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Child's physical location tied to iPad rather than Apple Watch

My son's location device was set to his iPad since that was the only Apple device he had.


We recently got him an Apple Watch that I setup through the family routine under my phone. When I look on "Find My" for him as part of my family, the location is still tied to the iPad rather than the watch. I can find each device independently just fine.... it's just that it looks like my son is home while his watch is at school.


For some reason, I cannot find any option on the watch to select "this device" for sharing location to disable it from the iPad.


Do I have to completely remove the iPad from my son's iCloud entirely and set up the watch as new? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Apple Watch Series 5

Posted on Aug 14, 2023 3:04 PM

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Was able to solve this by turning off Find My on the iPad and signing out (I did not do a factory reset) so it was no longer associate with his account. I then reset the Apple Watch so that there were no devices tied to my son's iCloud account.


From there, I set the Apple Watch back up as a Family watch tied to my son's iCloud account. Since that was the only device, it set his physical location to his Apple Watch as desired.


Lastly, I signed back into the iPad with my son's iCloud account it and all is well! My son's location is still mapped to the watch.

Posted on Aug 15, 2023 7:34 AM

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Question marked as Best answer

Aug 15, 2023 7:34 AM in response to Ade82

Was able to solve this by turning off Find My on the iPad and signing out (I did not do a factory reset) so it was no longer associate with his account. I then reset the Apple Watch so that there were no devices tied to my son's iCloud account.


From there, I set the Apple Watch back up as a Family watch tied to my son's iCloud account. Since that was the only device, it set his physical location to his Apple Watch as desired.


Lastly, I signed back into the iPad with my son's iCloud account it and all is well! My son's location is still mapped to the watch.

Child's physical location tied to iPad rather than Apple Watch

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