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ios 13

how can you refresh a device’s location in find my iphone ios 13

iPhone XS

Posted on Sep 21, 2019 8:10 PM

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Posted on Sep 21, 2019 8:15 PM

A devices location is real time if it is powered on and connected to a network. There isn't specifically a refresh button. If the device's location changes, it will update automatically. If a device is offline and not powered on, it's last known location will be shown for 24 hours. After that, it won't show up.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 21, 2019 8:15 PM in response to Angelinat02

A devices location is real time if it is powered on and connected to a network. There isn't specifically a refresh button. If the device's location changes, it will update automatically. If a device is offline and not powered on, it's last known location will be shown for 24 hours. After that, it won't show up.

Sep 22, 2019 3:27 PM in response to lobsterghost1

This isn’t completely accurate, refresh used to be an option under Find My iPhone and it appears its no longer an option (I can’t find it), I was tracking one of my devices for which I had known the location changed and knew the device had solid network coverage and it did not update for over 15 minutes. I tried a bunch of options and nothing would force a refresh, I finally closed the the “Find My” app and re-launched and that finally triggered a refresh. Not very intuitive and a loss of a regularly used function in the app.

Oct 31, 2019 4:32 AM in response to Angelinat02

Within iOS 13, the "Find Friends" and "Find iPhone" apps have been merged.


Prior to iOS 13, I rarely used the "Find Friends" App, as it rarely really seemed to update the location of the various i* devices that I have, instead I used the "Find iPhone" which appeared to work almost in realtime - so was regularly using that to track the whereabouts of my Kids.


Now, the newly merged iOS 13 version - would appear to be just like the old "Find Friends" App - and does not update the device location frequently.


One reason for this, I suspect could be a power-saving feature upon the devices sharing their location. Though a thorough investigation to determining what exactly is blocking the sharing may take too long - it'd probably be a lot quicker to get Apple's response.


A simple experiment - for example, with an iPad using (iOS13 too), in "Sleep/Power-saving" mode (darked screen), and It's last updated location shown as 2 hours prior ; using the web version of "Find my iPhone" (https://www.icloud.com/find/), which has a Refresh icon alongside the device symbol, the location would not update until I brought the iPad device out of sleep, and unlocked its screen. Thereafter, however, without the device being moved far, it's refreshed location time would not be updated... (even though at 16 minutes an "Old location" banner was shown in Red above the device, and didnt disappear until I restarted by "Find My" app upon my iPhone).


For a moving device, the Refresh rate appears to be inconsistent, maybe the device has to be actively in use for the location sharing to be active ?

ios 13

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