Location Issue on my laptop with Windows 11

Maggiekev,

Unfortunately, it's likely to go on forever, since as I stated in multiple posts in this thread, both Microsoft as well as Google and Apple have been working on helping customers who wish to hide their location do this, along with at least some ISP's as well, so it's not as easy to provide consistent location data to the world as it used to be.

I can't say why your particular settings seem to change, but then I've been hiding my own location for years, so I'm really not likely to see the same sorts of random changes, especially since my own ISP T-Mobile, also only displays an aggregate location through which many regional towers are displayed. This latter situation is likely due to no individual assignment for IPv6 addresses, which was my first guess in this thread, resulting in my location showing as Milwaukee even though I'm around 100 miles from that city.

To confirm how my own current location detection was acting, I tried a US-based Geo-location tool that displayed the same IPv6 address and no IPv4 address for my own location, with the first 3 of the GEO IP data providers used indicating the same T-Mobile USA, Inc organization. As I mentioned above this is probably why they're unable to provide more specific information, since T-Mobile in effect hides my location by default, though I don't know if that's intentional, requiring me to provide that via my device settings if I wish and I have personally disabled for Windows.

Here's the multiple Geo-location tool I used for you to try, since then you can see not only the IP(s) displayed, but also where or more accurately who they believe is providing this information to them.

IP Address Lookup - Check Location of Your Public IP

That may help you at least understand where this information might be coming from, since as I said in my case it's clearly coming from T-Mobile who only provides a general region for these newer IPv6 addresses, most likely because there are so many they'd need to manually enter the specific individual addresses into a database for, that they simply don't even attempt to maintain these for individual customers.

For that reason, I tried looking up the IPv6 address from that previous IP Location page by cutting and pasting it into the following IP WHOIS Lookup page, since it provides more specific detail for the IP address range assignment to your ISP. It won't necessarily tell you more detail you can use, but it will confirm the official details of what organization truly manages (no one owns) the IP address range your specific IP address is contained within.

IP WHOIS Lookup - Instantly Fetch the WHOIS Info of an IP

If your only identified IP address is an IPv6 as mine is, with no IPv4 address displayed as well, that would imply that the entire pathway from your own [router] device to the server performing the IP address testing is now operating in IPv6 mode, since that's a requirement for these addresses to actually function.

Since the older IPv4 addresses were often assigned a location at least relatively close to the actual location(s) they were used, it's more likely you'd see the past location you were used to when one of these is being used instead. Since more and more servers and routers on the Internet are supporting IPv6 every day, the chances you'll see these being used for your own connections increases as well, meaning that if like mine, your ISP doesn't provide individual locations for their IPv6 addresses, this problem will likely continue to grow for more sites that request location info as well.

Rob

Here we go again. And here I am again. How long will this issue keep cropping up? As I've posted months ago, various setting changes seemed to fix the issue. Months went by along with all the Windows updates, and leaving the time to automatically adjust never caused an issue, that is until two days ago. The setting is now turned off. The Weather and Map widgets place me elsewhere and performing a Google search, even on my iPhone thinks I'm located elsewhere. Google picked up the location from Windows though. Does anyone have any recent updates or recommendations on putting a stop to this incorrect location matter?

Hi John Bebbo. I followed your advice and the location determined by my laptop changed from Colorado to United States! I am located in SW England!!! I have spent 2 days of my ageing life (I am 78 y/o) trying the correct this location issue without success.

Rob, be more specific. i.e. I can log out of Google, delete all cookies,, history, etc. What do you suggest? Am I to use Bing on Windows and Safari on my iPhone - no Google? How does using Google for a search on my windows PC impact time and location in settings? Further clarification is continually made on Windows with the Weather Widget that states my real location is Olathe, KS but I've chosen Sacramento, CA as my default location.

In providing further clarity - While I may use Safari on my iPhone for an impromptu search regarding a shopping matter, as mentioned - it had gotten confused with where I was shopping (Olathe vs Sacramento) but never is the time (zone) also changing on my iPhone as it does w/Windows 11. There are definite differences between iOS and Windows.

Lastly, I see you are quite educated in the detail of vendor (Google, Microsoft, etc) impact when using system features. I'd venture to guess the safeguards you use are because of your education and not something the general public would know about. Software is "supposed" to work simplistically and logically for the masses. When we set up our PC's we define our location. Are you suggesting this a bigger more technical issue where perhaps (example) Google & Microsoft need to communicate better?

Ditto. Seems the Edge update and other posts I/we tried are only temporary fixes. My Time Zone just updated again putting me back to Central time vs. Pacific time where I live. And yes, there is a cross-platform impact w/Google searches as my iPhone now gets confused as to whether I am in Olathe, KS (Central) or Sacramento, CA (Pacific) bases on historical google search activity for the same user. Microsoft - what exactly are we to try now?

Maggiekev,

Your specific description is sounding far more like this particular set of changes that Google and Apple have been making at the same time Microsoft is rolling out tier own changes to their location services and privacy.

Google’s Online Location Tracking Ends In December—Here’s What That Means

As Google deletes all of this online location tracking data, it's bound to create some strange anomalies, especially related to cross-device location tracking that uses your device fingerprints and other data that's been correlated in your timeline in the cloud, leading to your device's location being bounced all over the place as those past relationships are broken.

Problem is that typical users always relate these only to the app or platform they're currently using, and since they understand none of the insidious tracking that's been going on from Google and others for years and decades, they point fingers without any of the knowledge necessary to confirm that's where the problem truly lies.

I can't clearly state the answer to each of your particular anomalies, because I only know to what extent I've spent the last couple decades trying to block most of this tracking myself. Unlike most, I prefer to only set my own location manually and have disabled this useless 'feature' for nearly the entire time, along with blocking every Google cookie or other tracking item possible on every platform, since I'll decide what I wish to search for and precisely where and when. That's why this situation has been less of a concern for me, since I've never really depended on it.

I suspect that the truth here is really somewhere in the middle of all of these various changes we've discovered, which since you're using a Microsoft Windows platform, you're consistently blaming on Microsoft, which based on your own discovery that your iPhone device is changing as well, is quite obviously not completely accurate and in fact most likely just plain wrong.

My own location display has remained quite consistent during this period, with any breakage more clearly affected by the configuration changes I make, probably due to the fact I've never let Google, Microsoft or anyone knowingly retain any of this information, even if they were able to collect it.

Rob