HT201945: Resetting an AirPort base station FAQ

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Mark Hurty
Level 1 (9 points)
Wireless

Q: how do I change the physical address associated with my Airport Extreme

I have moved but when I look for devices using Find my iPhone the devices connected to my Airport Extreme base station appear to be at my old location. How do I update the physical address associated with the Airport base station?

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on May 28, 2016 10:38 AM

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Mark Hurty

Q: how do I change the physical address associated with my Airport Extreme

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  • by Meg St._Clair,Helpful

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair May 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Mark Hurty
    Level 9 (58,429 points)
    iPhone
    May 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Mark Hurty

    To the best of my knowledge, there is no way for the user to do that. Eventually, Apple's database will update. There is some anecdotal evidence that having an iPhones connect to the Airport speeds up the process.

  • by Mark Hurty,

    Mark Hurty Mark Hurty May 28, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Wireless
    May 28, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Thanks, Meg, but this problem has persisted for several years. I moved to my current location in 2011. I guess "eventually" can mean "sometime in the next decade or so..."

  • by Bob Timmons,Helpful

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons May 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Mark Hurty
    Level 10 (105,018 points)
    Wireless
    May 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Mark Hurty

    Unfortunately, about 4 years ago when Apple introduced the 6.x version of AirPort Utility......the application used to configure and adjust settings on the Apple AirPort routers.....they removed a number of settings that they felt that users no longer needed. Adjusting location was one of them.

     

    As Meg notes, the AirPort Extreme will eventually figure out where it is, but it might be 4-6 weeks or longer before this occurs. In some cases, it never seems to occur.

     

    We've seen a few posts from users who claim that resetting the AirPort back to factory default settings and then setting it up again has corrected the location status, but this has never worked for me when I've tried it. However, you may have better luck......and this is really the only thing that you can do that might help things along unless you have a Mac that is running an older 5.x version of AirPort Utility.