Facebook Location Problem

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

Very off topic but someone may know. I have very recently joined Facebook as we now have a village memories page and I have lived here all my life and can help answer some questions.

The thing is that I cannot list my location anywhere in Britain let alone my own village. When I try and enter it as my "Home" town I get the response that "address is invalid please choose" and I can only pick US addresses.

My neighbour thought he could help and he came round with his tablet which has the correct "Home" town listed but try as he could mine was US addresses only! He then set up a new Facebook account for his wife as an experiment and was able to pick the correct "Home" location even though the tablets were side by side! We then went through all his settings and everything was basically the same except he could pick a UK address!

We gave up! Facebook do not respond other than point to the location page which doesn't list my problem.

Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong?

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

Facebook will not allow a UK address

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I don't use Facebook but might hazard a guess you have managed to log in or create a page as though you were based in the US. If you log in from the UK you should end up with an address in the browser box someting like:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/

Don't know how you would change it once an account is created though. This page might help:-

Facebook Location

John

Edited By Journeyman on 29/04/2020 14:51:39

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

Hi, John.

Thanks for the advice.

I am definately logged in on en-gb.facebook.com which is why I cannot understand why I cannot add a UK address.

My neighbor uses the same login with just a different identification number.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Maybe check the regional settings on whatever device you are using to access the service…

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Why would anyone want FB to know where they live? They get uncomfortably close as it is by mining your IP address.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Agree with Bazyle. They already know too much and any scum can pick out when people are away on holiday, etc from these computer pages. Scum can target your children at school etc. May not happen to many, but do you really want to risk it? (it’s clearly a greater risk than Trump rising from the dead in Israel – and the CIA were clearly worried about that 🙂 ).

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Agree with Bazyle. They already know too much and any scum can pick out when people are away on holiday, etc from these computer pages. Scum can target your children at school etc. May not happen to many, but do you really want to risk it? (it’s clearly a greater risk than Trump rising from the dead in Israel – and the CIA were clearly worried about that 🙂 ).

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

What settings are you using for DNS in your router – have you (or possibly a trojan/virus hijacker) selected a US source rather than the DNS that your ISP provides;

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

Hi, all.

And thanks for the advice. I really wanted to show that I was resident in the village I was speaking about.

I am not sure about DNS but my IP address is pretty close to my location.

My ISP can see nothing wrong on their side but they have had queries from folks with the same problem.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Are you using a VPN which will munge your IP address?

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Sounds like Alastair's Facebook account has been set up in the USA by mistake somehow. (Sod's Law strikes again!)

I suggest starting again:

1. log in to Facebook
2. Permanently delete the account as described here under the heading How do I permanently delete my account?
3. Create a new UK Facebook account from en-gb.facebook.com as described here.
4. Try setting location again

As Facebook is completely international it's likely that users can login from where ever they happen to be in the world – there's no particular reason US Facebook shouldn't be available from the UK or vice-versa. Normally helpful, but I guess Facebook only shows local addresses when accounts are first opened.

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 29/04/2020 18:57:01:

Sounds like Alastair's Facebook account has been set up in the USA by mistake somehow. (Sod's Law strikes again!)

I suggest starting again:

1. log in to Facebook
2. Permanently delete the account as described here under the heading How do I permanently delete my account?
3. Create a new UK Facebook account from en-gb.facebook.com as described here.
4. Try setting location again

As Facebook is completely international it's likely that users can login from where ever they happen to be in the world – there's no particular reason US Facebook shouldn't be available from the UK or vice-versa. Normally helpful, but I guess Facebook only shows local addresses when accounts are first opened.

Dave

Some would suggest the "Mister Motivator" 3-step approach:

1. log in to Facebook
2. Permanently delete the account as described here under the heading How do I permanently delete my account?
3. – There are no more steps!

Yours in mischief,

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Actually, I had a similar problem, it wouldn't allow me to enter a location on Mars (I didn't want to give my real location).

I picked a city tens of miles away.

Neil

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

The saga continues on Facebook location. Following Neil's advice I thought OK I will try London as my home.

Entered London and it gave me the option of London UK, but when I select it from the displayed list I get "This location is illegal"

I don't think I am going to pursue it any further, I just thought it would be good to show that I was local to the village in Facebook but those things are sent to try us!

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

You can show you are local by referring to something only locals know about. In a similar vein I was talking to a villager I can only remember first meeting about ten years ago but when we both referred to the house with new occupants by the name of the person who lived there but died 40 years ago I realised he must have lived here a while too.

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