Location scanning seems stuck on in 1.2.0-beta.3

[ProjectMoon]

Love the update to Deja Vu.

I noticed that my location indicator was stuck "on" while using Local NLP Backend. It was not microG using the location either, but rather Local NLP Backend itself. Not sure what it was doing, but the location indicator was on for many many minutes. I don't know if this is intended behavior. No GPS app was running either. Phone was otherwise idle.

I had to kill the app to make it stop attempting to acquire location. I also noticed that afterwards when trying to manually scan from the NLP settings, it didn't work until I toggled Local NLP Backend off and on in the microG settings.

[Helium314]

I'm not sure what you mean with "location indicator". Is it the icon showing that some app requests a GPS location? If yes, this really should not happen.

Local NLP Backend should never request GPS location, but only receive location if some other app uses GPS. And this GPS monitoring code is unchanged taken from Deja Vu. The manual scan only requests a network location, but not GPS...

Which Android version are you using? All my testing was done on Android 9, so I fear there may be issues with changed behavior in newer versions.

[ProjectMoon]

I'm on Android 12, Calyx OS 3.8.0. When the backend is enabled, this indicator just says that Local NLP Backend is always using the location.

[ProjectMoon]

When the backend is disabled, the location use stops.

[Helium314]

Could you test whether the same thing happens if you use GPSLogger and set it to only use passive location provider? This basically does the same: it always checks whether some other app uses GPS, and fetches the GPS locations.

If not, then the issue may be that Local NLP Backend still targets API 28 (Android 9). There are some differences and new background location permission in newer API versions...

[DocSniper]

On Android 11 (LOS 18) both backends are in the list.

[Helium314]

@ProjectMoon could you try whether it also happens when the app targets API 33? APK You may need to disable and enable again, so microG asks for background location permission. If it doesn't work you can simply install previous beta3 apk over it again.

[ProjectMoon]

So the new APK seems to work much better. Location doesn't get stuck on. But the backend does acquire location by itself separately sometimes. Don't know if that's intentional or not.

[Helium314]

But the backend does acquire location by itself separately sometimes

I don't know what this exactly means... maybe Android 12 reports WiFi scanning as acquiring location. If this is the case probably there is nothing I can do. How is it with DejaVu? Does it also appear to be scanning location permanently?

[ProjectMoon]

Don't think I've ever seen deja Vu scan for location. But then again, I've never checked. It definitely doesn't get stuck on permanently though.

What does mean is that the location in use indicator shows up periodically as "location in use by local NLP Backend." Wifi scanning is a likely culprit. How often does it scan?

[Helium314]

WiFi scans happen when any app requests a network based location (via microG), or when the device gets a GPS position.

[Helium314]

Actually you could check whether the WiFi scans cause the issues: In the settings you can simply disable WiFi scanning (under Use WiFi locations).

This is not a solution, as the locations will be very inaccurate, but at least this way we know whether WiFi scanning is causing the "being used by..." to show up. (you can also try disabling cell tower locations if WiFI locations doesn't change anything...)

[ProjectMoon]

I actually currently have wifi scanning turned off. Didn't even know it was off.

[ProjectMoon]

Do you mean we wifi scanning in the app? Or android settings?

[Helium314]

I mean in the app, in the settings you can access via microG.

[ProjectMoon]

Turned off the wifi scans in the app, and it still grabs location sometimes.

[famo]

I can confirm the issue with the permanent location on. Happened to me on two devices with Android 8.1 and 10.

[Helium314]

Android 8 doesn't have an indicator as shown in https://github.com/Helium314/Local-NLP-Backend/issues/2#issuecomment-1242711610. On Android 8 there only is a GPS indicator that shows when GPS is being used. But 1.2.0-beta.3 doesn't even have the capability of enabling GPS.

Can you maybe describe what you mean?

[famo]

Well, the location icon is permanently displayed (ie. location is requested) in the status bar. Normally you enable location and the icon only pops up once you actually have a location request (eg opened a map app). I hope this makes it more clear...?

[Helium314]

So this is the GPS indicator then... Android 8 doesn't show any icon when only network based location is requested, as far as I know.

Which version are you using? Ability to enable GPS was only added in 1.2.1 (active mode in settings), but it's disabled by default, and additionally it shows a notification when GPS is enabled.

[famo]

I'm using Version 1.2.2-beta.1 from F-Droid repo. And the active mode is disabled (everything was left to default values).

[Helium314]

So how does it happen? If you enable the backend, the location symbol shows up, and if you disable it the symbol is gone?

Does the same happen when you use DejaVu? If not, do you remember if this also happened in 1.2.0? Is there a notification shown?

[Mrnofish]

Not sure how relevant, the location warning comes up when viewing the location module details in MicroG and goes away soon afterwards. LOS20 and 1.2.5.