Apple Maps doesn’t recognize my address as home (Japan)

[thewhitehart]

I live in Japan. My iPhone uses English as its primary language, and the region is set to the US.

Apple Maps gives a correct address for my residence. However, when I add my address to my Contact card as my home, either through Apple Maps or manually, Apple Maps won’t recognize it. It won’t appear as my home under Favorites, and clicking on it from my Contact card results in no matching location. It appears in the search results on Apple Maps too, but clicking on it there results in no matching location too.

This is problematic because when asking Siri for directions, I’m guided to my general neighborhood and not to my residence. It’s also problematic because location based Reminders don’t work when I’m actually at home.

I get the same results when writing the address in Japanese. I’ve exhausted all my ideas for fixing it. Has anyone run into the same or similar problems? Any advice?

I’d be interested to know if anyone in Japan has the same problem when their iPhone language and region are set to Japanese and Japan.

 

[profdraper]

Don't know about Japan, but in some parts of Australia is also a dog & should be avoided altogether, eg, according to Apple, these people don't exist at all, nor does their farming business:

Boutique blueberry farmers finally back on the map after Apple bungle

Laura Ridout hoped her blueberry farm would put the Scotsburn Hills on the map. Instead, Apple took her farm off it and it turns out she's not alone.

www.abc.net.au

"It's just bloody ridiculous. I feel helpless like I've been taken hostage," she said.
"I'm angry at the fact that some massive corporation has the right to essentially wipe me off the map like I don't matter. The Apple 'walled garden' eh? (similar to what they can't do properley with all of our personal photos for example). Perhaps they would be best off just staying in the US & don't do international at all if they can't be bothered to do it accurately?

More stories about this in Australia again:

Apple Maps wrongly lists restaurant 'permanently closed' which owner says has cost him thousands

When Chris Pyatt found out his small business had been listed as "permanently closed" on Apple Maps, with the pin in the wrong location, he realised he had a costly problem on his hands.

www.abc.net.au

 

[synth_si]

I live in Japan. My iPhone uses English as its primary language, and the region is set to the US.

Apple Maps gives a correct address for my residence. However, when I add my address to my Contact card as my home, either through Apple Maps or manually, Apple Maps won’t recognize it. It won’t appear as my home under Favorites, and clicking on it from my Contact card results in no matching location. It appears in the search results on Apple Maps too, but clicking on it there results in no matching location too.

This is problematic because when asking Siri for directions, I’m guided to my general neighborhood and not to my residence. It’s also problematic because location based Reminders don’t work when I’m actually at home.

I get the same results when writing the address in Japanese. I’ve exhausted all my ideas for fixing it. Has anyone run into the same or similar problems? Any advice?

I’d be interested to know if anyone in Japan has the same problem when their iPhone language and region are set to Japanese and Japan.

I found a solution to this today, coincidentally after reporting the issue to Apple the day before having lived with it for years.

In short: remove all Japanese characters from the address, and ensure the English address is in the 'correct' English-language format. That format looks like this example:

Postal Code: 123-1234
Prefecture: Tokyo | County/City: Chiyoda
Further Divisions: Otemachi 1-2-3 (note: it doesn't work if you reverse this, i.e. 1-2-3 Otemachi)
Further Divisions: <leave blank unless you need it>
Country: Japan

The problem is that Apple Maps populates English-format addresses with Japanese characters (like 1-Chōme) and also with the block and building numbers in the 'wrong' place that the English-language version of the address book apparently does not recognise.

It populates it like this: Chiyoda 1-Chōme 2-3 (note the ō in Chōme)
...instead of like this: 1-2-3 Chiyoda

I've logged this support case with Apple and provided the same information. Hopefully it gets fixed in a future update.

Side note: the iHerb app highlighted what was wrong with my address (the message said "use either English or Japanese characters" and when I changed it, my Contact Card was updated and the 'Home' shortcut on Apple Maps sprang into life). Thanks, iHerb developers, for a very helpful error message!