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I'm afraid you are going to need to reproduce this on an aosp build such as the emulator to rule out any issues from Samsung.

This apparently is a bug which could be reproduced on different devices, not only Samsung but also HTC, even a Google Nexus (see SO links down this posting).

After some time (hours to days), Android (starting 4.1? 4.2?) just does not call the listener anymore.
Most apps I have running using the NETWORK provider don't get updates after that.
Reboot fixes the issue and all apps seem to find the proper location again.

Checking the providers' getLastKnownLocation().getTime() shows it's very old data.
What's really interesting, that Google Maps actually seems to work. Some would assume that it would not, too; and some would assume the getTime() for the providers lastknown location would get updated, but they still show with old locations and old timestamp.


http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12630413/has-network-provider-behavior-changed-in-android-4-1-1?lq=1
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13594932/network-provider-not-providing-updated-locations
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15747543/locationlistener-of-network-provider-is-enabled-but-onlocationchanged-is-never?lq=1

I actually do experience this problem, too, and it's not a real solution to tell my customers "you have to reboot your device".

Regards,
Oliver

We have seen very similar problem in our application. Our problem has happened in
- HTC Desire S (Android 4.0.4)
- two different Samsung Galaxy S3 phones (Android 4.1.2)
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (Android 4.0.4)

So this is not only Samsung related problem.

In our case the problem has started to occur after 2-10 days after rebooting phone.

For example today I was 50 kilometers from home but it said my location was at home. Then I shut down WLAN and GPS and started Google maps and it showed correct location. After that I checked the location from our app and it said again that my location was at home.

Same problem has happened in:

- Galaxy S2
- Galaxy S2 plus
- Galaxy S3
- Galaxy S4

Regarding the Google Maps; I guess it is using the Google Play Location API. I did some small test app to compare results; the Google Play API does even deliver more accurate results and usually has a slightly different location than using the native Android Location API. The location provider returned by Google Play is named "fused", so it's some internal plugin.
That's most probably the reason Google Maps is still reporting accurate results and does not update the "network" location provider as it simply not uses it.
As soon as my "network" provider does not return anything anymore, I am going to doublecheck if the Google Play API still returns valid results.

Drawback with Google Play API: Only available on >=2.2, only available when latest Google Play installed. For me, can't use...

This is unacceptable.
I have an app on version 2.2 that works great, and on 4.2 i experience this issue.
If there is no fix for this, then they should deprecate the requestLocationUpdates method.
Can someone from google please respond with root cause and fix for this.

In response to #1, this cannot be reproduced on the emulator as the emulator does not support the network location provider.

Side note: Issue 36949180 (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=55896) seems to be very closely connected to this one, but got closed (wrong forum).

I set up a very basic apk which tries to get location using native network provider and Play API; timeouts after 10 seconds: http://www.jav.net/lt/LocationTester.apk
Pressing "Start" button starts to get the location.

After a couple of days without device reboot, "network" provider times out; can see that location age gets really old and not refreshed. Play API still responding with accurate up-to-date locations.

At that time, basically all weather widgets, location-based apps cease to work or report false locations.

I checking status on a number of devices now, including Nexus 7 (Wifi only, at home), Galaxy S3. As I don't own a ASOP Nexus 4 and could use real-world scenario, I'm thinking to put some ASOP build onto my old Galaxy S2 and test it there, too.

It's hard to provide much more information to that topic. Would it help if this apk regulary (each minute?) tries to get position and, if detected timeout/no call to onLocationChanged(), tries to capture the device system log?

Regards,
Oliver

As reported by other users I've tested my application with Sony & HTC devices with Android 4.0.4/4.0.3 as well, The issue replicates and location updates to my registered listeners stop after 3-4 days itself.
After the issue starts coming, re-installation or any setting change doesn't help at all, until we re-boot the device. After device reboots it starts to call the listener with location updates till next 3-4 days.

Finding out no other solution through Android Location APIs, I tried Google Play Service locations and this issue is not faced by the api. And the app runs fine for days without interruption. Though it seemingly has other issue where old version PlayService was working in Android 2.3.7 Sony device but the latest version has broken something and hence the updates fail to reach (It gives some DB Schema error).

Regards
Rishabh

I have the same issue as well. I have an app that notifies the user when they arrive or depart a targeted location. Using NETWORK_PROVIDER in a Service, I connect to my server, and get a list of nearby locations. If there are locations nearby, I remove the listener and switch to the GPS_PROVIDER to double check their location and notify them if they are truly going to that location. We have hundreds of thousands of users who are experiencing this issue in the 4.1.x and 4.2.x software range. In 2.3.x it works great. I see reports all over stack overflow and other sites. I'm hoping that we can come up with a way to fix this issue, even if it is a hack. Right now we are relying only on GPS_PROVIDER and obviously, this sucks down the battery way too fast.

We have used the fused location provider , and it does not retrieve location updates on mobile network.  
We have also tested the sample app (LocationUpdates) shared on developer site and it also has a similat behaviour.
It woks fine only when on wifi or gps.

Tested on following devices
Samsung S3 , S4 and HTC One

Please fix this as the apps rely heavily on location updates.

We are preparing an application (Family Watch), which is heavily dependent on the continuous collection of location data. We really appreciated the possibility offered to us by the newly introduced fused location provider, but as other guys here, we have problem. As soon as the mobile phone is out of GPS and WiFi signal range (e.g. building in country or train). The provider stops give requested updates and until it gets GPS or WiFi it is not invoked (it does ignore the requested polling interval). It is really a shame because the promising tool is simply not possible to use. And frankly this behavior is in contradiction to the promised feature.

We tested also following devices: Samsung Galaxy S (2.3.6), ZTE Skate pro (4.0.4) and SONY Xperia J (4.1.2), Huawei Ascend Y300 with the same results regardless of setting of the priority (PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY or PRIORITY_BALANCED_POWER_ACCURACY). All devices had access to all sources of localization data (GPS AND GOOGLE) in settings.
Google Play services version code 3225100 (Google play version 4.3.11).

I have done some tests with my S3 running 4.1.2

1. Network provider currently does not show updated position.
2. I uninstalled latest Google Play Services app and rebooted - made no difference. The network provider got one lock, but then does not get subsequent locations.
3. I disabled the Google Play Services and rebooted.
4. The network provider now updates locations whenever I move around.
5. Re-enable Google Play Services and update to latest version (because phone wont stop whining about it until I do) - Network provider stops working.


Google Maps works fine because they are using LocationClient in Play Services.  Seems to be an introduced bug in LocationManager caused by something in latest Play Services.

This is a big issue for us, because we need to know employee location and we cannot rely just on GPS locks.

I'm experiencing the exact same problem on many 4.x devices, like HTC sensation (4.0.3) and Nexus 10 (4.2.1)

After about a week, calling LocationManager.requestLocationUpdates with NETWORK_PROVIDER doesn't provide locations anymore and the only way to have it work again is a device reboot. In the meantime, GPS_PROVIDER and and Google Maps (without GPS) still work.

An interesting sidenode: Nexus 4 running 4.3 seems immune to this as I have never witnessed the problem with uptimes > 2 weeks, but it may just be a coincidence.

I am experiencing this issue as well.  I never noticed it until I turned satellites off today. Rebooting the device resolved the issue.

Samsung S3, S4, Note 2 .  All running JellyBean from different carriers.