For a few days now my standard HTC Desire Weather widget has started displaying my location as the United Kingdom. I have checked that Auto Sync is enabled, deleted the widget and re-installed and also removed the battery and sim card but still shows United Kingdom.
Any ideas how to fix this or is it something to do with HTC. I am on the Orange network.
Just to report I am seeing the same issue on my HTC Desire ( stock Froyo ), as is my girlfriend on her Desire S. Both are on T-Mo, mine is unbranded, hers is on a T-Mo contract.
Interestingly another friend on a Desire on T-Mo is not seeing the problem.
A quick check on Twitter sees a few folks with the same problem.
Nige
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i have a desire s and have just posted this problem in the desire s section , same fault , i can add my city where iam " salford " but when i press current location i only see the UK , when i re-add the widget and it says select current location i presed " salford " and that doesnt change no matter where i go , re added the widget and selected current location and it still says UK !!!
Same problem with my HTC Sensation. In Gateshead, my current location is shown as United Kingdom. If I cross the river into Newcastle, then current location correctly shows Newcastle. Back to Gateshead and problem returns. Got in touch with HTC support who advised me to do a factory reset. It didn't fix the problem.
Spoke to soon when I said it was only happening on WiFi. For me it now seems to be showing United Kingdom on both WiFi and data connection however it only seems to happen it certain locations.
Same behaviour here. Shows correct location briefly after a reboot then reverts to UK.
I wonder if the System Update I got this morning will fix this problem. I don't know because it won't install on a rooted phone, at least not on mine and at least one other.
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The same issue raised it's ugly head just over a year ago. Weather widget would show location down to the village then for some reason it showed the nearest major city.
Similarly, only wi-fi connected Desires suffered. After a few days it was happening on network connections too.
I don't know when it was fixed as I then left the UK but it must have been at some point given it's just started happening again.
Fortunately, here in Thailand it is working correctly suffice to say it doesn't seem to be a global issue.
I *may* have a solution... I've had this on-and-off for some time now - This issue had been driving me nuts, but today I think I have got to the bottom of it.
I was in the situation where at work on Cellular, I'd get the widget saying United Kingdom for my location wheras at home it would give the correct town... until I switched to WiFi, when it would say United Kingdom. My wife's android (same network operator) always worked just fine in the same spot so that rules out operator issues as well as the mystical HTC servers. I'd done all sorts of reset short of a factory reset to try to get it to behave but it refused to do so.
What hit me was the significance of it falling apart on wifi at home. Earlier this year, there was a huge privacy furore about iOS and Android devices keeping tabs on users' locations (Android claimed not to keep a log as for iOS devices, but a *cache* for faster resolution).
Anyhoo, I thought this cache was at the centre of the issue so fired up a shell terminal on my rooted Desire and wiped it (I won't go into where it is, there's a much easier way).
After rebooting whilst on WiFi, I forced an update on weather and saw the correct location, yay. But within 10 minutes, it had gone back to saying United Kingdom again. Separately, while I was investigating the cache, I'd installed an app called "Location Cache", by remydemy. I had found that there were a couple of weird locations in my cache with very odd co-ordinates, even after my brutish attack. The app has the option of wiping the cache and advises you to first go into airplane mode before wiping the cache and rebooting. I did exactly that and since then the widget has behaved impeccably.
So, I think, if you have a rooted device, you should use that app to wipe the cache. If you don't have a rooted device, then you'll have to force the cache entries to expire by updating your location on wifi and on cellular in up to fifty different places. There are separate caches for each, and I remember reading that Android only keeps the last fifty places in the cache as a privacy mitigation. I *think* you can force an entry to be cached or refreshed by doing an update in the weather app itself or perhaps by using maps without GPS being active.
I'd be interested in finding out if anyone else finds the same. As I said, this minor issue had been driving me nuts for a while!
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I've got a rooted device, so I tried out the remydemy Location Cache app, but it reports no cache entries for either WiFi or Cell. However, I read some of the market comments and with another app, Location Cache Viewer, I can see there is content in my cache ( and it can play your tracks back to you in a spooky map animation ! )
Sadly this second app doesn't have the option to delete the cache, but reading its comments in market I found instructions on what files to delete ( or rename, just in case ).
I tried with File Expert with root permissions to browse to the location, but it just seems to lock up and I need to FC it.
Just deciding on whether it is worth forking out for Root Explorer, while I Google for alternative methods to delete this cache.
Doh, this didn't work for me. After clearing the location cache, after a short while on the correct location, it reverted back to United Kingdom.
Something is feeding the location cache with bad Wifi information, it seems.
Back to the drawing board.
N
Like I said, I saw exactly the same thing. Did you try going into Airplane mode then deleting the cache, then rebooting before coming out of Airplane mode?
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Been doing a lot of googling on this, and it may not actually have anything to do with the location cache on the device at all.
