My phone thinks I'm 2000 miles away

[jallison86]

HTC One running Android 5.0.2 (as of yesterday) on Verizon. For the past few weeks (meaning before the 5 upgrade) my phone has been reporting location as Lawrenceville, GA. I am actually in Southern California. I can "fix" this problem by changing my location preference to be "Device." If I go back to "High accuracy" then the phone goes back to reporting its location as Georgia. This seems to tell me that the problem has something to do with the location that Google is getting from wi-fi and/or mobile networks. But checking my wi-fi IP via iplocation.net shows me, properly, in Southern California.

Anybody have any idea what might be going on here? Thanks.

- Jeff

 

[jallison86]

Replying to myself...bad form. But I think I have this sorted. We recently started using a refurbished router. I suspect it has been spending its time in Lawrenceville, GA, and is recorded in Google's location database as such. Now I need to figure out how to get it recorded as being here...

- Jeff

 

[cr6]

Glad to hear you figured it out. I assume you've done a hard reset on your router? There should be a tiny button on the back where you'll need to use a paperclip to press the button. This should reset it completely, as opposed to a simple reboot. Here's an easy guide. How To Reset Your Router

S5 tap'n

 

[Jeffrey]

I guess that could be the issue, but Google should be checking the routers current IP. I would do the hard reset as @cr6 suggested.

 

[Mike.757]

You are probably on to the cause. Something else I was thinking. Are you using a proxy server? That could also be spoofing your location.

 

[jallison86]

It has nothing to do with the router per se. Google's location database knows two things: the MAC address of the router you're connected to via wi-fi and the location of your phone (via GPS and/or cell tower). It maps those things together in a database, thus setting the location of the wi-fi router to the location of the phone that connected to it. Resetting the router will have no effect on this database. What will change it -- eventually -- is a set of location updates from phones connected to the router. It's too bad there's no facility to tell Google that a router has moved, but as far as I can tell there is not. One just has to wait.

- Jeff

 

[cr6]

We had the same problem with my SO's router when she moved from Utah to our current state. After we reset the router and went through the set up process from the start, it recognized our location and worked fine. Unless you're dealing with another issue on top of what you originally posted this should do the job.
Hang in there jallison86 and hopefully one of our IT guys can give you a hand.

S5 tap'n