Just set up HomePod.
When I ask "Hey Siri! What's the weather?"
She responds "I don't know where you are." or "I don't seem to be able to get your current location."
Location Services are enabled via the Home App.
How can I get Siri to know where I am?
Not sure if this might help anyone as it's not very deterministic but I spoke to Apple support and they had me remove the HomePod from the Home app, re-install and then go through every place the HomePod needs permissions, ie Settings->Privacy, Settings->iCloud and Home app details. That didn't fix the problem immediately but an hour later and bingo, it started working and has been fine ever since.
I heard back from Apple regarding this issue.
The way the HomePod gets is location is from a "crowd-sourced" database of wifi access points and their locations. The wifi access points near me are apparently not in this database. This data is collected from iPhones then anonymized, and reported back to Apple with locations and the nearby wifi access points.
Despite having two iPhones in this location for the past several years, our wifi access point has apparently not been added to this database and there is no way to do this manually. We live in a remote area, so other iPhones rarely make it out here. In fact, our non-cellular iPad devices are equally unable to determine location.
So for now, Siri is trapped inside the HomePod with no knowledge of her location.
To make matters worse, Siri does not know our town name either, so "Hey Siri! What's the weather in [redacted]?" comes back with "The weather in Tanzania is 80°..." We do not live in Tanzania.
Also, I don't know if what Apple is saying about "crowd-sourced" is 100% true. I mean, we have to assume it's true. BUT, I do know that I live out in the middle of the boonies, and it knows exactly where I am.
I also took the time to register my publicly-facing static IP addresses with the main services that companies reference for GeoIP location:
https://support.maxmind.com/geoip-data-correction-request/
There's at least one or two more out there, but I can't locate my last registration run email.
If you pull up the following URL on your home network, see what it says:
https://www.maxmind.com/en/locate-my-ip-address
Is it registered? Is it even close?
If your public IP address is a static IP address, then you can register it. My IP address links to my house. Which is probably scary? 😁
If your public IP address is a DHCP (changing/dynamic) IP address, and it changes often, you could just keep registering each IP address that your router is issued with your home coordinates. That won't help the next guy who lives elsewhere and gets your DHCP address afterward but...yeah. It'll maybe get them closer than your ISP's HQ?
Hope this helps?
Perhaps it would help to turn Location Services off and then back on again. 😕
tt2
Are location services enabled on the device that you set it up with? I'd be surprised if HomePod has its own GPS hardware.
tt2
If you use a site like https://www.iplocation.net/ to check on the location of your IP address does it give sensible results?
tt2
Well there might be but its a long shot. Apple asked me to reset my network settings so my phone and therefore my iPad lost the remembered wifi networks. My main network is a Ubiquity mesh network so I rejoined it and the HomePod didn't work. The next day I took my iPad to my workshop which has an old Apple Extreme cabled back to the main house and I rejoined that to watch Netflix while I worked. Thats when my HomePod started working and it has been fine ever since. My HomePod has taken the network settings from my iPhone and definitely can't see the workshop wifi so its odd, but thats exactly the moment it started working.
May you could hook in a different/old wifi point and reset you network settings and see if it works for you but I have no idea what the explanation might be.
I had this working just fine, but in the last week or two it stopped working. HomePod cannot detect my location. I can detect my location on my MacBook Pro on the same WiFi network, and checking my router's IP address on numerous websites shows (at least approximately) my correct location. I tried restarting and resetting the HomePod, and of course I also restarted my router and all other network devices. Nothing seems to fix the issue. It is like my HomePod suddenly has amnesia. HomePod still plays my music library, tells me the correct time, controls my HomeKit devices, etc. The only issue appears to be that it cannot detect its location. I hope there is a fix for this soon.
Thanks for the follow up. Perhaps use Feedback - HomePod - Apple to suggest that Apple provide a way to enter the location manually, via the Home app for example.
tt2
Well, I initially set up the HomePod with an iPad, so no GPS there. I later connected to my iPhone and enabled "personal requests".
So maybe the HomePod is only attempting to get location from the iPad perhaps? It behaves the same if that iPad is turned off though, so maybe not. I'm not clear on exactly where the HomePod is supposed to get its location from.
Apple has responded to my support issue too with the same response pointing to the wifi database. I also have had my iPhone and iPad connected to my wifi network for years but the odd point is that my home's started working so how was that I wonder?
I should add that my iPad is wifi only and I have no neighbours so joining the Extreme AP seems the only event thing that could have done it. To be fair, Apple suggested trying a different wifi point.
I have this exact same issue. Never been able to get home pod to figure out my location. My house does not have any other wifi's around me - so my wifi is the only one. I have checked the ip address of my router and it shows the correct location.
What is really funny. every so often it figures out where I am for like one request and then back to normal (and not knowing where I am).
I have tried all the settings, flipping enable location on the home pod. registering my ip address at the site suggested in this post - nothing seems to work.
A further point. my non-cellular ipads (3) cannot determine locations either. My phone can of course.
Thanks, but that did not help.
Unable to get location
