I bought a used Mac Mini from another country on Ebay. When I plugged it in the macOS installer listed my country (Portugal) and China as the topmost countries. How does it know this? And why China in addition to Portugal? Some more details: - The Mac mini didn't have any internet connectivity at that point, wired or wireless - I live in an isolated place so only my wifi networks were visible (internet and from a solar inverter) - I had plugged a cheap usb keyboard (in my local PT layout) - This happened twice as I had to return the first Mac mini due to it being the wrong model - Poking my Sequoia installation I can only find a wifi BSSID database in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreLocation.framework/Versions/A/Support/factory.db which does not contain any information about my local wifi networks. - I had my iPhone close to me while setting this up, but tethering was not being used 

I have my YMCA card in my Apple Wallet. My watch only suggests my YMCA card at certain locations. The YMCA I go to the most does not trigger an automatic suggestion of my membership card. Is there any way to force this suggestion to happen? My devices are a Series 3 Apple Watch and an iPhone X both on the most recent, public iOS and watchOS releases. I have Allow Notifications and Suggest on Lock Screen selected in the settings tab in Apple Wallet.

I'd like to create an iOS / ipadOS Shortcut that, when called, lets me take a photograph, add a caption and store the device's current position as a map marker. The idea is to mark interesting locations for a "proper" photography session, so I can return there with better gear when the light is right. I'm completely open with regard to the apps involved -- as long as it outputs some sort of GPX or KML. It does not seem trivially possible with iOS's bundled actions and apps -- so how can I create such a Shortcut?

My wife and I have shared our location from iMessage for years, but in the last several months (possibly since iOS 18) is has become first unreliable, now simply not working. - The symptoms are the same for each of us. - When I look for her location on iMessage, it first says "Locating ..." and then often "No location found" - other times it just keep spinning the indeterminate progress circle - A red link offers to "Stop sharing location", so I know location sharing is on. - Things looks exactly the same from her side. - Find My (people) fails the same way. I have checked privacy settings, and both iMessage and FindMy says "Allow location sharing when App is open". (There is no "Always" option). I’m not sure if "App is open" mean the app is on the screen if it includes when the app a background process. Are there options for troubleshooting this?

In macOS Calendar app, when I create an event, as soon as I add a location, it also automatically adds an alert set to “when I need to leave”. In app prefs, alerts, for all accounts, I have every dropdown set to “none”, and all checkboxes are unticked. I do not want any alert to be add automatically ever. How do I disable this? This does not happen on iOS.

I recently tried using iCloud's Find My device and it would not show my phone's location. When I looked at the Privacy Settings for Location Services, I noticed I could not set the Find My permission to "Always;" I could only set it to "When using," "Allow Once," or "Never." I had used iCloud before without a problem. I have also enabled it in the "System Services" section. When I open "Find My" on the phone, it works fine, but the web interface doesn't register that location. Can I fix this gap?

I am a mobile app developer developing a pair of iOS apps that use device location for search, and I’m trying to put constraints on the dimensions necessary for a cells in a quadtree-based location mapping system. The minimum cell size should roughly coincide with the margin of error for an iPhone or iPad with “use precise location” turned *off*. Yes, I realize this likely varies by iPhone and iPad model, so if you can answer this question, please let me know which model(s) the statistics are for. I am interested in finding this information about models from the last 5 years or so. And I’m mostly interested in the margin of error for when precise location is turned off. Does anyone know or know where I can find data on the precision of iPhone/iPad locations (i.e. a margin of error, as a range, in meters), for both precise location turned on and precise location turned off?

AirTags seem to be an incredibly useful way of creating a de-facto globally available location tracker, by taking advantage of the sheer number of iOS devices around. I'd love to be able to obtain an AirTag and get location data from it (or more precisely from the Apple 'Find My' network) programmatically or in machine-readable form, though. Currently as I understand it the location is only available through the 'Find My' tool (digression: see this fascinating recent article illustrating that), which in effect means it's limited to what's plotted on a map. Can I get lat/long co-ordinates from this? Can I programmatically trigger the request for location? This would be a great way to (for example) plot everywhere I travel, by popping one in my bag and having a central server somewhere request my location periodically and log it. Real-time would be ideal, but even a history of locations would be good. (Note: I wasn't sure if this question was better suited for here or StackOverflow. Happy if the community wants to move it).