Google's cloud cache of SSIDs / MAC addresses is what is being queried, but what I don't understand is why in Google Maps with me indoors with no GPS lock, the handset positions me perfectly, but the HTC weather widget can't.
I too don't think it has much to do with the phone cache and here's why.
On my fiancée's phone(wildfire s) and my phone(desire), they both started doing this at the same time(about a week ago), both on wifi and mobile data. Previous to that, they were both fine.
Intermittently they will show the correct location on wifi and mobile data, but it is only briefly before they both return to giving the location as the United Kingdom.
This is what leads me to believe it's some kind of server problem. Also the number of folks who are having the same problem at the same time kind of rules out this being a coincidence.
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Mine did this a couple of weeks ago, but it seems to have resolved itself over the last few days. On runnymead aio 3.0.5. Not sure why - didn't do anything. The Rom has more locale 2 included for a faster GPS fix, so maybe this is helping? It's already set for uk on this.
Edit - it is an app called faster fix that is in the rom.
Last edited by coos lick; December 23rd, 2011 at 05:04 AM.
I too don't think it has much to do with the phone cache and here's why.
On my fiancée's phone(wildfire s) and my phone(desire), they both started doing this at the same time(about a week ago), both on wifi and mobile data. Previous to that, they were both fine.
Intermittently they will show the correct location on wifi and mobile data, but it is only briefly before they both return to giving the location as the United Kingdom.
This is what leads me to believe it's some kind of server problem. Also the number of folks who are having the same problem at the same time kind of rules out this being a coincidence.
yup - it was nice while it lasted, but my Desire has reverted back to reading "United Kingdom" on WiFi at home today (cellular is still fine). This time there's no weird locations listed in the Location Cache. My wife's phone is still fine so I don't have the same experience as you. Only other things I can add are that I am on 2.2 with a Starburst based ROM and my wife has a desire HD with stock T-Mobile 2.3 software.
I have tried turning wifi off, and within a few minutes, it reverts to showing the city, rather than UK, so the problem seems to be caused by wifi, I will try leaving it off for a few hours to see if it's permanent.
Over the last two days I have been out and about in a couple of different locations not too far from where I live and have connected via wifi to two other networks, one on Virgin Media and one on Sky. In both cases my location was shown correctly.
I then came home and connected to my home network via wifi and lo and behold, it's back to showing United Kingdom again. MY GF's phone did exactly the same.
Well mine and my girlfriends have both reverted to correct location on Wifi, as have a couple of other contacts I have been in touch with.
I think it is just a matter of hanging on.
There is vaguely anecdotal evidence that you can speed up the process by going outdoors while still connected to your wifi and turning on GPS for a while. Assuming you have allowed collection of anonymous location data ( under Settings - Location - Use Wireless Network ), your device may ping the MAC address of your router and the GPS coords back to Google, which they use to populate their cloud-based location database. I read a post from a Google rep in a Google group about this, but there is no definitive response on this being a correct or current procedure.
I went through this, and a couple of days later my location was fixed, but this was almost certainly a coincidence
Seems to be an ongoing problem, but is it UK only? Both my & my wife's phones are showing the same symptoms and I have tried most non-root solutions described, with no effect - it still shows "United Kingdom (Current)".
My suspicion would be that it's a server problem rather than device, as it seems pretty widespread, but that's just a hunch - or is it the start of another maker "going thermonuclear"?
If there's a solution that stays put, I'd like to hear it!
My first post was on the 19/12 when I reported that my phone showed United Kingdom when in Gateshead, and correctly Newcastle when in Newcastle. I'm pleased to say this is now "fixed" and it shows United Kingdom on both sides of the river!
Thanks ... but that's not quite the solution I had in mind! This app used to keep fairly good track of my location (i.e. town, not just country) and that seems to have dropped out. The way the weather varies around the UK, it's not doing the job I thought it should, and that it used to do!
Sorry Greymoon. The frustration caused me to get my tongue stuck in my cheek.
As you so rightly say the weather is variable in the UK. Is it a possibility though that the app has picked up the correct weather for the current location, but is simply displaying the wrong field from the database (i.e United Kingdom) as its location?
Certainly as I check my phone, the displayed current weather seems to match the reality of what's happening outside. Whilst this would still be intensely annoying, at least the info displayed may be of some use.
My phone is now showing the correct location but only on mobile data. As soon as I switch to wifi it goes back to the United Kingdom. My GF's phone is doing the same. The only difference is that my phone uses Accuweather and hers uses HTC weather. This is because my phone is rooted and and is running a custom rom.
Last edited by Howard Hopkinson; December 30th, 2011 at 12:08 PM.
I got a HTC Sensation recently. From the first day it showed correct current position till I went to another city for couple of days. There it automatically updated to that city. Since I returned to my home, it stopped showing current location and updating. This problem made me crazy. I tried a lot of things (rebooted, cleared cache, returned to default factory setting), but nothing worked. The "Navigation" showed the correct location but the weather widget neither updated nor showed my current location.
