[Updated] Waze aware of GPS signal issues on OnePlus devices, fix being worked on

Update (August 23):

Looks like it will take time for Google to fix the problem as the company has now published a help article in the Waze Help section that says it’s a known issue.

The company is also supporting the Advanced Battery Optimization workaround for the time being.

Here’s what the help article exactly says:

Some OnePlus users are currently experiencing issues with GPS reception.

Until this is fully resolved, a possible solution to this issue is to activate Advanced Battery Optimization from the OnePlus’ Battery Settings.

Simply go to your phone’s Settings, tap Battery and then on the 3 dots menu on the upper right and tap Advanced Battery Optimization to activate.

You can access the support page by heading here.

Update (August 23):

A temporary workaround that seems to have helped some of the affected users is to enable Advanced Optimization (in Battery settings) and then reboot the device.

Update (August 23):

More reports (1,2,3,4,5).

Update (August 22): Just in case you need, here’s the link to the official Waze forum where the problem is being discussed.

Original story follows

Google-owned mapping/navigation service Waze has confirmed that it is aware of GPS signal problems that users are facing on their OnePlus phones.

The confirmation came in the form of a tweet from team Waze.

https://twitter.com/WazeFrance/status/1031885431992934401?s=19

Users of OnePlus devices, including OnePlus 6, OnePlus 5, OnePlus 5T, and possibly others as well, have been reporting GPS issues with the Waze app since yesterday.

There’s a dedicated thread on the Chinese company’s official forum website that now contains hundreds of reports, with almost all of them confirming that Waze loses GPS signal, rendering the app useless.

It’s worth mentioning that other apps that use GPS – like Google Maps – are working fine for a large majority of complainants.

Users have also confirmed that Waze works perfectly fine with devices from other manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi.

Here’s a selection of user complaints:

All of a sudden when I try to use waze it can’t find a GPS signal.
All my other GPS apps works fine (Google maps, runkeeper etc).
When I restart the phone and open waze again it finds the location and after a few seconds the signal is lost and after that it won’t get any signal again.
It happened all of a sudden!
The GPS is on and on high accuracy,
I tried to reinstall the app,
I clear cached data.
Nothing works!
Please help…

My Waze worked fine this morning (~13 hours ago, 2 am EDT). When I left work 6 hours ago, and turned on Waze, there was no GPS. I picked up my daughter, and WAZE was working perfectly on her Samsung Galaxy S8. So sometime between 2 am- 9 am EDT on August 20, something has happened to cause Waze to mis-function on Oneplus phones. HELP!

this anomaly seems to come from oneplus and no waze because all affected people have a oneplus. I did the test with a Xiaomi, a samsung an apple and no worries of connection to the GPS.
OnePlus must react because it comes from their mobiles.

When I try to use Waze, it shows “Waze is connecting GPS” for about 20 seconds, and then shows “No GPS. Showing approximate location”. This first notification, I am fairly sure, is new. Until yesterday, there was no such notification, it just went right into GPS, after a few seconds. So that’s different than before.

System info:
OnePlus 5
My system update is ONEPLUS A5000_23_18_07_18
Android version 8.1.0
OxygenOS version: 5.1.4

A member of OnePlus Bug Hunter team got back to a complainant saying this is an issue with Waze, and users should contact them.

Those who contacted Waze Support also got the issue acknowledgment over email from the team.

We are aware of this issue and our teams are working to resolve it

While it’s good Waze has acknowledged the problem, there is currently no information on how long the team will take to fix the issue.

Meanwhile, complaints are proliferating given the fact that users of many OnePlus devices are affected.

We’ll be keeping an active tab on the matter, and will update the story as and when the issue gets fixed, or if there’s any news-worthy development.

Meanwhile, do let us know in comments below your experience with the app.

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