Why can't I share iPhone location?

Can you please specify what steps have you already taken and from which app you are sharing location. Make sure that Location Services are enabled on your iPhone and for these specific apps that you're trying to share your location with. For this go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and here ensure that it's turned on. 

From here scroll down to see a list of apps and make sure that the relevant app is set to "While Using the App" or "Always," depending on your preference. A force restart can also help in fixing this issue: just press volume up, then down( make sure to quickly release them one pressed ), then hold the side button until screen shuts down and power back with the apple logo. If you are still facing the issue, let me know

[Edited by Moderator]

I was struggling with this for a while, but I finally figured it out. If you have recently updated your device and have not accepted the new terms and conditions, your location sharing will not work.

To fix this, open your Settings app, tap on your name, and check if Find My, Media & Purchases, or Sign in with Apple is grayed out. If they are, it means you need to accept the new terms and conditions.

Once I accepted them, everything was back to normal and nothing was grayed out anymore. I was able to turn on Find My iPhone and share my location without any issues.

You can also go to Settings, tap your name, and check if anything is grayed out. If so, accepting the latest terms and conditions should resolve the issue.

It took me about an hour to figure this out, so I wanted to share in case it helps someone else avoid the same frustration.

Hope this helps!

Erik

Jrd101drj7191 Said:

"I can’t share location what do I do?: Well it doesn’t let me do anything I just can’t share location at all I tried everything and nothing works"

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Getting Locations to be Sharable:

Remove Screen Time Restrictions:

See if there are any restrictions that you created. You would have used Screen Time for this.

1. Go here: Use Parental Controls on your Child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
2. Scroll to: Allow changes to privacy settings
3. As it Reads: "Share My Location: Lock the settings for location sharing in Messages and Find My Friends"

Anyone who is still having issues with sharing your location, what worked for me was signing out of iCloud on my iPhone and then logging back in. Once this is done, make sure to reboot your phone. Power it up and navigate to Find My and give it a go.

Settings > Tap on your name > Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Sign out.

this happened to me, says sharing location is unavailable. all i did was go to my apple id and turned on my "find my network" after that was turned on i was able to send my loaction.

go to settings> apple id> click on where it says this "iphone 14" (i have the 14 yours might say otherwise!!) > find my iphone> click find my network and ur all set!! heres pictures to help you out!!!

make sure you sign in to your iCloud. If you are not signed into your iCloud account, you won’t be able to share your location.

go to settings- icloud- allow while using app-ensure you are signed in and allowed to using the app.

Go to settings and tap on your name and scroll all the way to the bottom and tap sign out. This will sign you out of iCloud. You will have the option to save anything to your phone. Then after you sign out, sign back in with your Apple ID. Reboot your phone first. Then try sharing your location.

I have been having problems sharing my location since an update - finally I realised I had to accept the latest terms and conditions and once I did this it worked for me.

zamoran Said:

"When I went and restarted my location & privacy settings it still won’t let me share my location"

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Check your Screen Time Restrictions. See my above reply.

Turning on Find My Network did the trick. Works fine now!

Another way to share your location is by going into Contacts, selecting the person you wish to share your location, scroll down to the end and select "Share My Location".

I tried to request and ask but it didn’t work and when I reset the location it still didn’t work and I tried restarting my phone nothing worked.

The top suggestion from this thread Location sharing not working on my iPhone - Apple Community of properly setting up iPhone worked for me before it say unavailable try again later.

if you're experiencing issues with sharing your location on your iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 16, you might want to try the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Make sure that Location Services are enabled on your iPhone and for the specific apps that you're trying to share your location with. You can do this by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and ensuring that it's turned on. Scroll down to see a list of apps and make sure that the relevant app is set to "While Using the App" or "Always," depending on your preference.
2. If you're trying to share your location through a specific app, make sure that the app has permission to access your location. You can do this by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and selecting the app in question. Choose the appropriate location access setting.
3. Resetting your location and privacy settings can help resolve issues. To do this, go to Settings > General > Transfer & Reset > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy. Keep in mind that this will reset all location and privacy settings, so you'll need to go through them again after the reset.
4. Sometimes, a simple restart can resolve temporary software glitches. Turn off your iPhone, wait for a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
   1. Restart the device. That's it.
   2. Still not solved --> Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
5. If the issue persists, you can try resetting all settings on your iPhone. This will not erase your data but will reset all personalized settings to their default values. Go to Settings > General > Transfer & Reset > Reset > Reset All Settings and confirm the action. Note that you will need to reconfigure your settings afterward. All settings—including network settings, the keyboard dictionary, the Home screen layout, location settings, privacy settings, and Apple Pay cards—are removed or reset to their defaults. No data or media are deleted.
   1. Reset All Settings: Return iPhone settings to their defaults - Apple Support:- Return iPhone settings to their defaults
   2. You can return settings to their defaults without erasing your content.
   3. If you want to save your settings, back up your iPhone before returning them to their defaults. For example, if you’re trying to solve a problem but returning settings to their defaults doesn’t help, you might want to restore your previous settings from a backup.
6. Make sure you have the latest updates installed.
   1. Update Over-the-Air (OTA) —> Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support (IN)
   2. Update using iTunes/Finder —> Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (IN)

If none of the above steps resolve the issue, it is recommended to reach out to Apple Support or visit an authorized service center for further assistance. They can provide specific guidance based on your device model and iOS version.

If someone's location isn't sharing in iMessage when you click on their contact name even though they are sharing their location with you, go in and edit their contact and make a change and save it and then see if it starts working.

After getting a new iphone my spouse's location wasn't visible in imessage on the new phone but was still visible in imessage on the old phone. I went into the Find My app and I could see her location but even after turning location sharing on and off multiple times it still would not show her location in imessage.

Going into the contacts and making an edit to her contact card fixed this issue. There are a ton of posts about this issue on the forums but most of them are locked so I'm leaving this here in hopes that it helps a few folks.