> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.msportal.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Find a Device by Its Approximate IP Location

> Use a device’s reported external IP address to view its approximate location and open it on a map

MSPortal can estimate where a device connects to the internet by looking up the external IP address reported by its integration. This is useful for confirming that a device appears to be at an expected office or identifying a connection that deserves further investigation.

<Warning>
  IP location is an estimate of the internet exit point. It is not the device's GPS position, street address, or proof of where a person is located.
</Warning>

## Prerequisites

Before looking up a device location, ensure that:

* You can access the **Devices** module and the device's company
* The device was synced from an integration that reports an external IP address
* The IP location service is available in your MSPortal environment
* Your portal has active billing for new lookups

You do not need to enter a geolocation API key as a portal user. The lookup service is configured centrally for your MSPortal environment.

## Find an approximate location

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Devices">
    Select **Devices** from the sidebar.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the device details">
    Select the device you want to investigate, then open its **Overview** tab.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the external IP">
    Find the **IP location** section. Review **External IP** and **IP observed** to confirm which address will be checked and when the integration last reported it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run the lookup">
    Select **Find approximate location**. MSPortal displays the available city, region, country, and accuracy radius. Some fields may be unavailable. If a cached result is already shown, you can open the map immediately.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the map">
    Select **Open map** to view this device's approximate coordinates in a new OpenStreetMap tab. This opens a single location, not a grouped map of your device fleet.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Compare **IP observed** with **Last checked**. The first tells you when the integration reported the address; the second tells you when that address was geolocated.
</Tip>

## Check a location again

MSPortal reuses recent results to avoid unnecessary external lookups. If you have permission to manage devices, **Check again** requests a fresh lookup, subject to a short cooldown that prevents repeated requests for the same IP.

Users without device-management permission can also select **Check again**, but their check reuses the cached result until it becomes eligible for refresh. It does not force a new provider lookup.

If another lookup is already running for the same IP, wait briefly and select **Check again** to retrieve its result.

## When no external IP is available

The **IP location** section displays a message when no external IP has been reported. In that case:

1. Confirm the device's integration is connected and syncing successfully.
2. Check whether the source platform reports an external or public IP for that device.
3. Allow the next device sync to complete, then reopen the device details.

MSPortal ignores private, reserved, malformed, and network-range addresses because they cannot provide a meaningful public location.

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="No external IP has been reported">
    The connected source has not supplied a usable public IP. Check the integration sync and the device record in the source platform.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="No approximate location is available">
    The external IP is valid, but the location provider has no coordinate result for it. This can occur with new address ranges, privacy-managed ranges, or some network providers. Try again later.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The location service is temporarily unavailable">
    Wait a few minutes and try again. MSPortal temporarily delays retries after provider or network errors so one failure does not create repeated requests.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The map shows the wrong city">
    IP geolocation can identify an ISP gateway, VPN endpoint, mobile carrier exit, or nearby network hub instead of the device's physical location. Use the accuracy radius and corroborate the result with other device information.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related resources

* [Understand Device IP Location Results](/user-guides/devices/ip-location-accuracy-and-privacy)
* [Devices](/user-guides/devices/index)
* [Import Devices](/user-guides/integrations/import-devices)