watchPosition fails if phone in airplane mode

[gruble]

Thank you for providing this excellent software!

We have had this issue since 7.0.0. I just tested 7.1.5 and the problem still occurs.
This was not an issue in Capacitor 6.
This happes only if phone is in airplane mode. Tested on Samsung S10e with Android 12.

When we call Geolocation.watchPosition() we get one callback that contains an error with message "Location settings error" and code "OS-PLUG-GLOC-0016". And the posisition is null. Then we get no more callbacks.

The options we use for watch is:

PositionOptions = {
  enableHighAccuracy: true,
  timeout: 20 * 1000, // 20 sec
  maximumAge: 0, //we do not accept cached positions, ask for GPS position immediately
};

When I debug the plugin itself I can see that the plugin get this exception in startWatch():
com.google.android.gms.common.api.ApiException: 8502: SETTINGS_CHANGE_UNAVAILABLE

I found a similar case here: android/location-samples#47

It is important for us that we can get position data in airplane mode, because our users need to save battery when they use our app in the field.
Is it possible that you can handle this quirk from Android API?

[OS-pedrogustavobilro]

Hey @gruble. This seems to be the same as #31, but there it was reported to no be happening in 7.0.0.

7.1.0 include a bit revamp of the plugin, so I wouldn't be surprised if that error started occurring in that version - if you'd like to check again with version 7.0.0 of the plugin.

[gruble]

Yes, I saw that issue, so I hoped that I was wrong.
I have now tested plugin version 7.0.0 and 7.1.5 again on another phone now, a Galaxy S22, Android 14.
Same error in both versions, I'm afraid.

[eptercom]

Same issue here on both plugin versions, on Android, with both watchPosition and getCurrentPosition.

And going down the rabbit hole it looks a bit tricky to follow, so I'll probably use the browser navigator.geolocation until there's a fix.

[gruble]

It is very good news that you have worked on a fix for this!
I just tested version 8.0.0-next.3 in my app, and it looks that watchPosition() now works in airplane mode on the same phone as before.

What I found a bit strange is that I couldn't find the fix in the source code, neither in the npm-package or in the asset linked from the release notes. I guess that I look in the wrong places, because there are different behaviours in version 7.0.0 and 8.0.0-next.3.

I look forward to release 8. Thanks a lot!
Please tell if I should close the issue before the fix is released.

[OS-pedrogustavobilro]

Hey @gruble, good to know it works for you in the 8.0.0-next, our plan was to update this issue once we roll out 8.0.0 stable.

As to why you can' find the fix in the source code directly, is because a good chunk of the native implementation for this plugin now resides in a separate native library, since 7.1.0, for re-use in other plugins.

The native code changes can be found in ionic-team/ion-android-geolocation#7

Hope this helps clarify.

[OS-pedrogustavobilro]

Hey folks, with version 8.0.0, released earlier this month, you can now receive location with phone being in Airplane mode.

Refer to the documentation for enableLocationFallback on the behavior.

I'll be closing this issue. Feel free to ask any questions or open a new issue if you find some incorrect behavior.

Thank you!