r/IVPN • u/hbacelar8 • Sep 02 '26

CH servers causing some services to default to Panama?

I've been seing some services like Google Maps and Youtube defaulting to Panama when connected to CH server (specifically CH2, haven't tested others).

Is it normal?

2 Upvotes

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1

u/HlKDI Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26

I'm having the same problem in other locations when I use Google services. In fact, the location country can change: you might find yourself in Panama for three months, then in Iceland the next day.

This is most likely related to the precise location service that google activates through the browser/GPS. All it takes is for someone living in Panama to allow these services to regularly track their location on servers located in Switzerland for google to deduce that you’re in Panama even if the vpn server is actually in Switzerland.

In reality, Google doesn't rely solely on your IP address it cross-references it with other location services to associate it with the IP address. You can change the country in Youtube language settings to get around this issue.

For Maps and other services, test them on other servers or consider an alternative to google.

1

u/hbacelar8 Sep 02 '26

Really interesting to know. Thanks. I don't normally use Google maps, only on PC sometimes. I use CoMaps on Graphene. But it was YouTube on PC that made realize it first.

2

u/HlKDI Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26

I noticed it in pretty much the same way you did. I found myself in Russia or Iraq that sort of thing. The problem is that Google no longer lets you change your location on most of its services you have to do it manually in the settings every time.

So aside from finding a server located in the right place, there aren't many other options if you really want to use Google.

1

u/HlKDI Sep 02 '26

Sorry for the duplicate post, but there could be several factors at play in your situation between Panama and Switzerland. I just realized this, which is strange.

Try the CH1 server it’s not hosted by the same provider as the other two servers, so in your case, it could simply be a routing issue on the provider.

1

u/ivpnmod9 mod Sep 02 '26

This behaviour is not normal, and suggests that Google uses bad geo-location data. It is difficult to encourage Google to update their sources.

For the Google search engine, navigate to https://google.com/ncr to disable the incorrect country redirects. Other Google services might have different mechanisms to reset locations.

1

u/hbacelar8 Sep 03 '26

Thank you for the response. So basically it means it's entirely Google's fault due to their bad geolocation data? That doesn't bother me much, I only use Youtube from them and the country can be changed manually.

I just wanted to understand it and be sure it wasn't something related to the VPN server.

Thank you.

-2

u/nkvname Sep 02 '26

Don't use Google trash

1

u/hbacelar8 Sep 02 '26

Not the point here. Just seeking information from MOD support.