Location Issue on my laptop with Windows 11

bentokage,

Great catch! I hadn't thought to look at the Default location because I'd set mine to the city I'm located near years ago when I had also changed all of the location and other settings to avoid being tracked.

However, this had also been overridden for my own Windows 10 configuration to display the downtown Boydton, VA location that the data center located near that small town is set to display.

That's the missing item that made no sense to me, so it's really that same change that's affecting all of us who display that address, since the Default location is the fallback that's always displayed when Windows can't otherwise provide a more accurate location via any of the other methods you've chosen to allow.

So, it's easy to see why someone could think this is either a bug or something that Microsoft broke, since in effect they unilaterally made the decision to set this Default location item to the same data center address as the Microsoft Secure Network selections will display, most likely because they're trying to protect you from being tracked if you haven't chosen to set this to something specific yourself.

FYI, when I looked at this particular setting based on your post, I immediately tried clicking hat same 'Show my location' dot in the center of the navigation bar on the map that appears, which since Allow apps to access your location was still turned on, was accurate to within a few houses. Once I returned that to 'Off' as it has been for years, clicking the dot again displayed We're not allowed to find you and offered to turn Location settings back on again.

So exactly as you've stated, you can set this Default by entering one manually with either a specific address, zip code such as a local town or city, or clicking Choose location to select it on the map instead, placing it as close or far from your true location as you prefer anyone to be able to determine.

So, for JB-D-M, that's the item that changed that you perceived as a bug, while in truth it's just a default setting change that Microsoft made that though it's likely documented somewhere, it's no doubt in such an obscure location that finding it would be as difficult as discovering it was for us. While bentokage made a correct decision to look at the Default location setting and found it had been altered because he didn't make the same erroneous assumption I did that they'd left it alone as I'd set it previously.

Rob

So... I'm back. I've been posting to two different boards regarding this topic. Recap: I have a Lenovo Tablet that had this location discrepancy, worked w/three different MS Support folks, tried MANY recommended solutions. Nothing worked. I'd use a different time server and/or a coincidental windows update worked. I'm no longer in Olathe, KS and back in Sacramento, CA and can go back to setting the time zone automatically and the weather widget validates this.

Recent posts I've made now tell all that my Windows 11 desktop decided to make a change after an update and put me in again in Olathe, KS. Please understand, when you're logged in to the same MS account (and Google account) to do searches, etc. this location issue is complicating basic tasks. Now Google is providing me w/searches for Olathe, KS or asking me which location I want to use.

TODAY: The desktop wanted to install another update (2024-05 Cumulative Update Preview...W11 23H2 KB5037853). When completed and PC restarted, I'm now in Sandy Springs, GA!! A new Google search had me checking out the following:

Windows 11 Maps Shows Wrong Location: Fixed - NEXTOFWINDOWS.COM

I'd make "some" of the changes as others were already in place and I didn't feel it was necessary to uninstall/reinstall maps.

1. I disabled the Proxy Auto-Detect.
2. I did a repair / reset on the Map app.
3. Location history has been deleted a thousand times.
4. I did go into Services and turned Geolocation to "Automatic"

I stopped there, did another 'restart' and the weather widget now had my correct location! I turned Time Zone back to automatic and I'm still good?? But... now my tablet wants to install the same update. What will the outcome be...?

Interesting Maggiekev,

Your description provides another complication which may indicate why there haven't been literally hundreds of these complaints, since you're apparently logging into both your Microsoft and Google account t once, which most like me don't even use on our PC

However, bentokage who mentioned the Default location settings in their thread above, had also opened a separate thread in these forums where they started complaining of exactly the same sort of ping-pong sharing of the Boydton, VA site in their case on both their phones and other devices, so your description of this interaction between logged in accounts is likely explaining their symptoms as well.

Since my own Microsoft only account operation doesn't use a Google account except on my phone, I never saw this interaction back to the phone, but I can't be certain it had nothing to do with my simpler problems with Boydton itself, since the Google account does actually exist.

However, even though I've seen no additional Windows update to this point, the changes I'd already made including the Default location one I mentioned here last seem to have stabilized my own operation.

So, it's probably only in more extreme cases like yours when using both Microsoft and Google accounts together for search and similar purposes that this additional work may need to be done to resolve the side effects having both accounts swapping location information in the background can cause.

Just as an FYI, most if not all of those items in your list of changes are the more classic ones I'd seen in other older threads during my research, so they really just appear to be needed to remove the potential corruption of either Maps app, location history data or some autoconfiguration items that might create added confusion as well.

Rob

Yea, I've already tried that. I can set my default location in the Maps app, but Edge still wants to show me in Boydton.

I have this same issue and it's super annoying. Edge, and the Maps app, in Windows 11, locates me in Boydton , VA, even though I'm in the Dallas, TX area. Chrome, however, does NOT have this issue, on the same system. Utterly ridiculous.

