A smartphone today is impossible to imagine without accurate maps and navigation systems that have become an integral part of everyday life. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices often face the need to quickly activate GPS to call a taxi, find a nearby cafe or check the route in the navigator. However, sometimes standard settings are not enough, and the system begins to crash, showing the wrong point on the map.
In this article, we will take a closer look at all aspects of how MIUI and HyperOS geolocation works. Not only will you learn about the basic inclusion of the feature, but also hidden engineering settings that can dramatically improve positioning accuracy. We will look at calibration techniques and ways to solve common problems when the phone stubbornly refuses to determine your location.
The right configuration of geolocation services is not only convenient, but also safe, as well as battery saving. Many users do not even realize that some applications consume energy in the background, constantly polling satellites. A competent approach to setting up will find a balance between functionality and autonomy of your gadget.
Basic inclusion and choice of determination regime
The first step is always to activate the GPS module through the standard Quick Settings menu, and you just need to swipe the notification curtain from the top down and find an icon labeled "Location" or "GPS." However, for a more subtle setup, you need to go to the deep menu of the system where advanced options are available.
Go to Settings → Applications → All Apps → Settings → Location. This will open the control panel where you can choose the mode of operation. In modern versions of firmware, there are three main options: device only (GPS), charge saving (over Wi-Fi and mobile networks), and high accuracy (combined method).
For most use cases, especially when navigating in a car or on foot, it is recommended to choose a high-precision mode that uses all available data sources: GLONASS satellites, GPS, BeiDou, as well as Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers, which ensures maximum speed of determining coordinates even in difficult urban conditions.
- 📍 Device only: Uses satellite communications exclusively, which increases field accuracy but increases search time and energy consumption.
- 📶 Charge savings: determines the approximate location by IP-address and towers, useful for background tasks that do not require meter accuracy.
- 🚀 High accuracy: optimal choice for navigators, taxi aggregators and delivery services, combines all available sensors.
It is worth noting that the choice of mode directly affects the operation of background applications. If you rarely use maps, but often get ads with a location, it makes sense to switch to saving mode or even turn off the module when it is not needed.
Calibration of GPS and work with Google Maps
Even with the high-precision module on, sometimes the cursor on the map is "shaking" or showing you being in a nearby building, which requires a calibration procedure that helps the device interpret satellite signals more accurately, most often not because of hardware, but because of software failures or magnetic interference.
The easiest and most efficient way to calibrate is to use the Google Maps app. Open the app, make sure geolocation is enabled, and click on the blue dot that indicates your current location. From the menu that appears, select "Calibrate."
The system will ask you to do simple things with your phone, like steering the device in the air in the shape of an eight, which is necessary to calibrate the digital compass, which is often used by navigation systems to determine the direction of movement. Without the compass working correctly, the map can show the wrong vector of motion.
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If calibration through the app doesn’t help, try going out into an open space away from tall buildings and metal structures, then restart your smartphone.
It is important to understand that magnetic cases or holders in a car with powerful neodymium magnets can distort the readings of the sensors. If you use such accessories, try removing them during navigation or calibration to exclude external impact on the magnetometer.
Configuring permissions for specific applications
The modern Android operating system with the shell MIUI pays great attention to privacy, so access to geodata is strictly regulated. Often users are faced with the fact that the navigator stops building the route or the taxi does not see the address, because the application is simply not given the right to use the coordinates.
To check and change these settings, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find the program you want (like Yandex Go, 2GIS or Uber) and select Permissions. Here you are interested in the Location category.
The system will offer several options for access: "Always Allowed", "Only allowed when used" and "Forbidden". For the correct operation of navigation and delivery services, it is critical to choose the option "Always Allowed" or "When used", depending on your background requirements.
☑️ Access rights verification
Special attention should be paid to setting "Exact location." If this switch is turned off, the application will only receive approximate coordinates (city area), which will make it impossible to build an exact route or call a courier to a particular house.
Engineering menu and selection of satellite systems
For advanced users who want to maximize GPS performance, an engineering menu is available to manage the visibility of satellite systems. Xiaomi smartphones support GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), BeiDou (China) and Galileo (Europe).
To get into the testing menu, open the Phone app and enter the code ##6484##. In the CIT menu that opens, select "Single Item Test" and then search for "GPS." Here you will see a map of the sky and a list of visible satellites.
In some versions of the firmware, the tab "AGPS" is available, where you can force the satellite almanac to update, which helps with the "cold start" of GPS. You can also choose which satellite constellations the device will use. For Russia, the best choice is a combination of GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou.
| System system | Region | Features of work | Recommendation for the Russian Federation |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS | USA | The basic system works everywhere. | Included. |
| GLONASS | Russia | Best coverage in northern latitudes | Included. |
| BeiDou | China | High precision in cities | Included. |
| Galileo | Europe | High accuracy, fewer satellites | If you wish, |
Using the engineering menu requires caution, and unnecessarily changing the parameters can cause the phone to stop seeing satellites at all, and if you're not sure what you're doing, you'd better limit yourself to resetting the AGPS data or just restarting the device.
Solving problems with GPS accuracy and reset
Sometimes, when you update your firmware or install a new app, the navigation stops working correctly: a point on the map freezes, jumps, or disappears, in which case the effective method is to completely reset your geolocation settings and clear the cache of Google Play services.
To start, go to Settings → Apps → All apps, click on three dots in the corner of the screen and select "Show System Processes." Find the list of "Google Play Services" and "Google Play Store." For each, clear the data and cache.
Why does the reset help?
It’s also worth checking if flight mode or energy saving is on, which can block work. GPS-In Super-Economies mode, all background processes, including location, are often turned off, making navigation impossible.
If the problem persists, try using third-party diagnostic tools such as GPS Test or GPS Status & Toolbox, which allow you to see the real picture of the signal reception and reset A-GPS data at the system level, which is sometimes more effective than standard tools.
The impact of energy saving on navigation
The MIUI shell is famous for its aggressive energy-saving policies that can conflict with the requirements of navigation applications.The system can simply "kill" the navigator process when the screen goes out, considering it to be voracious.
To prevent this, find your navigation app in the installed program list, go to Activity Control or Energy Saving and select No Limits mode, which will prevent the system from forcibly shutting down GPS.
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Setting the “No Limits” mode for the navigator is a must for Xiaomi owners, otherwise the map may stop working when the screen is off.
Also, check the battery settings as a whole. Sometimes global energy saving settings can turn off communication modules to extend battery life. If you want stable navigation on the way, it's better to sacrifice a few percent of the charge for the sake of route confidence.
Also worth mentioning is the Bluetooth Accuracy feature, which is sometimes turned on by default, which uses Bluetooth scanning devices to pinpoint indoor locations, and if you don't use Bluetooth trackers, you can turn it off to save resources, although it has little impact on street navigation.