If you see the label “Waiting GPS” while recording of a track at the bottom status bar (or in the notification) – it means there is no satellite signal for some reason, and this interferes with the recording of the track. Below you will find some tips to help you solve this problem.

1. First, it’s worth checking the basic things:

• Geolocation is enabled in device settings.
• The app has permission to access geolocation.
• Just in case, it is worth checking you have the correct date, time and time zone set in the system – this can also affect communication with satellites.

2. Expand the lower status bar by tapping on it. When expanded, the number of visible satellites is displayed there. When there is no signal, something like 0/10 is displayed – this means that the sensor sees 10 satellites, but cannot connect to any of them. In order to determine the location by satellites (“get the fix”), you need to connect to at least 4-5 satellites (that is, something like 4/10 will be displayed in the status). Poor gps signal reception usually happens due to the fact that the device does not see satellites well, for example, when you are inside a building. Weather conditions might also affect the quality of gps reception. Turning the device on and off can help to get the fix.

3. If you cannot catch the fix for a long time – try to reset the A-GPS data: to do this, open Geo Tracker > Main Menu > Settings > Record Settings and select “Reload A-GPS Data”. After this, it may take several minutes for the device to initially determine the location, especially if you are in an area without network coverage. A-GPS data is actually an indication to the device of the approximate locations of satellites, updated from the network. If there is no network, the gps sensor searches for satellites locations on its own, so it may take longer.

4. If none of the above helps, try installing the GPS Test or GPS Status & Toolbox app and get the fix using them. After this, open Geo Tracker again – it should see the satellites now. Also please note, Geo Tracker uses only data from satellites to record tracks, as this is the most accurate source of coordinates. Other applications may use less accurate data to get coordinates, such as cell towers and wi-fi networks – therefore, there may be a situation when Geo Tracker cannot record a track, while in Google Maps, for example, the location is displayed. For this reason, I recommend checking the data with the gps diagnostic apps mentioned above.

5. If you started recording a track, saw “Recording” in the status, minimized the application and after a while you see “Waiting for GPS” in the notification – most likely, the matter is in the power consumption settings of your device. Almost all modern devices (especially Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo) optimize the use of the battery by applications in the background, which may interfere with the correct operation of Geo Tracker. To prevent this, you need to disable battery optimization and power saving mode in system settings. Different manufacturers have a different set of settings for this, instructions for different manufacturers can be found here.
Also, in Geo Tracker itself, it is recommended to open settings > record settings and turn on the toggle “Ignore battery optimisations”. For example on Samsung, it is enough to turn on this toggle and disable the power saving mode in the system-wide settings.