LocationManager: is the "network" provider always enabled?

Question

I want to select a LocationProvider that is enabled in Android. The project build target is Android 2.1.

This is what I do in onCreate().

// ...
LocationManager locationMgr = (LocationManager) 
getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);

Criteria criteria = new Criteria();
criteria.setAccuracy(Criteria.NO_REQUIREMENT);
criteria.setPowerRequirement(Criteria.NO_REQUIREMENT);
criteria.setCostAllowed(false);     

String bestProvider = locationMgr.getBestProvider(criteria, true);  

Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),   "Provider = " + bestProvider + " enabled= " + locationMgr.isProviderEnabled(bestProvider), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
// ...

Now, I switch each network interface off and set flight mode on my device (HTC Desire, Android 2.2). I disconnect the device from USB. There is clearly no provider alive who could actually provide location data to the device. I specifically ask getBestProvider for enabled providers only, so I expect it to return null or an empty string in that case. I expect isProviderEnabled to return false.

The actual result is that getBestProvider returns "network" and isProviderEnabled reports it to be "enabled". Is "network" always "enabled" even when its not?

This might also be caused by Android caching network location, as it is unlikely to change soon because of the coarse granularity. That's just a guess though. — Kevin Read, Feb 06 '11 at 14:42

rgr_mt · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-08T12:12:10.580

After some digging I can answer my own question. First I tried airplane mode with:

ConnectivityManager connectivityMgr = (ConnectivityManager)
getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);

NetworkInfo[] nwInfos = connectivityMgr.getAllNetworkInfo();
for (NetworkInfo nwInfo : nwInfos) {
  Log.d(TAG, "Network Type Name: " + nwInfo.getTypeName());
  Log.d(TAG, "Network available: " + nwInfo.isAvailable());
  Log.d(TAG, "Network c_or-c: " + nwInfo.isConnectedOrConnecting());
  Log.d(TAG, "Network connected: " + nwInfo.isConnected());
}

The ConnectivityManager reports correctly "false" since there is no connection. This is useful to check if you actually have a network and therefore a network-based location provider available. Then I took a second look at my device settings. And here is the answer:

locationMgr.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER)

reports if the user has checked the device setting (in my case under Location - My Location). If you uncheck all providers there it does return null as expected. It is actually documented in isProviderEnabled() but I must have overlooked it . Case closed.

`isProviderEnabled()` should return false in this example, right? You can't have a method with a primitive return type that returns null. Perhaps you mean `getBestProvider()`? — soren.qvist, Feb 19 '13 at 10:44
Did you ever find a solution to this problem? On my Galaxy S IV phone under settings, I have set 'Permissions'-->'Location services'-->'Use wireless networks' to be TRUE. However, if I turn off everything (turn off GPS, WiFi, and cellular radio, and also enable airplane mode), then `isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER)` still returns TRUE. — stackoverflowuser2010, Jan 29 '14 at 20:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '11 at 15:57

Try this

public static boolean isLocationSensingAvailable()
{
    boolean hasActiveLocationProvider = false;
    List<String> providers = locationManager.getProviders(true);
    for (String providerName:providers)
    {
        if (providerName.equals(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER))
        {
            hasActiveLocationProvider = isLocationProviderEnabled(providerName);
        }
        if (providerName.equals(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER))
        {
            hasActiveLocationProvider = ( SpondleApplication.isOnline() &&  isLocationProviderEnabled(providerName));
        }
    }
    return hasActiveLocationProvider;
}

Thanks for the quick response Ollie. I should add that I know how to work around the situation. I am interested to get an answer if the result of **getBestProvider** and **isLocationProviderEnabled** are always like I described, i.e. if "network" is always reported as "enabled" even when it is not. — rgr_mt, Feb 05 '11 at 16:11

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 16 '16 at 08:38

1

You always get true as an answer because you have selected the "Use networks" option in the settings menu. I also had this problem until I found this out. I hope you find this useful.

edited Jun 16 '16 at 08:38

Tomasz Dzieniak

2,765
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answered Feb 02 '12 at 03:25

fergerm

241
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LocationManager: is the "network" provider always enabled?

3 Answers3