My wifi ipad shows the wrong physical location when connected at home.

So even this is just a hopeful answer?

jsd2 wrote:

I don't know of any way to "manually" update that database. At some point there apparently needs to have been a GPS-equippped iOS device in your neighborhood to geo-tag the detected wi-fi hot spots and send their location to Apple. That's why I had suggested bringing an iPhone, perhaps belonging to a friend, right outside your house and then turing on its Map app in the hope that it would later send the location of your wi-fi network to Apple's database. It doesn't have to actually access the wi-fi networks to do this, just "detect" them. I have no idea if this would work.

That is my understanding of how the database gets updated. Use a 3G ipad or iPhone in the area a few times and the wifi locations should get picked up eventually.

dhawalfrompune wrote:

So even this is just a hopeful answer?

"Hope springs eternal!" 😉

Even if this does work, it might not do so right away. It might take a while before the database gets updated.

Location service shows me (iPad) in China when I'm in the US using a Verizon air card on a private wifi (Cradlepoint). Problem occurred about an hour ago.

When running a speed test, the provider shows up as Chinese as well (speedtest.net). When I run the FCC speed test the provider is in Illinois.

I'm having the same problem. Any solution yet? Making things really hard because I can't check-in anywhere or it checks in the wrong location which is currently in a different state.

The other day I noticed that my clock had moved ahead 14 hours on my WiFi only iPad. Maps and location services put me in the middle of China. Immediately I wondered about the new wireless router I had installed. As an experiment, I went to different location with WiFi, then shut off my iPad and restarted. After about 15 minutes the time and the location synced accurately to my actual physical location.

I am curious about this database that has been mentioned in previous posts. I have looked at the settings in my router, and other than the time zone, I am not sure what I would need to change. My DNS info is accurate. I admit, I don't usually tweak the settings of my router, other than adjusting the time and securing the network, so I am in the weeds there.

All I want to know is if there is a quick fix or if things will work themselves out.

Any input would be appreciated.

tddzdm wrote:

I am curious about this database that has been mentioned in previous posts. I have looked at the settings in my router, and other than the time zone, I am not sure what I would need to change.

Nothing.

iDevices use the router MAC address and pass to Apple for the location.

Your reported location is what is (or not) in the database.

To update the Apple database, an iPhone with location services enabled needs to connect to your wifi.

To update the Apple database, an iPhone with location services enabled needs to connect to your wifi.

I believe that the iPhone or 3G iPad just has to "detect" a nearby wi-fi hot spot in order to send its location to Apple, rather than needing to connect to its network. I think I remember reading that all wi-fi hotspots, even encrypted networks, broadcast their unique identifier in the clear. If so, then a neighbor's iPhone could eventually send your router's location to Apple without ever gaining access to your network.

Yes, that seems to be correct.

See Crowd-sourced WiFi in this article -> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995

Then it should only be a matter of time. I have an iPhone 3G, and have connected it to the network--so either by connecting or detecting, the gods of Cupertino should find my lowly router and show it that it is in fact in the heartland of the U.S. and not of China.

tddzdm wrote:

Then it should only be a matter of time.

I imagine Apple does a bit of sifting the data before they use it so it may take a while.

It would be nice of they would publish some info on it.

Chris CA wrote:

tddzdm wrote:

Then it should only be a matter of time.

...so it may take a while."

It took about six hours, as far as I could tell. All is good now. Thank you gods of Cupertino.

Here's a wrinkle I thought I would add to this thread. I used to live near Orlando and recently (in the last few weeks) moved to New Mexico. My iPad 2 WiFi still reports it is in Florida. This is annoying when posting to Facebook or other social sites. At first, I figured it was my Airport Extreme, since I bought and registered it while in FL and probably the MAC address was originally reported as there and not here. But here is the weird part I cannot figure out. If I go to Facebook or Foursquare from my Macbook Pro which is on the same router and does not have any GPS in it, it correctly shows my location in New Mexico, not Florida. So, either the browser is using location info from my ISP and not the router or the router has a correct location and my iPad is at fault. Anyone have that experience? I browser location awareness different than what the iPad is doing to get location?

Message was edited by: Chris Sparno Tested on my wife's iPad WiFi as well, and she is still in FL per her iPad too, so this is most likely an Airport Extreme issue. Also tested accessing Twitter via mobile safari and it still reports wrong location.

Chris Sparno wrote:

If I go to Facebook or Foursquare from my Macbook Pro which is on the same router and does not have any GPS in it, it correctly shows my location in New Mexico, not Florida. So, either the browser is using location info from my ISP and not the router or the router has a correct location and my iPad is at fault. .

FaceBook (not the browser) is using your location as reported by your IP address/ISP.

Thanks for the explanation on FBook. I assume Twitter does the same (Twitter on Chrome or Safari on Mac). Very frustrating. One of the devs that works with me told me to get the 3G iPad even if I never planned on using the 3G so I would get the GPS capability. I should have listened to him LOL.

Not sure whether I should waste the time contacting Apple since it sounds like it's hit or miss on whether the Airport will ever report the updated location.