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Browser Geolocation Shows Old Location

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  • 3 views
  • Last reply by TyDraniu

peterdfinn
peterdfinn
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When using some websites that ask for browser permission to use your location, the location is wrong.

I recently moved more than 2000 miles, and when I use Google Maps in Firefox on my Windows laptop, its "current location" (as in, the blue dot that appears once I give Google Maps permission to use my location) is always at my old address rather than my new one.

After some digging, I discovered https://mylocation.org/, which was very helpful in that it informed me of two different types of location lookup. One of them, based on my IP address, works like a charm and shows me at my new address. The other, called "Browser Geolocation", shows my old address. And I've confirmed that this information varies from browser to browser: Firefox is wrong, Chrome is correct, Edge is correct, Brave is wrong.

This must mean that the browser stores some kind of information somehow about my location, right? How do I update this so that it matches the public IP address location?

When using some websites that ask for browser permission to use your location, the location is wrong. I recently moved more than 2000 miles, and when I use Google Maps in Firefox on my Windows laptop, its "current location" (as in, the blue dot that appears once I give Google Maps permission to use my location) is always at my old address rather than my new one. After some digging, I discovered https://mylocation.org/, which was very helpful in that it informed me of two different types of location lookup. One of them, based on my IP address, works like a charm and shows me at my new address. The other, called "Browser Geolocation", shows my old address. And I've confirmed that this information varies from browser to browser: Firefox is wrong, Chrome is correct, Edge is correct, Brave is wrong. This must mean that the browser stores some kind of information somehow about my location, right? How do I update this so that it matches the public IP address location?

All Replies (1)

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can manually change your location in Firefox using the about:config settings:

  • Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter.
  • Click “Accept the Risk and Continue” if prompted.
  • Search for geo.provider.network.url and click the “Pen” icon to edit it. Replace the URL with a custom location using the format data:application/json,{"location": {"lat": LATITUDE, "lng": LONGITUDE}, "accuracy": ACCURACY}
  • Replace LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, and ACCURACY with the desired values.

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