Location.getCurrentPositionAsync not working on Android

expo: v22.0.0 Android: 6.0.1

export const getLocationAsync = async () => {
  let { status } = await Permissions.askAsync(Permissions.LOCATION);
  if (status !== 'granted') {
    throw new Error('Location permission not granted');
  }
  return await Location.getCurrentPositionAsync({ enableHighAccuracy: false, maximumAge: 15000 });
};

askAsync is working fine. But getCurrentPositionAsync will keep running forever. Setting any timeout will eventually go into Error: Location request timed out.

I have tried it in real device v6.0.1 (nexus 5). I have also tried Android 5 and 6 in simulator. No luck for all of them.

I guess this code may have some hints to it.

Actually I have been waiting for the fix since expo v18.0.0. I saw some issues somewhat related to this, but I could not find any solution. Any update on this will be very much appreciated.

[hugogrochau]

My app depends greatly on Location Services, and after getting bug reports from some users we decided to investigate it further. We’ve mapped out some current problems, I hope it helps:

• With enableHighAccurary: false and GPS only mode Location.getCurrentPositionAsync hangs indefinitely
• With enableHighAccurary: true and GPS only mode Location.getCurrentPositionAsync hangs indefinitely
• With enableHighAccuracy: true and high accuracy mode Location.getCurrentPositionAsync sometimes takes over 5 seconds to return
• On some phones no configuration combination works. Location.getCurrentPositionAsync always errors with “Location services are disabled” or hangs indefinitely. It seems to happen mostly with Motorola phones. I was able to reproduce this on a Moto G4 device running Android 7.1.

I’ve also prepared a snack to facilitate tests. It’s configured to timeout after 5s instead of hanging indefinitely while running Location.getCurrentPositionAsync: https://snack.expo.io/@hugogrochau/location-tests

[carsonwah]

@raajnadar You are right!

If I set it to “Device only”, it halts forever at getCurrentPositionAsync(), and return timeout error, which matches the behaviour described above.

Result from Location.getProviderStatusAsync() when “Device only”:

{
  "gpsAvailable": true,
  "locationServicesEnabled": true,
  "networkAvailable": false,  // <-- This
  "passiveAvailable": true,
}

Maybe GPS on its own is useless for Expo apps, because Location.getCurrentPositionAsync() needs network to work?

Not sure if this is the source of this error. But I can now provide more instruction to user to enable the location function. Thanks!

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@nikki93 I think at least this setting options can be put in Expo Location doc as the behaviour (halting forever) is unexpected and hard to debug.