled owners experiencing this issue. If you search Samsung Gear S3 gps not working on Youtube there is a good review of this issue, and how to test if you have this apparently common problem (update video also posted). 

 

If you read the posted comments you will see the growing number of people with this issue, and others now changing their mind to buy one.

 

I contacted Samsung Customer Care and only got back a reply as to how it should work, but they ignored my issue and didn't respond with a resolution.

 

I'm sorry I bought mine now, as it looks like another Samsung faulty product launch. I hope I can get a better response from Samsung on this issue and when it will be fixed, but I have tried ringing Samsung Australia Head Office 15 times already today, and nobody answering.

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EmmaS
Pathfinder
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 Hey CraigE, thanks for posting!

 

Where are you based? 

 

EmmaS

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CraigE
Journeyman
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Hi EmmaS,

 

I am un Australia, and I have also replied to your email with more details, including links to Youtube videos outlining the issue I, and apparently many others, are experiencing with this not working.

 

I tried rining Samsung Australia Head Office at least 20 time yesterday, and nobody answers, so between this and a very poor replie from DarylS @ Samsung Customer Care (only told me how it shold work, and didn't bother addressing the issue), it appears Samsung do not really care about theirs customers issues with Samsung products..

 

Regards,

 

Craig 

JessL
Voyager
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We care for all our customers around the world, in this instance you would have to speak to Samsung Australia as we are only able to advise on UK products. 

 

Let the Community know how you get on! :smileyhappy:

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CraigE
Journeyman
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Hi JessL,

 

Thanks for your reply, but you obviously have not read any of my posts.

 

I contacted their Customer Care via email and got no help, as they only told me how it should work, but ignored addressing the problem I advised them of.

 

I then rang the Australian Customer Care line and they were no help but just suggested I send it off for repair, but on a new product I shouldn't have to do, and if you read any of the comments on the Youtube posts many others have swapped new devices at store of purchase and they still don't work. I want a new product that works, which I paid goof money for, not a patched up one.

 

I then tried ringing Samsung Australia's Head Office at least 20 times, and nobody answers. Yes it was the right number, and they didn't even have a message setvice to leave my details for a call back. Funny, a company that makes mobile phones have not heard of voicemail.

 

I think the above efforts constitute trying to contact Samsung Australia, so this to me is pretty poor service. This will now only leave me the option of gping to the Australian Department of Fair Trading and the media outlets to try and get a reply and actions.

 

Regards,

 

Craig 


https://youtu.be/CxcR2FuWdro


https://youtu.be/bivRNprbkcY

 

UPDATE;

This does not appear to be isolated to UK, so Samsung needs to review this globally. 

 

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Wearable-Tech/Gear-S3-Frontier-GPS-Glonass-functions/td-p/51675

 

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Wearable-Tech/Gear-S3-GPS-not-tracking-my-acitivities/td-p/50988