Vodafone just can’t seem to catch a break. If it’s not an ongoing campaign against the quality of their network, it’s the fact that the GPS functionality seems to be playing up on one of the best Android phones on the market, the Samsung Galaxy S II.
According to complaints on multiple online forums, from Vodafone itself to Whirlpool, the flagship handset struggles to get a lock on your GPS location, and in many cases gets a lock multiple kilometres away from where you actually are.
The problem seems to lie in a faulty GPS configuration file distributed by Vodafone globally – the problem also appears to occur for overseas customers as well.
Vodafone has acknowledged the issue in the UK, claiming that it is working with Samsung on a fix, although when that will actually arrive is anybody’s guess. Especially in Australia, where it’s likely the update will need to be customised for the Aussie network.
Have you had problems with GPS using a Vodafone Galaxy S II? Tell us about it below.
[Thanks Joe!]
ric
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:19 AMyeap…having this exact problem. I was in darling point (Sydney) and my location appeared to be in the middle of the harbour.
Adam
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:28 AMSo if its a buggy file distributed by Vodafone. Would loading a custom ROM fix this issue?
Peter
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 2:39 PMYes
Johnny P
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:58 AMI would have thought the problem would have been in the phone and/or GPS software rather than anything Vodafone have done. That being said I have noticed the same problem but not to the tune of a few km’s thats crazy. Look forward to the update. Maybe it will come with 2.3.5
JohnN
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:59 AMI had the same issues when i was on firmware ver. 2.3.3 however since i upgraded to ver 2.3.4 gps lock is very quick.
mike
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:00 AMLoaded a custom ROM (lightning) from day one. Never looked back.
BenDTU
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:11 AMI really can’t remember the last time I heard a Vodafone story that wasn’t negative.
Glenn Mortimer
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:17 AMmy GPS is fine with my vodafone SGS2 and i use the GPS every 2nd day at least.
as far as vodafone’s network goes, 99% of the problems i had with them have been fixed by the tower upgrades. i now have more friends telling me of issues with optus than voda.
Jack
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:23 AMMy colleagues have SGS2, but they are with Optus and they don’t have this issue.
As mentioned by this post, the issue is due to a config file provided by Vodafone. I came across the contents of the config file on the internet and from what I read it is just a case of changing the location, 2 seconds job and it works.
But knowing its vodafone, I wouldn’t hold my breath to provide an update in the next few months.
light487
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:36 AMIndeed. it takes Voda far too long to release OS updates for their handsets. Even the most basic of fixes takes them weeks, if not months, to get a patch out… whether the patch is made available from Samsung or not is irrelevant because Voda will then test and redesign it for a few weeks first.
Molokov
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:29 AMI have a HTC Desire HD on 3. Ever since I updated to Gingerbread (via a push from 3, not a custom download), my GPS has not been able to lock onto satellites at all. And for some weird reason, Adelaide is no longer a valid timezone for automatic time setting (only Sydney, Darwin and Perth).
Anyone else see that?
Awnshegh
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:38 AMA colleague at work just wne tdown to the local VF store and got a new sim card. Fixed the issue right up. He spent the last 20 minutes wandring around Homebush with it on – not an issue.
light487
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 11:05 AMWhen I first got my SGSII, the GPS was fine.. I remember playing around with it.. but since their most recent update I have noticed that it takes a very long time (10+ minutes) to get a lock IF it gets one at all and then it is not really the correct position. It’s possible that the config file was introduced in with that update, which was “fully tested for a couple of months” by Voda…
Anonymouse
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 11:08 AMIf you’ve rooted your phone, download GPS Aids. It will fix your GPS up no worries.
ECKoBASE
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 12:17 PMI have installed Cyanogenmod 7 on my SGS2, When travelling through town in Melbourne i have no issues with the GPS apart from being in static locations (eg. Starting Trip & Stop signs) it will jump to another location but it seems to be okay I have done updates on the Navigon application which comes free with Samsung SGS2! Ive also turned off getting location from networks (this was to save battery power) which has helped heaps with my battery life and also it might have fixed this buggy issue of poor gps but I could be wrong
Tuan Duy
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 2:11 PMMy Vodafone GSII takes ages to get a lock on GPS. Vert frustrating, especially when I’m on the road knowing nowhere to go.
DENAz
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 6:13 PMNo probs for me with Telstra, went for a nice trip down south using the GPS the whole time, never had any issues.
Lincoln
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 8:37 PMI have this issue on galaxy S2. Worked fine until about 2 weeks ago.
Simon
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 11:32 PMFlashed with CM7 nightly in the first 30 minutes of opening. I have never had a GPS problem with this ROM. I hate Vodafone CSR but service is actually pretty good for me in Melbourne.