Droid 3 - Flaky GPS, 3G coverage, cell reception

[ab20852]

 Hello, 

Has any other users noticed the Droid 3's GPS REALLY SUCKS!  I upgraded from a Droid 1 which occasionally needed a battery pull in order for the GPS to locate me, but with the Droid 3 - I always have to pull my battery for 10 seconds in order to  use any type of location service - such has Google Maps, Navigation, Geo Tagging (Camera), Web Browser (use my location). 

My running app CardioTrainer is pretty much useless with this phone, if I have it in my pocket - no GPS reception,  where as my Droid 1 worked perfectly fine. 

I've used an app called GPS Status in order to reset the GPS state (on both Droid 1 and Droid 3) - which doesn't resolve anything, and unless I've recently pulled the battery - it will never acquire GPS signal. 

Speaking of crappy GPS Signal coverage - If I'm driving in my car and I close my sunroof visor - NO GPS signal. I mean COME ON seriously! 

This is actually my 2nd droid 3 - I returned my brand new one for a recertified hoping it would be better.  Well I was wrong. Also I've watched my 3G turn to 1x whenever I'm browsing.  This also wasn't resolved with my used replacement.  My cell phone reception constantly? jumps between 1bar to 3bars, NEVER 4 bars.  That was the same behavior with my old "new" phone and my new "used" phone.  With that said, I've dropped at least 3 calls now, whereas my Droid 1 NEVER dropped a single call.

I live in MD work in VA, both areas with extensive VWZ coverage.   I travel a fair amount for work, my GPS was absolutely did not work in Seattle Wa, nor did it work in Palms Spring Ca.  Also in Palms Spring I my coverage was so bad, I dropped calls and had voicemails randomly showing up. 

Basically I hate this phone so much because of the spotty cell reception, and garbage GPS and data service.  I'm tempted to reactive my Droid 1 and use this stupid Droid 3 as an expensive paper weight to remind me how far Motorola has diverged from making quality products.

[mgerbasio1]

I have a Droid X and recently purchased the D3. Google Navigator didn't work well for me. I didn't get a message saying GPS signal lost but the blue circle around my location would frequently get larger and smaller during a trip. The GPS would put me on a nearby road then try and reroute me.

The phone was in the same location I'd keep my DX. I posted a message on the Motorola forum but didn't get any responses so I figured this was not a common problem. My solution, I'm sending the D3 back for a few reasons, that's one. 

[ab20852]

I was on travel and wasn't able to send my {word filter avoidance} back... now I'm stuck with a {word filter avoidance}.

[AntonioC_VZW]

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ab20852 wrote:

 Hello, 

Has any other users noticed the Droid 3's GPS REALLY SUCKS!  I upgraded from a Droid 1 which occasionally needed a battery pull in order for the GPS to locate me, but with the Droid 3 - I always have to pull my battery for 10 seconds in order to  use any type of location service - such has Google Maps, Navigation, Geo Tagging (Camera), Web Browser (use my location). 

My running app CardioTrainer is pretty much useless with this phone, if I have it in my pocket - no GPS reception,  where as my Droid 1 worked perfectly fine. 

I've used an app called GPS Status in order to reset the GPS state (on both Droid 1 and Droid 3) - which doesn't resolve anything, and unless I've recently pulled the battery - it will never acquire GPS signal. 

Speaking of crappy GPS Signal coverage - If I'm driving in my car and I close my sunroof visor - NO GPS signal. I mean COME ON seriously! 

This is actually my 2nd droid 3 - I returned my brand new one for a recertified hoping it would be better.  Well I was wrong. Also I've watched my 3G turn to 1x whenever I'm browsing.  This also wasn't resolved with my used replacement.  My cell phone reception constantly? jumps between 1bar to 3bars, NEVER 4 bars.  That was the same behavior with my old "new" phone and my new "used" phone.  With that said, I've dropped at least 3 calls now, whereas my Droid 1 NEVER dropped a single call.

