Find my IPhone constantly tracking on | iOS 14

My iPhone 11 Pro is constantly tracking my location for the Find My Iphone feature. It's the only setting that I have on and the only one that shows the purple sign, i.e, it's been used. It's like every 5 or 10 minutes, every time I see my phone, the arrow is there looking for my location.


Im on 14.3, clean update and I have been using iOS for 8 years. I have never had this problem, I have tried everything that I read online but this seems to be a bug, pretty annoying since it drains my battery much faster.


Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks!

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Dec 28, 2020 10:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 10, 2021 12:37 AM

I reported this issue numerous and I’m in numerous times to Apple support ever since iOS 14 was implementing my phone started doing the exact same thing Apple’s response is “ thanks for reporting the issue at hand and it is are finding that the find my iPhone feature is using location services as designed and there is no issue“.

Bull honky I say my phone never use location services or popped up the little purple icon in regards to the find my iPhone feature in iOS versions prior to 14 except for when the phone was turned on and when the battery got critically low other than that the find my iPhone service did not use GPS in between those times after iOS 14 the find my iPhone pops up the purple GPS and use in the status bar symbol every 3 to 6 minutes it’ll pop on stay on for about 30 seconds and then disappear 3 to 6 minutes later again with the indicator showing that GPS is in use and always it shows that the only thing that had you recently used location services was the find my iPhone feature. After Apple tells me that that defined my iPhone feature is functioning and using GPS as it should and it’s designed I resorted to turning off of the location services for the find my iPhone feature due to excessive battery drain and increasing privacy concerns that there is no reason for find my iPhone to need my location every three minutes just. That service should not need location data unless called for by me trying to locate my phone or for the storing of the last known location when the battery gets asked dreamily low just in case the phone is lost when the battery’s dead all times in between there’s no reason for that service to be collecting my location data every three or four minutes especially considering I have all sharing of my location turned off.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 10, 2021 12:37 AM in response to SnickZ.

I reported this issue numerous and I’m in numerous times to Apple support ever since iOS 14 was implementing my phone started doing the exact same thing Apple’s response is “ thanks for reporting the issue at hand and it is are finding that the find my iPhone feature is using location services as designed and there is no issue“.

Bull honky I say my phone never use location services or popped up the little purple icon in regards to the find my iPhone feature in iOS versions prior to 14 except for when the phone was turned on and when the battery got critically low other than that the find my iPhone service did not use GPS in between those times after iOS 14 the find my iPhone pops up the purple GPS and use in the status bar symbol every 3 to 6 minutes it’ll pop on stay on for about 30 seconds and then disappear 3 to 6 minutes later again with the indicator showing that GPS is in use and always it shows that the only thing that had you recently used location services was the find my iPhone feature. After Apple tells me that that defined my iPhone feature is functioning and using GPS as it should and it’s designed I resorted to turning off of the location services for the find my iPhone feature due to excessive battery drain and increasing privacy concerns that there is no reason for find my iPhone to need my location every three minutes just. That service should not need location data unless called for by me trying to locate my phone or for the storing of the last known location when the battery gets asked dreamily low just in case the phone is lost when the battery’s dead all times in between there’s no reason for that service to be collecting my location data every three or four minutes especially considering I have all sharing of my location turned off.

Jun 16, 2021 12:32 PM in response to ajoserc

Hi,

I think i have found the solution. Worked with 6s and 7 on ios 14.4

First turn off find my iphone from both privacy (location - system services) and icloud (settings - Me [top of the page]). Then Restart.

I used Safari on another device (maybe same device could work) and logged in icloud.com

I tried to find my location. Normally it didn’t find. Then from your iphone go to privacy location system services turn find my iphone On.

Try to find the location again but it won’t find.

From your iphone, go to icloud and activate find my iphone.

Now it will find your iphone as designed.

Log out icloud.com (safari) then use find my iphone feature without constant tracking bug.

