So, this new Stolen Device Protection feature looks, in theory, to be a very good idea but it seems to rely on Significant Locations to determine where you can or cannot amend your information and I don't understand how Significant Locations works. There doesn't appear to be any way of viewing or editing these locations in System Settings and I can find no information on how the OS determines where they are. I can see that I have 207 records over the past couple of months and the most recent record is, rather randomly, my local Post Office but, beyond that, the only option seems to be clearing the history altogether. Does this mean that Stolen Device Protection thinks there are 207 "safe" places where I can update my info but I have no way of finding out where those places are? I can already see posts in the forums from people being locked out of their phones while at home. This whole idea seems fraught with potential problems.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can somebody please explain how "Significant Locations" works?
- Thread starter Furby2005
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't get what you're saying here. The point of the feature is to prevent a thief from changing your password. It's not for preventing you from changing your password to one you forget when you're at home.
I don't think Apple has given out the exact details of how it works. This is all they have to say about it:
Those 207 records you have are not 207 significant locations or safe places. They are just 207 records collected. I believe the significant locations are shown by the map and in blue circles. Your home should likely have a blue circle (assuming you're home a lot). Do you see any other locations where you've spent a lot of time or visit frequently, besides the post office?
Example I found:
Those 207 records you have are not 207 significant locations or safe places. They are just 207 records collected. I believe the significant locations are shown by the map and in blue circles. Your home should likely have a blue circle (assuming you're home a lot). Do you see any other locations where you've spent a lot of time or visit frequently, besides the post office?
Example I found:
Last edited:
On my screen, there's only the one entry shown in the Recent Records list and I can find no other blue circles on the map, not even around my home.I don't think Apple has given out the exact details of how it works. This is all they have to say about it:
Those 207 records you have are not 207 significant locations or safe places. They are just 207 records collected. I believe the significant locations are shown by the map and in blue circles. Your home should likely have a blue circle (assuming you're home a lot). Do you see any other locations where you've spent a lot of time or visit frequently, besides the post office?
Example I found:
What I mean is that people who have switched on Stolen Device Protection are finding that the feature isn't recognising when they're at home: Stolen Device Protection doesn’t recognize I’m home
If I'm remembering correctly, you used to be able to browse through that list of Significant Locations in iOS Settings. At some point, Apple removed that ability and now you can only see the last few of them.
I used to use an app called Moves that just ran all the time and gave you a really great timeline of everywhere you've been, how long you spent there, and how you moved in transit between things (walking, biking, driving, etc). I had to dump it because Facebook bought it and I didn't want to have them involved, but I would still like this info. It ticks me off to no end that Apple's Significant Locations feature is withholding this data because it's rightfully mine.
I used to use an app called Moves that just ran all the time and gave you a really great timeline of everywhere you've been, how long you spent there, and how you moved in transit between things (walking, biking, driving, etc). I had to dump it because Facebook bought it and I didn't want to have them involved, but I would still like this info. It ticks me off to no end that Apple's Significant Locations feature is withholding this data because it's rightfully mine.
Hmm, this is interesting. Maybe the map isn't exactly showing significant locations either.
My phone shows my home on the map, but my iPad is really odd...it shows Target and not my home. I was at Target a few days ago (with my phone), but my iPad stayed home. It must be syncing locations over iCloud, but seems odd that my two devices don't show the same thing.
Looking closer, I guess my iPad has one more record than my phone does, and the Target location is the most recent between the two. So the Target location must be missing from my phone, which is very odd considering that is the device that was there.
iPhone (149 records)
Home
Jan 20, 2024 5:30 - 7:39 PM
iPad (150 records)
Target
Jan 20, 2024 7:47 - 7:54 PM
For the record it eventually recognized I’m in a familiar location, though only after I left home and came back and even then not right away. In total it took 22 hours.
iOS Significant locations works pretty much identical to Google Home’s location history with the primary difference being that Google stores the history on their servers where iOS stores it locally.
Pretty much what iOS does is keep track how long you are at any location. It used to show all your locations, but that freaked some people out so now Apple only shows your last location. From what I can tell it’s the last location you were at and left. So if you come home on a Friday and don’t leave till Monday morning, the last location will show wherever you were before you got home Friday. Once you leave home on Monday it will update, though not immediately.
As for why, it allows iOS to do things like suggest you drive to work (or train station) in the morning at your normal time as well as suggest drive home.
Speaking of work and home, the reason Apple doesn’t just use the addresses set in contacts is because those can be changed. It uses those in combination with your significant locations to figure out if your home is somewhere you actually go. That prevents thief from simply updating your home address to bypass SDP.
What Apple should do is allow you to see your significant locations again and let you remove “untrusted” ones. I’m assuming Apple requires one spend a fairly significant amount of time at a location for at least several days a week to be “trusted”, but it would be nice if Apple didn’t hide how that works.
Syncing is one thing that puzzles me. Syncing obviously occurs since like you I see places on my iPad where it hasn’t been. My Mac also knows when I’ve left home, but doesn’t show any places it hasn’t physically been and only for the last week (it has 3 records, my phone has 56).
I’m also a bit confused because my phone only has significant location history back till November, but I got it in September and it’s been enabled the entire time without clearing the history.
Last edited:
Ok, I see. Still, that's nowhere near enough of a concern to make me not want to use it. I'd take waiting an extra hour until I can change my password to "thief has the keys to the kingdom if they have my passcode".
The worst that can happen is if you are home and biometrics fails, then a DFU reset is needed.
One phone knew Home right away on update to public 17.3, the other one that I use only for beta testing took 3 weeks to learn.
I think the inability to view familiar/significant locations in iOS17 is to stop the thief seeing them and doing a drive-by reset.
This is a good feature that fails safe.
I've never had FaceID completely fail and not be able to scan my face after a retry or two. I agree it's a good feature that I'm 100% turning on.
I’m leaving it on as well as I pretty much never take any of the actions that require a delay so worse thing that happens is I need to use FaceID at home which I do anyway.
I’ve never had the front facing camera die on any iPhone I’ve had so that seems highly unlikely to happen as well. Even if it does, the phone is still usable with the exception of a few restricted things.
That was worst case - I should have said if you are home and the phone knows you are there, then failed biometrics will still allow you to use passcode instead
Last edited:
I would also like to know how "Significant Locations" works. It's been a mystery to me since it's introduction.
Also, why the heck can't we check the tracked locations? You could argue, it prevents stalking by someone who knows your device code. But then again, if someone knows your device code, they already have full access to everything on your iPhone anyways.
Also, why the heck can't we check the tracked locations? You could argue, it prevents stalking by someone who knows your device code. But then again, if someone knows your device code, they already have full access to everything on your iPhone anyways.