Two W11 PCs, Consistent Wrong Location, Time Incorrect

Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3593) on both Surface Book Performance Base and Ryzen 7000 desktop PC.

Hello all. I have a perplexing problem that cropped up in the last few days. Bear with me I may not know the proper terminology.
Two PCs behave the same: consistently showing the same completely wrong location with Microsoft's location services or anything that uses it (maps app, weather app, system time). It says I'm three hours ahead of my current time zone (USA Pacific), and always at a very precise location that doesn't change (somewhere in Toronto, Canada). Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm prepared to do anything.

I have tried the steps that I could find in searching:

• Disconnecting, killing, uninstalling VPN program (proton) on both
• Using a different network (phone hotspot with different ISP)
• Set Time Zone / Time Automatically
• Location Services on and off
• Clear Location History
• Restarting
• New offline user account
• Taking the laptop to a coffee shop
• Setting default location
• Wi-Fi > ethernet, ethernet > Wi-Fi
• Uninstalling Maps, reinstalling Maps
• SFC /scannow, no corruption

Other details:

• Using Edge browser and using Bing Maps or Google Maps shows correct location.
• Booting the machines in Linux gets the correct time zone and time.
• Other machines on the network (Android phones, iMac, Linux PCs) all are time and location correct.
• My router has the correct time.

This is off the top my head. If you are using a Microsoft Account in Windows to login make sure your country is correctly set.

Marcus Vinicus said:

This is off the top my head. If you are using a Microsoft Account in Windows to login make sure your country is correctly set.

https://account.microsoft.com/

View attachment 96905

Click to expand...

Thank you for checking this out and replying. I am using the same Microsoft account for Windows login on both computers. Everything on the Microsoft account page looks correct for me.

@ChuckWheat

Please check your settings in this panel below. First, turn OFF Set Time Zone Automatically. The next two sub-switches should then appear. Set your correct time zone with the drop arrow on the right. Then set Adjust for DST to ON, and the next two settings to ON. Now, you may have to use the Sync now button, and if that doesn't do everything the way you want it, open Control Panel, choose Date and Time, and Change the date and time, and when you're done, hit OK. Then restart. All should be well.

Wisewiz said:

@ChuckWheat

Please check your settings in this panel below. First, turn OFF Set Time Zone Automatically. The next two sub-switches should then appear. Set your correct time zone with the drop arrow on the right. Then set Adjust for DST to ON, and the next two settings to ON. Now, you may have to use the Sync now button, and if that doesn't do everything the way you want it, open Control Panel, choose Date and Time, and Change the date and time, and when you're done, hit OK. Then restart. All should be well.

View attachment 96906

Click to expand...

Done. Yes, this corrects the time, but Location in apps is still incorrect in the same way as before. For now I'll keep this manual time for convenience. Thank you.

ChuckWheat said:

Location in apps is still incorrect

Click to expand...

see screenshot

glasskuter said:

see screenshot

Click to expand...

Ok. It seems this won't override the wrong location, but if I also disable location for "desktop apps", the Auto Dark Mode theme switcher I like to use will grab the Default Location specified there and work as expected. The other Apps like Maps and Weather won't grab this default location, and if turned off, the app then requests it back on to show location. Weather at least has its own default location setting.
The night light setting for location sunrise and sunset time seem stuck on the wrong location still regardless of its Location Privacy setting enabled or disabled.
I'm going to continue searching for solutions, but this at least helps a little. Thank you.

Additional Details:
My Microsoft Account information page with devices linked to my account "Devices -> Find my device" shows these devices at the same wrong location.

Tried:

• Restarting Geolocation service, setting it to Automatic start
• Clearing Microsoft Account Location History (incorrect entries here, downloaded the data)

Looks like this is a known problem for years:

Similar, and more recent:

Might be an update. The first wrong location logged from my Microsoft Account Location History was on the same day as an update. 2024-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5037771).
I'm currently reverting that update and testing again.

Reverting the update did not solve it.

I think I will submit a bug report to Microsoft if that is possible.

At least my computers appear to be in a nice neighborhood.

Have you tried totally changing your region/currency/language or whatever the options are? Rebooting and changing back to the correct settings. Set your location etc to Australia or somewhere (it’s nice here)

I throw this at you because you have tried most everything else.

ChuckWheat said:

Yes, this corrects the time, but Location in apps is still incorrect in the same way as before.

Click to expand...

After changing it there, I would try turning it off in all the apps. Restart Then turn the location in the apps back on again. Restart again to see if location is then correct in the apps.

IP address corresponds to your location ?

For example I live 300km away from my wired internet provider and 3000km away from my wireless internet provider.

I'm inclined to believe that Proton VPN was the cause, and that somehow it has set your location in such a way that it is still being used in your system, perhaps even on your router (since both devices are doing it, it's time to look externally from them to find the root cause).

Is your ISP supplying a device (router / residential gateway) that you use, or do you have your own, personal router behind their modem?

About a month ago, the location started showing correctly without me having to change anything else, and it has been rock solid for the last month across network changes.
If it ever crops up again, I'll have some good data. It looks like this is something that people have had difficulty with on and off for years.
Thank you everyone for your help and advice.