VPN not changing or hiding Location

VPN (Virtual Private Network) helps to establish an encrypted connection between your PC and the internet and keeps your identity hidden online. There exist some VPN tools that work absolutely fine most of the time. However, sometimes, users find that VPN is not hiding or changing location. The connection is established successfully but instead of masking or hiding the IP address (or original location) and providing a virtual location, the actual location is visible and that can be very annoying. It is also not good for security and privacy purpose. So, those who face this problem on a Windows 11/10 system can try some simple and helpful options covered in this post.

VPN not changing or hiding location

If VPN does not hide or change your location on your Windows 11/10 computer, then you can use the following solutions to troubleshoot the issue:

Try another VPN Server
Use Private Mode in a browser
Disable Geolocation on your web browser
Turn off Windows Location Services
Try another VPN tool
Use VPN with Tor.

Let’s look at these options and fix problem.

1] Try another VPN Server

It is one of the easy solutions. Sometimes, the problem is with a particular VPN server offered by the VPN tool you’re using. If that VPN server is not helping to change your location, then you should try another VPN server. Even better, select a different country and a server available for that country. There is a whole list of servers (depending on the VPN tool) for each country that you can connect to. So, change the VPN server and see if that works.

2] Use Private Mode in a browser

This option has helped some users and it might work for you also. You should open private mode (also known as an incognito mode) in your browser or another browser and see if VPN is working fine there. If you are logged in to your Google account on a browser, then there is a high chance that your browsing session is leaking the location. So, log out from your Google account, open a private window, connect to the VPN tool, and check if VPN can hide or change your location.

As an optional step, clear cache and cookies in Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser you are using, and then start the VPN session and see if you get any help.

3] Disable Geolocation on your web browser

This is one of the main factors why VPN is not changing or hiding the location on your Windows 11/10 PC. If you have granted location access to a site or service, then that service can use the geolocation of your web browser to access the actual location. As a result, your VPN tool won’t be able to shield the location and the service that you’re trying to access won’t be accessible. Therefore, you need to disable geolocation on your web browser.

You can easily disable geolocation in Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and other popular browsers. All browsers have almost the same option. Access the Privacy and security page in the browser Settings. After that, access the Location option under Permissions. Now, depending on the browser you are using, you will have a Block new requests asking to access your location option or Don’t allow sites to see your location option. Select that option.

Also, if some sites or services are already granted permission to access the location, then a list of all those sites will visible there. You need to set location permission to Block using the drop-down menu for a site or just remove a site from the allowed list. This should help the VPN tool hide your location.

Related: Fix VPN not working problems and issues in Windows

4] Turn off Windows Location Services

Try to turn off the location feature (or Location services) of Windows 11/10 and see if that helps. To turn off the location in Windows 11/10, follow these steps:

Open the Settings app (Win+I) of Windows 11/10
Access the Privacy & security category (for Windows 11). If you are using Windows 10, click on the Privacy category
Access the Location page
Turn off the Location services button. For Windows 10, you need to use the toggle for Location access for this device.

In addition to that, you can also change location settings in Windows on the same location page which includes clearing location history, allowing/disallowing apps to access your location, etc.

Once it is done, activate the VPN tool, connect to a server, open a service that you want to access, and see if this works.

5] Try another VPN tool

There could be a possibility that the VPN tool you’re using is the main culprit because of which your actual location is not hidden. Here is my personal experience. I tried Hola Unblocker and Touch VPN tool (without sign-in) on Chrome and Firefox. While the first one didn’t work at some points and showed my actual IP address, the latter worked fine for me.

So, if your VPN tool is not working correctly and leaks your IP address, then you should switch to a different VPN tool. There are some best free VPN tools as well as premium VPN services and paid VPNs for Windows that you can try.

Having said that, not all VPN tools (including free and premium) are that effective, especially the free ones. But you can at least try another VPN tool. If it works, then it’s well and good. If that doesn’t work, use another tool that can actually do one of its main tasks i.e., hiding your actual location. Also, you should keep your VPN tool updated to make it work better.

6] Use VPN with Tor

When it comes to anonymity and privacy, the Tor browser (The Onion Router) is one of the best answers. With its unique onion routing technique, it sends the traffic from your system through three random servers (which are also known as relays) with encryption keys to protect your privacy.

If the other options mentioned in this post fail, then try to use a VPN with the Tor browser, and check if that solves your problem. Using the Tor browser along with VPN would be a good choice but you must have a faster internet connection as the Tor browser is comparatively slow than other browsers.

I hope something will help.

Also read: Fix VPN Connection, Can’t connect to VPN connection error

Why is the VPN location still the same?

There could be any reason why the VPN location is still the same after establishing a connection. It may happen because there is a problem with the VPN tool itself, the VPN server is not helping hide the IP address, or the browser geolocation is turned on. To solve this problem, you can try to change the VPN server, disable browser geolocation, use private mode in a browser, etc. All these solutions are added in this post with the necessary details.

Why is ExpressVPN not changing my location?

Though ExpressVPN is one of the best premium VPN options for Windows and other platforms, users sometimes find that it is not changing their location or they cannot access certain content after establishing a connection. In such a case, try to connect to a different server location, install the browser extension of ExpressVPN, or try accessing the service, website, or app again.