MacBook Air M5 on macOS 27.0.1 Golden Gate location never resolves: Maps and Weather fail, iPhone at the same spot works

eugene17kotov wrote:

A WireGuard VPN profile exists, but it is disconnected.

That is concerning. A VPN, even if "disconnected," is a prime suspect because it directly impacts your network and internet links, which are crucial for positioning via WiFi methods. Sometimes (according to readers' experiences reported here) the VPN still has impacts to macOS operation even when turned off. I don't know what "disconnected" means for a VPN. Some things can remain in place unless the VPN is completely UNINSTALLED. I suggest you do that (you can always install it again later). Also, since you have that VPN, I suspect there could be other similar tools running in the background. To help figure this out, you should download and run Etrecheck and post its report here for other readers to scrutinize for possible relation to your location services problem..

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

If you have any other network security, VPN, "cleaning apps," anti-virus or similar tools they will also be prime suspects.

Over the last 7 days there was not a single `AlsWifi, known` result. Apps then fail with location unavailable, and time-zone detection logs “Failed to get any fix while in continuous location mode.”

Before the latest reboot, some clients also received `kCLErrorDomain` code 1 (denied), and there were `NSURLError -1009` and `-1003`.

I don't understand those messages well enough to interpret them, Hopefully readers with more expertise than me can help here.

- Turned on System Services for Wi-Fi Networking and for Time Zone; System Customization

- Set Private Wi-Fi Address to Off or Fixed

- Turned off Limit IP Address Tracking

Not sure how those steps could have helped or hurt, or somehow interacted with the "inactive" VPN that is still there. Other readers may have better insights.

Also, when Location Services runs normally, locationd does reach Apple’s servers: TLS succeeds and the replies are HTTP 200. The failure is that every nearby access point comes back as unknown (AlsWifi, unknown, knownCount 0), not that the Mac cannot talk to Apple. If a VPN were blocking or rewriting those requests, I would expect connection errors rather than successful 200 responses with unknown APs.

If they are all not located, you can’t get location from them. I don’t know if the “unknown” in the response means not located or referring to your Mac’s known networks. You don’t have to be connected to any of them to get location, just WiFi on. At least one of them must be in Apple’s database of known locations. Your iPhone getting location has no bearing on the issue as it has two other ways to establish location. I find it difficult to believe none of the 10-15 routers are unlocated. There has to be something wrong with the response or the request. If they really are not known, your iPhone should eventually send enough info to Apple to update their locations.

Have you gotten a location in a different area? There may be something wrong with your Mac, but I don’t know of anything you haven’t already tried except reinstalling macOS in Recovery. My M2 MacBook Pro has no problems getting location.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I already tested Safe Mode, and location still failed there. In Safe Mode third-party extensions and most background tools do not load, so an inactive WireGuard profile or another utility is unlikely to be the cause.

Also, when Location Services runs normally, locationd does reach Apple’s servers: TLS succeeds and the replies are HTTP 200. The failure is that every nearby access point comes back as unknown (AlsWifi, unknown, knownCount 0), not that the Mac cannot talk to Apple. If a VPN were blocking or rewriting those requests, I would expect connection errors rather than successful 200 responses with unknown APs.

I can uninstall WireGuard completely and retest if that helps narrow it down, but based on Safe Mode plus the successful Apple replies, I don’t think the disconnected VPN is the root cause.