Location sharing not working after iOS 18 update on my iPhone 13 Pro Max

Ios18 has enormous issues with location sharing. Location frequently gets stuck- for days if not picked up. Only a hard restart fixes it. Not what you expect from premium products but sadly what we are coming to expect from a company which doesn’t seem to care about bug ridden software updates.

Are you a the latest version of iOS 18? that is iOS 18.1.1 If you're not on that version, you might want to update to that version to see if the issues persist

iOS 18, particularly 18.2 is an absolute dumpster-fire.

Location sharing across all mutually shared parties updates nightly, sometimes multiple times in a day. Meaning each of us continues to get updated via iMessage that location sharing has 'started' and 'stopped'. Bluetooth is a complete nightmare. Adding devices often prompts an order to "turn on bluetooth" but the deeplink to the app navs to a screen where Bluetooth isn't an app permission that can be toggled on or off - or even available. Updating bluetooth settings in Privacy results in a temporary fix, but is often undone at night - causing devices like Oura ring, Apple Watch, Sonos speakers (or pretty much everything else) to lose connection to the iPhone overnight.

All of the above seem to be fixed with soft and hard resets, or power-down power-up of the iPhone. But the fact that this is now a daily routine is ridiculous - especially on a brand new iPhone 16 Pro.

This entire release seems weeks if not months away from being stable and has created a nightmare of an experience - particularly around the holidays - for a family of iPhone users that have been perpetually frustrated with using bluetooth enabled gifts that should easily connect. Big time fail.

I’m having this issue as well. I’ve tried all the standard fixes, like resharing and yes all my apps are up to date and so is my ios.but it’s like there’s a lag. I can see a location at times but it won’t update consistently. Like if I’m trying to find my kid and I check his location, it’ll show me where he was 2 hours ago.

What frustrates me most is Apple don’t care. There is no recourse, no fix, no acknowledgement- just insulting “are you running the right update” etc when concern is raised. On top of this Vodafone have taken out all the 3G masts in our town not realising they were taking all the strain and whilst my husband has 5G here on O2 I barely have a signal at all 😡 . We are fleeced by these products which don’t work.

Update:

it’s actually getting progressively worse.

Bluetooth tower fan by Dreo, just randomly lost connection last night and won’t reconnect - despite reinstalling app and following instructions.

Sonos has turned into a horror show. Not the most cooperative app and experience to begin with but is effectively operating on its own plan now - just allowing access to certain speakers at certain times.

Instagram: literally logging in and re-verifying my account once a day. Hey Apple - it’s Instagram! How in the heck do you release an OS that doesn’t work with Instagram?!? Abysmally bad engineering and QAn

oh, and sleep focus just decided to arbitrarily turn itself off in the middle of the night - so I experienced the unbridled joy of being woken up at 3am - just because my phone is garbage.

seriously thinking about switching back to an old iPhone 12 mini I use as a camera for zoom and running nothing newer than iOS 17.

Apple should be ashamed of itself.

Update:

it’s actually getting progressively worse.

Bluetooth tower fan by Dreo, just randomly lost connection last night and won’t reconnect - despite reinstalling app and following instructions.

Sonos has turned into a horror show. Not the most cooperative app and experience to begin with but is effectively operating on its own plan now - just allowing access to certain speakers at certain times.

Instagram: literally logging in and re-verifying my account once a day. Hey Apple - it’s Instagram! How in the heck do you release an OS that doesn’t work with Instagram?!? Abysmally bad engineering and QAn

oh, and sleep focus just decided to arbitrarily turn itself off in the middle of the night - so I experienced the unbridled joy of being woken up at 3am - just because my phone is garbage.

seriously thinking about switching back to an old iPhone 12 mini I use as a camera for zoom and running nothing newer than iOS 17.

Apple should be ashamed of itself.