I’m encountering an issue with location permissions in my React Native iOS app. When the permission prompt appears, I select “When In Use” for location access, but when I later check the “Always” permission, it’s also granted, even though I never selected it.

Here’s my code:

if (Platform.OS === 'ios') {
    console.log('Requesting "When In Use" location permission for iOS...');
    const whenInUseStatus = await request(PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE);
    console.log('whenInUseStatus:', whenInUseStatus);

    if (whenInUseStatus === RESULTS.GRANTED) {
        // Checking for "Always" permission
        const alwaysStatus = await check(PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_ALWAYS);
        console.log('alwaysStatus:', alwaysStatus);

        if (alwaysStatus !== RESULTS.GRANTED) {
            Alert.alert(
                'Enable "Always" Location Access',
                'To provide a better experience, please enable "Always" location access in the app settings.',
                [
                    {
                        text: 'Go to Settings',
                        onPress: () => {
                            Linking.openURL('app-settings:');
                        },
                    },
                    { text: 'Cancel', style: 'cancel' },
                ]
            );
        }
    }
}

In Info.plist, I have these added:

• NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription
• NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription
• NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription

The popup shows the correct options for “When In Use”, “Only Once” and “Never”. However, when I select “When In Use”, I’m finding that the app also gets the “Always” permission granted, which is not what I expect.

Has anyone faced a similar issue where selecting “When In Use” also grants the “Always” permission? Why might this be happening, and how can I ensure that “Always” is only granted when explicitly selected?

Any guidance would be appreciated!

I expected that when I selected “When In Use” location permission in the popup, only that permission would be granted. However, after selecting “When In Use”, I checked the “Always” permission, and it was also granted, which is not what I expected. I tried checking the status of both permissions using request and check, but I’m still seeing this behavior.