We detected that your app contains at least one feature that requests access to location in the background

[RobertSasak]

My app was taken down from Google Play Store due

Background location access not declared
We detected that your app contains at least one feature that requests access to location in the background, however your permission declaration form did not reflect this. Please log in to your Play Console to resubmit your location declaration form. You may either remove location in the background from your app or indicate that the usage is in the background.

In other words Google is saying that I declared my app to only use location while app is in foreground but the app is requesting location while the app is int the background. By background in this case mean when user switch away from the app.

With this post I would like to get feedback from the community. I am quite sure that there are many apps that does not use location in the background and still complaint with Google Policy.

Things I tried

• remove ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission from AndroidManifest.xml. I double checked with Android Studio > Build > Analyze Apk that final build manifest does not contain this permission.
• update targetSdkVersion = 30. Location permissions has changed a lot between 29 and 30. Especially background one.
• do not ask for location nor use location in the app. I have removed <MapboxGL.UserLocation/> but Google Play Store still complains that app is requesting location in background.

Why is this so hard to solve?

• Google does not provide any helpful information. I only get an email saying that apk with build id does not complain with location policy.
• In order to try something I need to submit a new version of the app to Google Play Store and wait several hours to get automatic email from Store.
• I do not know how to attach debugger to location provider to see who and when is asking for location updates.
• Location permissions has changes from version to version. It is possible that some version of Android is affected.

Observations

GPS icon stays on when switching away from app

One of my phones(Huawer Y6 PRO 2019) shows GPS icon in status bar when GPS is in used. This GPS icon appears when app start to use location but stays on even when switching away from the app. The icon stays on until I kill the app.

I experiment a bit and found that I can change renderMode from native to normal. In normal mode the GPS icon disappear when switching away from app. So it seems that there is an issue in logic when app is paused.

<MapboxGL.UserLocation renderMode="normal" />

I created an issue for this as well with more info. https://github.com/react-native-mapbox-gl/maps/issues/1363

Minimal test

It is quite timeconsuming to know whether build comply with Google Policy. Every time I need to submit a new build to Google Play and wait several hours and see whether submitted bundle is affected. Here are so far my findings.

No map (OK)

import { Text } from 'native-base'
import { AppRegistry } from 'react-native'
import { hide } from 'react-native-bootsplash'

const App = () => <Text>Here comes app</Text>
hide()
AppRegistry.registerComponent('xxx', () => App)

Map only (REJECTED)

import React from 'react'
import { AppRegistry } from 'react-native'
import { hide } from 'react-native-bootsplash'
import { mapboxApiKey } from './constants'

import MapboxGL from '@react-native-mapbox-gl/maps'

hide()

MapboxGL.setAccessToken(mapboxApiKey)

const App = () => (
    <MapboxGL.MapView
        style={{
            flex: 1,
        }}
    />
)
AppRegistry.registerComponent('xxx', () => App)

export default App

Ask for permissions before rendering map (REJECTED)

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react'
import { AppRegistry, Text } from 'react-native'
import { hide } from 'react-native-bootsplash'
import { mapboxApiKey } from './constants'

import MapboxGL from '@react-native-mapbox-gl/maps'

hide()

MapboxGL.setAccessToken(mapboxApiKey)
const style = {
    flex: 1,
}

const App = () => {
    const [permission, setPermission] = useState(false)
    const [isRequesting, setIsRequesting] = useState(true)
    useEffect(() => {
        MapboxGL.requestAndroidLocationPermissions().then((a) => {
            setPermission(a)
            setIsRequesting(false)
        })
    }, [])

    if (isRequesting) {
        return null
    }
    return (
        <>
            {!permission && (
                <Text style={{ paddingTop: 100 }}>
                    You need to accept location permissions in order to use this
                    applications.
                </Text>
            )}
            {permission && <MapboxGL.MapView style={style} />}
        </>
    )
}
AppRegistry.registerComponent('xxx', () => App)

export default App

[RobertSasak]

After a week of struggle my app is back in the Google Play Store. Here are things that I have done and not have done.

• I did NOT updated production bundle
• I replaced old APK in internal testing with empty app bundle
• I got email that my full description in polish, spanish and french do not comply with store policy and cannot contain words "hiking, hiking". Non of those words were in any of my full description. I removed one trailing space after a sentense so that I can save the same full description as a "new" one. One cannot click on Save button unless some change is made in full description. I submit my changes full description for review. My app passed the review and is back in store.

Summary

It seems that Google has a bug when it evaluates whether app is using location in the background. To me it sounds that it checks internal,alpha and beta channels and incorrectly mark production builds as the issue.

Solution

Make sure that you do not use location while your app is in the background. Remove ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission from AndroidManifest.xml.

📍Replace all your old apk and bundles in old internal, alpha, beta channels with newer build of your app.