brooksed

Q: Yosemite location services not working?

So, I am unable to locate myself via the Maps app or via Find iPhone app for my MBP and Mac Mini. I verified location services on and even cycled it off and back on again. Also tried turning off Find My Mac and turning back on again with no results. When I look up the MBP and Mac Mini with Find iPhone app, it says that it is "Online, no location available" and this is happening for both devices. I am having no issues with my iPhone or iPad - just the desktop/laptop devices. I tried restarting my modem/router and still no joy. Thoughts?

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 4:29 PM

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Q: Yosemite location services not working?

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  • by mgoverde,

    mgoverde mgoverde Nov 11, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Mark Thorpe
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Mark Thorpe

    Adding to the list, same issue. MBP Retina 2013 (13"), Yosemite 10.10.1 Beta2. I found the problem out by changing time zone and the clock on my Mac didn't follow, on my iPhone it did. In preference / clock it stated that it wasn't able to locate my position. But after killing GEO.plist and reboot the time was changed to the right zone, but after that no success with other options like maps or the location site suggested.

  • by RickReed,

    RickReed RickReed Nov 11, 2014 1:21 PM in response to mgoverde
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 11, 2014 1:21 PM in response to mgoverde

    Hi everyone,

     

    A number of you reported that deleting the com.apple.geod.plist and restarting has not worked for you.

     

    That is not the case for me. I am still getting location services after several days and quite a few restarts.

    For me the issue is fixed.

  • by Andrea Turriziani,

    Andrea Turriziani Andrea Turriziani Nov 12, 2014 3:07 AM in response to RickReed
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 12, 2014 3:07 AM in response to RickReed

    Glad to hear :-). I have tried multiple times, also tried to delete all the registered apps from locationd system folder, no luck at all. Strange things, geod daemon is not crashing on my side. Keep an eye on it for hours and the process is there, working perfectly -.-...

  • by mgoverde,

    mgoverde mgoverde Nov 12, 2014 5:33 AM in response to RickReed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2014 5:33 AM in response to RickReed

    Unfortunately I also get it to work shortly. If I remove ~/library/preference/com.apple.GEO.plist (which stays away until next reboot) and force to stop com.apple.geod as a service (which restarts shortly after), all the location services work and looks like it stays to work (also maps). Reboot my MBP recreates GEO.plist and location services stops working.

     

    I hope Apple is reading this all and will fix this soon. It looks like a bug and not a "single user issue".

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Nov 12, 2014 5:46 AM in response to brooksed
    Level 7 (20,591 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 12, 2014 5:46 AM in response to brooksed

    It seems to me that Maps was intended for use with an established Wi-Fi connection. If I have a blue dot on my current location, and turn off Wi-Fi (while keeping a wired connection), the blue location dot just vanishes.

  • by Andrea Turriziani,

    Andrea Turriziani Andrea Turriziani Nov 12, 2014 5:53 AM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 12, 2014 5:53 AM in response to VikingOSX

    It is correct, location services works only with wireless enabled. If you try to locate without wifi enabled the Finder will report an error

  • by mgoverde,

    mgoverde mgoverde Nov 12, 2014 7:53 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2014 7:53 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani

    There is a relationship with the problem discussed here though. It's only working after I remove goed.plist and kill GEO service. Otherwise I can press the location button and nothing happens.

  • by RickReed,

    RickReed RickReed Nov 12, 2014 10:00 AM in response to brooksed
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 12, 2014 10:00 AM in response to brooksed

    HI again everyone,

     

    I am not sure whether it makes any difference, but I did not actually delete the good.plist but moved it to the desktop.

    Of course, the system created a new one, but suppose that it might do this in a different way depending on whether the file is erased or moved.

     

    I only actually deleted the .plist when I was sure location services was working.

     

    Rick

  • by Mark Thorpe,

    Mark Thorpe Mark Thorpe Nov 13, 2014 12:09 PM in response to RickReed
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 13, 2014 12:09 PM in response to RickReed

    Not sure if this make a difference , But I am booting from an External SSD, When I boot from the internal HDD , location services works..

     

    Deleting the plist make no difference for me..

  • by Andrea Turriziani,

    Andrea Turriziani Andrea Turriziani Nov 13, 2014 12:19 PM in response to Mark Thorpe
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 13, 2014 12:19 PM in response to Mark Thorpe

    Interesting... it is not a drive issue for sure (on my iMac i have a fusion drive and on my MacBook a standard HD, but it's not working in both). Surely you have something different between the OS installed on the SSD and the one on the internal HD. Can you please paste here a report from the console when you click on the localize button in maps on both OS? want to check them. Thank you

  • by Mark Thorpe,

    Mark Thorpe Mark Thorpe Nov 13, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 13, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani

    Sure.. I did update to 10.10.1 beta on the SSD, but it was not working before this (I updated to see if it cured the issue)

  • by Andrea Turriziani,

    Andrea Turriziani Andrea Turriziani Nov 13, 2014 12:22 PM in response to RickReed
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 13, 2014 12:22 PM in response to RickReed

    Moving or erasing a system file is basically the same, since the Finder will not search it in other folders. Thank you anyway, every information is useful at this point

  • by Simon Majak,

    Simon Majak Simon Majak Nov 17, 2014 5:41 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2014 5:41 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani

    Same issue here.  Was working fine with Yosemite Beta but has died with retail version.  Nothing I try fixes it.  Works randomly 25% of the time but the accuracy is way off.  Frustrating.

  • by Andrea Turriziani,

    Andrea Turriziani Andrea Turriziani Nov 18, 2014 1:05 PM in response to brooksed
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 18, 2014 1:05 PM in response to brooksed

    Just a little update. Suddenly, the location services are working again!! This morning still nothing, but this afternoon everything is working as expected. I have done nothing on my mac, not installed nor deleted anything... From what I have seen, it seems like apple have update its database with data from skyhook wireless service. About 14 days ago I have submitted my location of my router to the site, using this link and my router WAN MAC ID:

     

    http://www.skyhookwireless.com/submit-access-point

     

    I'm sure about it because I have adjusted the location since the auto search was not precise, and the result is the same I can see in Maps app.

     

    For all the people here that have the same problem, try to add it on the link provided and wait some weeks to see if it works also for you. If you don't know what is your router MAC address, search it on the configuration page or get it directly from your router (it is a 16 digit alphanumeric code divided by semicolon, i.e. 0A:1B:2C:3D:4E:5F:6G:7H).

     

    Hope this works for you!!! Let me know thank you

  • by brooksed,Solvedanswer

    brooksed brooksed Nov 20, 2014 10:56 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 10:56 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani

    Andrea,

     

    Yes, I agree that location services are working again. Thank you for the update. Of note, Apple did *something* to fix the problem, sometime around the same time they pushed out 10.10.1. It was actually working for me shortly BEFORE the patch was pushed, so I know that Apple did something to their servers. This is especially true since I didn't do ANYTHING new to restore the functionality... it just, all of a sudden, worked. Kudos to Apple for fixing the problem, but bad Apple for just quietly "flipping a switch" to make it work.

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