I live in MD work in VA, both areas with extensive VWZ coverage.   I travel a fair amount for work, my GPS was absolutely did not work in Seattle Wa, nor did it work in Palms Spring Ca.  Also in Palms Spring I my coverage was so bad, I dropped calls and had voicemails randomly showing up. 

Basically I hate this phone so much because of the spotty cell reception, and garbage GPS and data service.  I'm tempted to reactive my Droid 1 and use this stupid Droid 3 as an expensive paper weight to remind me how far Motorola has diverged from making quality products.

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Hi ab20852,

I understand your discontent with your phone's GPS performance. I have checked my resources and this is not a known issue with the Droid 3. Please ensure that your GPS is properly setup by touching Menu>Settings>Location & security>Google location services, then select Standalone GPS services.

For the data signal issues outlined on your message please try Disabling and Re-enabling Data service on your phone to improve data signal.

We can also work on resolving the dropped calls issue noted on your post. For this we must identify all dropped calls to identify the root cause. Please mark all dropped calls by dialing ### after each dropped call for a week, then call us back from another phone at 1-800-922-0204 and we will located the dropped calls in our system and work on a resolution for you.

You are a valued customer and our goal is to provide you with the best wireless service and resolve all your concerns. Please keep in mind that this is a peer to peer forum and while our Social Media Team monitors the forum, you can get more expedited assistance via Twitter @VZWSupport Monday to Friday 7am to 10pm and Saturday 7am to 4pm. You can always call us at the above number from 6am to 11pm CST 7 days a week.

[schwegjb]

Verizon Support,

I have experience similar GPS issue with my Droid 3 pretty much since I have received it a month or so ago.  My Droid 1 never had any sort of GPS issues at all, but using the same apps on the Droid 3 I experience no GPS service at all.  Google Maps only works because of the cell tower proximity to my work and home location.  I always see the blue circle of varying sizes around my location.  I almost never see the GPS icon in the status bar.  I will pay more attention to the battery removal that the previous poster mentioned.  That may be correlated to the few times I have seen it actually work as well.  For sure my golf apps, cardio Trainer, vehicle diagnostic app, etc are useless with the Droid 3 as those apps never seem to locate my position using GPS on the Droid 3.  I find this really strange since I rarely had an issue on the Droid 1 that I couldn't explain with overcast skies or structural interference of the building I was in.  I do have the standalone GPS services enabled by the way.

The latest frustration has started occurring this week when the phone will reset the OS constantly when the 3G connection is active.  I was using 3G all day yesterday and it reset every 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Today it was resetting more frequently up until I connected to a wifi access point.  Then the phone stopped resetting all together.  That is until I lost the wifi connection and went back to the 3G connection.  What gives?  I haven't experienced this type of issue on my Droid 1 at all and not on the Droid 3 until this week.

[schwegjb]

Good news for the GPS and running restart issue I was experiencing since 28-Aug.  The problem description at the following link

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=18460

matched my experience exactly.  Now that I have cleaned my wifi managed network from 20+ networks remembered to just 2, my phone has not restarted in over 8 hours when it was restarting at least 4 times an hour unless I was on a stable wifi connection.  Surprisingly, the GPS started to work with my other apps after this buffer issue with the wifi connections was avoided.

Strange but True.  At least Google knows how to understand their issues and communicate them.

[ab20852]

That is pretty strange.  Maybe I should run that logcat... I have 2 'remembered' wifi connections.  

I still have to physically pull my battery out for 10 seconds / turn phone back on, every time I need to use any GPS application (CardioTrainer, Google Navigation, GeoTagging a Picture)...

[ab20852]

How do I reactivate my old Droid 1?

[Ann154]

If it was on the same line, you should be able to turn off the current active phone, turn on the DROID 1 and dial *228, option 1 to program the phone to the network.

The other option is to sign into your MyVerizon account and click on the activate or switch device. Make sure you have the currently active phone turned off for this process.

[#10]

Good Morning!

Thanks to everyone for bringing this to our attention! Based on customer feedback, Motorola is investigating these concerns and will correct them in a future software update soon.  I will post more information as I get it. As always, it will be pushed to your Droid 3 over-the-air systematically.

Thank you again for your feedback and understanding!