Problem with LocationManager and BroadcastReceiver in Android

Question

I have a problem which happens only on real devices, whereas on Android emulators it works fine.

I need to work on current coordinates when a Broadcast is received. This is the code:

public class SmsReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) { 
                LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) context.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);

                if(!locationManager.isLocationEnabled()){
                  enableLocation(context);
                }

                Criteria locationCriteria = new Criteria();
                locationCriteria.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_FINE);
                locationManager.requestSingleUpdate(locationCriteria, new LocationListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onLocationChanged(@NonNull Location location) {
                        Log.d("SmsHandler", "Going to send coordinates: " + location.getLatitude() + " " + location.getLongitude());
                        doThings();
                    }

                    @Override
                    public void onProviderEnabled(@NonNull String provider) {
                        Log.d("SmsHandler", "PROVIDER ENABLED");
                    }

                    @Override
                    public void onProviderDisabled(@NonNull String provider) {
                        Log.d("SmsHandler", "PROVIDER DISABLED");
                    }
                }, null);
    }

Which works fine if location is enabled (doThings() gets correctly called).

If the location is not enabled, enableLocation() is called. This method is able (successfully) to enable the "Location" toggle on the smartphone (through the WRITE_SECURE_SETTING permission). This is its code to give more clarity, but it should work just fine. You can think of it as the user turns on Location on by themselves

public static boolean enableLocation(Context context){
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 19) {
            return false;
        }

        if(ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(context, Manifest.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
            return false;
        }

        return android.provider.Settings.Secure.putInt(context.getContentResolver(),
                    android.provider.Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE,
                    android.provider.Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE_HIGH_ACCURACY);

    }

Now:

• It works fine if location is not enabled and the app is in foreground or in the "recent app list"
• It works fine if location is not enabled and the app is in background but on a device emulator in Android studio
• It does not work fine if location is not enabled and the app is in background (even tho it works good when the app is in background and location is enabled) on real devices. In particular, this is the output of Logcat:

2022-11-08 22:08:12.048 : PROVIDER DISABLED

2022-11-08 22:08:12.120 : PROVIDER ENABLED

and does not prompt Going to send coordinates:

Why? I know it's an edge case but I'd like to fix this. Thank you.

Update Adding Thread.sleep(1000L) before location is requested solves the issue, but I don't like it. Then why does it work when the app is in foreground? And is there a better approach to this?