Q: Find my friends app not working

I can locate phones but not receive notification when friends arrive or leave geofenced regions.

The notify functionality has not been working for a while and it may have gone away after IOS7 was installed but I am not sure that it went away immediately after the original install - perhaps after 7.0.1.  I currently have IOS 7.0.3 (11B511) installed and notify still does not work. All of the switches seem to be set correctly but it just doesn't notify.

Update: I performed some experiments with a first generation iPad running IOS 5.1.1 and it no longer has geofencing functionality either.  So I am wondering what Apple did on the server side that is not working. Since the basic update rate for Find Friends is once per minute, the computational burden is relatively light whether it is done centrally or done at the handset. Does anybody know whether it s a pull system or a push implementation?

Geofencing notifications work sometimes. It seems the other one has to be loggend in.

From most of my friends I do not get any notifcations any more. But one friend has activated his iPhone PIN code so he stays logged in and from him I receive all notifications. When I log into Find my Friends my friends will get notifactions for 30mins until the app kicks me out.

But of course this is not how it should work...

Thanks for the insight.  Good clue.  First test passed (turned on PIN on two iPhone 5 devices which were not creating geofence notifications - first fence crossing generated a notification).  Will try it with a second device and watch for more notifications from the first one and see what happens.

What PIN are you referring to ?

Settings: Phone: SIM PIN: On: 1111 (or appropriate for your carrier if you haven't changed it): Done

The PASSCODE option, not SIM Pin. As it states when opening Find My Friends:

"If you don't have a passcode set on your iOS device, you will be prompted to enter your iCloud password every time you open Find My Friends and after 15 minutes of inactivity. You can set a passcode using Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Turn Passcode On to avoid having to enter your iCloud login information."

*The SIM pin wouldn't matter, as only SIM enabled devices (GSM/LTE) have SIM cards. Sprint and Verizon pre-iPhone 5 are CDMA only.  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1316

(Carriers don't recommend using the SIM pin option unless necessary, incorrect entering of a PIN will result in the permanent locking of your device, requiring a new SIM card.  If you see "enter PUK" STOP and contact your carrier, as this is a unique number that they must provide you. After 3 unsuccessful attempts your SIM card and all information stored on it is permanently locked and not retrievable!)

Are the other devices also Pre-iOS7?

I can only testify as to what I did and what I observed: all of my devices have (and have had since day one) a PASSCODE in use. They are all running IOS 7.  Geofencing was not working.

After I turned on the SIM PIN in two of them, FMF geofencing began to work again (it had worked just fine up to some point just after IOS 7 installation).

Turning on the SIM PIN seems to help but does not assure that FMF works the way it use to.  I now get (very) occasional geofence notifications but many of the boundaries that I have set up were crossed with no notice (ever). I wonder if it has to do with whether the device being polled is in use or not. I have not had the time to run a definitive test.

I have the same problem. i.e. geofence notifications are not working. I have three people I like to use this with. After the iOS 7 upgrades thier iPhones all eventually stopped sending mine notifications.

This is a valuable app to help keep our schedules and lives on track.

How do we get Apples attention?

Thank you.

Feedback goes to www.apple.com/feedback and click on the appropriate link. That is where they receive feedback. You will not receive a response, but that is what they read, not here.

Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix at this time. They are utilizing select active users to provide diagnostic data.

The issue currently is how iOS 7 handles location services while the app is in the background and if the app is closed or when a user is signed out of FmyF. A passcode on your iOS device is required to keep FmyF signed in. Without a passcode the app signs you out when placed in the background or closed. Also, if the app is accidentally or purposely closed, iOS 7 prohibits the app from using location services. When another person requests your location, it can provide it sense he request originated from another device and processed through Apple's servers not the device being located.

I believe the best remedy is to allow FmyF to use the M7 processor on the 5s, and to run as a system service that can be activated just like find my iPhone and similar.

For no apparent reason geofence notifications started again this afternoon. I do get notifications from all my friends regardless if they are signed in or have the app active. Most of them have the app closed and no passcode activated.

If the problem is really solved this was entirely on the server side...

I see the fix as it is now working fine for me too (at least notification of two successive geofence crossings in quick succession). Sounds like Apple finally realized that there was an issue that could be theirs.