Windows 11 and Location Inaccessible

[abureaux]

A user is reporting "Location Inaccessible" on a windows 11 machine.

Typically, I'd have the user go to "Location privacy settings" and check off "Allow apps to access your location". That has already been done and the issue persists.

I don't have Windows 11 yet, so I am unsure if there is something extra in Windows 11 that needs to be done.

[ZacharySutherby]

Hello @abureaux, 

If the user downloads a third party app like Windows Maps for example is that app able to access their location? 

[abureaux]

Yes, their location services are working on the PC and they can use location-based mapping apps successfully.

They told me that the issue seems to be intermittent, but I don't see any pattern yet.

I know that on any PC when you sleep the PC with S123 open, you are likely to get this error after waking the PC. However, it goes away very quickly and remains away while the PC is running (at least from what I've seen with Win 10). From what I have seen with this user, this doesn't seem to be the case here (i.e., the issue pops up during regular PC operation and then doesn't seem to go away... but it isn't consistent).

[ZacharySutherby]

Hey @abureaux, 

Thank you for testing! Just to confirm when the behavior is observed and Survey123 isn't reporting a location at the same time is Windows maps reporting a location? Or is it if Survey123 isn't reporting a location Windows maps also doesn't report a location? 

[abureaux]

Apologies. Wasn't able to test that since the issue is weirdly intermittent. I think we will keep monitoring for now. The next time this happens though, I will have the user check the other mapping service to see if the issue is S123 exclusive.

(Given the current vacation schedule, it will likely be a while before this can be tested though).

[RobertAnderson3]

Are they running it on a virtualized environment?

We've had issues with this as well (on Windows 10) with our virtual machines and AppVolumes where when a user opens Survey123 with the Allow apps to access your location setting turned on, it can't find the location (it might briefly, but then tries again and loses it), but thinks it can because it has access, and then spawns an endless cycle of the Location Error message rendering the app unusable.

Luckily the surveys they're using on desktop don't require location, so we've been telling users just to turn off Allow apps to access your location to use the app (though the Instaclones default it on, so they need to change this setting every day they need to use Survey123, which isn't ideal but that's not an Esri issue). 

I would very much like a setting in the desktop Survey123 Field App to turn off looking for location for this reason.

[abureaux]

I doubt that is the case with this user (re: virtual environment).

For now, I've told them to just close the dialogue box when it appears. As mentioned, the user is on Windows 11, so is using a desktop PC where they technically don't need location services turned on. Really, it's just an annoying and persistent popup.

Fingers crossed that a future Windows update is the solution.

Agreed. A setting to ignore location services would be ideal. Then, they could make it one of the optional registry settings and I could push it company wide and never hear of this again!

[RobertAnderson3]

Yeah having it as an optional registry settings would be ideal. I already had to mess with these on the AppVolumes because the URL scheme to open the app wouldn't trigger it, so what's one more?

I'll have to check and see if there's an idea in the board already for this..

[abureaux]

If you find one or end up making one, feel free to link back here to get a few more votes!

[RobertAnderson3]

I couldn't find a previous idea post so I created one: Option to Disable Location on Survey123 Desktop Ap... - Esri Community