bug: app permissions do not update immediately when changed in settings

[shrouxm]

App Version

1.0.0 (160)

Account

No response

Platforms

• [ ] iOS
• [ ] Android
• [ ] iOS simulator
• [ ] Android emulator

Description

The expo permissions hooks do not seem to update when permissions are modified via either platform's settings page or the app. See steps to reproduce for a more detailed account. I have filed a bug with expo so hopefully it can get fixed upstream, and tried some workarounds to fix but none that didn't create other weird behaviors so I'm giving up for now.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Navigate to a screen that has a permissions interaction (e.g. home screen, soil color screen in the photo workflow).
2. Deny the relevant permission, or turn it off in settings.
3. Press the button that initiates the permissions interaction (e.g. location button on home screen map, "Use camera" button in photo workflow).
4. Deny the permission again if the system prompt appears until the "go to settings" modal appears.
5. Hit the "go to settings" button.
6. Enable the relevant permission.
7. Return to the app and hit the button that initiates the permissions interaction again.

Expected behavior

The button should do what it's supposed to do since the user has now granted permission.

Actual behavior

The button displays the "go to settings" modal again.

Additional context

This affects:

• the home screen
• the soil color data input's photo workflow
• the slope meter screen

I tried to workaround by requesting permissions at the time the user presses the button rather than via the hook, but couldn't get that to work in a way that fits the different behaviors of all the screens this affects.

Some other possible workarounds:

• use a combination of the hook and permission requests at time of button press
• somehow use RN's AppState API to resolve the bug downstream
  • You could update permissions when the app comes back into focus... but that doesn't help with granting permissions within the app

Notes

• I believe the permissions returned by the hook (like useForegroundPermissions()) are correct only immediately after one of the async functions it returns (getPermissions or requestPermissions) are called. Otherwise, the hook may return an outdated permission status. And updating app permissions will not trigger a re-render because the hook is not listening for changes to app permissions.

[Silva404]

const [status, requestPermission, asyncStatus] = ImagePicker.useCameraPermissions();

if you check the first status, its not updated but the asyncStatus is and after you start using the async status, the sync status is finally updated, not sure why, but if you dont request the async, the sync one is always stale.

Anyways, requesting the ImagePicker.getMediaLibraryPermissionsAsync as a fallback for the sync status worked for me, the same applies for the ImagePicker.getCameraPermissionsAsync

[DerekCaelin]

Might be dependent on an upstream fix, let's see if we can find a workaround. If there is an outside dependency, leave a note.

[knipec]

Here's where we're at after PR #2167 – if you run into a bug like this:

• The preferred option would be to follow the pattern with in appPermissionsHooks.ts and AppPermissionsContext.tsx, to make a new hook that does update when app permissions update.
• A less preferred second option, if your issue is that you have a component that is a) using the expo-supplied permission hook, b) failing to update when permissions change, and c) is also a parent of PermissionsRequestWrapper: your component can try setting the wrapper’s permissionedAction to the GetPermissionMethod returned by the hook to your component
• If you fix this bug for all permissions, update the comment pointing to this issue in PermissionsRequestWrapper
• If expo ever fixes this, we can remove all our appPermissions stuff and just use their hooks again