Waze not getting a GPS fix
TL;DR: recalibrate your compass.
I’ve come across an issue for the past 10 days that Waze kept losing its GPS fix. This meant:
- constantly switching between 0 and 120 (or whatever) km/h
- constantly zooming in & out on maps (dynamic zoom level depending on speed)
- being in a field/not on the road for most of the time, or stuck to a location of many minutes ago
- often & randomly losing GPS fix (ie middle of the highway without any buildings blocking the line of sight)
- I could do a 45 minute trip with Waze never getting a GPS fix
- not knowing road issues (accidents, traffic jams ahead, speed traps, etc)
- nothing changed (no new car window, didn't move my phone location in the car, etc)
- not moving (ie parked car) didn't really improve the GPS fix
- even left my phone with Waze on in the car for 30 minutes parked (got a fix, but later that evening when driving home it started to lose its GPS fix again)
- clear Waze cache
- uninstall Waze completely
- GPS Essentials showed a fix with 3 or more GPS satellites when Waze couldn't get a fix
- I was about to find a way to reset my GPS and/or clear its cache (???)
What I did notice, however, is that in Google Maps the arrow (clicking the pin point button twice or something) was pretty much showing the opposite direction of how the car was moving (thus driving backwards at ~120km/h). This made me think, as I know the GPSes in smartphones are quite cheap and aren’t always on (to save battery – my phone is always being charged in the car though) and the phone uses the accelerometer and other sensors to “guess” current path (or rather, path changes, ie taking a turn or slowing down/accelerating).