See you


Feb 12, 2021 2:00 PM in response to ajoserc

i too have been having this same problem and i have yet to find a resolution anywhere. i have the iphone 11 256 (r)ed ios14.4.

i’ve followed the few fixes i’ve been able to locate (haha) and none of them have helped. my girlfiend has the same phone (not red) without the same issue. i bought the phones on the same day from the same store and they are on the same account.

i’ve been using iphones since the iphone3. you can’t tell me this is normal usage as i am not requesting fmi to activate. no one else has my itunes account password.

i tried turning off fmi in privacy for two days and my battery usage went from dead before i got home at the end of the day to average of 30% remaining when i went to bed. that’s a difference of about 5 hours without charging and the phone was still useable. i made no other changes for those two days and i did not alter the way i use my iphone.

what other inference can i make, other than the fact that sometime after i upgraded from ios13 to ios14 fmi, or something under the umbrella of it, is draining my battery?

Mar 1, 2021 9:18 AM in response to ajoserc

After a call with Apple support and there is nothing to do.

the solve of this issue is close find my iPhone and also close find my iPhone from setting then privacy then location services then system services and close find my iPhone.

then go to general then rest and rest location & privacy.

open system services and only open find my iPhone and from share my location open find my iPhone that’s all

Feb 18, 2021 9:20 AM in response to TucsonTech

Interesting that you have the red one as so do I and have exactly the same problem!

Of course I don’t want to turn find my iPhone when I go out and the solution they suggested only helped once. in case it helps you:

General>reset>reset network settings (it will reset the phone.. if that doesn’t work, try:

General>reset>Reset all settings (it’s slightly painful as you need to set your settings again, eg ringtone, privacy, etc.. but it doesn’t delete any content. hope it helps

Feb 19, 2021 7:03 AM in response to TucsonTech

When you open the Find My app on each phone, tap on “Me” and see if Share my Location is on. If you tap on People you can authorize others to track you. You can also go to Settings/[your name]/Find My where you an authorize family members to track you. If either these settings are on and there are others tracking you or you them the Find My app will need to be active much more frequently.

Apr 28, 2021 8:27 AM in response to BR4DOKYBrazil

As I explained earlier in this thread, there are additional features in Find My in iOS 14, including reporting the last known location, and the ability to find a lost phone through Bluetooth connections with other nearby Apple devices, so-called “crowdsourced” finding. But for these to work the phone must know its location even if it hasn’t been queried. That’s why it uses location services more often. There is no downside to this, because Location Services uses no energy for all practical purposes.


You have now learned the downside of turning off Find My; not only can’t you find it, but you also can’t remotely erase it or prevent a thief from using the phone.


And not having any other Apple devices is irrelevant; you can track your phone with any device that has a web browser (other smart phone, Mac, Windows PC, even a Linux PC, by going to https://icloud.com/find.



Feb 18, 2021 9:17 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Originally the find my iPhone function only recorded location when in use by you with your Apple ID or when your battery got critically low so it had a store location before died in case you lost it after 14.2 it all changed and now it calls for location every three minutes regardless as long as the phones on. I had an iPhone 8 114.2 rolled out and it went from never looking for a location to always searching for location by the find my iPhone punctured upgraded phones to an iPhone 12 edit does the exact same thing now also running well currently running 14.4 and it still is not a solved issue. The real bothersome fact about it is that not every iPhone user running 14.2 or above is having this issue just certain users really makes you think Apple is near the subtracting certain individuals for unknown reasons.

Apr 28, 2021 8:19 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I'm sorry about my poor English. It's not "he," it's "it", my device.


I disable the "Find My Network", since I don't have another Apple device besides the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I can't understand why Find My iPhone was requesting my location at all times instead of being as it used to be: only if I asked for the location of my device that it would access GPS.

Feb 18, 2021 5:18 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I am having the same issue. @Lawrence the point hes trying to make is this was not an issue in previous versions of iOS. I would rarely see the location icon, but in iOS 14, it appears almost every time I unlock my iPhone and it is actively tracking way more than it used to. This is a massive privacy issue. The only fix I have found is to completely turn find my iphone off which is ridiculous.

Feb 18, 2021 7:36 AM in response to tylerfromwaynesville

tylerfromwaynesville wrote:

I understand that, but in iOS 13, it only turned tracking on when you opened the Find my iPhone app or logged into find my iPhone via web browser. It didn't turn on GPS tracking every time you unlocked your phone. Thats the point were trying to make.

That is not correct. As I explained, Find My will report the last time the phone was seen, even if it is currently offline. Even if no one used Find My for weeks, the phone will report its last location when you open Find My.


And the other point is that it is NOT a privacy issue, because only you (and people you’ve authorized) can see your location.

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Find my IPhone constantly tracking on | iOS 14

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