One year later Firefox still reports bogus location. Today it says I am in Tok Alaska, but Im actually in Banff Canada 1300 miles as the crow flies from where it thinks I am.
Over the last year I have uninstalled FF removed settings then reinstalled from scratch. Its been over a year now and FF never can pin point where I am at. Today it says I am 1300+ miles from where I am. I really don't want to go back to using Chrome but it appears I will have to as it normally has my exact position. I travel for 6 months of the year and have 3 internet connections shared via an internal WiFi that I use 99% of the time. They are connected via Starlink, GoogleFi (T-Mobile) and AT&T SIMs. I have a SSID with the _nomap suffix and that fixes Chrome but FF NEVER seems to know where I am, no matter how many times I clear the browsing data. I really don't want to go back to Chrome, but I cannot do my work if FF thinks I am somewhere else all the time. Geez, If only there was an addon or extension that would override FF location so I could tell it where I am. I'm in FF Hell. -Bill
All Replies (7)
The browser gets the location from the O/S geolocator and your ISP. If you use proxy or VPN that will mess up the browser location detector. And since you mentioned using "I have a SSID with the _nomap suffix and that fixes Chrome". That your using a connection like VPN so that would give the wrong location data. That isn't the fault of Chrome or Firefox Browser but how your connection.
Not using a VPN or Proxy. That would be a simple issue to rectify. This has been going on over a year. Since Chrome gets it right most of the time, and if not, clearing the browser fixes it. Nothing I can do with FF fixes the issue.
Do you have both a IPv4 and IPv6 address ?
You can use websites like these to check how your location is reported via a reverse DNS lookup of your IP:
When does the issue occur? Have you blocked any websites from knowing your location? See Settings > Privacy & Security > Permissions : Location.
This issue has been happening for about the last year and a half, I posted this problem here about a year ago. No helpful answers then either. The websites are not blocked from using location data.
I really hate to go back to Chrome, but apparently I have to, as FF is just a PIA without it having a clue to where I am anymore. Its hard to imagine a reinstall didn't fix it. And I wiped everything to do with FF in the file system and registry before installing it again (a few times now) I will be adding FF to my "Not Ready for Prime-time Players" list. Sad, very Sad. -Bill
Visit about:config in the address bar and try these settings:
Disable Windows location service (or enable location permission in Windows):
geo.provider.ms-windows-location = false
Disable Wi-Fi scanning (create with Boolean value):
geo.provider.network.scan = false
Enable Mozilla Location Service (create with Boolean value):
geo.provider.use_mls = true
Manually specify a location by latitude and longitude coordinates:
geo.provider.network.url = data:,{"location":{"lat":0.0,"lng":0.0},"accuracy":1000}
Did this verbatim.. And changed the lat/lon to my coordinates. Still thinks I am 1300 miles from here, but now its not showing the blue dot in google maps anymore. Does the string below look correct?
geo.provider.network.url data:,{"location":{"lat":51.19125853438484,"lng":-115.53617794335857},"accuracy":1000}
Modified by Bills