Location issues on iPad Pro/iOS 11

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Geektastic

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Topic # 230750 11-Mar-2018 21:02

My iPad is unable to locate itself when on my home wifi network. It does not have GPS. The wifi is a Netgear Orbi connected to a standard Vodafone VDSL router.

My desktop says on Google "Location {x} based on your search history".

I've checked all the usual suspects - turned location on and off, reset location, restart iPad etc etc and none of them have any effect. The weather widget just says "unable to load weather".

We have no near neighbours, so no one else's wifi can be used by the system to locate. There are two cellphones connected regularly, both of which have GPS and know exactly where they are.

Any ideas? Is it just too rural for the system to be able to function correctly?

RunningMan

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Reply # 1972847 11-Mar-2018 21:11

The WiFi access point needs to be added to whatever database Apple use for WiFi geolocation - not sure how you accomplish this, but Google may help?

PhantomNVD

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Reply # 1972852 11-Mar-2018 21:16

get an iPhone with GPS, connect it to the wifi router, go to the apple maps application, tap your location to get the blue dot, wait a few seconds. there, you just updated apple's database.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-add-your-wifi-hotspot-to-Apples-location-database

top hit in Google :)

jamesrt

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Reply # 1972864 11-Mar-2018 21:37

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... and what do you do if you don’t own an iPhone?

Geektastic

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Reply # 1972869 11-Mar-2018 21:40

jamesrt: ... and what do you do if you don’t own an iPhone?

Worse, my wife DOES own one, and it is connected to the system every day!

To be fair, she does not use Maps at all I doubt so I will try that and see what happens.

Geektastic

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Reply # 1972870 11-Mar-2018 21:42

Also - Maps on my iMac goes straight to where I am..!

tdgeek

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Reply # 1972920 12-Mar-2018 07:33

Geektastic:

Also - Maps on my iMac goes straight to where I am..!

That is bizarre. Do the iPhone, iMac and iPad share the same Apple ID? Just wondering if that would help cross pollinate the location data.

Geektastic

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Reply # 1985537 29-Mar-2018 17:43

OK this still isn't cured.

I have GPS'd the location whilst connected to the ORBI router using both a Note 8 and an iPhone 7.

Accuweather on the iPad Pro knows where I am. Apple Weather has no idea. PhotoPill has no idea.

Location services have been reset and are on for the apps in question.

Google knows where I am based on my search history. If I click "use precise location" it then says I am in Ponatahi "as reported by this computer" but Ponatahi is about 25km away....

To answer the question above, the iMac and the iPad do share the same ID but the iPhone does not. Also we are too far from any other house for any device to pick up any other wifi.

PhantomNVD

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Reply # 1985597 29-Mar-2018 19:10

Sign the iPhone out, and sign in again as the iPad Apple ID (won’t disturb the 90 day ownership clock unless you ‘restore’ something from the App Store)

Then go to Apple maps (and google maps) on the iPhone and see what the iPad does then?

Finally, try set a ‘home address’ for your own number in the iPhone and see if that updates the iPad too 🤔

Geektastic

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Reply # 1994201 11-Apr-2018 11:33

No, still no joy.

None of my computing equipment gets the correct location. The iPad just gets nothing for the most part, except Accuweather which seems to know where I am. The iMac thinks I am in Ponatahi which I am not.

The two phones in the house know where I am, since they have GPS of course.

Is there no way to simply TELL the equipment where I am?!

wellygary

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Reply # 1994334 11-Apr-2018 16:31

Geektastic:

Is there no way to simply TELL the equipment where I am?!

No, because it is using a whole bunch of hand-waving IP matching along with "possibly" GPS data from other devices on the network,

One solution could be to use one of the devices with GPS as a hotspot and connect the ipad to that and see if it picks up the right location...

tdgeek

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Reply # 1994362 11-Apr-2018 16:38

PhantomNVD: Sign the iPhone out, and sign in again as the iPad Apple ID (won’t disturb the 90 day ownership clock unless you ‘restore’ something from the App Store)

Then go to Apple maps (and google maps) on the iPhone and see what the iPad does then?

Finally, try set a ‘home address’ for your own number in the iPhone and see if that updates the iPad too 🤔

Tell Siri? She is over everything in iOS so that may actually carry some weight

Geektastic

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Reply # 2007217 3-May-2018 16:06

So I have decided it is definitely related to our rural location somehow.

I have been on the road using the iPad in a variety of places all over the South Island and it gets the weather location correct all the time. However at home, our router does not get it right.

It’s a strange one - the inernet seems convinced I live in Ponatahi which is at least 20km from my house, rather than Martinborough which is 2000 metres away. In fact, Ponatahi is one of those places which does not exactly exist - there are no signs saying “Welcome To Ponatahi”, no shops or house or anything: it shows on some road signs saying “Ponatahi 20km” but there is no actual destination...!