I haven’t been able to pin down a reliable pattern, but more often than not when I launch Apple Maps on macOS, within around 5 seconds or so, it will act as if I clicked the arrow thingy button which moves the map to my current location. If I am paying attention, it will even highlight that arrow briefly.
I don’t want this but I cannot figure out why it happens nor how to stop it. Others have told me it doesn’t happen to them, but I guess it doesn’t always happen to me. It does, sometimes, happen again if I leave Maps open.
A typical scenario is I may have previously been looking at places in Tokyo then quit Maps. On relaunching, perhaps a day later, it still shows me Tokyo, but then a few seconds later, it’s showing my immediate area in New Zealand.
While trying to test for this just now, I noted that even if I had searched a location (Hiroshima Station in Japan), and left that search result up, on relaunch, it forgot that and just ‘took me home’.
I find this infuriating. I have been spending some time ‘revisiting’ locations we went in Japan to add facts and figures to my travel diary from the trip. But taking a break (usually coming back another day) it makes me have to once again either search or scroll to the area I was up to.
I think, but I couldn’t be sure at the moment, that this also happens on iPhone.
Anyone else observe the same behaviour or know of any settings I’ve missed?
All of the below is conjecture, but I’m trying to put myself in the mind of the product team at Apple.
I would guess that Apple would see this as expected behaviour, and probably have the data analytics to back it up.
When someone opens the maps app they are either
looking to visualise a journey using the navigation feature (even on the Mac, they may be looking how long it will take to get somewhere),
Looking for something near where they are,
randomly searching for somewhere using the text box, or
Wanting to manually scroll on the map to find somewhere
For 1 and 3, it doesn’t matter what the initial view is, but if you’re navigating from where you are it’s going to need the local tiles to show you what that journey looks like
for 2 and 4, you need a local view as a starting point
On a percentage basis, it’s likely you’re in the very low single digits that someone wants to return to the view that had previously after closing the maps app, or coming back to it after a day.
I just did a very quick test, and I did see the same behaviour as you mention. The previous location was cached on the screen at startup, but then it took me to my current location within a few seconds. Both macOS and iPadOS behaved in the same way.
Then I tried removing Maps’ access to location services, and that seems to leave the previous search alone and allowed me to continue exploring the most recently searched area. This can be a solution for any device you don’t need to use for real-time navigation purposes.
That said, it was a quick test, so I hope we won’t be teleported off to Apple HQ in other scenarios.
Also tested and so far so good. I looked up Kobe, Japan as I’m hoping to run the marathon in December. It hasn’t reverted back to my home city (yet), unless I’m doing it wrong. I haven’t clicked the arrow which I assume will take me home.
Side note: It seems everyone is going to Japan lately. My son is there now and if Japan comes up in conversation it seems they’ve either been, going and want to go.
To be honest, I think this really is expected behavior for most of the users. I would even add that it may be confusing for some to see a random place on maps, especially if quite some time has passed since having used maps before.
Some want the default opening location to be their home, others their current location, and like we have seen over here: some want the location to be the place they have “visited” before.
Right now, I would not be surprised when “taking me home” is intended behavior on Apple’s part.
I don’t see a solution to make it right for everyone as long as they don’t implement a preference setting to choose whatever a user likes being her/his default option. Given the fact that you already can “pin” and “save” places, one could argue that those settings already are in place to some degree.
Sometimes when connecting to CarPlay, Maps will show me a location in Houston, TX. I don’t even live in that timezone. I was last in Houston in July, and with a completely different vehicle (not even the same make/model).
It doesn’t show that as my current location, nor is it suggesting any routes there. It just says “here, enjoy this map of downtown Houston.” And it doesn’t correct itself once I start moving, I have to actively do something with Maps.
I’ve also had it show me Atlanta (which I visited last fall for a weekend) and I think somewhere between Baltimore and DC.
I haven’t used Maps a lot since getting my first CarPlay head unit recently. However, not only does it routinely show me a search result for a place in Japan I once looked up weeks ago, it also now always shows me the last podcast I have been playing in Overcast, even if I am currently playing music through Apple’s Music app. These both on that widgety screen.
In other words, CarPlay is clearly built on the same framework that widgets are because a lot of the time those don’t update in an anywhere near timely fashion either.
On my Mac… that’s when I want full control of Maps.
