Forum Discussion
Windows location service persistently reports weird incorrect location
Since approximately March-April 2026 My Windows 11 Pro x64 started reporting strange and incorrect location information to applications that request it, primarily web browsers. I'm located in San Francisco Bay Area, California, but every web site that relies on location information (Google Maps, Bing Maps, Starbucks etc.) stubbornly places me at location 44.97320223006452, -93.35278344048427 in Minneapolis (Golden Valley, MN to be precise)
What is that location? And why has this started happening?
My default location in Windows 11 settings is also specified correctly, i.e. it contains my correct address in California. However, this has no effect on the above strange behavior. The computer in question is a desktop with no WiFi capabilities, just an Ethernet connection.
Another Windows 10 Pro x64 desktop computer on the same LAN (also Ethernet connection) has no such problems. Windows 10 on that machine is locating itself properly.
Various "where am I" web sites that determine my location by my external IP address also work correctly even on the problematic Windows 11 computer, i.e. they correctly place me in California. However, everything that works through Windows Location on that machine places me in Minneapolis. What gives?
5 Replies
Same here. Now my location in jumping between my real location and a San Mateo, CA. It has been almost 1 month since I noticed that issue at my home.
I upgraded my DSL to AT&T fiber, All 3rd-party geolocation services I can find show the correct location of my IP (IPV4 is static, IPV6 is dynamic at AT&T but all of IPs I record are in correct place). Windows Location API is the only one has issue, and it made all maps services running in browser broken because browser uses location API)
"Hi Andrey, thanks for the update. Since both your Windows 11 and Windows 10 machines on the same LAN are reporting the same incorrect location, this strongly suggests that Microsoft’s location database has associated your public IP address or your router's gateway with that specific coordinate in Minneapolis.
Since you've already verified that IP-based geolocation sites work correctly, it confirms that your ISP is providing the correct location, but Windows Location Service is pulling from a stale or incorrect database entry. I agree with henry_collins that resetting the local cache is a good first step, but you might also want to try power-cycling your router to see if your ISP assigns you a different IP, which might force a re-update in Microsoft's database. If that fails, using the Feedback Hub is indeed the best way to flag this 'bad data' to Microsoft's geolocation team."
A correction: The aforementioned Windows 10 Pro x64 machine located on the same LAN also suffers from the same problem. It also places me at the same location in Minneapolis.
I have a similar issue lasting a couple months. Have you got this problem solved?
Since the PC has no GPS or WiFi, Windows is likely using Microsoft's geolocation database and getting bad data. The fact that IP-based sites correctly show California while Windows Location reports Minneapolis strongly suggests a Windows Location Service issue, not a network problem.
Try clearing Location History, resetting Location Services, and checking for VPNs or recent updates. If it persists, reporting it through Feedback Hub may be the only way to get the location data corrected
