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Siri: I Can't Tell Your Location Because of Your Settings

S

SouthernGypsy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2017
9
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Please bear with me as I am going to be detailed so people know what I have checked already and what a clueless girl at Apple Tech Support told me...

I work on the road all over the country and often wake up in strange places and the first thing I do each morning during the winter while still laying in bed before unlocking or even touching the phone is ask "Hey Siri, What's the Temperature?" because I need to know if I need to tell her to Remote Start/Pre-Warm my Diesel pickup with the app, or even just sleep in some more if there has been winter weather out and I need to give the rising sun more time to warm up the roadways.

Previous to the iPhone 14 Pro and iOS 16 this has always worked fine no matter where I am that night or the model of iPhone or version of iOS. She's always simply responded with the current Temperature for my location.


But since getting the iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 16 (now up to 16.1.2) when I ask she responds with the "I Can't Tell Your Location Because of Your Settings".


I will add that I'm sure she's Never gotten the Temperature data from any app installed on my phone such as weather apps, I'm positive that she simply uses my current location and then searches the web for the information, and I'll explain why I point this out...

I called Apple support and they had no clue, her only suggestion was maybe Siri gets the information from the default Apple Weather App, which I did not even (and haven't for years) have installed. But per her insistence downloaded the Apple Weather App with no surprise to me when it still did not work. As I said earlier I never needed it before and Siri worked even though I did NOT have the Apple Weather App installed as I use WeatherBug Pro because it's so much better, but I'm sure Siri is also not getting the information from there either.

As I said I believe she simply uses my current information and then searches the web for the information the same way she gets most other information. I can further demonstrate this by the fact that sometimes the past when I have asked her the Temperature and she answered, I then get up, and actually looked at my installed weather app only to find that temperature would be slightly different then the answer she gave me which means she did not get the information from the app. When I loaded Safari (even though I normally use FireFox) and asked the current temperature, it displayed a page with an answer that matched what Siri had given me. So I believe she gets the data from the web the way she gets most information you ask her rather than from a weather app as the girl at Apple Support thought (she could barely speak English and seemed pretty clueless, it was obvious she was just reading scripts and guessing).


So, anyway, I have been through all of the settings I can think of and can't find the Setting that Siri is referring to when she says she can't answer me because of my settings.

Now, After saying she Can't Tell My Location Because of my Settings she SOMETIMES will follow up by saying "What Location Would You Like the Temperature For?", but only sometimes and if I answer her with the town name I'm in then she will give me the Temperature. Other times she won't ask that follow up question.

Also if I unlock the phone first and ask again SOMETIMES she will answer without the error and without asking me for a location, but if the phone is locked (like in my night stand when I first wake up) she Always gives the error message.

At least two of our other drivers that I knew had iPhones and asked them and who also have iOS 16 (one with an iPhone 14 Pro like mine and the other still has his 13 Pro but upgraded to iOS 16) have said they have the same exact problem, so I know it's not just me. The guy with a 14 Pro said it's been happening since he got his phone which came with iOS 16 and the guy with the 13 Pro said his started the very morning after he had installed iOS 16. So I think it's likely more to do with something in iOS 16 rather than the model of phone.


Does anyone else have this issue and has anyone figure out where this setting is that Siri is saying is causing the problem?
 
Last edited:
No problems here with 14 PM on iOS 16.1.2

What I would check is Settings/ Privacy & Security/ Location Services/ Weather, then make sure "Always" has a check mark by it.

Sorry if you mentioned that in your post but I didn't see it.
 
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russell_314 said:
No problems here with 14 PM on iOS 16.1.2

What I would check is Settings/ Privacy & Security/ Location Services/ Weather, then make sure "Always" has a check mark by it.

Sorry if you mentioned that in your post but I didn't see it.
Click to expand...

Yea tried it, that's just the permissions for the stock Apple Weather app that I was referring to, but that's not where Siri gets the weather info from, she pulls it from the Web. I never even had that app installed and it always worked before iOS 16. Installed it when the girl at Apple had me do it (and it still is) and then we tested it and it made no difference, which I expected since that's not where Siri pulls the info from. There must be another setting somewhere.
 
Starting today, I’m having this problem too

iOS 16.1.2 iPhone 14 pro
 
SouthernGypsy said:
Yea tried it, that's just the permissions for the stock Apple Weather app that I was referring to, but that's not where Siri gets the weather info from, she pulls it from the Web. I never even had that app installed and it always worked before iOS 16. Installed it when the girl at Apple had me do it (and it still is) and then we tested it and it made no difference, which I expected since that's not where Siri pulls the info from. There must be another setting somewhere.
Click to expand...
in that same setting area there’s also a location setting for Siri & Dictation but I’m assuming you already checked that.

