Exception occurred while executing exported method askAsync on module ExpoPermissions: null

[janicduplessis]

🐛 Bug Report

I'm getting this error in production:

Encountered an exception while calling native method: Exception occurred while executing exported method askAsync on module ExpoPermissions: null

Happened 429 times for 89 users over 25 days.

Environment

Android, regular RN project with unimodules

Steps to Reproduce

I cannot reproduce locally. I'm pretty sure it comes from this call:

const { status } = await Permissions.askAsync(Permissions.NOTIFICATIONS);

Expected Behavior

No error

Actual Behavior

It doesn't seem to cause a noticeable issue, afaik there is no need to require permissions for notifications on Android. Not sure what the code that ask notif permissions does on Android.

Reproducible Demo

N/A

[janicduplessis]

Here's a more detailled breakdown of android versions:

I tried reproducing on a Android 9 simulator but no luck there. The only Android device I have currently is on Android 7.1.2 and also doesn't repro.

[lukmccall]

Hi @janicduplessis, which version of expo-permissions do you use?
It'll be nice if you also provide a part of your packages.json, which contains expo related dependencies.

[AryanJ-NYC]

@lukmccall I get a similar error. Am using:

    "expo": "~36.0.2",
    "expo-analytics-amplitude": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-camera": "^8.0.0",
    "expo-constants": "^8.0.0",
    "expo-contacts": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-font": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-image-picker": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-linear-gradient": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-mail-composer": "~8.0.0",
    "expo-permissions": "~8.0.0",

I was also asking for Android notification permissions which are a normal category permission.

I've changed my code to something like:

if (Platform.OS === 'ios')
  await Permissions.askAsync(Permissions.NOTIFICATIONS)

[WouterFlorijn]

@lukmccall any idea if there's a possible workaround or fix for this? We're having the same issue and it's blocking our release since we updated Expo.

My reproduction steps (for both production and development):

• Install the app.
• Disable push notifications in Android settings.
• Call Permissions.askAsync(Permissions.NOTIFICATIONS)

Result: nothing happens for the user, and the console shows the error mentioned in the issue.

[Phillip-Cognativ]

@WouterFlorijn

My working solution is to keep a list of dangerous Android permissions, and only prompt an Android user for those permissions, ignoring normal permissions. Notifications is a normal permission so it is set automatically and I don't think expo-permissions is able to prompt the user to reset it if they have manually disabled it like you have done.

export const PERMISSIONS: {[key: string]: Permission } = {
  CALENDAR: EXPermissions.CALENDAR,
  CAMERA: EXPermissions.CAMERA,
  CONTACTS: EXPermissions.CONTACTS,
  LOCATION: EXPermissions.LOCATION,
  MICROPHONE: EXPermissions.AUDIO_RECORDING,
  CAMERA_ROLL: EXPermissions.CAMERA_ROLL,
  LOCAL_NOTIFICATIONS: EXPermissions.USER_FACING_NOTIFICATIONS,
  NOTIFICATIONS: EXPermissions.NOTIFICATIONS,
  SETTINGS: EXPermissions.SYSTEM_BRIGHTNESS,
};

export const DANGEROUS_PERMISSIONS: Permission[] = [
  PERMISSIONS.CALENDAR,
  PERMISSIONS.CAMERA,
  PERMISSIONS.CONTACTS,
  PERMISSIONS.LOCATION,
  PERMISSIONS.AUDIO_RECORDING,
  PERMISSIONS.CAMERA_ROLL,
  PERMISSIONS.SYSTEM_BRIGHTNESS,
];

[BrodaNoel]

I'm having the same problem and I only use

Permissions.askAsync(Permissions.USER_FACING_NOTIFICATIONS)

[yangga]

Same here. Does anyone have a solution for this?

[yasahmed]

any solution ?

[lukmccall]

Hi @yasahmed. Could you provide logs from your device? Or provide more details about your environment, android version? It'll be nice if you also create a simple demo that can reproduce this bug.

I've looked at this bug in the past, but unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce it.

[Speedy1991]

Hi @lukmccall

import {Permissions} from 'react-native-unimodules'
const {granted} = await Permissions.askAsync(
    Permissions.USER_FACING_NOTIFICATIONS,
    Permissions.NOTIFICATIONS,
  )

Leads to
[Mon Jun 22 2020 10:00:20.368] WARN 0 [Error: Encountered an exception while calling native method: Exception occurred while executing exported method askAsync on module ExpoPermissions: permission cannot be null or empty]

Strangely calling getAsync returns always true (even it is disabled via android app settings)

 const {granted, canAskAgain} = await Permissions.getAsync(
    Permissions.USER_FACING_NOTIFICATIONS,
    Permissions.NOTIFICATIONS,
  )
  // granted: true, canAskAgain: true

Setup (Bare Project):

"react": "16.13.1",
"react-native": "0.62.2",
"react-native-unimodules": "0.9.1",

Tested on a real Android 9 device with disabled notifications

[lukmccall]

Hi @Speedy1991, the bug which you found isn't connected with this issue. So, I've created a separate issue for this (see #8909).
It concerns problems with the askAsync method. The issue with getAsync was fixed by #8539 and it will be available in the SDK 38.

[RodolfoGS]

Same here:

Encountered an exception while calling native method: Exception occurred while executing exported method askAsync on module ExpoPermissions: permission cannot be null or empty

I can't reproduce it, I get that errors in Sentry.

  Expo CLI 3.21.13 environment info:
    System:
      OS: macOS 10.15.5
      Shell: 5.7.1 - /bin/zsh
    Binaries:
      Node: 14.4.0 - /usr/local/bin/node
      Yarn: 1.19.1 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
      npm: 6.14.5 - /usr/local/bin/npm
      Watchman: 4.9.0 - /usr/local/bin/watchman
    IDEs:
      Android Studio: 4.0 AI-193.6911.18.40.6514223
      Xcode: 11.5/11E608c - /usr/bin/xcodebuild
    npmPackages:
      expo: ~37.0.12 => 37.0.12
      react: ~16.9.0 => 16.9.0
      react-native: ~0.61.5 => 0.61.5
      expo-permissions: ^9.0.1
    npmGlobalPackages:
      expo-cli: 3.21.13

Devices:

[lukmccall]

Hi @RodolfoGS, your problem should be fixed by #8910 ;)

[lukmccall]

Closing this issue due to inactivity. Moreover, we can't reproduce it either. If this is still a problem for you and it's reproducible using the latest SDK version, feel free to open up a new issue!

[RodolfoGS]

@lukmccall sorry, I don't saw your comment.
Yes, was fixed with #8910 Thank you so much for your help, you are great 🥇