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Find my Friends doesn't work after IOS 7 update

We use find my friends for our entire family to monitor kids locations, etc. Since updating to IOS 7, one of the phones only shows it's location sporadically - otherwise says location not available.


Have verified location services are turned on, nothing is blocked, etc.


This phone was updated to IOS 7 over wifi (vs. through iTunes) - one other phone had some minor (unrelated) issues after updating over wifi that were resolved by doing a factory reset & updating from iTunes - wondering if that could be cause of the issue here as well. Anyone else encountering issues with FMF?

iPhone 5, iOS 7

Posted on Sep 20, 2013 9:15 AM

166 replies

Sep 22, 2013 4:33 PM in response to Community User

Same problem here. When the app is killed, my contacts cannot see my location anymore. It was definitely not the case with old iOS. It's not as useful now, definitely needs to be fixed ASAP. Users got used to FmF working in any case, killed or not killed and that's how it should be.


See my similar post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5353991


Will definitely send feedback to Apple

Sep 22, 2013 4:35 PM in response to Community User

I did not upgrade but my kids did...I am having the same problems and did most everything everyone else has done. This glitch is frustrating because I use it for my kids to see where they are on the road to avoid texting/calling while driving. I do have their apple password and did sign in to their find my iPhone to see their location until this is fixed. When I did this and then went back to FMF it did show their location. I hope they fix this ASAP!

Sep 22, 2013 7:21 PM in response to paul.go

paul.go wrote:


Apple did update their help section on the app. I found this trying to figure out why my Find Friends wasn't working after the update to iOS 7.


"Find My Friends is turned on in Background App Refresh (in Settings > General in iOS 7). When Background App Refresh is turned off, Find My Friends can’t use Location Services in the background. If Background App Refresh is turned on, but you quit Find My Friends via the multitasking interface, location updates won’t be sent to your friends until you open the app again."


Hopefully Apple will update this as it was not this way prior to iOS 7. Killing the app didn't prevent your location from updating in iOS 6 as I constantly killed the apps running in the background and never had this problem till the update. Hope this helps! Just make sure to not kill the app as of now and to tell everyone you follow not to kill their app and locations will continue to refresh. Otherwise it won't update locations till the app is opened again.


Sudden changes like this draw me closer to Android.


I always closed all my apps from the multitasking screen, and this was never an issue with Find my Friends. Going by the extract from Find my Friends help section, this is an intended change. Knowing Apple, it will be perminant too.

Sep 23, 2013 9:34 AM in response to Community User

I am having the same issue as everyone else.


The workaround of having the app running all the time is unacceptable. That would mean i would have to constantly check all my family members phones to make sure its running. If they accidently or intentionally kill the app, i would have to call/msg and ask them to run it again? That completely defeats the purpose!


unfortunately with ios7 update this app has become useless

Find my Friends doesn't work after IOS 7 update

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