I'm trying to open the **Location Services** page under **Privacy & Security** settings on iPhone and Apple Watch using the Shortcuts app. I've tried using the following URL schemes: - prefs:root=Privacy&path=LOCATION - prefs:root=Privacy&path=LOCATION.SERVICES Both approaches open the top-level **Privacy & Security** settings with **Location** displayed at the top, but require an additional tap to access the specific **Location Services** page. Is there a way using the Shortcuts app or other methods to directly open the **Location Services** page within Privacy & Security settings?

I would like to make mac require a password after being asleep for 30 seconds when it is not on my home wifi network, but only require a password after 4 hours when its on my home network. I have wanted this for years but have never figured out how to do it. Is it possible?

I used a VPN yesterday (ProtonVPN) that set my location as Japan, and now even though I have quit the VPN and restarted the computer, and the VPN is not running anymore, websites I try to access switch to the Japanese language version. No matter what browser I use, whether it's a private window or not. I don't mind too much for now (Japanese ads are way better done than US ads!) but eventually I'd like to be able to revert to my actual location. How do force my computer to know my actual location? ---- MacBook Pro 16 Inch, Sonoma

I'm walking my dog and tell Siri, "When I get home, remind me to take out the trash." It sets up a reminder keyed to my arrival at a location, my home address. So far so good, but the reminder actually goes off when I'm still about a block from home. By the time I actually get home, I've forgotten all about it. Is there any way to make Siri/Reminders more accurately assess whether I've arrived or not?

I purchased a MacBook Air M2 in China. The macOS Maps app works well when I am in China where it correctly identifies my location. However, I am currently traveling to Europe and I noticed that the Maps app either can't determine at all my location or it determines the location as Changsha, China. I have restarted the MacBook and I have also turned Location Services off and on several times but there was no improvement. I am running the last version of Sonoma (macOS 14.5). Moreover, this is certainly not specific to the Maps app. The automatic timezone detection also places me in China (which is how I first figured out that something is wrong: the timezone didn't automatically change to the local timezone after I connected to a WiFi), and the Weather app also fails to identify my location now (but it works perfectly well when I'm in China). Another data point that may or may not be related. I downloaded the Amazon Kindle app using a Dutch App Store account. However, the Kindle app (even though it does not use Location Services) asks me to sign in with a Chinese Amazon account and it doesn't recognize my Dutch Amazon account. So, I guess that somehow the Kindle app knows that I'm using a "Chinese system" and accordingly restricts my options. I wonder if these problems are in software or hardware. Would a full reinstall of macOS solve these problems, or there is something in the hardware that identifies my MacBook as being Chinese? Or, maybe, there is another explanation?

Consider this scenario: I'm on the road and want to use my iPad for navigation. I prefer it to the iPhone due to the larger display. Unfortunately, the iPad doesn't have GPS, but my iPhone does. - the goal is apps on my iPad can access my location via location services. - Now what I don't mean is sending a location manually to the iPad. I've looked into *iBeacons*. At first that sounded promising. Although there are apps that promise to turn my iPhone into an iBeacon, none of those advertised to continuesly update the location. I'm beginning to have doubts, that an iBeacon is even supposed to update its location. It seems more of a proximity item for two points and not geolocation. Is it possible to continuesly share the current location from my iPhone to my iPad?

I have a question about lost and stolen iPhones. My understanding is, should an **iPhone** get lost or stolen, the owner can use **Find my iPhone** to track the location and recover it. Certain iPhones have the ability to be tracked, **even when powered off**, like when the battery has run out. My question is, which iPhone models can be tracked when powered off using Find my iPhone?

