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Samsung: Turn Location Access (GPS) On or Off

If navigation apps cannot find your position or refuse to load a route, Location access is often switched off on your Samsung phone. Weather widgets, Find My Mobile, and location-tagged photos rely on the same GPS toggle, so one setting affects several features at once. Turning it off saves battery but breaks any app that needs your real-time position.

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Step 1 of 3: Tap on **Settings**

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Android 11 · One UI 3
Turn Location (GPS) On or Off – One UI 3: step 1 – Tap on Settings
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Samsung

Turn Location (GPS) On or Off auf Samsung

Location access on a Samsung phone combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile network data to estimate your position. Navigation apps, weather widgets, ride-hailing services, and Find My Mobile all depend on this single system toggle.

When the master switch is off, none of these apps can read your position, even if you granted them location permission individually. That difference confuses many users: an app can have full location permission and still fail to work because the system-wide toggle is disabled.

Where to find the toggle

Open SettingsLocation. At the top of this screen, switch Location to On or Off. The change applies immediately across every app on the phone.

What changes when you disable it

With Location off, maps stop centering on your position, photos lose geotags, and weather apps fall back to a manually entered city. Find My Mobile also loses the ability to show your device on a map, which matters if the phone gets lost or stolen.

When to leave it on

Keep Location enabled if you regularly use navigation, fitness tracking, or device-finding features. Turn it off only when you specifically want to save battery or block all location tracking at once, rather than managing each app separately.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, especially if several apps poll your position in the background. Disabling it under SettingsLocation stops all GPS and network-based positioning at once, which reduces battery drain more than turning off permissions app by app.

Compatible devices

Tap your device — opens its hub with matching guides.

Android 11 · One UI 3

No compatible devices are listed for this version.