I see the locations on google maps of a few people when their phones are
on, which is almost all the time. One android, one iPhone/Verizon.
Both seem to have dropouts (iPhone person has been in the same place on
the freeway for 14 hours, for instance). Delays can be from 10 minutes
to 21 hours. The iPhone person moves around quite a bit for a week or
so at a time, but dropouts occur many times per day. Both phones also
have a data plan and are generally in civilized areas with cell service.

Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
something completely different?

--
Cheers, Bev
Cthulhu for President in 2024. Why vote for a lesser evil?

On 01/01/2023 22:57, The Real Bev wrote:
> I see the locations on google maps of a few people when their phones are
> on, which is almost all the time. One android, one iPhone/Verizon.
> Both seem to have dropouts (iPhone person has been in the same place on
> the freeway for 14 hours, for instance). Delays can be from 10 minutes
> to 21 hours. The iPhone person moves around quite a bit for a week or
> so at a time, but dropouts occur many times per day. Both phones also
> have a data plan and are generally in civilized areas with cell service.
>
> Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
> something completely different?

My first guess is that the phone's software will only turn on GPS when is
required - this to conserve battery. Freeway - perhaps the location of the
phone in the vehicle prevented a sufficiently good GPS signal.

On more recent phones, you could enable access to the Galileo and GLONASS
constellations for better coverage.
--
Cheers,
David
Web: https://www.satsignal.eu

The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
> I see the locations on google maps of a few people when their phones are
> on, which is almost all the time. One android, one iPhone/Verizon.
> Both seem to have dropouts (iPhone person has been in the same place on
> the freeway for 14 hours, for instance). Delays can be from 10 minutes
> to 21 hours. The iPhone person moves around quite a bit for a week or
> so at a time, but dropouts occur many times per day. Both phones also
> have a data plan and are generally in civilized areas with cell service.
>
> Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
> something completely different?

Can't speak for the android phone, but in ios you can set google maps to
only use the location when in the app. Set google to always use location
and make sure the app is active every now and again, to avoid it sleeping,
and it should work as expected.

On 1/2/23 1:49 AM, Chris wrote:
> The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I see the locations on google maps of a few people when their phones are
>> on, which is almost all the time. One android, one iPhone/Verizon.
>> Both seem to have dropouts (iPhone person has been in the same place on
>> the freeway for 14 hours, for instance). Delays can be from 10 minutes
>> to 21 hours. The iPhone person moves around quite a bit for a week or
>> so at a time, but dropouts occur many times per day. Both phones also
>> have a data plan and are generally in civilized areas with cell service.
>>
>> Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
>> something completely different?
>
> Can't speak for the android phone, but in ios you can set google maps to
> only use the location when in the app. Set google to always use location
> and make sure the app is active every now and again, to avoid it sleeping,
> and it should work as expected.

iPhone person is impatient with settings and says that GPS is always on.
Core dump complete. Android person turns GPS on when traveling.
Second core dump complete. I generally keep my phone in airplane mode
unless I think somebody might want to call me on it -- an unlikely event
-- and then I turn everything including GPS on; in this case, google
maps always show me in the correct location.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?" --Juvenal

On 1/1/2023 2:57 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
> I see the locations on google maps of a few people when their phones are
> on, which is almost all the time.  One android, one iPhone/Verizon. Both
> seem to have dropouts (iPhone person has been in the same place on the
> freeway for 14 hours, for instance).   Delays can be from 10 minutes to
> 21 hours.  The iPhone person moves around quite a bit for a week or so
> at a time, but dropouts occur many times per day. Both phones also have
> a data plan and are generally in civilized areas with cell service.
>
> Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
> something completely different?

I see the same thing sometimes, though never for such a long time.

Another problem I see is when the person isn't moving but their location
jumps around by several hundred feet.

I have never figured out what causes the problem.

On 07/01/2023 02:47, sms wrote:
> I see the same thing sometimes, though never for such a long time.
>
> Another problem I see is when the person isn't moving but their location
> jumps around by several hundred feet.
>
> I have never figured out what causes the problem.

That's usually the result of a poor GPS signal. I've seen that on older
devices, but less frequently on newer, more sensitive, GPS receivers,
especially if the newer constellations like Galileo and GLONASS are enabled.
Generally, the more satellites the better.

--
Cheers,
David
Web: https://www.satsignal.eu

Chris wrote:

>> Is this the fault of the phone(s) or the cell system or google or
>> something completely different?
>
> Can't speak for the android phone, but in ios you can set google maps to
> only use the location when in the app. Set google to always use location
> and make sure the app is active every now and again, to avoid it sleeping,
> and it should work as expected.

Here is a situation where the iPhone/iPad is far more private than Android.
For Android, Google added "more hooks" into your privacy than on iOS.

It needs to be said (again) to NEVER use the Android Google Maps to turn
location on (if location privacy is of any concern to the user that is).

If privacy is of a concern, you MUST manually turn location services on.
Pull down the tiles, and press the droplet (it's that easy to do manually)

If you are wondering why I said that, just look up what this Activity does.
com.google.android.gms.location.settings.LocationAccuracyActivity

Note that's a special "google only" activity, which is DIFFERENT from the
activity that is activated when you simply turn location on by yourself.

sms wrote:

> I see the same thing sometimes, though never for such a long time.
>
> Another problem I see is when the person isn't moving but their location
> jumps around by several hundred feet.
>
> I have never figured out what causes the problem.

<https://play.google.com/store/search?q=mock%20location%20spoof&c=apps>

David Taylor wrote:

> especially if the newer constellations like Galileo and GLONASS are enabled.

First, allow me the luxury of admitting I know nothing of Galileo & GLONASS
before I attempt to implement your purposefully helpful suggestion above.

You've mentioned enabling Galileo and GLONASS twice in this thread, where
the first time you noted it, I wondered _how_ to set that up and whether it
would work for people in the USA & now the second time, I'll _look_ it up.

Generally when I suggest a setting, I tell people _how_ to set it, so I'll
see if I can tell people how to set it up when I successfully do it myself.

Having absolutely _zero_ experience (or even knowledge) of Galileo or
GLONASS, the first thing I did was run the canonical FOSS SatStat app.
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.vonglasow.michael.satstat/>
<https://mvglasow.gitlab.io/satstat/>
SatStat showed "GPS" & "GLONASS" satellites, but not Galileo satellites.

The next FOSS app I ran on my Samsung Galaxy A32-5G (SM-A326U) was GPSTest.
<https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest>
<https://f-droid.org/packages/com.android.gpstest.osmdroid/>
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.gpstest>
Whose blurb says it supports:
*GPS* (USA Navstar)
*GLONASS* (Russia)
*QZSS* (Japan)
*BeiDou/COMPASS* (China)
*Galileo* (European Union)
Various satellite-based augmentation systems SBAS
(e.g., GAGAN, Anik F1, Galaxy 15, Inmarsat 3-F2, Inmarsat 4-F3, SES-5)

GPStest showed American flags and Russian flags & GPStest reported
Satellite-based Augmentation System (SBAS) satellites not available.