For the explanation it says "Siri uses vour location for things like answering questions and offering suggestions about what's nearby.". Maybe that includes weather?


I was going through my location settings and I see I also have everything turned on under System Services but I don’t see any of that applying to Siri.
 
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B737 said:
cycled weather and siri location privacy on and off, rebooted the phone, is working now.
Click to expand...

It's not the weather app, where did you cycle Siri privacy on and off? I think there is multiple places for that and I think I'm missing one somewhere...
 
Try privacy > location > Siri and dictation. I’m willing to bet yours is already on though
 
B737 said:
Try privacy > location > Siri and dictation. I’m willing to bet yours is already on though
Click to expand...

Yea, that one is set to "While Using the App", I'd have tried setting it to "Always" but that's not given as an option on that one. I tried cycling it off and on again while I was there though.
 
so it's only half working now, I just figured out.

I just arrived in a new city. I asked siri for the temperature outside and got the same "I cant tell your location because of settings" excuse. But then I connected to the hotel Wi-Fi and asked the same question, and it worked. Not sure how to sort this out but it's annoying.
 
NoBoMac said:
Guess: precise location is off for Siri and or weather?
Click to expand...

Mine is all turned on.

And as I mentioned, the settings for "weather" (at least that I have ever found) refers to the weather app and that is not where Siri gets her weather data from, she pulls it from the internet like she does all of her other non-personal data. So if it was an app setting causing it then it'd more likely be Safari or her permissions to access online data rather than the weather app.

In other words, you can delete EVERY weather app you have on your phone including the default Apple app and ask Siri the temperature and prior to iOS 16 she has always been able to answer and even now still can but now it's only as long as your phone is already unlocked or only for a very short time after you laid it down after having had it unlocked. But lay it on a nightstand or somewhere and let it go totally dark, locked, in standby/sleep or whatever you want to call it for like 15 minutes and then ask again and suddenly we're back to the excuse that she can't tell you because of your settings.
 
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B737 said:
so it's only half working now, I just figured out.

I just arrived in a new city. I asked siri for the temperature outside and got the same "I cant tell your location because of settings" excuse. But then I connected to the hotel Wi-Fi and asked the same question, and it worked. Not sure how to sort this out but it's annoying.
Click to expand...


Here is a thing though, let your phone go totally to sleep for 10 mins and try, it may not work again. Mine works IF my phone is totally awake and in my hand, but it used to work even if I asked after the phone had been asleep all night and still laying (untouched for hours) on a nightstand and being connected to or not connected to WIFI has never made a difference either in the past when it always worked or now with iOS 16 when it doesn't work. It probably worked because you'd just had the phone unlocked.

Which makes me think it may have something to do with permissions related to when your phone is locked, though I can't find it.
 
we have some things in common. We both just got iphone 14 pros, we travel, and I suspect we both set up our new phones from our old phone's back-up. I never saw this issue with my last iphone 12.

Since I've been at the hotel, I tested what you said about not unlocking the phone for a while and asking temperature, its worked properly each time. I turned off the wifi and it worked (to my surprise).

I will be in a new city tomorrow and will try this again. I suspect I will get the same error message until I connect to wifi.

Another thing I noticed... sometimes the temperature widget on the home screen is 'blank'. This widget is tied to the native weather app. It is usually blank after the phone has had no data connectivity while in airplane mode for a few hours on a flight. Once on the ground, I take it out of airplane mode (from the lock screen) the temperature still does not update, unless I press the widget. My last iphone never had this problem either. I bet they are related.

this may just be a bug in 16.1.2
 
B737 said:
we have some things in common. We both just got iphone 14 pros, we travel, and I suspect we both set up our new phones from our old phone's back-up. I never saw this issue with my last iphone 12.

Since I've been at the hotel, I tested what you said about not unlocking the phone for a while and asking temperature, its worked properly each time. I turned off the wifi and it worked (to my surprise).

I will be in a new city tomorrow and will try this again. I suspect I will get the same error message until I connect to wifi.

Another thing I noticed... sometimes the temperature widget on the home screen is 'blank'. This widget is tied to the native weather app. It is usually blank after the phone has had no data connectivity while in airplane mode for a few hours on a flight. Once on the ground, I take it out of airplane mode (from the lock screen) the temperature still does not update, unless I press the widget. My last iphone never had this problem either. I bet they are related.

this may just be a bug in 16.1.2
Click to expand...


When you wake up in the morning, before you even touch your phone at all, ask Siri and see what happens. Oh, and yea, I already tested if WIFI makes a difference quite a bit and doesn't seem to. Never has on mine anyway.
 
Just an update, since being on iOS 16.2 I haven’t had this bug again.
 
Yes on beta, the public release should be very soon. Hasn’t done it since and I never see the temp widget without a temp anymore either
 
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