Bradden59

Q: geo-location inop in Sierra and OS X Safari

I just installed Sierra on my iMac and iOS 10 on my iPhone (see specs below).

Certain apps, like Maps, seem to work with geo-location.

But some websites on Safari just will not cooperate. I get the

following response:

Can't find location - error: Position is unavailable.

I "gave permission" to these sites to use my location,

but they refuse.

 

Any ideas?

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iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12), null

Posted on Sep 25, 2016 11:31 AM

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Q: geo-location inop in Sierra and OS X Safari

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  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Sep 25, 2016 4:50 PM in response to Bradden59
    Level 7 (20,944 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 25, 2016 4:50 PM in response to Bradden59

    Computers do not have GPS receivers, so they don't provide geolocation coordinates. The location on Maps is approximate based on known Wi-Fi network coordinates. Most websites either ask for your Zip code, use your address card, or use the approximate location provided by Maps, but some sites will not work properly without true geolocation tags.

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 25, 2016 7:07 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 7:07 PM in response to Rysz

    OK, I understand that computers don't have GPS receivers,

    but the problem remains on my iPhone.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 26, 2016 6:48 AM in response to Bradden59
    Level 9 (72,916 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 26, 2016 6:48 AM in response to Bradden59

    Just checking - you do have Wi-Fi turned on and the phone has Wi-Fi access?

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 26, 2016 6:53 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 6:53 AM in response to Eric Root

    Yes, my iPhone is always in wi-fi mode when I'm at home.

    Helps to save on my data.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Sep 26, 2016 12:02 PM in response to Bradden59
    Level 5 (7,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 26, 2016 12:02 PM in response to Bradden59

    Is your LTE data working?

     

    iOS will use GPS. Wifi and other radios like cellular and bluetooth are used to get a 'rough fix'. Everything accept GPS needs to be looked up via the internet, so be sure your internet is working. Try wifi if you can.

     

    GPS can take around 12.5 minutes to get a fix if you have a clear view of the sky, otherwise it can fail & fallback to the other methods.

     

    Try other apps to confirm if location services works at all, investigate the settings in Settings app. See if you have location services enabled.

     

    P.S. the screenshot shows no wifi connected.

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 26, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Drew,

    That screenshot was from when I was using LTE. But, believe me,

    I've tried using the Wi-Fi as well. Should I have bluetooth turned on??

    My iPhone and iMac mysteriously began having problems with

    geo-location shortly after I upgraded to iOS 10 and Sierra, respectively.

    Prior to that, everything worked just fine.

    Brad

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Sep 26, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Bradden59
    Level 5 (7,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 26, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Bradden59

    As I understand it bluetooth is used for iBeacons & other similar services with location services…

    About iBeacon on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

     

    Turning it on when indoors can help if you are in an area that may be in Apples databases (like shopping malls and other public spaces).

     

    Obviously other services should work before bluetooth is involved (cell towers & wifi should be easier to get a fix as they should be more abundant).

     

    Other things I would try…

    Reboot all devices.

    Reset the network settings on iOS (you will lose any remembered wifi networks).

     

    I'm afraid after that my temptation would be to backup and restore the device in iTunes. I have to wonder if iOS 10/ macOS Sierra has somehow synced a 'location services are off' setting across the devices. My instinct would be to test without syncing to iCloud then restore a backup & see if it comes back.

     

    Use an iTunes encrypted backup to keep all your saved passwords. iCloud backups can also work, but can take longer to restore.

  • by RalphBln,

    RalphBln RalphBln Sep 27, 2016 1:22 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Safari
    Sep 27, 2016 1:22 AM in response to Rysz

    Computers do not have GPS receivers, so they don't provide geolocation coordinates.

    That is wrong. It is correct that Macs do not have GPS receivers. Still, macos provides geolocation services based on known WiFi locations. So Safari IS able to provide geolocation coordinates to web sites. This worked flawlessly in El Capitan but seems to be broken for some web sites in Sierra. For example, it does not work on gpsies.com anymore.

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 28, 2016 2:43 PM in response to RalphBln
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 2:43 PM in response to RalphBln

    Wow, I just tried using geo-location with Firefox. It works perfectly.

    I wonder what's going on with Safari???

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Sep 28, 2016 2:54 PM in response to Bradden59
    Level 5 (7,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 28, 2016 2:54 PM in response to Bradden59

    Perhaps it is time to try Safari in another user account to see if that behaves differently?

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 28, 2016 3:14 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 3:14 PM in response to Drew Reece

    I created a "test" user account. Went to Safari.

    Geo-location still inop. Hmmm...

  • by RalphBln,Helpful

    RalphBln RalphBln Sep 29, 2016 9:10 AM in response to Bradden59
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Safari
    Sep 29, 2016 9:10 AM in response to Bradden59

    OK, it seems like starting with Sierra, Safari allows access to geolocation coordinates only over https. That's why it works for some sites while it does not for others. Here's the console output when I try to locate myself on gpsies.com:

     

    [blocked] Access to geolocation was blocked over insecure connection to http://www.gpsies.com.

     

    I have read that google Chrome does the same thing now.

     

    So it's up to the web site owners to update their pages (and probably up to the users to notify the web site owners of this problem).

     

    Edit: and here's a reddit discussion thread on this matter: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/4xxj0r/safari_web_geolocation_now_requir es_a_secure/

  • by Bradden59,

    Bradden59 Bradden59 Sep 28, 2016 4:20 PM in response to RalphBln
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 4:20 PM in response to RalphBln

    Thanks, Ralph. I'll check out the article.

  • by RalphBln,

    RalphBln RalphBln Sep 28, 2016 4:24 PM in response to Bradden59
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Safari
    Sep 28, 2016 4:24 PM in response to Bradden59

    Well, there's not too much interesting stuff in there. I only mentioned it because it confirms that other people have noticed it too which could be interpreted as evidence that we are not completely stupid (and that it's not a bug but a feature).

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