ios - CLLocationManager() requestWhenInUseAuthorization() shows up and disappears on simulator and does not show up on actual device

Question

I want to know the user's current location. But since I want to get this location from multiple places, I made a function for it instead of setting a particular UIViewController as delegate handler.

Methods to get user location:

func getUserLocation(completion: @escaping (String?) -> Void) {
    
    let locationManager = CLLocationManager()
    let geoCoder = CLGeocoder()
    
    let authorizationStatus = CLLocationManager.authorizationStatus()
    print("Authorization status: ", authorizationStatus.rawValue, " ," , CLAuthorizationStatus.notDetermined.rawValue)
    
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.notDetermined {
        print("Asking for location authorization")
        locationManager.requestWhenInUseAuthorization()
    }
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.denied {
        completion(nil)
    }
    
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.authorizedWhenInUse || authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.authorizedAlways {
        if CLLocationManager.locationServicesEnabled() {
                guard let currentLocation = locationManager.location else { return completion(nil) }

                geoCoder.reverseGeocodeLocation(currentLocation) { (placemarks, error) in
                    guard let currentLocPlacemark = placemarks?.first else { return completion(nil) }
                    print(currentLocPlacemark.country ?? "No country found")
                    print(currentLocPlacemark.isoCountryCode ?? "No country code found")
                    guard let isoCode = currentLocPlacemark.isoCountryCode else { return completion(nil) }
                    
                    completion(isoCode)
                }
            }
    }
}

func incrementLocationInFirebase() {
    getUserLocation { (location) in
        if let location = location {
            //Save Location to Firebase
            print("Location: ", location)
        }
    }
}

func decrementLocationInFirebase() {
    // Fetch saved location
    // Decrement from firebase
}

I have set 2 description string:

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

I call incrementLocationInFirebase() from my main view controller from viewDidAppear. The location request pops up briefly on the simulator before disappearing. But the popup is not interactable when it is briefly visible. And it never shows up on the actual device.

Output on simulator:

Answer 1

Turns out I had the same issue as this post: Alert view disappears on its own when calling [locationManager requestWhenInUseAuthorization];.

So now I create the location manager in my main UIViewController and pass it to the handling function.

func getUserLocation(locationManager: CLLocationManager, completion: @escaping (String?) -> Void) {
    
//    let locationManager = CLLocationManager()
    let geoCoder = CLGeocoder()
    
    let authorizationStatus = CLLocationManager.authorizationStatus()
    print("Authorization status: ", authorizationStatus.rawValue, " ," , CLAuthorizationStatus.notDetermined.rawValue)
    
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.notDetermined {
        print("Asking for location authorization")
        locationManager.requestWhenInUseAuthorization()
    }
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.denied {
        completion(nil)
    }
    
    if authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.authorizedWhenInUse || authorizationStatus == CLAuthorizationStatus.authorizedAlways {
        if CLLocationManager.locationServicesEnabled() {
                guard let currentLocation = locationManager.location else { return completion(nil) }

                geoCoder.reverseGeocodeLocation(currentLocation) { (placemarks, error) in
                    guard let currentLocPlacemark = placemarks?.first else { return completion(nil) }
                    print(currentLocPlacemark.country ?? "No country found")
                    print(currentLocPlacemark.isoCountryCode ?? "No country code found")
                    guard let isoCode = currentLocPlacemark.isoCountryCode else { return completion(nil) }
                    
                    completion(isoCode)
                }
            }
    }
}

func incrementLocationInFirebase(locationManager: CLLocationManager) {
    getUserLocation(locationManager: locationManager) { (location) in
        if let location = location {
            //Save Location to Firebase
            print("Location: ", location)
        }
    }
}