Samsung Galaxy Devices can't use geolocation.getCurrentPosition

Question

OK, so I've been looking for an adequate response to this issue for quite some time. I have a web application that uses navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition to get a user's position.

The native browser on the Samsung Galaxy devices nearly always have problems with the getCurrentPosition code. I have tried all kinds of variations of this code with callbacks and timeouts, but its always the same issue. Plenty of people have documented this issue, and some indicate that restarting the device will work (sometimes restarting does work, but not always - and an alert telling users to restart their device seems beyond rediculous).

Has anyone figured out a surefire way to use getCurrentPosition to work on a Samsung Galaxy Device? Here's what I'm working with...

<script>

$(document).ready(function(){

if( navigator.geolocation ) {
    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition( success, fail );
}

else {
     alert("Sorry, your browser does not support geolocation services.");
}

function success(position) {

    window.location = "mobile_set_coordinates.php?user_lat=" + position.coords.latitude + 
    "&user_lon=" + position.coords.longitude + "&accuracy=" + position.coords.accuracy;
}

function fail() {
    // Could not obtain location
}

});

</script>

Also, here's a link to one of the discussions regarding the issue: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/phonegap/ESrHAjFHgFU

Nothing wrong with your code. Problem also exists on galaxy note and note 2. — George Filippakos, Oct 26 '13 at 22:05

score 22 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 13 '13 at 21:45

22

I got exactly the same problem as you have few weeks ago. I tried to research about 2 weeks on the internet, look into all solutions that I can find. After all, I found out that:

If Google Maps has never been open on your target phone, this function does not work.
Reset your GPS state, then restart your phone. It might help.
If step 2 does not work, reset the state of the GPS, turn on get Time Zone automatically on Date Time setting, then restart your phone.

According to my knowledge, there is nothing wrong with the code. In fact, my code is nearly the same as yours. It happens not only on Galaxy devices but also on some HTC. I faced with this problem on Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note 2, HTC Nexus One, HTC One X and HTC Incredible S. I think it should be the problem between the Android devices and the competition of the code somehow.

Cheers,

answered Aug 13 '13 at 21:45

Long Dao

1,341
4
15
33

Hi MaiLong, I am currently creating an app that uses geolocation. Indeed the geolocation can't be used if the Google Maps haven't be open on the phone. Is there a way to detect if the Google Maps has been used already? Thanks. – Jeongbebs Jun 18 '14 at 02:11
Well, normally I just open the Google Maps app. If it is the first time, a welcome screen will display. My suggestion is that try to open Google Maps once from your app when user uses it in the first time. Cheers, – Long Dao Jun 27 '14 at 02:24
open google map works for me . in my situation, I'm in China, the google service is blocked, so I open VPN, then open the google map, then open the webview I'm working. It worked perfect. – Ninja Feb 17 '16 at 07:47

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 12 '13 at 15:37

I had something very similar happen to me. The GPS would work fine on every other device but it would error out on Galaxy devices.

What I found out is that it can take upwards of 10 seconds to get a GPS location on these devices. I also had to turn enabledHighAccuracy to false. Here is my code.

        if (navigator.geolocation) {
            navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
                function(position) {
                    // success!
                },
                function() {
                    // failed to get a GPS location before timeout!
                }, {
                    enableHighAccuracy: false,
                    timeout: 10000,
                    maximumAge: 10000
                });
        } else {
            // no support for geolocation
        }

Hope this helps!

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 14 '14 at 01:45

I have a Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus GT-S7580. The geolocation on my website was not working with this device. Earlier it had work with a Asus surfpad, and every setting open for access to and from Internet. As soon as I allowed not only mobile data access to my place, but also wifi network and the Google access and collection of data connected to this setting, it started to work. In this case it was only that setting.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 07:45

I had the same problem on my Galaxy GT-N8013 tablet, the getCurrentPosition seems not working on android but it does work on ios. To fix the issue, first I increased the timeout. Second, open google map app. Third, restart the tablet. It works after that.

$cordovaGeolocation.getCurrentPosition({timeout: 30000, enableHighAccuracy: false})

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 11 '16 at 13:27

1

For me, Chrome appears to be the problem - the browser doesn't allow insecure origins like HTTP. Should be solved by transferring the data over HTTPS (see Chromium). Worked on my Galaxy S7 Edge when trying in an alternate browser.

answered May 11 '16 at 13:27

jtcrow

53
9

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 29 '21 at 13:35

0

For me, it was just a security problem, in local host getCurrentPosition does not work but on GitHub page it does !

answered Sep 29 '21 at 13:35

Hamza Dahmani

1
2

Samsung Galaxy Devices can't use geolocation.getCurrentPosition

6 Answers6

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