Location Issue on my laptop with Windows 11

All I know is, everything was working fine with my location, for years, and a couple of weeks ago it stopped working. I didn't make any changes. Let's face it, this is a screw up on Microsoft's part.

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

it is just EDGE that is having location issues. Multiple posts on reddit with the same issue that I also have. It's pointing those with the issue to the location of the MS Boydton Datacenter in VA for any attempt to have edge detect location (any site). I'm not using the secure network setting. This also started only in the past week or two

It is just the Edge browser with the issue. All other browsers and apps work fine. The default windows location is already correct on my PC and does nothing to change what Edge will report. You can even change the windows default location to something random and Edge will still report back Boydton VA

Interesting, we probably have different but similar bugs then. I have a feeling mine was ISP related because a) it started happening on my iPhone and b) the solution I was able to use didn't work for other people. My computer was outright unable to use location services, on all browsers, so if stuff like other browsers or the Maps app are working for you, I would assume an Edge-specific problem.