I had this exact same issue happen to me (and multiple other people have as well), all within the last two weeks. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with the ISP or any specific browsers. I think Windows location services are entirely failing for you and me, and the computer's default seems to be set to Boydton, since that's where the data center is.

I was able to band-aid the problem by going to Windows Settings -> Privacy & security -> Location, and changing the "Default location" setting via the "Set default" button.

This box should show up in the top-left corner with the Boydton address (I blocked out my own address which this is now set to). Click "Change" and enter your address, or alternatively you can click the "Choose location" thing under it and you can pick the exact spot you want the computer to think you are.

This allowed for everything I use to default to my address instead of defaulting to Boydton, hence "fixing" the issue since my PC isn't moving anywhere. This doesn't actually fix the issue with the location services that happened to people though, so if you bring your PC/laptop somewhere else and the issue still happens, you would have to do this again to match wherever you are.

Let me know if this doesn't work, since that would mean that the same issue appeared for multiple people at once but the band-aid solution doesn't work for every instance of it.

Yea, I've already tried that. I can set my default location in the Maps app, but Edge still wants to show me in Boydton.

JB-D-M,

There's a relatively clear explanation for all of this, that though it's reasonably well documented, isn't the typical client centric situation we've all been looking for, which is why it took me so long to find it in the wrong places with the wrong searches.

Friday afternoon I did a couple more tests of my own system after again allowing Windows Privacy, Location settings and ensuring none of the various Edge Settings, Site Permissions items were potentially blocking the testing sites we'd been using. I initially got basically the same results with the 2 IP-based selections displaying my wireless ISPs Milwaukee, WI egress location and that Bellevue, WA one I thought might be Microsoft, as well as both IP testing sites more granular Where-Am-I-Now like selections displaying within a few houses of my true location.

However, though these same locations typically continued for at least a couple additional requests, if I continued to click refresh multiple times the more accurate street location results would eventually revert to Boydton, VA as a few of you had also reported.

This seemingly odd behavior that didn't appear to follow any specific pattern other than, 'the more you try the worse it gets', finally made me think that something was potentially, actively attempting to 'protect' my system from a possible 'attack' by these websites making requests to identify my precise location. This sounds suspiciously like the Edge, Privacy, 'Enhance your security on the web' setting kicking in to protect my system from a potential attack, even though I'd specifically disabled that to ensure it wasn't interfering with my testing.

That's when I began to think differently about this entire situation and think of it as raising the bar on protection in general, searching for 'Microsoft increasing location protection' instead, which led me to these general articles about Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative.

A new world of security: Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative - Microsoft On the Issues

Prioritizing security above all else - The Official Microsoft Blog

Even though these articles were general in nature, this got me thinking about the Microsoft Secure Network specifically as part of this wider Secure Future Initiative, so I searched for the former and looked a bit further down the page beyond the Microsoft articles until I found the following from Cloudflare, while the second similar article was found by adding Cloudflare to the search.

Cloudflare is now powering Microsoft Edge Secure Network

Cloudflare Powers Privacy Enhancing Features in Microsoft Edge Secure Network | Cloudflare

One of the linked articles within these two describes how this technology works in more detail, and it's worth mentioning that Microsoft has roughly the same number of datacenters worldwide that Cloudflare mentions at over 300, and this generally fits with the symptoms we've seen from these location issues as well.

1.1.1.1 + WARP: More features, still private

If you look at Microsoft Edge's VPN Browser page in the FAQ section, the descriptions of how this is intended to work shows that it roughly matches what we're seeing, though the issue is we're being consistently routed from a single datacenter, rather than the more geographically similar location that all of these articles indicate should be displayed.

Try Microsoft Edge's VPN Browser | Microsoft Edge

Can I use Edge Secure Network to obscure my location?

Edge Secure Network obscures your specific location and IP address from third parties, to prevent tracking and protect your privacy. Instead, websites and services will see a location that is geographically similar to yours, so you can still look up local movie times, nearby restaurants, and more – without compromising your personal data. Edge Secure Network VPN does not allow you to select a specific region or location for your traffic to route from. 

What I'm guessing based on all of this, is that either we're part of a smaller test group Microsoft is using to confirm this Edge Secure Network is functioning correctly, or possibly we've simply got some sort of conflicting issue within our individual configurations that's interfering with its proper operation.

Regardless of what's actually happening to cause our specific issues, we now at least know the true source of the attempts to reroute our traffic and how they're expected to operate. Based on the fact the number of datacenters in the US used for Microsoft Personal account - Edge Secure Network egress may be limited, this may as I guessed be a smaller test group than what will eventually exist. It's appears though, that even though this Cloudflare partnership and the Edge Secure Network itself are documented in these articles, apparently few within the Microsoft Support structure for Personal - consumer accounts are currently aware of how this works or may interact with customer systems.

I haven't tried to investigate whether any of this is documented in recent updates, but at least now we know what we're looking for. It's also important for those having these issues to know whether they personally are using one of the pre-release versions of the Edge browser, since those should have shown at least somewhat similar symptoms before they hit the general population using the final release clients.

Rob