Perhaps it’s not all down to almanac data but my understanding is ephemeris data or lack there of won’t cause the receiver to be slow acquiring its position.
My XA2 is regularly started 150 km or more from the last fix and it takes much longer to get a fix than it does when restarted at the same location. Almanac data is one explanation for this.
I agree the XA2 for some reason takes much longer than other devices to acquire a fix.
The point is that mine takes ages even if started at the point of the last fix. It displays a very old position, from some months ago, until it gets the new one. Maybe the driver, lacking A-GPS, is providing very old A-GPS data saved somewhere.
both locations are ~20-25 min apart.
good point, not the best test to do, but that’s all i have with the current lockdown in France 
Novatel says this about almanac:
"almanac --> full almanac requires 25 pages to completely download. Thus one page of frames 1-5 takes 30 seconds to download. Since the almanac contains 25 pages, the total time required to download almanac is: 25 pages * 30 seconds /page = 750 seconds = 12.5 minutes "
This (12min) is fairly consistent with how long it can take to acquire lock under clear sky when it has not had one for a while.
The good news did not last long. For real life Maps and satnavs do not work and it makes no difference which maps are used.
Good calculation, but 12minutes is not usable for daily driver phone 
We need solution!
Hello!
Even though Mozilla location service was stopped on Sailfish, the GPS was on my XA2 at that point working, not good, but acceptable in regards of time to GPX fix, but I feel it has been degrading during the fall. From being able to sporadically getting GPX fix under clear sky to latest month never ever being able to get a fix. I have not investigated it closer in regards to software, but several times compared GPS fix time to my other GPS-devises in GPS only mode, and the XA2 has always been standing out negatively latest half-year.
So the screen got cracked a few weeks ago, and there is no good replacement phone running Sailfish available, so I got a new screen and replaced it, with good results. Keeping the GPS problem in mind I also cleaned all the small antenna connection springs and ensured they had good tension, before putting the phone together. One antenna-“path” was also cracked (due to plastic being bent) so I soldered it together (but don’t think that was GPS-related). I don’t know which of all the antennas that’s for GPS signals though.
However… BIG difference now, easy to get a GPS fix on balcony now within a few minutes. Did quick unscientific comparison between Nokia N9, Jolla1, XA2 and some more devices. Jolla1 was by far the quickest, but the XA2 and N9 had it just above the 2+ minute mark. It’s a HUGE step up from before then I could be outside for hours with GPS status running in background without getting a fix at all. I really hope it lasts… 
So the point of this post is to give the explanation that in addition to the closed down Mozilla location services, the actual XA2 GPS antenna connection might be intermittent and degrading. Because it’s mostly XA2s affected, right?
Or could the temporary removal of the battery when I took it apart be the explanation?
Picture for attention 
thanks for the very detailed report. didn’t think this could be related to hardware.
My XA2 has fallen quite a few times, and I had to glue the top bezel (the one with the 3.5 mm jack connector) as all of a sudden it just decided to go away ^^
Is that a Nokia 6233? 
I am really, really afraid to open up my XA2 Ultra, but I guess I’ll give it a try…
A counter argument is that I had a XA2 with the exact same issue. Then I had to revert it to stock Android (because of work) and it started getting GPS lock within seconds. So…
Yes, a Nokia 6233, connected to the LD-3W bluetooth GPS, often quicker and better accuracy than the XA2, wish I could use it with sailfish devices…
I’m really not sure what made the GPS work again on my XA2, it is still working OK but takes often quite some time to get a fix, maybe its degrading again. It was significantly slower than Jolla1 and LD-3W when I did a quick test now. The bars in GPSInfo on XA2 overall is shorter than on Jolla1, especially indoors, indicating the signal reception is not as strong? What does the y-axis numbers mean btw?
Keep in mind, it can also be the temporary battery removal that “fixed” GPS for now, by causing some in-depth reset of something GPS-related, (which in turn might possibly indicate some issue within sailfish sw and XA2 GPS hw).
I cannot think of anything else I did that could be the reason for my XA2 GPS starting to work again.
However it is not possible to remove the battery connector without first unscrew the plastic part that contains the GPS antenna (red ring in image below), so if one would test only one of the two things above, it has to be the antenna part first.
Youtube has instructions for opening 
Good luck!
I am not sure it’s a H/W issue, in stock Android seemed to work fine, also other Xperia models with SFOS do not have this problem. I think the issue is with the AOSP layer for this model.
I too think it is something like this. I can always get the GPS to work, but it takes nearly 15 minutes to acquire its position, even if at the same location as it was used last time.
I use SportsTracker and it is very frustrating having to wait 15 minutes for a position lock.
Sometimes, when I go out for running, I don’t get a fix at all. But most often the accuracy is really bad, typically getting worse, and also too often I am loosing the fix and not getting it back at all. It’s really frustrating.
Well, I’ve been trying to get GPS to work at all on my XA2 with SFOS 3.4x and nothing. GPSInfo says GPS is Active, it sees 23 satellites, but no satellites are active and no lock. I’ve left it for hours.
i can confirm @jovirkku statement that high accuracy in the gps will speed up a gps fix. First i tried only with the device gps, it did not get a gps fix also seeing around 20 satellites, after that i enabled high accuracy, and i got a fast gps fix even that the sky was cloudy. But you really feel the difference between the former mls and now without it.
On a slight tangent but I don’t see what cloudy skies have to do with getting fix. GPS signals work just as well clouds or no clouds.
Maybe i misunderstood something but to my knowledge, the Signalstrength with satellites get poorer, the cloudier it gets. Thats why on cloudy or rainy days, it will be more difficult to get a satellite position or that it will be not that precise. But i am not a satellite expert, the only thing is, without high accuracy i first got 5 mins long no position, and with high accurcy i directly got a gps position. Begore with mls, i also got a gps position with only the device gps enabled…
No way. Clouds strongly attenuate GPS signals.
Show me some authoritative information that says clouds degrade GPS reception.
There’s plenty of people who think it does but they never give a verified information source.
I have read all about the various errors and limitations with GPS never ever seen clouds mentioned in any trustworthy publication.
To give an everyday example of why clouds are not an issue. GPS is used everyday by aircraft to navigate in cloud and to ensure a safe path through the cloud covered sky to allow the aircraft to land. If clouds were an issue it wouldn’t be acceptable to use GPS for this purpose.
It is my experience, as well as many others’, that GPS receivers take longer to lock with an overcast sky. Once locked accuracy is sufficient, but I am quite sure that they take longer to lock, and sometimes do not lock at all.
