Siri refuses to work without location services enabled

Question

Level 9

78,568 points

Siri refuses to work without location services enabled

I tried to see what Siri can do on my MBP (latest Sierra version).

Due to personal preferences, I have location services DISabled.

I asked Siri "find me a house in [specific city and state]". Siri informed me that she can help if I enable location services. Tried several times with the same result.

That is ridiculous. My current location should not matter if I am looking for a house in the same city, different city, across the country or wherever.

Is there some setting that I am missing?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 2012 i7 3.4 GHz 16 GB RAM

Posted on Jan 26, 2017 10:37 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Jan 27, 2017 7:32 AM in response to cwindom8

Your asking her for directions

babowa is asking for locations of houses, not for directions to these houses.

So babowa's current location should not matter to Siri to be able to provide the information.

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Answer 2

babowa Author

Level 9

78,568 points

Jan 27, 2017 7:40 AM in response to cwindom8

I did not ask for directions, therefore my location does not matter.

I can google or check any online real estate company for "find homes for sale in xxxx city/county, State of xx" and will get hundreds of results. My location is not needed for that and it works. I can also find the address of the White House without revealing mine. Siri should be able to query the same type of database and display the results.

I'm surprised that she can't (thanks to John Galt and to leonie).

@ dialabrain:

Now that is truly ridiculous.

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Answer 3

babowa Author

Level 9

78,568 points

Jan 27, 2017 10:22 AM in response to leroydouglas

I would suspect the Siri API is "hardwired" into the Maps.app etc. therefore you are kicking-out one of Siri's legs to stand on.

LOL - sorry I injured one of her legs. 😁 In my humble opinion, not being able to access the same database everyone else does is a hindrance and makes her only minimally functional.

I will try the other suggestions later when I fire up the MBP (although I'm not really interested in installing another app - googling will suffice nicely. I just thought it'd be cool if Siri would be able to pull up available abodes); we're having an emergency here today.

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Answer 4

babowa Author

Level 9

78,568 points

Jan 27, 2017 6:56 PM in response to babowa

After turning on location services for Siri and testing several scenarios, Siri has been put to (pretty much) permanent sleep on my MBP. Asking for houses and condos for sale, she came up with several rental apartments. When I informed her that I wasn't interested in rentals, but wanted to buy a house, she came up with listings of several stores. And when I said that I found that worthless, she came back with several movie titles which included the word 'restless'.

I give up. Thanks for everyone's help in testing!

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

155,822 points

Jan 26, 2017 11:15 PM in response to babowa

No, you're not missing anything. Siri won't be much help with any search for a location without Location Services enabled. The fact that the location or address you're seeking is completely unrelated to your location doesn't seem to matter. You could ask for the address of the White House, or Apple's headquarters for example. It won't work without enabling Location Services.

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Answer 6

leroydouglas

Level 10

199,422 points

Jan 27, 2017 8:21 AM in response to babowa

babowa wrote:

I can google or check any online real estate company for "find homes for sale in xxxx city/county, State of xx" and will get hundreds of results. My location is not needed for that and it works. I can also find the address of the White House without revealing mine. Siri should be able to query the same type of database and display the results.

I would suspect the Siri API is "hardwired" into the Maps.app etc. therefore you are kicking-out one of Siri's legs to stand on.

It Sounds like what you really need is an app like Zillow or Realtor.com:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zillow-real-estate-homes-for/id310738695?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/realtor.com-real-estate-homes/id336698281?mt=8

Even these specialty apps work better with location services turned on.

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Jan 27, 2017 8:30 AM in response to leroydouglas

I got even more useful suggestions "Find me a house in ..." after allowing also location services for "System Services > Location based suggestions" and allowing Spotlight suggestions.

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Answer 8

cwindom8

Level 1

21 points

Jan 27, 2017 1:19 AM in response to babowa

What is ridiculous about it. Your asking her for directions and she is telling you she cannot give them to you because you refuse to tell her what your location is... You don't want to turn on location services, so you are not allowing apps and features to use your location for various servies... Siri needs location services because to give you directions she needs a starting point, and she needs your permission to locate that starting point

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Answer 9

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Jan 27, 2017 8:15 AM in response to babowa

I don't know if you want to do this but you can have Location Services only enabled for Siri & Dictation.

FWIW, list realtors does not work in Siri with location services disabled. I got un-lazy and tested it.

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Answer 10

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Jan 27, 2017 7:36 AM in response to babowa

Hi Guy, 🙂

for what it's worth, even with Location Services enabled your query would end up giving you the names of businesses with the word "House" in the name. I tried it with Dallas. TX.

😎

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Answer 11

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Jan 27, 2017 7:46 AM in response to babowa

Yep.

Try "list realtors in city, state". I didn't test it with Location Services disabled. Too lazy.

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