Owners of OnePlus devices are reporting GPS signal loss issues around the world that only seem to impact the Google-owned Waze application for Android. Reports seem to come from just about every country, although some users have indicated the app still works in the U.K. In addition to being reported from a wide assortment of locations from India to South America, user claims stretch across the OnePlus 6, OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 5, Oneplus 3T, and the Oneplus 3. Waze is heavily reliant on crowdsourced GPS location data and other reports from users to function. Those reports enable real-time information to be given to users pertaining to traffic conditions or incidents, tracking where a user parked, and more. So those who are experiencing the problem are effectively forced to use another app that may not have the same features.
The problem itself bears quite a few commonalities regardless of where it’s happening or what device it’s happening on. Namely, users are opening their Waze app to begin navigating and being met with an error message stating that there is no GPS signal. Other apps such as Google Maps still work properly and show a signal, while some users also say that Waze still works on devices they own that are not made by OnePlus. For the most part, the problem seems to be affecting devices using the latest Waze update – version 4.42.0.5 – and those running Android Oreo. At least one user has reported that another OnePlus handset operating on Android 7.1.1 Nougat still functions properly. That’s led to speculation about whether or not the fault is with Waze or the manufacturer. Regardless of whether the underlying bug or wayward code is on OnePlus or Waze’s side, this does appear to be a OnePlus-specific issue.
The usual workarounds and fixes for these types of issues appear to be hit-and-miss for the No GPS error as well. Turning GPS or device off and on again doesn’t alleviate the problem and neither does uninstalling the application before downloading it again. Clearing app cache or all data also doesn’t provide relief, although at least one user does claim to have had success clearing cache data in Google Play Services. In the meantime, OnePlus representatives have indicated that the problem appears to be with Waze and representatives of the latter company have said that they are aware of the problem. Moreover, there is a temporary fix while a more permanent solution is found. OnePlus uses experiencing the problem will need to navigate to their device’s ‘Battery’ settings in the Settings application and then tap the three-dot menu to select ‘Advanced Battery Optimizations.’ Turning on ‘Advanced’ optimizations from there should temporarily fix the problem for most users.