Finally what I did was:
1. Went outside and turned the GPS and wifi on,
2. Downloaded two gps utilities software just to see whether the GPS was working (I dowloaded GPS Essentials and GPS status from market- these are free).
3. I found the exact GPS co-ordinates in one of the programs.
4. Updated the weather widget- and it worked!!!
Ok guys, this may help you all. I have not had the problem while connected to wifi, I have only had this while connected to gsm network. So all I have done to cure this, is go to MENU, SETTINGS, MANAGE APPS, ALL, then go down to htc weather and htc weather widget, and clear all data in these. You will lose all settings you had set up for any locations you want weather for, but once done, refresh the data, and it should now start giving you the correct weather data for where you are. Both my sensation on three and my desire HD sim free but running on three, had been having these issues, and now seem to be working fine, refreshed the data several times, and is now always giving my current location, rather than united kingdom.
Hope this helps.
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I have to say I've tried all the suggestions kindly posted here by various users and none of them have worked for me. I too am on T-Mobile and have been getting default Location of United Kingdom for the past few months, sometimes permanently sometiemes intermittently. But all very irritating. The "follow-me" weather forecast was one of the reasons I went for the Desire, and I have now written it off on my particular handset. HTC don't seem bothered, nor do T-Mobile. We wll have to assume that it's a gonner in terms of any fix being provided in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, I've tried a variety of weather widget alternatives (too many to list here!). To cut a long story short, I have now found a weather widget which "does the job" perfectly in terms of location tracking. It's the Weather Channel app, which also comes with a widget and it works perfectly on my HTC Desire/T-mobile. The only outstanding issue, a little bit irritating but liveable with, is that the widget will only display the temperature in Fahrenheit, even if you specify metric in settings. They acknowledge the bug and say they are working on it (at least I got a reply from them!). However, I can live with that quite comfortably, because the location tracking is so reliable, and works regardless of wifi/Gps settings being on or off or whatever in the meantime.
This widget does not come with a clock, but you can use any standard clock widget including the one-line version of HTC's own widget for a clock to get round this.
I hope this helps some users who want to find something that basically "works", like the HTC widget used to to do, before it broke to the point of no one being bothered to repair it!
My Desire is showing United Kingdom or 'current location' and no weather at the moment. If I connect to mobile internet/unistall/reinstall it briefly shows 'current location' and weather but the minute I switch the internet off it goes blank. Although the widget might not have updated, whether I had the wifi/internet on previously wasn't an issue.
I got a HTC Sensation recently. From the first day it showed correct current position till I went to another city for couple of days. There it automatically updated to that city. Since I returned to my home, it stopped showing current location and updating. This problem made me crazy. I tried a lot of things (rebooted, cleared cache, returned to default factory setting), but nothing worked. The "Navigation" showed the correct location but the weather widget neither updated nor showed my current location.
Finally what I did was:
1. Went outside and turned the GPS and wifi on,
2. Downloaded two gps utilities software just to see whether the GPS was working (I dowloaded GPS Essentials and GPS status from market- these are free).
3. I found the exact GPS co-ordinates in one of the programs.
4. Updated the weather widget- and it worked!!!
Hope this helps guys.
Are you saying that you don't have the Current Location option at all? If that's what's happening to you then you can resolve it by looking in your list of apps and running the Setup program (icon looks like a magician's hat with a gold rim) - this seems to do something which resolves the confusion in the phone when you wipe out one of the HTC services' data. It happened to me some time back and drove me nuts!
If that's not what you're experiencing then best of luck getting to the bottom of your issue.
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Ok guys, this may help you all. I have not had the problem while connected to wifi, I have only had this while connected to gsm network. So all I have done to cure this, is go to MENU, SETTINGS, MANAGE APPS, ALL, then go down to htc weather and htc weather widget, and clear all data in these. You will lose all settings you had set up for any locations you want weather for, but once done, refresh the data, and it should now start giving you the correct weather data for where you are. Both my sensation on three and my desire HD sim free but running on three, had been having these issues, and now seem to be working fine, refreshed the data several times, and is now always giving my current location, rather than united kingdom.
Are you saying that you don't have the Current Location option at all? If that's what's happening to you then you can resolve it by looking in your list of apps and running the Setup program (icon looks like a magician's hat with a gold rim) - this seems to do something which resolves the confusion in the phone when you wipe out one of the HTC services' data. It happened to me some time back and drove me nuts!
If that's not what you're experiencing then best of luck getting to the bottom of your issue.
This worked for me after I switched off and on again after following your set up procedure. It asks you about allowing google to track your location which I said yes to. I would imagine that everyone with a problem has inadvertently turned this off. May even be to do with progs such as Juice defender which might do this to save battery. I have this- do others with problems have similar apps running?
HTC Desire Weather Widget showing wrong location
