Q: Find my Friends doesn't work after IOS 7 update

Hi,

Same here ... We have four iPhones here, and only two (one is 4 and another one is 5) are working like before. iOS7 are installed on all them.

I have pretty sure that this problem is more a bug in iOS7 or maybe an incompatibility of application in iOS7.

Unfortunately, we need to wait. :-( There are too many bugs in iOS7.

E.F.

Same here.  As long as the app is open, family and friends can still find me and I can find them.  Hope this gets fixed.  I also sent in a bug report.

I just realized it only works when the person you're looking for is connected to wifi, if he's on cellular data his location appears as not available. I checked the Settings on the other person's phone and the option to use celluar data for Find Friends is on...

This is happening to me too.  I reset my son's phone and set it up as a brand new phone.  It still did not fix anything.  I submitted a bug report, and suggest others do the same... enough noise will get this fixed (soon hopefully)

Same here.  Bottom line, it will work if the app is running in the background.  If you close the app, it won't work.  So, until they fix it, the app needs to remain open.  Not optimal!

I was just reading all of the great recent reviews... On August 22nd a lady posted that she was experiencing the same problems that most of us are experiencing now. Find My Friends had an update on Aug. 22nd think that's a coincidence?  I'm really hoping its an easy fix such as location request permissions. This app is a deal breaker for me as my whole family uses this app for various different reasons. Some are for a peace of mind others are for security reasons. I got my grandmother an iPhone just so I would know where she is. She has recently been diagnosed with mild dementia. She has called me before lost and I can open the app and see where she is and drive to her or tell her where to go. If FMF doesn't get fixed I'll have to go elsewhere.

SeptemberC,

the FMF app was broken during the developer previews program (the beta testing phase from june to september). So it's related to that update, but among many other updates which were buggy.

May I recommend Life360, an app which will emulate FMF's basic functionalities? I had to use this during the summer, on my beta iOS 7, to link with my wife's iOS 6 through FMF.

Life360 requires a bit of tweaking a first, and needs to be run in the background if I remember correctly, but it does both what FMF does, *and* Google Latitude (now retired, much to my irritation).

The free version should be enough for you and your significant others such as your grandmother. Make sure to test the settings you have running on it before leaving her with the app on the phone.

FYI, I (prematurely) deleted Life360 only *because* I thought that the official release of iOS 7 would re-enable a fully functional FMF. How wrong I was...

Peace out.

I just updated to 7.0.2 for my iPhone 5 this morning in Thailand. Unfortunately, the problem still here. New ios 7 version not fix this issue.

I had the same problems with friends running the beta version of iOS7, and the problem persists with the release version. 

It seems like Life360 doesn't offer any advantage over the broken FMF if you have to keep it running in the background all the time. FMF already works if you accept that limitation.

Hello Michael,

I agree with you, but with the caveat that I'm not quite convinced that FMF works if left open in the background.

In my experience, if and when you switch from wifi to cellular or the other way around, a few times in the day, it won't work anyways on one end or the other (or both). I may be wrong, I will acquire more data points :-)

POSSIBLE SOLUTION

(or at least something that some people may have overlooked)

In iOS 7, if Find My Friends is working for you WHEN THE APP IS RUNNING, i.e. you can see the Locations of family members and they can see you as long as everyone has the App running, BUT it doesn't work once the App is closed (or wasn't launched since the last restart,) then check the following:

Make sure the app is listed in Background App Refresh under Settings > General ... In my case the FMF App was NOT listed there.  I chatted at length with an Apple Support Rep trying various things (reboots, Airplane Mode on and off, etc.)  She was unable to explain to me how Apps qualify to show up in that list, or how to get an App onto the list.  What finally worked for me was DELETING the Find My Friends App and then reinstalling it from the App Store (Purchases.)  It then showed up in the Background App Refresh List, I confirmed it was turned On, and FMF instantly started working as expected!   I was afraid I would have to re-enter Follower information or re-send Invitations to Friends after reinstalling, but those settings were retained.

Note: I also happened to update to iOS 7.0.2 earlier today, so I'm not sure if that mattered or not.

Find My Friends also MUST be listed under Settings > Privacy > Location Services, and must be turned On, obviously. 

When upgrading an iPhone there are lots of things to do, so it's easy to answer a screen prompt about Location Services or Background App Refresh the "incorrect" way (at least incorrect with respect to Find My Friends working properly.)  Sometimes it's not easy to go back and find the specific Setting where that function is adjusted...

I hope this information helps other families get FMF working for their devices.  Ours are all now working reliably.

I'm sorry, but to clarify, are you saying that you can see family members even if they DON'T have the FMF app running in background? If not then this really doesn't asnwer the complaint we all have. Previously FMF sent location updates to your followers even if you didnt have it running in the background.

Correct.  I can see family members even if they DON'T have the FMF app running.  It does obviously have to be run once and set up.  I tested this after a reboot of iPhone A, nothing was launched.  Other iPhones could still see A's location in FMF.

Thank you, but I've tried and checked all of these things you mention. I even had an Apple rep on the phone with me as we checked and rechecked every single option. His last answer was to wipe out the phone completely and do a reset as a new install.

We haven't tried 7.02 yet though.

Has this fixed the problem for anyone here?