Official U.S. government information about the
Global Positioning System (GPS) and related topics
GPS Week Number Rollover
April 6, 2019
NOTE: On October 24, 2021, a bug in older versions of the Network Timing Protocol Daemon (NTPD) and GPS Daemon (GPSD) software used in many computer systems may trigger the system date to roll back to sometime in March 2002. While this is not a problem with GPS, it has the potential to cause significant impact. All network operators are encouraged to verify they are utilizing the most recent version 3.23.1 of GPSD/NTPD software (released September 21, 2021) and report any problems to the Navigation Center watch by phone 703-313-5900 or by email at TIS-PF-NISWS@uscg.mil
To provide the current date, the Global Positioning System (GPS) keeps an internal count of the number of weeks since January 5, 1980. The main civil GPS signal (C/A code) broadcasts the GPS week number using a 10-bit code with a maximum value of 1,023 weeks. This means every 19.7 years, the GPS week number in the C/A code rolls over to zero. This occurred for the first time in August 1999.
The GPS week number again reset to zero at 23:59:42 UTC on April 6, 2019. Many GPS-enabled devices that were not properly designed to account for the rollover event exhibited problems on that date. Other equipment became faulty several months before or after that date, requiring software or firmware patches to restore their function.
To avoid GPS device problems related to week number rollover, please keep your device's software/firmware up to date and report all equipment problems to the manufacturer.
