Google maps always gives suggestions from the wrong country

August 20, 2016 6:12 PM

I live in Australia. When I start typing an address or landmark into my android phone on the google maps app, the top suggestions Google gives until my typing is complete are 99% NZ places, mostly from the parts of New Zealand I visit once a year or so. And then I often accidentally click on one instead of the correct address. It's driving me crazy. Has anyone seen this sort of behaviour before? How can I make it stop?

I think it started about six months ago, after my most recent trip home to NZ. I do have my phone's language set to NZ English, not Australian, because otherwise it can't understand my voice commands. But that's not negotiable. Google maps on my iPad doesn't behave this way.

posted by lollusc to Technology (5 answers total)

Response by poster: For example, I start to type "52 High Street, Sydney", and I am presented with a list of 52 High Street, Napier, 52 High Street, Auckland, 52 High Street, Wellington, etc, with Sydney way down the list or not there at all.

Same if I put in "International Airport, Sydney" - as soon as I enter International Airport, it autocompletes with "Auckland".
posted by lollusc at 6:14 PM on August 20, 2016

Do you have your home location set in Google?
posted by AFABulous at 6:19 PM on August 20, 2016

Do you have your "home" address set to NZ? My phone defaults to where my home addy is. Although my boyfriends phone defaults to our previous address on the other side of the city so... This could just be another unfortunate Google maps glitch.
posted by DoubleLune at 6:19 PM on August 20, 2016

Best answer: Did you download an offline map of new zealand to your phone? My phone still thinks I'm in new york, despite being a thousand miles away.
posted by umwhat at 6:25 PM on August 20, 2016

Response by poster: Umwhat had it! That answer reminded me that I started using the offline features for the first time when I last traveled to NZ and despite my home address being set to Sydney, Google was obviously confused by the fact I had more offline areas saved for NZ than for Australia. (Which is moronic because surely people are more likely to be without data access when traveling than when in their own country).

Anyway I deleted the offline NZ areas and that has fixed it! Yay!
posted by lollusc at 6:35 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]