Geolocation out of order

[Jochen_M_]

Hello,

I am developing some apps using Geolocation at the moment. Some days ago everything worked fine. It still works fine in the emulator, but when I build my app oder use App Preview, it doesn´t work anymore. I also tried it with source code that I didn´t change for a month, it doesn´t work here, too. The "Geolocation" plugin is selected. It would be great if you could fix that problem.

Yours,
Jochen M.​

[John_H_Intel2]

I am pretty sure we didnt change anything. I have a generic app that I tested geolocation with and it worked as it should.

Is it possible that your device got an update? Do you have a different device to test with?

[Jochen_M_]

Hi John,

I have two developer PCs and two test devices. On my Windows 10 machine I installed XDK 2366 these days. On my Windows 8.1 there´s still XDK 2248 installed. I tried it on both machines, it doesn´t work on both anymore. I tried it on my Android Tablet (v5.11) and my iPad 2 mini (iOS 8.4). It doesn´t work in App Preview anymore and when I build my apps for Android, it doesn´t work, too. In App Preview there´s a demo section, I tried to run the Geolocation example app on both Tablets and on both, App preview crashes.

navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition --> worked fine until some days or weeks ago, but still works in the emulator
intel.xdk.geolocation.getCurrentPosition --> never worked for me, but works fine in the emulator

Yours,
Jochen M.​

[John_H_Intel2]

The intel.xdk.geolocation plugin is depricated and you should not use it. The Cordova plugin works for me.

Can you provide a simple example that does not work for you?

[John_H_Intel2]

Also, can you attach your projects .xdk file?

And the apk in question?

[John_H_Intel2]

One more thing, did you update you device last week to 5.1.1?

Are you positive the geolocation is enabled on the device?

[Jochen_M_]

Here comes the example. It works in my emulator but not on my devices.

[Jochen_M_]

See attachment (project files + .APK).

I updated to Android 5.1.1 last week or some days earlier, but not long ago. Geolocation is enabled. The final Apps I built before, are working fine on my tablet (installed as .APK on my tablet for weeks).

Thank you!

[John_H_Intel2]

I installed your apk on a 4.4.2 and a 5.0 androids. Both displayed the lat/long coords.

Have you tried rebooting your device?

Do other apps that use geolocation work on the device?

At this point I am going to have to say the issue is with the device/update.

[Jochen_M_]

Now I made it work on Android, too (not on iOS, but it is not important for me). I checked the systems positioning settings two times, every important switch was on. Now I waited a long time inside the settings page, when a list of apps appeared (after 20 seconds or so). A question appeared like "Do you want to allow app xyz to determine your position". I´ve never seen this before, it must be new since Android 5.1.1. Apps I installed months and weeks ago already worked properly without this question.

Strange, it seems to be a new feature in 5.1.1. that automatically blocks new apps to use Geolocation without switching this option on inside the systems "Settings" area of my tablet.

I´m sorry for wasting your time. In the past, some things suddenly were out of order in XDK and suddenly they worked again. I was sure it must have been something here. Thank you very much for your support!

Yours,
Jochen M.​

[John_H_Intel2]

Thanks for sharing the detailed results, I am sure others will find it helpful if they search on this issue :)

[Jochen_M_]

I am sure that many Android users will have this problem soon ;-)

[Ian_Devlin]

For such things like geolocation, it is always a good thing that the user is asked (at least once) if they want the site/app to access their location, but of course apps usually include this in the "list of app permissions" list when the app is installed/updated, so it is weird to see that Android have changed the behaviour.