How to fix a wrong IP geolocation
It genuinely works. The reason it feels impossible is one fact almost nobody states plainly.
The fact that makes this confusing
There is no central registry of IP locations to correct. People go looking for the authoritative record, do not find one, and conclude the whole thing is unfixable.
So the work is not "submit a correction". It is "work out who is wrong, correct each of them, and wait".
Step 1. Find out who is actually wrong
Skip this and you will spend your effort on a database that was already right.
- Get your address from our front page.
- Look it up on each major geolocation provider's own demo or lookup page. Most publish one, because it is how they sell the product.
- Write down which ones are wrong and what each of them thinks.
You will usually find they disagree. That is normal and it is useful: it tells you exactly where to aim, and it also tells you whether the problem is one stale record or a structural limitation affecting everybody in your area.
Rarely published. If the site has support, asking is worth a message, because correcting the right database first saves weeks. Failing that, correct the largest few, since they cover most of the market between them.
Step 2. File with each provider that is wrong
The major vendors all publish a correction form, usually findable by searching for their name plus "correction" or "update location". They are free to use and do not require a customer relationship.
What they generally ask for:
- The address or range. A single address if that is all you have, or the block if you control one.
- The correct location. City, region, postal code, country. Give the location of the network, not your home if those differ.
- Evidence. Anything supporting the claim. For an individual that may just be a clear statement. For an organization, a letter on company paper, or documentation showing you hold the block.
- Contact details, so they can come back to you.
Be specific and be honest. Requests that look like an attempt to appear somewhere you are not get rejected, and correction systems exist precisely because providers want their data to be right.
Step 3. If you control the block, fix it at the source
This is the strongest move available and it is open only to organizations holding their own allocation.
Registry records are one of the primary inputs to every geolocation database. Publishing accurate location data in your registry record, and keeping the organization's address current there, feeds every provider at once rather than one at a time. There is also a standard specifically for this: geofeeds, defined in RFC 8805, a simple published file mapping your prefixes to locations that providers can consume automatically.
If you hold address space and your locations are persistently wrong, a geofeed is the durable answer and individual correction forms are the stopgap.
Step 4. If it is your provider's doing, tell your provider
When the cause is the hand-off point, meaning your whole region appears to be in one city, the accurate record has to come from the provider. They hold the block and they know which addresses serve which areas.
One customer report rarely moves a large company. A wrong record affecting a whole region is a genuine support issue and is sometimes treated as one, particularly if you can show it is causing a concrete problem such as failing regional access to a paid service.
How long to expect
| Stage | Typical |
|---|---|
| Provider reviews the request | Days to a couple of weeks |
| Change appears in their published database | Their next release cycle, often weekly or monthly |
| The site you care about picks up that release | Their own schedule, sometimes months |
So a correction accepted today may not change anything visible for a month or more. That is not the request failing, it is the pipeline. Note the date you filed and check back rather than refiling.
If your address is dynamic and the correction was for one address rather than a block, a new address may land in a range nobody has corrected. Corrections are durable for a block and fragile for a single address, which is another reason the registry and geofeed route matters for anyone holding space.
What not to bother with
- Paid "IP location fixing" services. They file the same free forms you can file.
- Contacting the regional registry unless you hold the block. They record allocations, not the location of every subscriber.
- Changing anything on your computer. Nothing on your device contributes to the database's answer.
- Getting a new address as a fix. It may land in a range with the same or worse data, and you cannot choose.