Roseann913

Q: Find my friends app not working

All of a sudden Find my friends app is not working for me - it is only working when the other person signs in and it finds their location for that minute but once they get out of that app it shows their old location or says location unavailable.  Anyone kow why?

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 13, 2012 6:38 AM

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Q: Find my friends app not working

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  • by rabrack,

    rabrack rabrack Oct 10, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Chipkirby2
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Chipkirby2

    My family's are all working fine now. We have 2 iPhone 5S', 2 iPhone 4S' and 1 iPhone 5. All have "background refresh" turned OFF and completely quit the app (not running in the background). When you start the app it takes about 30 seconds to "find" your friends, but that's the way it worked before. We are all running the latest ios7.

     

    As a test on battery usage, I charged my 5S to 100% before bed, turned on Background Refresh and left FMF running in the background. In the morning it was down to 64%. With Background Refresh OFF and the app completely quit, 98%.

     

    I don't mind waiting 30 seconds to locate my friends if it saves that much battery.

  • by gradyr1953,

    gradyr1953 gradyr1953 Oct 10, 2013 6:00 PM in response to Roseann913
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 6:00 PM in response to Roseann913

    The app seems to be working now - mostly. I say "mostly" becuse the "Notify Me" feature still doesn't work for me - it accepts the request but never sends a notification.

     

    That said, I still have a bad taste in my mouth over how Apple handled this. To my knowledge, they never acknowledged the problem existed and never notified anyone when it was fixed - I found out because someone here posted that his was working again. That's no way to run a company, especially one that loves to brag "It just works!" I wouldn't have been nearly as unhappy if they had simply announced that there was a problem and that they were working on it.

  • by carmenol,

    carmenol carmenol Oct 10, 2013 6:24 PM in response to gradyr1953
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 6:24 PM in response to gradyr1953

    I am glad to hear that application is working for almost everybody....It still does not work for me.

  • by Chipkirby2,

    Chipkirby2 Chipkirby2 Oct 12, 2013 8:06 PM in response to ChrisJ4203
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2013 8:06 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

    DId you have a chance to see if your app if still working? Also wondering how it is working for everyone else.

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Oct 13, 2013 3:59 PM in response to Chipkirby2
    Level 9 (59,749 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 13, 2013 3:59 PM in response to Chipkirby2

    I'm actually going to have to try another test. My son got a 5S while I was out of town the other day, so I'm not sure what his setup is right now. I just tried to locate him, but I didn't get anything. That could be that he hasn't set it up yet either.  I'll try to get in touch with him after he gets out of classes tomorrow and see what we can do to test it.

  • by Chipkirby2,

    Chipkirby2 Chipkirby2 Oct 14, 2013 8:12 AM in response to ChrisJ4203
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2013 8:12 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

    Thanks - keep me posted.  Mine & my sons worked great from Sept 28 until Oct 12 and then just abruptly stopped working again??!!

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Oct 14, 2013 11:36 AM in response to Chipkirby2
    Level 9 (59,749 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 14, 2013 11:36 AM in response to Chipkirby2

    Chipkirby2,

     

    Well just spent the last 30 minutes texting and testing with my son. He had gotten a new phone over the weekend and did not activate the Find My Friends. After he did that, we started testing. First he logged in and activated and then located me. I was able to locate him. I then force closed my app and turned off Background App Refresh, waited 3 minutes and then asked him to locate me. It started out with my old location from about 4 minutes earlier, it refreshed and said my location with Now after it. He force closed his app, turned off Background App Refresh and then I waited 3 minutes. I logged into my app and it located him with the word Now afterwards. I waited another 10 minutes with his off and mine off as well. I then logged into mine and it located him within about 15 seconds and showed it as now. I then left it on for another 10 minutes, opened FMF and it showed him from 10 minutes earlier, then after about 20 seconds, turned to Now.

     

    I'm not sure if that really helps you, but that is the best I can do and the only way I know to test it.Good luck on yours.

  • by jboehm,

    jboehm jboehm Oct 14, 2013 11:05 PM in response to Roseann913
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2013 11:05 PM in response to Roseann913

    Really annoying problem with FMF in iOS7.  For notify to work. FMF must be open and you must have the Multitasking enabled. If you kill FMF notiy stops working.  THIS IS A BUG!!

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Oct 15, 2013 9:10 AM in response to jboehm
    Level 9 (59,749 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2013 9:10 AM in response to jboehm

    You might want to read my post just above yours. While it seemed that way in the beginning, it is not that way for me now. After making sure the app was closed on his end and removed from the multi tasking bar, and background app refresh turned off, I was able to open find my friends and locate my son. It is working just fine now.

  • by jboehm,

    jboehm jboehm Oct 15, 2013 11:11 AM in response to ChrisJ4203
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2013 11:11 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

    My comment was specifically on the 'notify' feature in FMF not the locate feature.  You can setup notification on your phone to send to others when you are arriving or leaving.  For example, my phone send a notification to my wife when I'm leaving work.  She find this really useful for planning the evening.

     

    Its this notify feature that is currently broken. FMF must be open and you must have the Multitasking enabled for this feature to work.

     

    FMF doesn't need to be open for the locate to work.  This was fixed in the last update.

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Oct 15, 2013 12:19 PM in response to jboehm
    Level 9 (59,749 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2013 12:19 PM in response to jboehm

    Alright, I misread your statement about notify. I have never used that, so that is why I did not notice what you were saying. I cannot comment on that, but I would suggest leaving feedback at Apple for them to be aware of this. Feedback is left at www.apple.com/feedback and then click on the appropriate link.

  • by jw154j,

    jw154j jw154j Oct 23, 2013 5:30 AM in response to Roseann913
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 5:30 AM in response to Roseann913

    There is a known issue regarding the geofencing not notifying when a friend leaves or arrives a designated area. The locating of people is working as long as they have already accepted your friend request. This is true for other geofences apps like Reminders.

     

    One work around for the Reminders app is to "Reset Location and Privacy" in the settings menu (General>Reset).

    Once powered back on, DO NOT OPEN the reminder app. Ask Siri to remind you about something like , DO NOT OPEN THE APP. Siri will say can't be done until you hit settings and authorize that app for location services. Do that, then you call back Siri and ask her again to remind you something. AS LONG YOU INTERACT WITH SIRI ONLY and don't open

    The app,never   it will work fine. If the app gets opened at all, the process must be repeated. This, hopefully, will be fixed soon

  • by Capt__Mike,

    Capt__Mike Capt__Mike Oct 24, 2013 4:45 AM in response to Roseann913
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 4:45 AM in response to Roseann913

    I just got this working on my son's phone. On his phone in Find my Friends app Me / accounts, he had an extra account with his name on it that wasn't attached to an iPhone or iPad. Deleted that, put a check beside his iPhone and found him right away.

  • by jw154j,

    jw154j jw154j Oct 24, 2013 4:53 AM in response to Capt__Mike
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 4:53 AM in response to Capt__Mike

    If you have read the above information you'll see that the ability to locate someone has been working for some time now. The issue is the Geofencing (notifications) when someone arrives or leaves a specific location. That is the part that is under review currently.

  • by Capt__Mike,

    Capt__Mike Capt__Mike Oct 24, 2013 4:59 AM in response to jw154j
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 4:59 AM in response to jw154j

    I read the above information, and when I couldn't get the app locating a phone, I was lead to this discussion that didn't help with the random issue I was having with Find My Friends. So, just in case some of those other people out there that can't locate a phone are having the same issue, they now have a fix for it. Wish ya all the luck with your Geofencing!

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