I’ve got an Apple TV 4K with ExpressVPN app installed and activated. In the ExpressVPN app, I have my chosen location set to “New York” (I actually live in Los Angeles).
I fired up a random app on my Apple TV — in this case, NewsNation — which uses Location Services to detect your location. Guess what? Even with ExpressVPN installed and activated, the NewsNation app says I am in “Los Angeles.”
What’s going on? What am I missing?
It may be that some account on the Apple TV or on Apple itself is registered to Los Angeles. I don’t know where something like news nation is getting its account information from.
You could test the vpns basic functionality by getting a UK app such as itvx and changing the location and expressvpn to UK. If that doesn’t work then there’s something wrong with expressvpn. I use nordvpn on the Apple TV 4k and it works perfectly for getting streams in another country. I haven’t tried it to see if it properly changes the location within the USA though.
I’ve figured out the answer. Basically, VPNs for your Apple TV do _not_ interfere with the tvOS’s “Location Services.” So any third party app that uses the OS’s “Location Services” to determine your location will know where you “really” are. On the contrary, any app that uses your IP address to estimate your location will “believe” that you’re wherever you set your VPN to be. This renders VPNs for Apple TV rather useless, as any app developer can simply circumvent them and use “Location Services” to figure out where you actually are.
Finally being able to use Nord on ATV has changed my life.
Well… maybe the fact that VPN’s dont change your actual location, only your network location.
BUT, you can’t download UK apps unless you have a UK-based Apple ID account. The OP would have to manage that first.
That seems to work for all apps except the TV app. That still knows i am not where i am trying to say i am!
Ah yes you’re right. But there’s other ways to test to see if the VPN is working at all. One way would be to sign into Amazon prime with the VPN on another country and seeing if you get a message saying ‘are you traveling abroad?’
I only tried it once but Netflix immediately switched over to UK content upon launching VPN. No need to download new app, modify user account, etc.
Gah, Amazon. I’ve tried it multiple times while actually abroad, and it’s impenetrable.
It won’t do that if you try to download UK-only apps like ITVx (as was suggested). Netflix is a global app.
Yeah it is. But the purpose would be to see if the VPN was actually working. Getting that Amazon message would show that it was working. The same thing should happen with HBO Hulu etc.
Right. I was just pointing out that Netflix is perhaps a better option for testing basic VPN functionality rather than installing apps from other regions.
I was just having a whine. I tried everything including just watching on my laptop as opposed to the Fire Stick. But they always know. Even the BBC is easier to crack.