russfromfairhill

Q: My wifi ipad shows the wrong physical location when connected at home.

Wifi ipad shows wrong location when connected at home. When connected at a public wifi it's correct. My first gen ipod touch shows the right location even at home. Apple suggests it is in the linksys router setup. Linksys suggested a reset to factory defaults, but that did not help. Have been through the ipad reset, the network reset without success. Any ideas?

iPad 2

Posted on May 24, 2011 8:34 PM

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Q: My wifi ipad shows the wrong physical location when connected at home.

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  • by montanafromsa,

    montanafromsa montanafromsa Mar 22, 2013 4:25 PM in response to russfromfairhill
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 22, 2013 4:25 PM in response to russfromfairhill

    I know this thread is old.  I just wanted to add my 2 cents.

     

    I think the iPad also calculates its location if Apple's database has the approximate locations of any nearby Wi-Fi hotspot.  I say this because when we moved to our present location, we brought our old router with us.  As I recall, my iPad placed me in the vicinity of my house the first time I used Maps since we subscribed to Internet service. Granted, we brought an iPhone, but seeing as it can take a few minutes for an iPhone to get its current location, I don't think it did anything to help my iPad find itself.

  • by chcn,

    chcn chcn Mar 23, 2013 4:03 PM in response to montanafromsa
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Mar 23, 2013 4:03 PM in response to montanafromsa

    Interesting. So you're saying that you fired up your old router in a new location and then very shortly afterward* you launched the Maps app on you WiFi-only iPad, within receiving distance of your router, and it found its correct location?

     

    (*I say "very shortly afterward" because if there was time for your iPhone or anyone else's iPhone in the area to report the correct location of the router, then this wouldn't mean anything.)

     

    Anyway, I suspect that the location service does use a kind of voting algorithm, so that if there are a bunch of routers it knows about all in a similar area, and one that it thinks is very far away, it probably ignores the outlier (and/or corrects the entry for it).

     

    I still wish there was a way to enter my router explicitly in their database through a web form. I live in an urban canyon full of high-rises where the GPS location given by my iPhone is never very close, so the automatic method they have for updating router locations can't work well.

  • by schmolzanderson,

    schmolzanderson schmolzanderson May 25, 2013 8:51 PM in response to Steven Wilson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2013 8:51 PM in response to Steven Wilson

    Adding new to told also... I had the same problem. We recently moved from Georgia, USA to Seoul, South Korea. When we set up our internet, I couldn't find the power cords to the Airport Extreme so I plugged in the Airport Express (new- never used) to get things going. For several days all was well, I was able to correctly locate myself on all of my devices, Wifi only iPad, wifi only iPhone (for now). We found the power cord and swapped the Airport Extreme Base Station in.... and since then we are located back in Georgia.

     

    So obviouly it has to do with the router connecting to the database. That being said, I'm about to try your fix Steven). Cross your fingers.

  • by applesnpears,

    applesnpears applesnpears Jul 20, 2013 11:25 AM in response to schmolzanderson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 20, 2013 11:25 AM in response to schmolzanderson

    Hi schmolzanderson, I have the same issue. Just moved my AirPort Extreme and 2 Airport Expresses from Missouri to Milan, Italy. The Maps and Google Maps apps running on my wifi-only iPad mini show that I'm still in Missouri. Were you able to resolve this?

  • by timrichardson,

    timrichardson timrichardson Sep 26, 2013 3:43 AM in response to russfromfairhill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 26, 2013 3:43 AM in response to russfromfairhill

    I moved house four months ago. I have an iPad 4th gen wifi only which stubbornly believed we still lived at our old house, even when 10cm away from an iPhone which knew exactly where we were. So having a GPS iOS device on your home wifi does not automatically update the address associated with the wifi.

     

    However, this afternoon out of frustration I opened Maps on the iPad and used the "report a problem" screen to complain. An hour later my iPad, which I had open on Maps still, suddenly relocated spontaneously to our new address.

     

    Of course, it could be a coincedence.

     

    This also updated Google Maps, which relies on the location reported by the iPad.

  • by Chris Innanen,

    Chris Innanen Chris Innanen Nov 1, 2013 12:16 PM in response to russfromfairhill
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 1, 2013 12:16 PM in response to russfromfairhill

    Our router was recently moved to a nearby city and my iPhone continued to show the old location. When I turn off Wifi, it can no longer use the routers for positioning and relies only on GPS. This correctly finds my location (albeit after GPS's usual minutes-long narrowing down period).

