Anyone know why my phone "thinks" I'm in Arizona when I'm not?

[Stg-Flame]

I live in New Mexico, but for years now through two different phones, anytime I leave my house and browse the internet, my phone instantly thinks I'm in Tuscon Arizona. If I look at any weather apps, it'll show me the weather for Tuscon. If I just do a "restaurant near me", it'll bring up places in and around Tuscon. Any websites (especially Reddit) will show me ads for Arizona residents and places like Amazon will tell me about shipping charges to "my home state AZ". I have the location turned on because I have to use my phone for navigation at work and I've manually entered my location a few times into the weatherbug app, but it keeps switching to Tuscon for some reason. My carrier (used to be Verizon, now Xfinity) doesn't know what's going on and I can't find any information online about this.

For the record, I've been to Tuscon once in my entire life and for some reason, my phone acts like it died and its ghost is haunting that town forever now. It's just mildly annoying, but I'd like to see if anyone has a solution.

 

[Ken g6]

Does it only happen when you're on WiFi? Maybe it's going by your home network address?

My phone tends to do this as well, but for a different city (Denver).

 

[Stg-Flame]

Does it only happen when you're on WiFi? Maybe it's going by your home network address?

My phone tends to do this as well, but for a different city (Denver).

When I'm on WiFi, it shows me at home in New Mexico. The moment I leave the network, it goes back to Arizona.

 

[IronWing]

Do you use a VPN?

 

[Stg-Flame]

Do you use a VPN?

I do not.

 

[WelshBloke]

Ask Google where it thinks you live.

Seriously. Do a "hey Google, where do I live" thing.

How close to Tucson do you live? It's probably basing your location on cell towers if you haven't let it use your exact location.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Ask Google where it thinks you live.

Seriously. Do a "hey Google, where do I live" thing.

Google says I'm in my home town in New Mexico. I immediately searched for "food near me" and it recommended me Culinary Dropout at 2543 E Grant Rd - a meager 500ish miles away.

How close to Tucson do you live?

Roughly 500 miles away. I can guarantee there's more than a few different cell towers between there and here.

 

[WelshBloke]

Google says I'm in my home town in New Mexico. I immediately searched for "food near me" and it recommended me Culinary Dropout at 2543 E Grant Rd - a meager 500ish miles away.

And Google maps works fine for directions? You haven't got a random address set as your home address in your Google account?

Roughly 500 miles away. I can guarantee there's more than a few different cell towers between there and here.

That is pretty bizarre!

 

[sandorski]

Google says I'm in my home town in New Mexico. I immediately searched for "food near me" and it recommended me Culinary Dropout at 2543 E Grant Rd - a meager 500ish miles away.


Roughly 500 miles away. I can guarantee there's more than a few different cell towers between there and here.

It's just 500 miles, take a flight.... I use a Weather app that does that to me sometimes. Not sure why.

 

[Stg-Flame]

And Google maps works fine for directions? You haven't got a random address set as your home address in your Google account?

Everything works fine. I use a navigation app coupled with Google maps and I haven't had an issue yet. Though it's weird, since I've been messing around with this, my weather app and now targeted ads are showing me back in New Mexico, but searching for things "near me" on Google always sends me back to AZ. I always chalked it up to the fact that I travel a lot for work, my phone is constantly changing towers and it just gets some wires crossed as to where I am - but I haven't been within 350 miles of Tucson in maybe 10 years.

It's just 500 miles, take a flight.... I use a Weather app that does that to me sometimes. Not sure why.

Nah, I could use the exercise.

Though which weather app are you using? Most people in my area use Weather Bug and I've heard from some co-workers that they were unable to set a location for their app and they'd randomly get weather alerts for areas nowhere near them. We only use it since it shows lightning strikes and we have to monitor them for OSHA and safety requirements.

 

[KobePit]

But, how is your internet experience. Is it fast, or is this slowing it down. Only thing I can think of is you have Google VPN on. Which you said you don't. You can try changing DNS to cloudfare or Google and see what that does, other then that, it should be right where your at, unless it is getting relayed or something like that.

 

[Stg-Flame]

But, how is your internet experience. Is it fast, or is this slowing it down.

Hard to tell since I rarely have phone signal, let alone internet connection. I load the maps before I leave town and they usually stay up for the duration of my shift and if I end up in an area with signal, I'll usually see 4G, but it seems to be incredibly slow at times and I'm not sure if it's because I'm hundreds of miles out in the middle of nowhere, or if the Arizona thing is playing a part. I also don't use my phone very much while I'm in town/on days off. It usually stays in my pocket or nearby in case I get a phone call.