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Windows showing wrong location

Anonymous
2021-04-02T17:58:36+00:00

I live in Savannah, GA. But since a few weeks ago, my location has been shown as Napa, CA. 

I'm using Boot Camp on a MacBook Pro. macOS on the same machine shows the correct location. Apple Find My App shows the correct location.

Cortana, Bing.com in Edge, Google Earth (x64 application), any IP location website in Edge: Savannah, GA (where I exactly live)

Google (including Google Maps and Goole Earth) in Edge, grocery stores and restaurants' locator in Edge, Weather App, Maps App, New App, automatic time zone: Napa, CA.

The above-mentioned symptoms won't change, no matter I connect to the Internet via Ethernet (Xfinity), or Wi-Fi (Xfinity), or iPhone hotspot (T-Mobile 5G). Therefore, the issue is nothing to do with the ISP.

My system has been updated to the latest. Neither restarting or reinstalling the OS solves this issue.

Basically, you search "where am I" at Google.com and you'll know where the system thinks you are. Now it's shown as Napa, CA in my browser. If I go to Services, turn off and then disable Geolocation Service (not restart), Google still shows I'm in Napa, CA. And then I set Geolocation Service to Automatic or Manual (without starting it), and refresh the "where am I" search result at Google, it shows Pine Garden, GA, which is even more accurate than Savannah, GA as Savannah is a city and Pine Garden is a very small region in the city. And then I immediately refresh the page without doing anything else, it result turns to Napa, CA again.

Some additional information: Location for this device (Settings -> Privacy -> Location) is On, Default Location was set to Savannah, Geolocation Service is Running. No IP proxy or VPN is running.

It seems that Windows has sufficient conditions to detect the right location, but something unknown is preventing it from doing so.

My device specifications:

Device name KNYCK-PC-BC

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz   2.40 GHz

Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)

Device ID 958EB2CB-CEDE-4591-A085-4D04D8E4F670

Product ID 00329-10330-00000-AA371

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

My Windows specifications:

Edition Windows 10 Enterprise

Version 21H1

Installed on ‎18/‎03/‎2021

OS build 19043.906

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3530.0

I've seen plenty of similar threads posted in MS Community (English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese), and NONE of them has a working solution. Most of them end up with no reply or similar suggestions (turn on Location, set Default Location, restart Geolocation Service, etc). Some early cases can be dated back to 2015.

I created a ticket in Feedback Hub. Please vote it up so it becomes visible to MS engineers. https://aka.ms/AAbta2g

Any helpful advice is very much appreciated.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-20T21:46:41+00:00

    VPNs really do often cause this type of issue. For example if I connect to the my Atlanta VPN, my computer thinks I'm in Atlanta instead of Oklahoma because that's where my IP address geolocates to (and my computer has no GPS chip embedded from which to receive any more accurate location method other than IP address). This is also how VPNs facilitate geo-locked material such as watching content on Netflix that is only available in certain countries. But I'm afraid I don't have any better idea of how to tackle this situation.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-06-20T02:31:03+00:00

    The only security product I'm using is Mircosoft Defender ATP (or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint). And practically, I haven't seen any VPN finally changes a machine's time zone. I mean, a VPN disguises the machine in the internet world, but at least the machine itself knows an encrypted connection has been established, doesn't it? That's why I'm really confused about the issue. It can be so random but at the same time stable that it will stick to somewhere for a couple of weeks, and then back to Savannah for some days, and then somewhere else for a month... I somehow believe that there must be a "connection", but I can't figure out where it comes from.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-19T19:38:22+00:00

    At  first   I  suspected    that  troubleshooting and  tracing the  root  cause  could  potentially be  complicated since   it's  not  a  base  windows  installation but  running  as  a virtual  machine, but  actually boot  camp  is  essentially a  bare  metal  install  and  as   far  as  I  know  should  function nearly  identical to  any  other  machine so  that's  probably not  it.

    Do  you  happen  to  use  any   VPN   or  security product  that  would  route  your  network connection elsewhere?

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-06-19T18:06:18+00:00

    Thanks for the reply. I tried this long ago but it didn't help. The default location works only when the real-time location isn't available, say, no network. But the issue here is that the location service is reporting wrong information (and it overrides the default location). It was reported Napa, CA, and now it's Houston, TX, while I'm in Savannah, GA. Lol.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-06-19T15:53:44+00:00

    Well this isn't a pure solution, but it might help avoid some frustration while awaiting a better solution.  Go into Settings / Privacy / Location, and set your "default location":

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