Do you know how to enable geolocation on Town Transit and Crosswalk K-12? At one time or another out on the field, bus drivers logging into the solutions may encounter the following message on the tablet:
Location services are disabled or you have blocked our application from using location services. Location services must be enabled to use this application.
Don’t be alarmed!
Most likely, both bus drivers and administrators perplexedly scratched their heads after coming across this announcement. Perhaps they’re screaming internally, “How could this possibly be when location services have already been enabled! Something must not be right. I don’t understand.”
So, what is this message all about then? The simple answer: geolocation settings on the tablet and/or Chrome haven’t been properly set.
Let’s be clear that this isn’t a technical mistake or error message, just a notification indicting that one final step of the set-up process remains. Rest assured, though, that this is a simple modification that users can easily do themselves. No worries if you’re not sure how to make these adjustments, that’s why we’re here.
Continue reading to find out more about permitting both levels of geolocation services on our well-documented solutions!
Two types of geolocation
Since we operate entirely on Android and recommend using the Chrome browser, we must remember that there are two levels of geolocation to configure: location services for the tablet itself and location services for the UniteGPS web app. Simply put, both levels need to be manually turned-on in order for our transportation solutions to properly function.
How to enable geolocation for both formats
If you are seeing the aforementioned message, the first step is to put your finger on the top center of the tablet and swipe down. This movement will take you to System Preferences. In case the Location tab isn’t highlighted in blue, that means that the tablet’s geolocation feature hasn’t been activated.
To solve this, just click on the location services button that will take you to the following screen. For successful tablet configuration, simply switch the tab from “off” to “on” as shown below. Simple as that, at least in terms of enabling the tablet’s geolocation capability. Now it should appear blue in the system preferences.
What about the second level of geolocation?
What we just covered explains the process for enabling geolocation on the physical tablets; but equally important is setting-up geolocation on the web browser. The first step to resolve this would be to open Chrome. With the browser open, click on the three vertically-aligned dots on the upper righthand corner.
From there, click on Site Settings on the lefthand side.
Following this, we just need to look for the location tab.
In addition to turning on location and having it “ask first,” we also want to ensure that the UniteGPS website is on the “allowed” list, as shown below:
If you don’t see the UniteGPS website included under in the permitted link list, then you can click on the URL followed by pressing the clear and reset buttons. Do this, refresh, and then press “allow” when the message reappears.
Users can also ensure that everything has been set-up correctly by going into Settings for Biometrics and Security within the tablet. Once you’re in, you’ll find App Permissions. Click on Locations Permission and make sure that Chrome (and https://crosswalk.unitegps.com) has been authorized.
Also be certain that you appropriately enable geolocation on the tablet plus browser by going back and refreshing the Ridership page. Swipe your index finger down from the center of the page to refresh. When it asks again for permission to access the location, be sure to click allow and it should work from there. Issues like this can come up when drivers accidentally press deny.