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Moved but devices still show current location at old home.

Hi All, I'm stumped, not sure what to do next.


We just moved cross country but all our Apple devices (Different Generations of Macs and iPads) that do not have a cellular internet connection still show their current locations (Maps.app, Find My.app) at our old address.


I've tried renaming our Wifi SSID and Restoring the iPads. No change. Sometimes upon reboot, they will show up at our new address but then revert to the old address within minutes.


When I took the devices away from the home and tethering to my phone, they do show the correct current position. Once I come back to the house, even tethered, it goes back to the old address.


Please Help!! Thank you.


-David

iPad Pro 12.9-inch, 3rd Gen, Wi-Fi

Posted on May 22, 2021 9:20 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 22, 2021 6:22 PM

Yes I did bring our Wifi mesh system. I figured that’s why… however, shouldn’t there be some way to reset the location?

15 replies

Jun 11, 2021 5:55 PM in response to David Hsu2

Wanted to give an update. This applies to iPhone XS, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPad gen 7, gen 8, gen 1 Pro, gen 3 pro, mini 4, all running iOS or iPadOS 14.5 or above and all iPads are WiFi-Only. MacBook Pro 15” (Retina, Early 2013, MacOS 10.14), MacBook Pro 15” (2017 MacOS 10.15), and MacBook Pro 16” (2019, MacOS 11).


Previously an iOS device restored to factory settings and setup as a new device did not solve the problem. I don’t know why or how, the way things seems to have changed is:


  1. Turn off Location Services. All of it.
  2. Reset Locations and Privacy.
  3. Reboot.
  4. Go to Maps to see that location services is still off.
  5. Turn on Location Services.
  6. Go back to Maps to see if location has updated.


So far, the devices seems to all be showing up in the new location now. And automatically set time zones have settled in the new time zone.


For the MacOS devices, there does not seem to be a GUI way of resetting privacy and locations… but turning off Location Services, reboot, turn location services back on seems to be doing the trick so far. Will update if the problem comes back.


May 25, 2021 6:54 AM in response to David Hsu2

I’d make an educated guess that you perhaps have a WiFi Only model iPad. Mapping Apps are dependent upon Location Services.


Unlike your iPhone and WiFi & Cellular models of iPad, WiFi Only iPads do not have any GPS location capability - and as such are completely reliant upon their network connection to infer an approximate location.


Your approximate geographic location would be estimated from a “database lookup” of (a) your WiFi Network Name (SSID) or detected neighbouring WiFi networks - and (b) the “public” IP Address provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). 


If the mapped WiFi network name or IP Address are not available within the applicable databases, or if this information substantially differs between sources, then your approximate location may not be computed. This situation often occurs if you are in a remote/rural location where neighbouring WiFi networks are scarce - or if connecting over satellite or VPN connections.


Network IP Addresses and WiFi networks are frequently mapped in urban and cosmopolitan areas (including “crowd source” techniques) and as such approximation of your location from lookup against these databases can be provide relatively high accuracy. As population and network density diminishes, this mechanism becomes progressively less reliable.


If you can, perhaps try connecting to a different WiFi network - be it private, public or your telephone WiFi hotspot. Be aware that when you reconnect to your home WiFi network, until such time as the crowd-source databases from which your location is inferred are updated, the shown location may continue to be incorrect.


I hope this explanation as to possible cause is helpful.

May 26, 2021 8:56 AM in response to David Hsu2

Apple has its own WiFi location services database. It often takes weeks or longer for a router’s new location to make it into the database.


The only way to rapidly update the known approximate location of your WiFi connection would be to have an iPhone or cellular iPad. These would get their data from aGPS, but since they’d also be on the same WiFi, the location services database would update that WiFi router SSID location more rapidly.

Moved but devices still show current location at old home.

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