Location Services disabled after every restart

This is not just a Chrome issue. Even Calendar does this.

I've been experiencing this since December. I have enabled Location Services and locked the settings many times over. Yet when I come back to the System Preference for Privacy and Security, Enable Location Services is unchecked.

Only if the browser (Safari, Chrome, and Firefox) is open will they appear in the list of apps that can be enabled, even if I've previously enabled them. I have to unlock, then enable location services, then select the checkbox for the apps I want to use.

Later, when I come back, system preferences is locked, enable location services is unchecked, and if the apps aren't open, they don't appear in the list of apps that have requested access.

I continually get a message that Calendar would like to use my location. I allow it, but it doesn't stick.

I've reinstalled the operating system with a fresh install, and it still does this.

Never checked it. If your /etc/master.passwd has the same size as the /etc/master.passwd~orig (or if the orig file does not exist at all), your issue is another one. This fix actually only addresses the issue, where location services is turned off after every restart and has forgotten all allowed apps.

What exactly changes "during use"?

In case it is helpful I seem to have resolved the issue although this might be a solution particular to my situation. I have been migrating from an old 2010 Mac which ran High Sierra to a new iMac. I used the Migration Assistant method (was assured it would be fine) and everything worked perfectly except that Location Services were disabled on the new iMac when the process was complete. I did this twice, erasing the machine between attempts and had the same problem. I decided that rather than use this method again I would erase the machine again, reinstall BigSur and copy over files I wanted from a Time Machine back up and install fresh copies of apps etc. So far so good all is working well. It seems there must have been something in the full migration or stuff from the old Mac what was making the new Location Services in the new Mac unhappy,

Rather than a problem with Migration Assistant, it was most likely a problem with something that was migrated.

You can still use Migration Assistant to bring back all the user accounts - thus ensuring that not just documents, but all mail, music, photos, etc are restored to their previous state - and elect NOT to migrate applications, settings, and other files.

Thanks yes I agree, that’s really what I thought had happened. Something from my old Mac clearly caused the problem with a full migration. I guess I just did the same thing as you explain but by dragging photos, document, etc from the Time Machine back up.

Have you run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?

Hello Deep Sky Diver,

Thanks for trying the troubleshooting provided. Please contact Apple Support for help resolving this.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

Similar issue here. It gets disabled only for Chrome

I am just saying that location service is disabled only for Chrome in my case, not for my other apps that use location

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. There are perhaps other things installed that may be causing a conflict. The report may illuminate that.