Situation: I wrote an alarm clock app that runs on a MacMini. (No, I have never found any commercial app that works like I want it to.) But sometimes I spend the night away from home, and I don’t always remember to turn the alarm off, which means my poor housemates have to go into my room the next morning to turn off my alarm. If my alarm app could detect when I wasn’t home, it could programmatically suppress the alarm. That would be sweet. I am looking for suggestions/recommendations for how to do that. Option 1a: Using the “Find My” network to detect when my iPhone (or the AirTag in my wallet) is not at home. It might be possible to use the OpenHaystack library for this, but I’m a recreational programmer, and deploying that code looks pretty challenging. My skill set is mostly command line scripting, AppleScript, and Ruby. No Objective-C or Swift. (The alarm clock uses the RubyCocoa bridge that Apple has since abandoned.) Option 1b: Scraping the iCloud web interface might work, if I can figure out how to authenticate against it with code. The login looks like there’s a lot of JavaScript folderol in the way. Option 2: Detecting the iPhone’s proximity via BlueTooth. Option 3: Some kind of pressure/weight detector on the bed frame? Option 4: Something I haven’t thought of yet. Thanks.

This morning I used my Apple Watch to locate my iPhone. Swipe up, tap the phone icon, and somewhere in the caverns of my couch a phone chimes. After flipping cushions and digging through crevices, I disassembled the entire couch with a sawzall and found my wife's phone. (Which made me question whether my hearing was off, so I pressed the button again, and it chimed again.) Her phone repeatedly responding to my watch. I picked up her phone and started rummaging around again for mine. Decided to try pinging it again, and my phone finally did beep, in the kitchen. 1. Why was my watch, paired only to my phone, able to make another phone beep? 2. While it was inconvenient at the moment and a little worrisome, being able to locate multiple phones in a household with the watch would be could be convenient if I knew how to control it. How can I specify from the watch, which phone to locate?

Hello StackExchange Community, I recently acquired a Mac Mini with the M2 Pro chip and have encountered a perplexing issue that I hope someone here might have experienced and resolved, or could provide some insights into. Despite my extensive background in system/DevOps roles within the software industry and familiarity with troubleshooting, this problem has left me baffled. ## Issue Description - **Automatic Time Zone Detection:** From the moment I powered on the device, the automatic time zone detection feature, which should ideally adjust based on my location, consistently defaults to Cupertino's time zone. This occurs regardless of manual adjustments or system resets. - **Maps App:** The app fails to pinpoint my exact location, rendering it incapable of providing accurate directions or focusing on my current position. - **Safari Location Services:** When using location services on websites, including Apple and Google Maps, the system is unable to accurately identify my location. ## Troubleshooting Steps Taken 1. Confirmed that location services are enabled system-wide, including on Safari and Find My Mac. 2. Verified that no VPNs were active, and the issue has persisted from the initial setup. 3. Attempted to connect via both LAN and multiple Wi-Fi networks, observing that other Apple devices on the same networks do not exhibit this issue. 4. Restarted my router several times and renewed the DHCP lease. 5. Performed a complete data wipe and reinstalled macOS, which unfortunately did not resolve the issue. I have thoroughly searched through search engines and Apple support forums, double-checking all possible settings and configurations related to this problem, but to no avail. ## Seeking Suggestions Given the troubleshooting steps I've already undertaken, I am seeking insights into: - How the Mac Mini determines its precise location (I assume through the IP address)? - Any advanced troubleshooting steps I might not have considered? - Specific diagnostics I can run to gain more clarity on the malfunction? I appreciate your time and any advice you can offer. Thank you in advance for your help!

Siri cant find my location on my macbook, despite having all location services on. Apple maps show my precise location, while google maps dont. Any suggestions ? Thanks

Can your iPad show your position on map feature if in range of a WiFi signal *but* without a password to that WiFi? Can Google Maps work etc…, if you are or not near a WiFi signal and without/with a password as well?