Why does a trigger by Cell ID need location sensors?

[lm089]

Am new to Automagic; until recently I used Llama with my old phone and been very happy with how it works. Got a new phone now (OnePlus 6 rooted with Stock Android Pie) and had to learn that Llama is no longer able to read and store CIS info.
Tried Tracker and Automagic to replace Llama, and highly prefer Automagic.
So I built 2 flows similar to what I had with Llama, i.e. activate WiFi when I come home / to work, and inactivate WiFi when I leave those places; the "work" flow performs a few more actions.
As triggers I use "phone cell GSM"; attached is one of the 2 flows (with some data altered).
Basically both flows are working, but only as long as I keep the phone's location sensors enabled. If I disable location the flows stop working.

Over the years using Android phones I made it a habit to only enable those sensors that I really use actively, and disable them as long as they aren't needed.
Question is: why does a GSM cell trigger need to be supported by location info?

[ariloc]

It wasn't like that before. It seems that Google changed what the location permission does in Android 9 and if it's not enabled, it doesn't allow many things that didn't need this to be activated in Oreo, like GSM cells detection, WiFi SSID info to other apps, between other. It's not impossible to deal with but pretty annoying, specially if you're unrooted and can't change location settings.

[lm089]

Thanks for answering this. As my phone is rooted: is there a chance to alter this behaviour? Or do I just have to live with that?

BTW: with that knowledge I just found out that I still can get Llama to work if location is ON... still guess I'll stick with automagic as it is actively maintained while Llama had its last update more than 4 years ago...

[Desmanto]

AFAIR, starting from oreo, the restriction is already there. Can't get location without turning on wifi scan location or the vice versa too. I usually just leave the location feature on with battery saving mode (network mode without GPS). And most of my flow works fine in oreo and pie. No noticeable battery drain.

Root doesn't help in this case, as it is the basic permission/restriction imposed from the OS itself. AFAIK, no workaround yet even for root user.

[lm089]

AFAIR, starting from oreo, the restriction is already there.

Llama is still working on my old phone (running LineageOS Oreo). So it must have been an "improvement" with Pie.

Root doesn't help in this case, as it is the basic permission/restriction imposed from the OS itself. AFAIK, no workaround yet even for root user.

OK, can't be helped then. And I agree: even with location ON all the time battery drain is way below what I had previously.
Many thanks for the info.