Chrome device permissions fail to persist, blocking calls

[David P]

Some of our Chrome users get the "denied permission" icon at the right end of the address bar when they trigger getUserMedia for video and audio for our site. I've watched them click it and select "Allow always", reload our page, and the permissions are blocked again. Then they'll go into Manage Permissions and find that selecting "Allow" for the camera and the mic won't persist.

I saw this today on Chrome76/Windows7 and I've seen it before on recent Chrome on Mac. The Windows7 user had no other apps running, and no non-default browser extensions. This was an IT-managed desktop, so perhaps there is a policy blocking permission, but the Mac user was using a personal device.

There appears to be no matching bug: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?q=permission%20not%20persist&can=2

Can anyone suggest how we can guide users past this (assuming it's not a policy issue)?

[David P]

Btw, there was no option in Chrome76/Win7 to open an incognito window. There was no menu option, and no response to Ctrl+Shift+n.

[Armando Miraglia]

Hi David,

I would suggest opening a bug on https://bugs.chromium.org and put as
component Blink>GetUserMedia and describe the steps to reproduce there
so that we can triage and start looking into it as soon as possible.

Thanks,
A.

On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 11:53 PM David P <davidsw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Btw, there was no option in Chrome76/Win7 to open an incognito window. There was no menu option, and no response to Ctrl+Shift+n.
>

> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "discuss-webrtc" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to discuss-webrt...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/discuss-webrtc/4d464412-51ec-4349-8c58-9dc77b12a367%40googlegroups.com.

[David P]

Hi Armando,

I have no replication steps; this problem was found on machines I don't have regular access to.

However, later we found on the IT-managed machines that FF/Windows, FF/macOS, and Safari/macOS similarly would not allow their camera and mic permissions to be persisted.

[David P]

An update from the user of the IT-managed machines:
I just checked my System Preferences. Both Chrome and Firefox have permission to use the microphone. Safari is not listed there but I went to Safari-specific preferences and verified that microphone use is allowed.

[Armando Miraglia]

Hi David,

With respect to your last email, while it is shown that permissions
are granted, the mic still does not work?

Thanks!
Cheers,
A.

On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 11:41 PM David P <davidsw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> An update from the user of the IT-managed machines:
> I just checked my System Preferences. Both Chrome and Firefox have permission to use the microphone. Safari is not listed there but I went to Safari-specific preferences and verified that microphone use is allowed.
>

> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "discuss-webrtc" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to discuss-webrt...@googlegroups.com.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/discuss-webrtc/cbd0d5e5-24e2-48e2-86e3-8420046ba1a8%40googlegroups.com.

[David P]

Hi Armando,

It's taken quite a bit of back-and-forth with our user to fill-out a test matrix...

1. IT-managed macOS
1. Chrome: Video with audio calling works fine
2. Firefox: Granting permission in the many prompts that appear still results in getUserMedia reporting that it doesn't have permission. Same with Private window.
3. Safari: After passing getUserMedia, WebAudio reports near-zero dB. Using Private window, getUserMedia followed by WebAudio shows there are dB in the normal speech range but when we attempt a video call, our server hangs up with error "Device or Permission Error"
4. System Preferences indicate that all three browsers have mic permission. Zoom is used regularly on this machine for video calls also.
2. IT-managed Windows7
   
1. Chrome: Permissions won't persist. (This is v76 iirc)
2. FF: Permissions won't persist

There is no obvious single cause that I can see. Instead, it seems that getUserMedia has a permissions problem depending whether it asks for video as well as audio, and depending on the browser, and depending whether the window is private. It also seems that these permissions are being applied somewhere other than the browser or OS, perhaps in a service managed by the IT Dept.

On Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 4:27:21 AM UTC-5, Armando Miraglia wrote:

Hi David,

With respect to your last email, while it is shown that permissions
are granted, the mic still does not work?

Thanks!
Cheers,
A.

On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 11:41 PM David P <davidsw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> An update from the user of the IT-managed machines:
> I just checked my System Preferences. Both Chrome and Firefox have permission to use the microphone. Safari is not listed there but I went to Safari-specific preferences and verified that microphone use is allowed.
>
> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "discuss-webrtc" group.

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to discuss...@googlegroups.com.

[David P]

Update: After the following two actions, calls have worked fine in all browsers tested so far:

1. IT whitelisted our domain in BeyondTrust Remote Support, formerly Bomgar, https://www.beyondtrust.com/remote-support
2. The RealTek mic driver in the Win7 laptop was reinstalled.

The user reports that echo cancellation has always been bad, and they worked around it by turning-off speakers while using Zoom. They primarily use FF. I've asked them to try Chrome v78 because I know that echo cancellation has been a focus for the Chrome team.

[Armando Miraglia]

Sounds reasonable and thanks for the follow up!

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to discuss-webrt...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/discuss-webrtc/630f3dd9-d1d7-4c25-b222-bd11b9f0632c%40googlegroups.com.