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The Continuing Saga Of My Galaxy S4 & Custom ROM’s

After last weeks issues with the official Samsung/T-Mobile update using Samsung Kies causing a spectacular failure of my phone’s software, I had to source and flash a stock T-Mobile/Touchwiz Android 4.2.2 ROM to make the device functional again before flashing Cyanogenmod 10.2.

So continuing on… after a day or two or use, I realized that GPS was not working on Cyanogenmod 10.2 so I reverted to my previously backed up version of Touchwiz/Android 4.2.2 which didn’t fix the GPS issue. So I installed the Google Play Edition Galaxy S4 ROM, v4.4.2 with full data wipe; which still did not solve the GPS issue. Now I am baffled, the only logical conclusion is that the hardware must of have failed, it’s highly unlikely that three different Android OS’s have driver issues.

In desperation, I re-flashed stock TW/Android 4.2.2, GPS still not working, but now that the phone is unrooted I can OTA update to Android 4.3 which caused a bunch of errors. But that was easily resolved by a factory reset/data wipe, now suddenly the GPS is working. After some deliberation I decide to try Cyanogenmod 10.2 again; and this time GPS works and that’s where I am right now!

I’m baffled by the whole situation; I tried Android 4.2.2 (Touchwiz), 4.3 (Touchwiz), 4.3.1 (Cyanogenmod) and 4.4.2 (Google Play Edition), with each new flash I also did a full data wipe, and followed exactly the same steps the second time around and suddenly the GPS starts working?!?!

2 thoughts on “The Continuing Saga Of My Galaxy S4 & Custom ROM’s

  • Paul Evans
    July 26, 2014 at 03:33

    I now too have the gps problem. It has been since I tried a Slimkat rom.
    Have tried odin flashing official firmware and no it still didn’t work. Have tried several modems and nope. After more custom roms and still no gps.

    Have looked at the apps which claim.to fix gps.

    Any ideas??!


  • The GPS issue on my GS4 was fixed by flashing the original TW 4.2.2, then updating to 4.3 via OTA update and factory reset/data wipe in recovery. Since, I have installed GPe 4.4.2, then 4.4.3 before moving back to CyanogenMod 11 (4.4.4), the GPS worked flawlessly since the incident I blogged about. Obviously as my issue was resolved I haven’t tried any other options including apps to fix the GPS issue, sorry I can help more.


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