Find my iPhone not updating location. Lost mode pending. I think it is is somewhere in my house or very nearby.

Scenario: You don't where your phone is. It's somewhere inside the house, by the car, on the porch, but you can't find it. You open Find My iPhone for some assistance. The Find My iPhone app isn't indicating that your phone is is offline (although you know it has network capabilities since it's ringing when you call it from another phone) which is making your Find My iPhone features useless. Where tf is my phone and WHY IS FIND MY IPHONE NOT DOING ITS ONLY JOB?!

I wanted to potentially help someone if some or all of the following is true:

Find My iPhone won't update the phone's location

Never ending "loading/syncing indicator" or location "not found"

Sound says "playing" (but isn't) or is "pending" or "connecting"

Lost mode is pending (cant be activated)

Phone is ringing when called, but isn't triggering location to update

You know the general area within which you've lost track of your phone

If you've used your phone's hotspot to get another device online, get on that device and try to connect to your phone's hotspot. If the phone is nearby, it should trigger your phone's erroneous "offline status" to stop holding network capabilities hostage. If connection is successful, your sound will play. If it doesn't, try playing the sound again from wherever you are accessing Find My iPhone.

This just saved my life and I couldn't find any other worthwhile troubleshooting for my lost "offline" phone. Thought I would share.