Watch seems to be plagued with problems resolving GPS fix when not tethered to a phone. I went out for a run, without my phone and it took the watch close to 10 minutes to get a GPS Fix. This severely limits the functionality of the "Outdoor/Fitness" aspect of the watch.
My Galaxy Watch 4 classic cannot lock to GPS. I've tried with different apps (Samsung Health, google maps, GPS fix, etc.), granted all the permissions, reset my watch and phone (Samsung Note 20 Ultra), update, etc. I am highly suspicious that it is a bug as it happened after the update. Many complain about the same problem on the internet. Please investigate and help us. Otherwise, you will observe many loyal customers leaving Samsung. I am already considering it. Thank you!
Same here, after last update Samsung Health does not get the GPS fix at all - green GPS indicator blinking all the time. Tested outdoors several times, some trips over 10 miles and at the endbitbshoes 0mi...
Even if Compass app got GPS fix seconds ago. Compass app works still fine. GNSS app lost its functionality after last update (no satellites even visible, it worked fine previously). GPS Fix app does not work as well. On the other hand GPS Coordinates app works fine. GPS Altitude app works also, Google Maps works. (all three apps updated at store in last month).
Strange...apparently some libraries or apis have changed in Wear OS with last update and legacy gps apps (updated before March 2023) do not work anymore.
No Watch/Samsung Health update helps, neither all permissions or factory reset (tried repetedly)...
I've done a few more runs now, and confirmed my previous observation:
Watch5 GPS tracking is perfectly fine in Airplane mode.
(Perfect as in, my 9.3 km run clocked in at 9.32 km, and tracking accuracy was detailed enough to even show that one spot where I stepped behind a tree for a minute. That was in a thick forest, and in the literal middle of a thunderstorm too.)
As soon as the radios (LTE, BT, WIFI) are on, GPS tracking becomes very inaccurate as seen in the various reports here.
Since this used to be working with earlier releases of the firmware and the apps, I am now suspecting that some recent software update up the "Assisted GPS" algorithm (where GPS position is supposed to be augmented by triangulating known WiFi and Cell transmitters).
No 3rd party apps were used. Samsung Health, plain Run tracker, no extras.
How I start: Put the watch into Airplane mode, pull up the Exercise tile, hit "More", dial to "Run", wait for GPS and heart rate symbols to stop blinking, and start.
I finally got it after an extremely frustrating trials and errors process. First, I installed Wear GPS Fix. Then I restarted the watch. Then I removed it from my wrist and held it in my hand, I sat outside making sure there were no trees nor any clouds. I started Wear GPS Fix making sure to be as motionless as possible (don't even try to move your arm, you'll loose connection) and I waited for 5 minutes. It's either a GPS antenna problem or it's a bug in WearOS. Maybe the antenna isn't bulky enough. My Garmin always picked GPS within 1 minutes even under a big snow storm with heavy clouds and trees.
No matter what I tried, I can't get a GPS fix on my Galaxy Watch 5 pro. After 50 minutes of walking, the green location icon was still flashing, indicating that it was searching for satellite. I followed those all those troubleshooting steps here: GPS not working properly on Samsung Galaxy Watch | Samsung LEVANT but it didn't fix anything. To make it worse, the watch won't grab its location data from my phone which has a perfectly working gps. I already made sure to set all location permissions I could think of, to Allowed. No matter what I do, I don't have any map of my activity in Samsung Health. Let's just say I'm extremely disappointed and I don't think I will ever get another Samsung watch. Especially since the "Pro" version was advertised as something with active people in mind. The only thing I could find when I googled this problem is that: many users started to get these same issues after the April update. It looks like this update f@cked up the gps sensor but, no new updates has been sent since April. Four months of waiting and still no solution...
I have the same exact issue that came with the last update. I sent the watch in to samsung and they told me they needed to replace the lcd screen that it was broken. I told them to just send it back and the screen is fine but gps still not working
