Location Services stopped working across the system on macOS

App & System Services Maps & Location
Sibek OP
Created 7h
Replies 3
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Participants 2

MacBook Air (M4)

Current build: macOS 27 Developer Beta (26A5368g)

I have a system-wide Location Services failure affecting Apple Maps, Safari geolocation APIs, and any application requesting the current location.

Symptoms:

  • Apple Maps cannot determine current location.
  • Safari and browser geolocation APIs fail.
  • Websites report that location cannot be found.
  • Location Services are enabled and permissions are granted.

The issue has persisted across:

  • macOS 26.5 beta
  • macOS 26.6 beta
  • macOS 26.6 beta 2
  • macOS 27 Developer Beta

Troubleshooting already performed:

  • Multiple Wi-Fi networks tested.
  • iPhone hotspot tested.
  • VPN enabled and disabled.
  • Location Services reset.
  • Permissions reset and reauthorized.
  • New clean local user account created (no Apple ID, no third-party software).
  • Issue reproduces identically in the clean account.

Technical observations:

locationd logs repeatedly show:

knownCount = 0 AlsWifi = unknown

while Wi-Fi scanning itself appears successful:

queryMacAddresses.size = 57

The system sees dozens of nearby access points, but none appear to be recognized for Wi-Fi positioning.

Additional findings:

  • Wi-Fi hardware functions normally.
  • Internet connectivity is normal.
  • Bluetooth and Find My device presence work.
  • GeoServices resources are present on disk.
  • No successful location fix is ever produced.

Has anyone seen similar CoreLocation / GeoServices behavior where Wi-Fi scans succeed but knownCount always remains 0 and no location fix is generated?

Replies  3
Boosts  0
Views  37
Participants  2
DTS Engineer OP
Apple
3h

hanks for the post. This is extremely interesting post.

Since you have already ruled out the network environment (by testing multiple Wi-Fi networks and an iPhone hotspot) and user-space configurations, the issue is almost certainly occurring at the daemon level, the network-request level, or is a beta-specific hardware?

The correct thing to do should be to filing a bug with a focused simple project showing the issue because at this time I do not think we have seen that issue happening as far as I know.

While you mentioned resetting Location Services, macOS can be notoriously stubborn about holding onto corrupted SQLite databases in the /var/db/locationd/ directory. If the local cache is corrupted, locationd might fail to write new ALS responses or read existing ones, defaulting to an unknown state.

Location Services can intentionally fail to return a location if the Wi-Fi interface is missing a Country Code or is receiving conflicting 802.11d regulatory domain beacons. In some beta builds, if the system cannot verify its regulatory domain, it will sandbox location requests.

You should capture a sysdiagnose immediately after opening Apple Maps and forcing a location request. When filing the Feedback Assistant report, explicitly highlight the log.

Once you open the bug report, please post the FB number here for my reference.

If you have any questions about filing a bug report, take a look at Bug Reporting: How and Why?

Albert  WWDR
Sibek OP
2h

Thank you for the detailed response.

I have already submitted Feedback Assistant reports with sysdiagnose attached.

Feedback IDs:

  • FB23196632 (previous investigation)
  • FB23366087 (macOS 27 Beta, build 26A5368g)

Your comment regarding the Wi-Fi Country Code / regulatory domain is particularly interesting, as this is one area I have not investigated yet.

Thank you for taking the time to review the issue and for pointing me in a new direction.

DTS Engineer OP
Apple
1h

Thanks for providing the FB number, going to make sure those are routed correctly to the team. Please be patient as the team will need to review all that. I'm sure they'll communicate with you over Feedback Assistant when they have something to share with you.

You can see the status of your feedback in Feedback Assistant. There, you can track if the report is still being investigated, has a potential identifiable fix, or has been resolved in another way. The status appears beside the label "Resolution." We're unable to share any updates on specific reports on the forums.

For more details on when you'll see updates to your report, please see What to expect after submission.

Albert  WWDR

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