requestAlwaysAuthorization not showing permission

Question

I'm trying to use some fancy iBeacons without success, kCLAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined all time. According to other questions it's a requirement to add those keys to info.plist (some questions says one, other says both). According to an article for iBeacons I need the Always option.

<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>Nothing to say</string>
<key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>Permiso para acceder siempre</string>

At viewDidAppear:

self.locManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc]init];
self.locManager.delegate = self;
[self.locManager requestAlwaysAuthorization];
NSUUID* region1UUID = [[NSUUID alloc]initWithUUIDString:@""]; //ibeacon real UUID between "". Checked it's not nil.

self.beaconRegion = [[CLBeaconRegion alloc]
                                initWithProximityUUID:proximityUUID
                                identifier:@"myCoolString"];

self.beaconRegion.notifyEntryStateOnDisplay = YES;
self.beaconRegion.notifyOnEntry = YES;
self.beaconRegion.notifyOnExit = NO;
[self.locManager startMonitoringForRegion:self.beaconRegion];
[self.locManager startRangingBeaconsInRegion:self.beaconRegion];

Icon didn't appear at Settings/Privacy/Location until it was executed one of the two last methods. The Alert View to approve permissions never appears. If I perform a manual change at Location Settings and check it it will change status but at a few moments later Location at Settings will delete "Always" status for my app and will leave it blank again. Later I check with no luck

-(void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didChangeAuthorizationStatus:(CLAuthorizationStatus)status {

Any ideas what is missing or wrong? Thank you

Answer 1

Make sure you add the keys to the correct Info.plist file. Don't forget there's one for your App and one for AppTest.

Answer 2

Had exactly the same problem. It turned out that in my case the NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription was required in my InfoPlist.strings localization files as well. Having NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription in Info.plist wasn't enough...

Answer 3

I have noticed that if your instance of CLLocationManager is destroyed before the alert shows, you will never see the alert. In my case I was creating a local variable of the location manager in the AppDelegate to ask for permission.

CLLocationManager *locationManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc] init];
if ([locationManager respondsToSelector:@selector(requestAlwaysAuthorization)]) {
    [locationManager requestAlwaysAuthorization];
}

Changing the local variable to an instance variable made the alert to display:

@interface AppDelegate () {
    CLLocationManager *_locationManager;
}
@end

_locationManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc] init];
if ([_locationManager respondsToSelector:@selector(requestAlwaysAuthorization)]) {
    [_locationManager requestAlwaysAuthorization];
}

Answer 4

Found, documented at forums and tested it's an Objective-C iOS 8 related bug. Same code written in Swift just works. Working swift code, delegate is call.

Add Core Location framework to Project Settings / Targets / Capabilities / Background Modes set "Location Updates" and "Uses Bluetooth LE Accessories" Add key at Info.plist NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription

import CoreLocation

class ViewController: UIViewController, CLLocationManagerDelegate  {

var locManager: CLLocationManager?

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.locManager = CLLocationManager();
    self.locManager!.delegate = self;
    if (!CLLocationManager.locationServicesEnabled()) {
        println("Location services are not enabled");
    }
    self.locManager!.requestAlwaysAuthorization();
    self.locManager!.pausesLocationUpdatesAutomatically = false;
    let uuidString = ""  // My ibeacon string there
    let beaconIdentifier = "myCompany"
    let beaconUUID:NSUUID = NSUUID(UUIDString: uuidString)
    let beaconRegion:CLBeaconRegion = CLBeaconRegion(proximityUUID: beaconUUID,
        identifier: beaconIdentifier)
    self.locManager!.startMonitoringForRegion(beaconRegion)
    self.locManager!.startRangingBeaconsInRegion(beaconRegion)
    self.locManager!.startUpdatingLocation()
}

Dialog appears OK

Answer 5

I got a similar problem recently with IOS 11 when I tried to use

locationManager.requestAlwaysAuthorization()

The solution for me was to add all the 4 permissions in plist.info to get the alert:

• Privacy - Location When In Use Usage Description
• Privacy - Location Usage Description
• Privacy - Location Always Usage Description
• Privacy - Location Always and When In Use Usage Description

Answer 6

It will show a prompt when the location permission for your app isn't set and once when 'in use' location permission for your app is set, subsequent calls do not show (and I don't think there is any API feedback that the call was swallowed).

From Apple docs:

Discussion When the current authorization status is notDetermined , this method runs asynchronously and prompts the user to grant permission to the app to use location services. The user prompt contains the text from the NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription key in your app’s Info.plist file, and the presence of that key is required when calling this method. After the status is determined, the location manager delivers the results to the delegate’s locationManager(:didChangeAuthorization:) method. If the current authorization status is anything other than notDetermined, this method does nothing and does not call the locationManager(:didChangeAuthorization:) method, with one exception. If your app has never requested always authorization and its current authorization status is authorizedWhenInUse , you may call this method one time to try and change your app's authorization status to authorizedAlways .