Brave-browser: Brave on macOS Catalina won’t get any location

[thommesborg]

I’ve created issue #5795 before to show that Brave on macOS gets wrong location information. As that issue got renamed and is now used to discuss wrong localization of Brave across all possible OS‘, I was advised to create a new issue for:

Brave on macOS Catalina won’t get any location - starting with macOS Catalina 10.15.1

Steps to Reproduce

1. Make sure you’re on macOS Catalina 10.15.1
2. visit Google Maps or similar, like Open Street Maps
3. if not happened before, grant location-access if you see a browser prompt
4. realize that Brave, like Chrome, won’t fetch any location.

Expected result:

See your location marked on the map

Reproduces how often:

Always

Brave version (brave://version info)

I think it was 1.0.1 — at the moment I’m writing this using my iPad — but I’m sure I’m always checking with the latest stable browser release.

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel? N/A
• Can you reproduce this issue with the dev channel? N/A
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel? N/A

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? No
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards? No (not in use)
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? Yes!

[thommesborg]

Additional information:

I’ve checked the behavior with today’s update to version 1.1.20 (Chromium 79) and the issue is still there.

[thommesborg]

Addition:

Today I've checked with
Brave 1.1.21
Chromium: 79.0.3945.79 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Sadly the issue persists.

[thommesborg]

Updated to macOS Catalina 10.15.2 and the issue persists.

[fharper]

My guess is that it's because of the new privacy system in Catalina. Brave need to ask location permission at the system level, and the user need to authorize it so it will be added in the "Security & Privacy > Privacy > Location Services" apps list.

[thommesborg]

Hi @fharper good guess, but we had no entry in the system settings before Catalina. After granting permission for location since Catalina Brave also don't show up in the system settings.

This could have changed with Catalina. But who to blame here? Brave or Apple? I posted to the Apple forums as well but without any help there.

[fharper]

I think Apple reinforces the security process a lot. When I installed the OS, I got a lot of popups asking me for many permission for all apps that were doing fine before. Anyway, it's just an idea as I didn't look at the code at all.

[bsclifton]

I do believe Catalina will ask for permissions, but as weird as this sounds, it won't ask for Location Services. We use a Mozilla endpoint that is used for Firefox Nightly, so system location services are never queried

For what it's worth, I did have to add Brave under Security & Privacy => Accessibility under Allow the apps below to control your computer.

[fharper]

@bsclifton unfortunately, adding Brace in accessibility didn't solve my issue.

[thommesborg]

@bsclifton Catalina isn't the one who ask for permission, it's Brave or Chrome that ask for permission. Both don't show up under Security > Privacy > Location Services and never did before Catalina.

[thommesborg]

For your interest: Chrome is having the same issue so I reported that bug on the chromium site.
The bug is assigned and the staff tries to fix it.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1035290

[bsclifton]

@thommesborg thanks for reporting! Looks like they're making progress 😄 (able to reproduce)

[AlmogBaku]

any update?

Edit: enabling this flag solved it for me brave://flags/#enable-core-location-implementation

[thommesborg]

HI @AlmogBaku this flag comes as a result of my and multiple other bug-reports at the chromium bug tracker:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1035290
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/070f60a2a157fc10710a85d0b93454e7241b330f

Brave-devs once decided to walk their own way for fetching location, to no avail in between. But as Brave is still a Chromium browser, it takes advantage of the Chrome-devs efforts to fix this issue. Use that flag, it works.

[fharper]

The flag solved it for me also on Brave!