Electrically active defects in n-GaN films grown with and without an Fe-doped buffer layer have been investigated using conventional and optical deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Conventional DLTS revealed three well- defined electron traps with activation energies Ea of 0.21, 0.53, and 0.8 eV. The concentration of the 0.21 and 0.8 eV defects was found to be slightly higher in the sample without the Fe-doped buffer, whereas the concentration of the 0.53 eV trap was higher in the sample with the Fe-doped buffer. A minority carrier trap with Ea ≈ 0.65 eV was detected in both samples using optical DLTS; its concentration was ∼40% higher in the sample without the Fe-doped buffer. Mobility spectrum analysis and multiple magnetic-field measurements revealed that the electron mobility in the topmost layer of both samples was similar, but that the sample without the Fe-doped buffer layer was affected by parallel conduction through underlying layers with lower electron mobility.