We’re facing an intermittent issue where the tracking permission pop-up fails to appear on some iOS devices during automation runs, while it works fine on others — despite identical test capabilities being used.
"autoAcceptAlerts": false,
"autoGrantPermissions": false
Devices impacted: iPhone 11/16
Hey @ian-partridge,
The failure in pop-up interaction during automated testing is due to incorrect XPath detection caused by a change in the UI element hierarchy.
The automation script, when attempting to locate the “Ask App Not To Track” system alert, mistakenly identifies the element as “splash-screen-overlay” instead. This misidentification leads to failed interactions, as the script cannot click on the correct button.
Issue Breakdown:
Incorrect Element Detection:
The automation tool identifies the overlay element instead of the actionable “Ask App Not To Track” button.
Expected XPath:
//XCUIElementTypeButton[@name="Ask App Not To Track"] | //XCUIElementTypeButton[@name="Ask App Not to Track"]
Detected element: "splash-screen-overlay"
Device-Specific Behavior:Attempted Fix:
Developers enabled the setting settings[respectSystemAlerts] = true within the automation framework.
This configuration allows the framework to properly recognize and respect system-generated alerts like permission requests or tracking prompts.
Resolution:
Enabling settings[respectSystemAlerts] to true, ensures that system alerts are prioritized and handled accurately by the automation engine.
Once this setting was applied, the automation script was able to correctly detect and interact with the “Ask App Not To Track” button, resolving the issue.
Code Implementation (LambdaTest - iOS, Appium Java)The following Java code shows how settings[respectSystemAlerts] = true was configured within the LT:Options capability, ensuring system alerts like “Ask App Not To Track” are correctly detected and interacted with during automated testing:
ltOptions.put("settings[respectSystemAlerts]", true);
This configuration was added inside the @BeforeMethod setup block. Below is the full test code snippet:
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.HashMap;
import io.appium.java_client.AppiumBy;
import io.appium.java_client.ios.IOSDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
import org.testng.ITestContext;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
public class expedia {
private RemoteWebDriver driver;
private String Status = "Passed";
private String deviceName = "iPhone 11"; // Use "iPhone 16" to test issue
@BeforeMethod
public void setup(Method m, ITestContext ctx) throws MalformedURLException {
String username = "";
String authkey = "";
String hub = "@mobile-hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub";
DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> ltOptions = new HashMap<>();
ltOptions.put("platformName", "ios");
ltOptions.put("deviceName", deviceName);
ltOptions.put("platformVersion", "18");
ltOptions.put("build", "you build name here");
ltOptions.put("app", "<"your app id goes here">");
ltOptions.put("isRealMobile", true);
ltOptions.put("w3c", true);
ltOptions.put("autoAcceptAlerts", false);
ltOptions.put("autoGrantPermissions", false);
ltOptions.put("acceptInsecureCerts", true);
ltOptions.put("appiumVersion", "2.4.1");
ltOptions.put("allowInvisibleElements", true);
ltOptions.put("settings[respectSystemAlerts]", true); // ✅ Key fix
caps.setCapability("LT:Options", ltOptions);
driver = new IOSDriver(new URL("https://" + username + ":" + authkey + hub), caps);
}
@Test
public void basicTest() {
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
try {
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(15));
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.invisibilityOfElementLocated(AppiumBy.xpath("//*[@name='splash-screen-overlay']")));
System.out.println("Splash screen is gone.");
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Splash screen did not disappear: " + e.getMessage());
}
Thread.sleep(5000);
// Ask App Not To Track Handling (Robust Locators)
try {
WebElement askNotToTrackButton;
if (deviceName.equals("iPhone 16")) {
askNotToTrackButton = driver.findElement(AppiumBy.xpath(
"//XCUIElementTypeButton[@name='Ask App Not To Track'] | //XCUIElementTypeButton[@name='Ask App Not to Track']"));
} else {
askNotToTrackButton = driver.findElement(AppiumBy.iOSNsPredicateString(
"type == 'XCUIElementTypeButton' AND (name == 'Ask App Not To Track' OR name == 'Ask App Not to Track')"));
}
askNotToTrackButton.click();
System.out.println("Clicked on Ask App Not To Track button successfully.");
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Ask App Not To Track button not found or click failed: " + e.getMessage());
}
Thread.sleep(5000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Thread interrupted: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
@AfterMethod
public void tearDown() {
try {
driver.executeScript("lambda-status=" + Status);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error setting LambdaTest status: " + e.getMessage());
}
try {
driver.quit();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error quitting the driver: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
Hope this solutions was helpful , if there is any query or you find your self still stuck, feel free to reach out to us.
Happy Testing 
!!
