The built-in macOS Weather app is highly convenient, offering detailed forecasts and radar maps right on your desktop. To provide local forecasts instantly, the app constantly requests your Mac’s precise geographical location using Apple’s Location Services. While this makes the app frictionless to use, some users prefer to minimise background location tracking for privacy reasons, or simply to reduce the number of apps constantly pinging their system’s location API. If you prefer to manually enter the cities you want to track, you can completely block the Weather app from accessing your location.
How to Disable Location Tracking for Weather
You can revoke the Weather app’s location privileges through the main Privacy & Security settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Select System Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Privacy & Security.
- In the main window, click on the very first option at the top: Location Services.
- You will see a list of every app installed on your Mac that has requested location access. Scroll down this list until you find Weather.
- To the right of the Weather app, you will see a toggle switch. Click the switch to turn it Off (the switch will turn from green/blue to grey).
- macOS may prompt you to enter your administrator password or use Touch ID to confirm this privacy change.
The Weather app will no longer be able to track where your Mac is currently located. When you open the app, you will need to use the search bar in the top right corner to manually add your city to the sidebar.