owner profile location switch affects 2nd profile

huberto

Hello,
for a reason I don't want to enable location (enerally, neither GNSS nor network location) in the owner profile.
As service location provider I enabled the new network location (setting only available in owner profile), but the 'location' switch is off.

I would have expected that any other profile now can make use of the network location provider, as long as the corresponding profile has the general location switch turned on.
But this is only true if also the owner [profile0] has location generally enabled. If it's disabled for the owner, network location doesn't work in any other profile too.
The cross-profile influence only affects, network location service provider, GNSS works as expected (independent of the owner profile settings).
Will this be fixed, or is it by design?

other8026

huberto But this is only true if also the owner [profile0] has location generally enabled. If it's disabled for the owner, network location doesn't work in any other profile too.

I just tried on my phone with owner's location turned off and location worked in a different profile.

Is Wi-Fi scanning on in the other profile? Have you enabled Wi-Fi? What happens if you turn off location in the owner profile, then turn it on in a secondary user profile with airplane mode on and connected to a Wi-Fi network?

GrapheneOS

huberto This is currently how it's intended to work because the OS location services are global and the Network Location app runs as part of the Owner user. The OS doesn't have separate location services for each user but rather global services used from each user.

huberto

other8026

The described behaviour only occurs if W-Fi is off and Wi-Fi background scanning is enabled (in the foreground profile).
See this MD table:

|                           | Profile0     | Profile10 | Profile11             |
| ------------------------- | ------------ | --------- | --------------------- |
| Location (general switch) | off          | ON        | ON                    |
| WiFi (general switch)     | off          | off       | off                   |
| Wi-Fi background scanning | ON           | off       | ON                    |
|                           | OK: no NL    | OK: no NL | **unexpected**: no NL |
|                           |              |           |                       |
| Location (general switch) | ON           | ON        | ON                    |
| WiFi (general switch)     | off          | off       | off                   |
| Wi-Fi background scanning | ON           | off       | ON                    |
|                           | OK: NL works | OK: no NL | OK: NL works          |

The general location switch in profile0 (owner) influences background Wi-Fi scanning in secondary profiles, where the effect is only visible if Wi-Fi general switch is off.
If Wi-Fi isn't disabled (hence background Wi-Fi scan setting doesn't matter), there's no influence on secondary profiles whether general location switch is on or off in profile0 (owner).

other8026

huberto is Settings > Apps > Sandboxed Google Play > Reroute location requests to the OS enabled?

huberto

other8026

N/A, no GMS-compat installed.

pixel2026

GrapheneOS

The problem is, that such basic information is either not documented or it is written "somewhere" instead of in a basic primer how to configure a new device. You can't really expect all people to first read all of the documentation - a basic guideline should be available to avoid bad decisions.

I just got my first GraphenOS installation on a Pixel 9a and did not use the Owner profile at all, and added a user profile with Google Play Store and one without.

And after having problems with Location service, I only now found this information.

So, in the Owner profile we need to allow Location services, as otherwise other profiles cannot use them at all?

Could you elaborate if the same is true for other settings, features or capabilities?
Are there other toggles and permissions that should be enabled in Owner profile?

If there are more such things, it may have been better to only use the Owner profile and one additional profile for Google Play Services. But that is to late now, if there is no back to migrate everything from one profile to another :-D

Great many thanks for any advice and recommendation!

pixel2026

pixel2026 This is a nice overview:

https://seprand.github.io/articles/best-user-profile-setup/