"locationd" always running?

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Level 2

194 points

"locationd" always running?

Activity Monitor shows that "locationd" is always running. I'm more concerned with the fact that Little Snitch shows that "locationd" is always transmitting information, constantly. Why?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 1, 2011 4:27 AM

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Answer 1

ryan42

Level 3

859 points

Feb 1, 2011 4:38 AM in response to Schmactor

locationd is a component of Snow Leopard, and it provides location services called Core Location. It tries to geolocate you by IP and known Access Point MAC address locations and is used for automatic time zone updating and maps on iOS devices without GPS.

On OS X, automatic time zone updating can be disabled in the Date and Time Preference pane.

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Feb 1, 2011 4:39 AM in response to Schmactor

That is the process that determines your Mac's location for a variety of purposes, such as auto-detecting time zone. It's not a concern. If you don't want your Mac to do this, disable Location Services in System Preferences -> Security.

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