Chitown Matt
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Location service not working correctly

I have a late 2011 MBP with Yosemite 10.0.3. I recently moved to Chicago (from the suburbs 30 miles away) and obtained AT&T Uverse as my ISP. Since the service was installed, for some reason the location service on Safari, Firefox and Chrome all list me as being in Buford, GA. I have never been to Buford and my previous ISP had my location correct, so I am unsure as to how this has happened. I have checked the time and date settings and I have the location as Chicago (set to auto-update based on location) and I have also checked the IP Address and it reports back as Chicago. An example of the issue is when I google "weather" it reports back for Buford, GA. When I click on weather.com, I see weather for Chicago. When I google "dining", I get results for Georgia... It's baffling!

 

I am at a loss and have searched the web exhaustively to no avail. I found something that mentioned deleting com.apple.GEO.plist and force quitting com.apple.geod from the Activity Monitor and restarting the machine. This worked for a moment when I googled "weather", I actually saw the info for Chicago! I didn't get too excited though as I tried it one more time and I'm instantly in Buford, GA. I'm a big fan of Chicago so I would be forever grateful if someone could help me convince my Mac that it does in fact reside here with me... Thank you for your time and assistance on this!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 9, 2015 6:08 PM

by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer
Linc Davis Linc Davis
Level 10 (208,000 points)
Applications
A:

Location Services (including Maps and "Find My Mac") relies on a database of known Wi-Fi access points. You don't have to be connected to a wireless network, but Wi-Fi must be turned on and within range of one of those access points. Otherwise the machine won't be located at all, or the location will be wrong. Sometimes the location will be wrong because the database contains inaccurate data. According to reports, if you connect to a network with an iPhone, its location will be reported to Apple and added to the database after a delay. I can't confirm.

Posted on Apr 9, 2015 6:33 PM

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Chitown Matt

Q: Location service not working correctly

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  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Apr 9, 2015 6:33 PM in response to Chitown Matt
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Apr 9, 2015 6:33 PM in response to Chitown Matt

    Location Services (including Maps and "Find My Mac") relies on a database of known Wi-Fi access points. You don't have to be connected to a wireless network, but Wi-Fi must be turned on and within range of one of those access points. Otherwise the machine won't be located at all, or the location will be wrong. Sometimes the location will be wrong because the database contains inaccurate data. According to reports, if you connect to a network with an iPhone, its location will be reported to Apple and added to the database after a delay. I can't confirm.

  • by Chitown Matt,

    Chitown Matt Chitown Matt Apr 13, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks for the reply, Linc. The information is good and I have seen you post it elsewhere. It didn't help me as it didn't help the others, but perhaps I should have been more clear. I had wifi on and I was indeed connected to a wi-fi connection (my home connection) and it was on in within proximity (5 feet) of said connection point. Tethering and trying to see if this updated my connection had no impact.

     

    For my issue (which I have now resolved), it was with Google. My location settings were correct and my IP address pings back as Illinois (not near enough to my address, but I digress.) The location history for Google somehow had my location incorrect. For those of you with the issue of all other locations being correct (time, calendar etc.) but getting a false location when using Google, do the following:

     

    1) Scroll to the bottom of the page on a Google search (I just searched for weather)

    2) Look for the link on the bottom of the page that says "Use precise location" and select it.

     

    This worked for me. But as a secondary precaution and to prevent the location service from pinging based on an incorrect IP address, I also did the following:

     

    1) Go to: https://www.google.com/preferences

    2) Select "Location" from the sidebar on the left

    3) Enter your exact location that you would like results returned to you for.

     

    I can finally look for food and weather in Chicago without having to route myself through Buford, GA to do so.