I found that for an SPA HTML5Mode causes lots of 404 error problems, and it is not necessary to make $location.search work in this case. In my case I want to capture a URL query string parameter when a user comes to my site, regardless of which "page" they initially link to, AND be able to send them to that page once they log in. So I just capture all that stuff in app.run
$rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart', function (e, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {
if (fromState.name === "") {
e.preventDefault();
$rootScope.initialPage = toState.name;
$rootScope.initialParams = toParams;
return;
}
if ($location.search().hasOwnProperty('role')) {
$rootScope.roleParameter = $location.search()['role'];
}
...
}
then later after login I can say $state.go($rootScope.initialPage, $rootScope.initialParams)