Getting accidental bans as my GPS shows errors in location

Question

I think I may have gotten a soft ban. I don't cheat. I don't know how but when I am at a specific location, which is near my home, my position on the GPS is shown to be about 1800 km away.

The position on Google maps is also shown at the error location. This deflection only occurs at that one location near my home.

My phone is ASUS laser. How does this happen? And how can I avoid such deflection to prevent accidental bans?

Answer 1

This could be a particular GPS bug¹ - I can't find any reference right now but I have come across one of these before (years ago, when Foursquare first came out) that always affected one particular position (Melbourne Central Station in Melbourne, Australia), and which reported it - for everyone - at Glen Waverley, a suburb about 30 kilometres away.

You could be seeing something similar to this. If you can't avoid it, I would first:

• try to work out whether it is happening to anyone else
• gather some data about when and where it has happened to you (include times, map screenshots, etc.)
• report to Niantic that you're getting a soft ban when you don't believe you should

If it is a GPS bug¹, Niantic aren't going to be able to fix it, but perhaps they can lift your soft bans. If you can prove that this is happening to others as well, then this may assist you further - particularly if others are getting soft bans as well.

_{¹ Not technically a GPS bug, but rather a problem with using WiFi routers to augment GPS (hat tip to Loren Pechtel)}

Answer 2

I don't have a direct solution for you, but it certainly sounds like a problem worth reporting to Niantic. If Google Maps is doing as well, report it to them as well - Pokémon Go relies on Google Maps data.

Answer 3

I don't know if this will help but it's worth a shot.

What could be the issue: On Android GPS can be done a few ways, Mobile data, Wifi and GPS directly. What i expect what happens is that it picks up these 3 signals random because of your location

Possible solution: To fix this to a certain mode go to Settings -> Location -> Locationmethod (Not 100% sure if this is called the same in english) -> Only GPS

The reason why i say only GPS because this is the lowest settings and gives you most control over teh GPS, if this works you can always try picking up the higher ones and see what happens.

This way only the GPS is used for your position. Wifi or mobile data will not assist it so it won't be able to jump all over the place.