Unreliable and imprecise location determination with and without Play Services

coffee

I am experiencing major issues with location determination in
buildings and trains/cars, where it is not possible to get a location at all, even after waiting.
When being outside, it takes a little time for determination, but it works precisely, unless I am near larger buildings.

I have Google Play Services installed and configured as described in the GOS usage guide,
but regardless of enabling or disabling "Reroute location requests to OS APIs" and resolving the potential issues the problem remains (also across restarts).

I have tried Google Maps, OSMand, GPSTest and more on a Pixel 4a and two Pixel 6, but they all fail in the situations described above.
Mobile services and WiFi networks are available.
Other mobiles and my mobiles with stock Android do not suffer from those issues, only with GOS installed (I have this problem already for a long time).

I hope someone can help me, because I love GOS, but its unreliable location determination is a rather large pain point...

unwat

coffee

If you want to use Google's geolocation service instead, you can disable the "Reroute location requests to OS APIs" toggle and manually grant "Allow all the time" Location access to Google Play services. For it to be fully functional, you also need to use "Google Location Accuracy" link to access the Google Play services menu for opting into their network location service.

(from the website)

Could be many things. Have you:

toggled on Settings > Apps > Sandboxed Google Play > Google Location Accuracy > Improve Location Accuracy?
given Google Play Services access to location all the time?
granted Google Play Services unrestricted battery usage? (I think it does this by default now)
Google Play Services has access to network?
granted Google Play Services access to nearby devices?
turned on Settings > Location > Location Services > Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning?

Eirikr70

In the network settings, have you defined a psds server ?

coffee

Eirikr70 I left it at the default on the P6s, but on the 4a this config is not present

coffee

unwat Yes, all those configurations are set and the GOS sandboxed play services UI does not show any potential issues.

applesbana

On a semi related note, is there any optimization to be done for improving location performance if you don’t use google play services?

MetropleX

applesbana checking to see if your carrier supports SUPL via mobile data, this is because certain APN configurations allow for SUPL (Secure User Plane Location) protocol such as in this example APN config:

<apn carrier="CarrierXYZ"
mcc="123"
mnc="123"
apn="carrierxyz"
type="default,supl,mms,ims,cbs"
mmsc="http://mms.carrierxyz.com"
mmsproxy="0.0.0.0"
mmsport="80"
bearer_bitmask="4|5|6|7|8|12"
/>

This service is separate from PSDS but also provides another channel for A-GPS data to be gained.
They do the same but by different means, one comes from the carrier the other comes from the source listed under Network settings as mentioned above.

Improved Indoor Location Accuracy addresses the special requirements arising from indoor location issues. An example of such is the support for floor level information as well as the use of relative instead of global coordinates.

coffee

MetropleX How can I obtain this information?

unwat

coffee

I'm not MetropleX, but maybe I can answer the question for them...

You can find that here, under the owner profile: Settings > Network & internet > SIMs > Access Point Names

Obviously, different mobile networks will be different, but mine has two APNs, one labeled "internet" and one labeled "mms". On my phone, SUPL is defined in the "internet" APN. For example, under "APN type" mine says default,supl,hipri.

MetropleX

unwat thanks Unwat appreciate that.

coffee

unwat Thanks ;)

I only have one APN ("internet") which
APN type is default,mms,supl.

Should I try resetting the APNs to default? (edit: had no effect)

unwat

coffee

No. supl should help make geolocation faster, which is why MetropleX was asking.

Guess it's back to the drawing board to figure out what the issue is...

MetropleX

Honestly if you are just using GNSS without any sort of network location AGPS method, then the issues you describe are drawbacks of the technology itself not the OS.

Just how GPS works needing line of sight to the sky and internal working is dependent on the building its material make up and density of surrounding buildings too, it cannot be mitigated without a network based location solution, which GrapheneOS doesnt supply and requires sandboxed play services for.

If using network location have you toggled SETTINGS>LOCATION>LOCATION SERVICES to on for both wifi and bluetooth?

coffee

MetropleX I do use Google Play Services and have them enabled.
However, the system, including Play Services, apparently does not use network-based location determination.

coffee

Could it be that my network carrier provides bad or not-standard-compliant information / supl so network location positioning does not work properly for me?
My network carrier I am using is not popular, so I guess the combination of my carrier, Pixels and GOS might be rare.

mixednuts

coffee not sure if you've given up on GrapheneOS, but try enabling location permission all the time for play services. This helps me immensely when in area where I can't seem to get decent location services working