     

    I read that turning off Location Services clears the cache of wifi and cellular locations in iOS, so with the Wifi off, I also turned off Location Services, waited a moment, then turned both back on. Now my position is at least in the correct city and within the (rather large) error circle. I expect that the accuracy will improve over time.

     

    I'd like to see others try to duplicate this and see if it works to update Apple's DB. Make sure both Wifi and Locations Services are both off at the same time.

  • by alumni.usc,

    alumni.usc alumni.usc Dec 28, 2013 4:31 AM in response to Chris Innanen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2013 4:31 AM in response to Chris Innanen

    Thanks Chris. Your suggestion to turn off wifi and location services fixed the problem for me.

  • by Kirk McElhearn,

    Kirk McElhearn Kirk McElhearn Dec 30, 2013 2:26 AM in response to alumni.usc
    Level 2 (159 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 2:26 AM in response to alumni.usc

    I've had the same problem, and found a partial solution; I don't know if things will eventually settle, but it's a first step:

     

    http://www.mcelhearn.com/location-services-and-moving-house-not-always-as-you-ex pect/

     

    It involves updating your router's location in the Skyhook dabatase, which Apple (and others) use for Wi-Fi locations.

  • by chcn,

    chcn chcn Dec 30, 2013 10:10 AM in response to Kirk McElhearn
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 10:10 AM in response to Kirk McElhearn

    Apple has not used the Skyhook database for several years (iOS 3.2 is the last time Skyhook was used). So by updating the information there you may have helped others, but not yourself. As far as I know, there is no way to manually update Apple's database. You just have to use an iPhone (or an iPad with GPS) near the WiFi hotspots and their locations should eventually update automatically.

     

    http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/29/apple-location/


    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5594

  • by billymft,

    billymft billymft Jan 31, 2014 9:30 PM in response to Steven Wilson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 31, 2014 9:30 PM in response to Steven Wilson

    thanks for this.  I just toggled Back to my Mac off and on again, which fixed the location issure for me.

  • by FelixORiley,

    FelixORiley FelixORiley Apr 10, 2014 7:58 AM in response to russfromfairhill
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 7:58 AM in response to russfromfairhill

    This worked for me:

     

    1. Turned off wi-fi and location services on all ios devices.

    2. Turned on location services on iPhone(s).

    3. Turned on wi-fi on iPhone(s).

    4. Turned on location services and wi-fi on iPad(s).

     

    One of our iPads still didn't work after the first attempt, but cycling both wi-fi and location services again got it working as well.

     

    Background: Moved from one state to another, and both iPads had our current location at our previous address. Both iPhones had the correct current address. We have a Time Capsule for our router which is connected to a simple cable modem (no wi-fi, cable in, single Ethernet out). We never touched router settings to fix the current location on both iPads. All ios devices are running the most recent ios 7 update.

  • by sf49lu,

    sf49lu sf49lu May 12, 2014 8:45 AM in response to FelixORiley
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2014 8:45 AM in response to FelixORiley

    Tried this, as well as the other suggestions. Nothing works. Macbook air reports the wrong location when using maps, and ipad also reports the wrong location. I have 3 iphones that report the right location connected to the router, but so far, its location in the apple database has not yet been updated. Very disappointing that there is no fix for this. Will bookmark for future replies

  • by wpiman,

    wpiman wpiman Jan 5, 2015 4:05 AM in response to sf49lu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2015 4:05 AM in response to sf49lu

    My location shows up in China.  I have a Monoprice access point.

     

    Once in a while- it will show up as being in the proper location.  My guess is these manufacturers in China are making WiFi access points with copies of MAC addresses to save money or something.

  • by Biebel,

    Biebel Biebel Apr 14, 2015 12:46 PM in response to russfromfairhill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 12:46 PM in response to russfromfairhill

    I don't exactly know what did the trick, but for me the problem is solved.

     

    FIrst, go to Settings->Privacy->Location services->System services->Frequent locations and clear the history. System services is hidden all the way below the apps.

     

    Then, disable location services, wait a few moments and restart.

     

    Apart from that I changed my own personal home address in the address book to the new address I moved to.

  • by jerry42wirral,

    jerry42wirral jerry42wirral Jun 4, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Chris Innanen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Chris Innanen

    Thanks Chris,  your tip worked.

     

    Jerry

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