topic Re: Location using mobile data in XA Series

Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 13:45:59 GMT

My mobile data is turned off and I am connected to my WiFi. Every time any app is using location my cellphone connects for a second to the network and uses mobile data, although mobile data is still turned off. As I use a prepaid SIM card I have to pay for 15min data use, even if my phone connects just for a second. Either I can turn off location or delete the APN to solve the problem for now but it is not a real solution. Anyone has an idea?

Re: Location using mobile data

Uliwooly — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:12:38 GMT

Settings > location > what do you have it set as ?

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 22:54:21 GMT

High accuracy, but I tried already device only GPS, and I still have the same issue.

Re: Location using mobile data

Uliwooly — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 23:30:45 GMT

You have answered your own question

High accuracy > Use GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cellular networks to determine location

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 03:07:31 GMT

I appreciate your answer, but as I said, even if I use GPS only, it still connects to the network for a second. If I turn Location totally off, it will not connect. As soon as I turn it on, no matter what configuration, it will connect, and that is not how it is supposed to be.

Re: Location using mobile data

Rickard — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 05:27:23 GMT

What you can try instead of deleting the APN is to edit it and check the APN-type. If the APN-type contains "supl", remove this and save the APN.

The GPS in the phone supports assisted start and can use the mobile network to get your location faster than a normal GPS. Removing "supl" may prevent it from doing that.

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 12:10:03 GMT

Thanks a lot for the tip. I deleted supl in the settings of the APN-type and it seems to be working now. When I open Google Maps and use the GPS it is not using any mobile data anymore when I am connected to my WiFi.
I will further observe.
So this is all a software issue. I'm just curious. Will Sony address this in future software updates?

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 12:35:49 GMT

I still don't understand how the GPS can overrule the mobile data off setting. Thanks anyway again

Re: Location using mobile data

Rickard — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:14:48 GMT

Glad to hear that

When you turn off mobile data in the phone, you only disable "internet" over mobile data. Some services that depends on the mobile network like MMS and the AGPS can still use the mobile network if you have an APN with an APN-type telling Android that's what the APN is for. So it's designed to work in this way.

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:32:07 GMT

Thanks for the explanation. My old xperia zr has default, supl, a-gps as it's APN-TYPE. I never experienced this issues with the ZR. Same provider. What is the difference?

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:35:14 GMT

Now I have just default in my new xa. Is my provider charging me for using supl data?

Re: Location using mobile data

Rickard — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 09:08:07 GMT

@Leo761

If the APN-settings are correct in your Xperia ZR, it should work in the same way so i'm not sure why you didn't notice this with your previous phone.

With only "default" as APN-type, your phone should not use any mobile data for the GPS if you have turned off the mobile data setting.

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 09:58:28 GMT

That's the strange thing for me. On my ZR I have supl in the APN-type settings and I never had to pay anything to my provider. As soon as I would put supl in the APN-type settings in my new XA, the phone would use mobile data. for which I would have to pay if any app is using my GPS

Re: Location using mobile data

Leo761 — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 05:57:37 GMT

I want to give an update on my issue. Until yesterday, when my phone updated Google Maps, the fix by deleting supl in APN-type worked. Now it is again using mobile data although I did not change any settings and the supl is still deleted. Everything possible regarding mobile data is turned off. So something must still overrule the mobile data off choice. I think this should be fixed as I'm not the only one with that issue. So all I could do was to delete my connection settings so I will be sure that no mobile data will be consumed.