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'Find My Friends' app is invisible on my iPhone 5S, iOS8

Hello, there.

I made my Apple ID in U.S. when I was in university, and at that time I registered my friends who used iPhone series to 'Find my friends' app.

And now I'm in South Korea for graduate school. I bought iPhone 5S last year and updated to iOS8.

At the update, I completely erase every data in my phone and installed iOS8, because I wanted to make my phone looked as new.

And today, I suddenly remembered I can see where my friends are through 'Find my Friends' app.

So I downloaded that app and boom, app wasn't appear on my iPhone.

Funny thing is that in Appstore, the icon shows 'Open' button, so when I touch it, I can open the app.

But the App doesn't appear on the screen, so I cannot run that app in normal way.

Why does it happen on my iPhone?

Is this situation is correct?

Other people's iPhones with iOS8 also hide 'Find my Friends' app and just can access through Appstore?



Well, if my situation happens only to me, my guess is this.

In S.Korea, there is a law that only companies that have location data centre in Korea can provide gps service legally.

So in S.Korea Appstore, there is no Find my Friends app in Appstore.

But as I said, I'm using U.S. store account, so downloadable or not doesn't matter.

So my friends cannot see me because Apple cannot tracks users in Korea.

(FYI, because of this, Korean users cannot use Find my iPhone service. They only can make ringing sound to notify it's there or lock their phone through that app. Poor Koreans..)

With those info, my conclusion is that Apple doesn't allow 'Find my Friends' app exists on Korean iPhone...

In other words, Apple did something to Korean iPhone model to hide 'Find my Friends' service because anyway they cannot provide the location in Korea.



What do you think?

Again, am I only one who cannot see Find my Friends app on the phone?

Or it's normal because my phone is for Korea ..?



Thank you.

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1, model for Korea

Posted on Oct 25, 2014 10:02 AM

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Posted on Nov 2, 2015 10:45 AM

Hi ustinovahn,

Thanks for your post. I have exactly the same problem. It has disappeared from the screen. I now have a US store account and a German store account both of which have Find My Friends app. I can download the app from there but I can only open it through the AppStore. For some reason, the app icon never appears on the screen.

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Question marked as Best reply

Nov 2, 2015 10:45 AM in response to ustinovahn

Hi ustinovahn,

Thanks for your post. I have exactly the same problem. It has disappeared from the screen. I now have a US store account and a German store account both of which have Find My Friends app. I can download the app from there but I can only open it through the AppStore. For some reason, the app icon never appears on the screen.

Dec 14, 2015 3:22 PM in response to ustinovahn

It does not work in Korea. I am on the Canadian App store and have it on my phone. When I am in Korea, or the person who is sharing his/her location with me is in Korea, it will say "Location not available". Also, if you're in Korea and using the app, you also will not be able to see the location of people in other parts of the world. The full functionality is basically blocked in Korea.

'Find My Friends' app is invisible on my iPhone 5S, iOS8

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