AngularJS $location not changing the path

Question

I had a similar problem some days ago. In my case the problem was that I changed things with a 3rd party library (jQuery to be precise) and in this case even though calling functions and setting variable works Angular doesn't always recognize that there are changes thus it never digests.

$apply() is used to execute an expression in angular from outside of the angular framework. (For example from browser DOM events, setTimeout, XHR or third party libraries).

Try to use $scope.$apply() right after you have changed the location and called replace() to let Angular know that things have changed.

Instead of $location.path(...) to change or refresh the page, I used the service $window. In Angular this service is used as interface to the window object, and the window object contains a property location which enables you to handle operations related to the location or URL stuff.

For example, with window.location you can assign a new page, like this:

$window.location.assign('/');

Or refresh it, like this:

$window.location.reload();

It worked for me. It's a little bit different from you expect but works for the given goal.

I had this same problem, but my call to $location was ALREADY within a digest. Calling $apply() just gave a $digest already in process error.

This trick worked (and be sure to inject $location into your controller):

$timeout(function(){ 
   $location...
},1);

Though no idea why this was necessary...

I had to embed my $location.path() statement like this because my digest was still running:

       function routeMe(data) {                
            var waitForRender = function () {
                if ($http.pendingRequests.length > 0) {
                    $timeout(waitForRender);
                } else {
                    $location.path(data);
                }
            };
            $timeout(waitForRender);
        }

In my case, the problem was the optional parameter indicator('?') missing in my template configuration.

For example:

.when('/abc/:id?', {
    templateUrl: 'views/abc.html',
    controller: 'abcControl'
})


$location.path('/abc');

Without the interrogation character the route obviously would not change suppressing the route parameter.

If any of you is using the Angular-ui / ui-router, use:$state.go('yourstate') instead of $location. It did the trick for me.