iOS 14 Network privacy permission check is not shown after reinstall, nor is the toggle shown in Settings -> Privacy -> Local Network

Yes I can confirm.

I declined permission on my app when the dialog appeared. Afterwards I uninstalled the app.
After reinstallation there is no way to allow local network permission, not from dialog, not from iPhone Settings.

So this means that in my case, the app stops working correctly, this is a very serious bug!

Yes, I too able to reproduce with these steps on one of my iPhoneX( where No SIM card installed) but the other iPhone7 ( where SIM card installed) Apple local network privacy works as expected.

This is extremely serious issue. When our users decline the permissions even by accident and reinstall or just update the app they are no longer able to use our app with devices on local network under any circumstances. In our case the App is POS system and we need to be able to connect to receipt printers in local network. Did anyone get any info regarding this issue from Apple developers? What should we do?

I've sent an email to Quinn "the Eskimo" from Apple, with a request to respond here.

This behavior is ridiculous. Makes it impossible to have an app that can communicate on the network if the user denies permissions when the dialog first appears. This is a huge bug.

I don't understand how something this critical still doesn't have any attention from Apple. Would someone point me to the right direction where I can push for Apple's attention?

Local network privacy presents a number of challenges but this is not one I’ve looked at in depth.

I’ve spent a lot of time investigating local network privacy issues over the past few weeks and I’ve never seen this issue. It’s possible that it only shows up when you install the app from the App Store itself. Can anyone confirm that? That is, does the problem reproduce if you repeat the instructions in Martijn’s original post but, rather than using App Store, use the Finder to install a Development build (one exported from the Xcode Organizer)?

Beyond that, has anyone filed a bug about this? If so, please post your bug number.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

Thank you Quinn, I've filed a bug in Feedback Assistant, see: FB8779490

I can confirm that the issue is still present in iOS 14.0.1 (18A393).

Great news, the problem seems to be resolved in iOS 14.1 (18A8395).
We did multiple tests and every time the app is launched after a re-install, the Local Network permission is shown in the app.
Also the Local Network toggle is present in Settings App -> Privacy -> Local Network.

Added bonus
Finally it's possible to consistently reshow the Local Network permission in the app without uninstalling it first, by going to Settings App -> General -> Reset -> Reset Location & Privacy

Thanks Apple for resolving this.

The issue is back in iOS 14.2.

Apple, Apple, Apple. Shame on you.

Is it possible that CloudKit stops working if the user denies the local network permission? we are experiencing some problems on CloudKit with users getting CKError 3 (no network) while they have 4G and good connection. Now wondering if they chose not to allow the local network permission.

Anybody?
Apple? are you there?
Mr Tim?

Dear Apple,

Every day we receive dozens of angry emails of paid app users.

Our app can't communicate with their devices over the network, because Local Network access is not applied and the toggle is NOT present in the iOS Settings app.

Please have the decency to respond in this forum and/or Feedback Assistant and resolve this asap.
And improve your Source Code Management process, to ensure that resolved issues will be merged in every new release.

Best regards,

Martijn

This has NOT been resolved yet in latest iOS 14.3 beta 2 (18C5054c).

Is everybody still drunk from your M1 launch party?
Come on, fix this asap. We're loosing customers every day due this recurring bug.

I have submitted a bug with FB8978088

I wasn't able to reproduce the bug locally until I updated to the latest iPad-version. It looks like this happens only once after the system has been updated. Afterwards the prompt has been shown correctly

Hi Quinn / Apple team,

Just a heads up that we've also been seeing our customers randomly face this issue since iOS 14 came out as well, particularly when an OS update has occurred.

e.g.

1. User is on version 2.8.15.0 of our app, local network is granted and everything is good.

2. OS is updated (most recently from 14.3->14.4), and that app version suddenly appears to no longer work properly as our local networking calls fail to go through. Local network appears still enabled in the settings.

3. If the user attempts to upgrade to another version of the app, it works just fine. Downgrading back to the problematic version, the issue resurfaces.

We've filed this under FB9019956 in feedback assistant.

thanks,
Colin

Trying to debug this on an iOS 14.4 device right now. Had no alert, nothing in Settings->Privacy->Local Network, resetting Location & Privacy did nothing, ditto deleting/reinstalling the app. Meanwhile all local network access was working. Finally restarted device, deleted app, reset settings, installed app, and now I see the prompt. Except with the prompt up on the screen my URLSessionDataTask fails with an error code of -1009 and a description of The Internet connection appears to be offline which is obviously very unhelpful.

If I allow access by toggling the switch (that has now appeared) on everything works as expected, and if toggle it off my requests immediately start getting the connection offline response again.

How exactly are developers supposed to code around this? We have no way of knowing whether the user has even seen a prompt, never mind how they responded to it. I know that I can set waitsForConnectivity on my URLSessionConfiguration but that just kicks the can down the road if there's no way of identifying a denial.

Edit: I did just set waitsForConnectivity and if I allow the local network access I see the initial request complete successfully, however if I deny the access the request closure does not execute. No failure, just hangs out doing nothing.

I'm receiving complaints from my users due to this issue. Please fix it.

I just ran into this today. Xcode 12.3, 14.3 and 14.4 both do this. My device with iOS 12 doesn't have any issues.

In my case I did a complete reset of my iphone, that temporarily solved my problem, at least I could connect to chromecast with spotify, youtube, etc, in addition to being able to connect a gopro. Apparently everything failed again when my backup was restored. To date I still have the same problem, in the privacy settings the local network is enabled, however every time I want to connect it tells me that I must give access and I cannot see my local network devices. IOS version: 14.4
FIX IT please!

I have the same problem. "Local Network" dialog doesn't appear after uninstall and then install the app. No switcher in the App settings.
But if I delete all apps that use "Local Network", reboot iPhone, and install my app again, the dialog appears and the switcher is visible in the app settings.
In my case, this issue reproduces if you have 2 and more apps that need "Local Network" permission.
iOS 14.3, 14.4

When filtering the Apple Developer forum for the WWDC tag regarding Local Network permission via https://developer.apple.com/forums/tags/wwdc20-10110 , this is the #1 active post.

It's still not resolved, 6 months after the public launch of iOS 14.
As well as my detailed report in Apple Feedback Assistant from October 6, 2020, which refers to his forum post.

2 weeks ago I finally received a response from Apple with, quote "We haven’t had this similar complaint from other developers".
3,8k views and 20 reactions with similar complaints on this forum post...

Common Apple, you can do better. Start taking your devs seriously, who have to deal with customer complaints on a daily basis.

I have angry customers asking me every week, please fix it.

It's strange that even after this long Apple isn't noticing this issue. It is a serious issue.

Our apps are being rejected by Apple due to this reason. Apple this is your own bug. What are we supposed to do ?
Rather than rejecting apps just try to fix this. And God knows how many other users are facing this serious issue.

FIX THIS ASAP.

Have anyone tried restarting their device ?
It WORKED for me !!