Top 8 Ways to Fix Location Services Not Working on Android

Location services are essential for many activities on your Android, such as navigation, receiving location-based suggestions, geotagging photos, and more. Hence, it can be annoying when the GPS or location services on Android end up showing inaccurate data or stop working entirely.

There can be several reasons for this, ranging from a lack of relevant permissions to misconfigured settings. We’ve compiled helpful solutions to troubleshoot the problem when apps can’t determine your location on your phone.

1. Toggle the Airplane Mode

Network connection issues can impair your phone’s ability to track your location. You can start by toggling the Airplane mode on your phone to refresh wireless connections and fix any minor issues.

Open Settings on your Android and navigate to Connections. Then, turn on the switch next to Airplane mode.

Wait for a minute or so before turning off Airplane mode. After that, open an app that uses location services, such as Google Maps, and check if it can detect your location.

2. Enable Google Location Accuracy

When your Android phone fails to determine your location with accuracy, you may face issues while using apps like Google Maps, Uber, and such. To fix this, you can enable the Google Location Accuracy option. This will allow your phone to scan nearby cell towers and utilize other sensors to determine your location a bit more accurately. Here’s how to enable it.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone, tap on Location, and select Location services from the following menu.

Step 2: Tap on Google Location Accuracy and enable the toggle next to Improve Location Accuracy.

Once enabled, check if the location or GPS issue is fixed on your Android phone.

3. Enable Location Permission for Apps

If the location not working issue is limited to one or two apps, you should review location permission for those apps on your Android phone. Here’s how you can go about it.

Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your phone and scroll down to tap on Location.

Step 2: Tap on App permissions and you’ll see a list of apps categorized based on their location access.

Step 3: Tap on the app that’s having trouble detecting your location. Set the location permission to ‘Allow all the time’ or ‘Allow only while using the app.’ Also, make sure you don’t deny the app access to your precise location.

Restart the problematic app and see if it can detect your location.

4. Enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning

Another thing you can do is enable your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning on your Android. This will allow your phone to use the nearby Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth-enabled devices to detect your location accurately.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone and tap on Location. Then, select Location services.

Step 2: Toggle on the switches next to Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning.

5. Correct Date and Time

Is your Android set to an incorrect date or time? If so, you may encounter difficulties while using location-based apps and encounter the ‘Could not retrieve your location’ error. To avoid this, it’s best to configure your Android to use the network-provided date and time.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone and scroll down to tap on General management.

Step 2: Tap on Date and time and toggle on the switch next to Automatic date and time.

After that, check to see if apps can detect your location.

6. Disable Data and Battery Saver Mode

Enabling data saver mode on your Android can prevent apps from using the internet in the background. Consequently, apps may take longer than expected to detect your location or fail to do so entirely. Hence, it’s best to disable the data saver on your phone when you don’t need it.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone, tap on Connections, and select Data usage.

Step 2: Tap on Data saver and toggle off the switch next to Turn on now.

Similarly, when you enable the battery saver mode on your Android, it restricts apps from updating your location data in the background. To avoid this, you should turn off the battery saver on your phone.

Open the Settings app and scroll down to tap on Battery. Then, turn off the Power saving option.

Once disabled, the location should work as expected.

7. Turn Off Mock Location

Another reason why your Android might show the wrong location is if you have previously enabled the mock location option to spoof your location. Here’s how to turn it off.

Step 1: Open the Settings app and scroll down to tap on Developer Options.

Note: If you don’t see the Developer Options entry on the list, you don’t need to worry about turning off the mock location. Skip to the next solution.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Location section and tap on ‘Select mock location app.’ Then, select Nothing from the following menu.

8. Try Safe Mode

If GPS or location services are still not working despite enabling all the right settings, you can try booting your Android phone into Safe Mode. Doing so will disable all third-party apps and non-essential services on your phone, allowing you to determine if one of them is causing the problem.

Step 1: Press and hold the power button on your phone. Then, long press on the Power off option.

Step 2: Tap the green icon to boot your phone in Safe Mode.

Since Safe Mode disables all your third-party apps, you’ll have to use Google Maps to see if the location services are working.

If the location services work fine in Safe Mode, one of the third-party apps may be causing the problem. Apps or games that you’ve installed recently are more likely to have caused the issue. You’ll need to go through these apps and remove them one by one. After that, restart your phone to exit Safe Mode and check if the location services are working.

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In most cases, one of the above solutions should help get the GPS or location services working on your Android phone. If not, the issue could be related to the current Android build you’re on. You can consider installing any pending software updates to see if that fixes the problem.