Ipad Location Services

[Maydup]

On the rare occaision that I might find the location services feature on my ipad to be useful, it always thinks I'm about 80 miles away from where I am. I'm using it from wifi rather than mobile connection.

How do I put that right?

[Old_Geezer]

Ideally you would need to turn on GPS if your phone has it.

I'm unsure how the WiFi link detects your location but I'd have thought it should have worked, and that unless you have a privacy setting set, that you couldn't do much about it failing. But others may know better.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Would that be because it only connects to the wifi at home, or any other venue where you choose to log on. Turning the mobile data connection on for a few moments should allow it to see where it is, but dont forget to turn it off afterwards.

[Maydup]

Yes it only connects to the wifi at home or any other venue. I don't have it on a mobile connection. Can it still detect where I am from the wifi? BBC weather app often manages it, but almost everything else is hopelessely inacurate.

[Jomlett]

Try resetting Network Settings:
Go to Settings/General/Reset/Reset Network Settings.

[Old_Geezer]

I suspect it will only detect the WiFi router you have connected to. If you don't connect outside the home it'll still think you are at home. You'd need to connect first.

[Zacs-Master]

OG, did you miss the 'any other venue' bit?

When you're out and about, where does it think you are?

[Old_Geezer]

I missed nothing.
Just because someone is at another venue it doesn't mean there is a WiFi one can connect to. Or even that one remembered to switch the WiFi on.

[Maydup]

I use my ipad on my home wifi and on public wifis when I'm out and about. Shops, offices, work, cafes etc.

aside from holidays, lets assume I am within a general 20 mile radius of Norwich, yet for things like local news, maps and so on, it puts me in south Essex some 80 -100 miles away.

[Fitzer]

IPads without SIM cards don't have GPS so can only make a best guess as to location, sometimes this is down to the IP address of the WiFi connection, as such if the IP address has been assigned to a provider such as O2 and their nearest 'hub' is 80 miles away then that's what you're going to get.

[Maydup]

Ah, thanks Fitzer, that makes sense. I'll live with it.

[Buenchico]

Click here to see where 'the system' thinks you are if it's got nothing other than the IP address of your router to go on:
http://whatismyipaddress.com/