1 Solution
I recently added Where'sMyDroid from the marketplace (helps locate missing phone, gives GPS location of lost phone). After that, my GPS stopped working. Using the Android Power widget, I was able to turn it back on but when I go to Location & Security>My Location, only the E911 is shown in bold. The other three choices ("Google Location Services," Standalone GPS Services," and "VZW Location Services") are all checked in their green boxes but all three are grayed out leaving me unable to check or uncheck any one of them. Anyone else encountered this? May or may not be related at all to Where'sMyDroid...just that was the last thing that changed before I noticed the problem. Uninstalling that ap doesn't do it, either.
Solved! Go to Correct Answer
EUREKA! At the risk of advertising my own ignorance and/or stupidity, I got just enough help on my fourth or fifth call to Verizon to discover the problem. In the SETTINGS>LOCATION & SECURITY area where the three GPS service choices have been blacked out since installation of the Where'sMyDroid ap, there is a MESSAGE RESTRICTION LOCK to "set up restriction lock." Somehow, that was re-set to on or ENABLE RESTRICTION LOCK, probably when Where'sMyDroid was installed. Among the things it locks (and then grays out) are all selections for GPS location, along with restruictions on in/out calls and messages. Apparently, this is to protect the owner if the phone is somehow stolen? In any event, once I entered my Google password, I was able to uncheck the ENABLE RESTRICTION LOCK box and, voila, back came my ability to choose any of the three GPS settings!
Thanks to all who offered help, especially Cody who was very patient!
It looks like the app uses Fine GPS service which my understanding is all three options are required.
If you have the free app, delete it and see if the options re-appear Did not see your last sentence until now
Nope, deleted it entirely and still the same result...all are still grayed out now, even without the ap.
Try booting into SAFE MODE and check it ... If still unable to toggle them off/on, boot into System menu & WIPE SYSTEM CACHE ..
Safe Mode:
- Power Off
- Press & Hold the MENU button
- Power up - but keep holding MENU down
1-2 mins later should say SAFE MODE in lower left corner .. Check your settings. To get out of SAFE MODE, power off/on as usual.
Booted into SAFE MODE, same result...still cannot select any of the three. Not sure how to boot into System menu to WIPE SYSTEM CACHE as you suggested???
To get to the SYSTEM MENU :
- Power OFF
- Press & HOLD the HOME button (2nd button from left)
- Power up - continue to hold HOME
You'll see a triangle with the droid guy inside. Release the HOME button. Press BOTH the up/down vol. controls at the same time and you should see a Menu pop up ... use the down arrow to scroll through choices. Select WIPE SYSTEM CACHE WIPE CACHE PARTITION.. and press the Power button to select it .. When complete, the option should be highlighted to REBOOT ... press Power button to select that .. Check your settings again.
There is no WIPE SYSTEM CACHE choice. I do have WIPE CACHE PARTITION. Is that it? What will that do?
yes, that's it .. (sorry - I don't have my phone in front of me)
And once highlighted, which button do I press to select that option? Also, this won't erase anything I'll later wish I still had, will it?
per above, press the POWER button once to select a Menu item ..
No, it will not delete any data of yours - it just clears the Cache.
Sorry, Cody, I missed that. (I KNEW I should have paid more attention in those reading classes! <grin>) Anyway, cache now cleared but result still the same, all three still grayed out. Full system reset might fix it but I don't want to lose all the data associated with aps I have loaded. When I lose them in a system reset and then reload them, I'll not have the past archive history that I've previously created in the original download, right? Suggestions?
ugh ... yea, a Factory Reset is pretty painful ... If you do the process using MENU / SETTINGS / Privacy / Factory Data Reset, you'll have the option to NOT format your SD Card -- which is where you have your personal data stored. (edit: in your case, select "Automatic Restore" - I assume you uninstalled that bad App at this point.) And if you do this Factory Reset, when prompted, do NOT format your card - or just make sure you copy everything you need from it before starting. Also, if it were me, I would take some screen snapshots from MARKET of which (free) APPS you have installed. In MY experience, MARKET doesn't always remember what you installed so won't automatically download everything again after the Factory reset. of course you will have to set everything back up again when done ... Another option is to install the free APP called "App List Backup" ... you run it and select ALL for your App list - it creates a local file on your SD Card called /Applistbackup/apps .. As long as you don't reformat the card, you just re-download the app (App List Backup) after the Factory Reset, run it again, and click on RESTORE -- it will supposedly Restore all the Apps in the file ... I have never run the Restore so not sure what to expect..
Good luck ... very strange though that you're having this problem. Wish I had something else to suggest.
All good ideas and I certainly thank you for the help. Maybe somebody else has experienced this, too, altho the "bad ap" (Where'sMyDroid) has five stars and nobody reports this problem with their phone. Strange indeed.
You're welcome ... I use "LOOKOUT" antivirus which has the MISSING DEVICE ability .. I also have "ANDROID LOST" installed so I can wipe the phone remotely.
not everybody is having the problem, you're the 1st one i've heard with your problem.
EUREKA! At the risk of advertising my own ignorance and/or stupidity, I got just enough help on my fourth or fifth call to Verizon to discover the problem. In the SETTINGS>LOCATION & SECURITY area where the three GPS service choices have been blacked out since installation of the Where'sMyDroid ap, there is a MESSAGE RESTRICTION LOCK to "set up restriction lock." Somehow, that was re-set to on or ENABLE RESTRICTION LOCK, probably when Where'sMyDroid was installed. Among the things it locks (and then grays out) are all selections for GPS location, along with restruictions on in/out calls and messages. Apparently, this is to protect the owner if the phone is somehow stolen? In any event, once I entered my Google password, I was able to uncheck the ENABLE RESTRICTION LOCK box and, voila, back came my ability to choose any of the three GPS settings!
Thanks to all who offered help, especially Cody who was very patient!
Yea ! Glad you were able to get that figured out - and shared the "fix" with us ...
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