How to update router geolocation?

  • I recently moved, but my devices show wrong location when connected to the home wifi.

    Any ideas how to speed up the process of updating the geolocation of my home network?

    • I managed to do it. With Apple devices the procedure is the following. You need 2 devices at least one device with GPS. I did it with 2 iPhones, but iPhone and a computer will also do.

      1. On the phone open the “Find My” app. It’s showing the old location. Click on the profile icon (“Me”), Location and edit. Select “none”. Close the “Find My” app.
      2. Switch off the WiFi completely from the settings app, Wi-Fi. Just the disconnect from the Control Center is not enough.
      3. Open again the “Find My” app. It should show the new location based on the GPS coordinates. If it doesn’t, go outside for better reception. If it still doesn’t work click on the current location arrow icon. You should see your phone located correctly.
      4. Once the device is correctly located, from the second device start the “Find My” app and play the sound on the first device.
      5. Dismiss the localisation sound on the first device and turn on the WiFi. The device should remain correcly localised at the new address.

      That’s it. Within 24 hours, all devices should acquire the new address when connected to the WiFi. If you don’t have patience, you can repeat this procedure on every Apple device.

    @bitracer hello

    If the problem is still present, ask the same question in the Community in German 🙂

    “On apprend parfois plus d'une défaite que d'une victoire” — José Raúl Capablanca

    Hi @bitracer

    As many devices rely on the SSID for geolocation, changing the SSID might help.

    Interesting tidbit: you can opt out of this by adding _nomap to the end of the SSID.

    You can also try the following:

    To help ensure your changed SSID is submitted to Google quickly, open Google Maps on an Android device with Wi-Fi turned on. To establish a location fix near your Wi-Fi access point, tap My location

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    Best,

    r00t

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    That’s the thing, I don’t want to change the SSID. I found online some advices and procedures, but so far no luck.

    This shouldn’t be so complicated.

    I managed to do it. With Apple devices the procedure is the following. You need 2 devices at least one device with GPS. I did it with 2 iPhones, but iPhone and a computer will also do.

    1. On the phone open the “Find My” app. It’s showing the old location. Click on the profile icon (“Me”), Location and edit. Select “none”. Close the “Find My” app.
    2. Switch off the WiFi completely from the settings app, Wi-Fi. Just the disconnect from the Control Center is not enough.
    3. Open again the “Find My” app. It should show the new location based on the GPS coordinates. If it doesn’t, go outside for better reception. If it still doesn’t work click on the current location arrow icon. You should see your phone located correctly.
    4. Once the device is correctly located, from the second device start the “Find My” app and play the sound on the first device.
    5. Dismiss the localisation sound on the first device and turn on the WiFi. The device should remain correcly localised at the new address.

    That’s it. Within 24 hours, all devices should acquire the new address when connected to the WiFi. If you don’t have patience, you can repeat this procedure on every Apple device.

    9 days later

    Thanks for you tip, @bitracer!

    I will soon be in the exact situation, with a move to a nearby village, and I do not want to change SSID at all.

    We will see what will happen to geolocation in my case, but since pretty much all my devices are Apple, your tip will be the first one I will implement if things won’t work properly in my new location.

    I am also curious to see what will be my speed to the Swisscom VDSL network in the new apartment… wish me luck!

    Bye, Luca

    4 months later

    Almost two months have passed since I moved apartments, and Apple geolocation did not turn out to be an issue at all.

    Maybe the trick was to set up correctly the new home address in Apple Maps, and this did trick, in that the iPhone and iPad, who both have GPS and 5G SIM cards in them, could correlate the new location of the same SSID easily, and I never had a geolocation issue with my MacBook Air, which does not have neither a GPS nor a SIM card, and thus must rely on wifi MAC addresses to perform geolocation.

    Overall a very smooth transition, including the VDSL service, which kept working at the old location, and started to work automagically at the new location when I connected the same Internet Box 3 to the Swisscom wires at the new location.

    Very happy I did not have to struggle on internet connectivity!

    Bye, Luca