Find Friends/Location Sharing jumps around all the time!!! Confused...

How come on my iphone 7+ my find riends jumps around all the time? I will hit locate on my son it will show his location then a minute or two later it changes his location to 10 miles away?? Its always the 4 same locations it jumps around too!!! It's mainly when he is at school it shows him at different locations. He says he is at school. How is he at one location one minute then 10 miles back at school a few minutes later??

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10.0.3

Posted on Nov 3, 2016 1:21 AM

Reply
5 replies

Nov 3, 2016 7:18 PM in response to foreverabeyergirl

Hello foreverabeyergirl,

Thanks for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. I understand that shared locations in the Find My Friends app on your iPhone is showing different locations for the same person within minutes. It's important to ensure the apps that you depend on are working correctly and I can look into this with you.

First I'd like you to work through the steps below and test to see if there is a change in the location accuracy within the app:

  1. Make sure that you have the latest version of Find My Friends and the latest version of iOS on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  2. Check Find My Friends on the System Status page for issues.
  3. Force Find My Friends to close on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Wait a minute, then open the app again.
  4. Use these steps if the app unexpectedly quits, stops responding, or won’t open

If these steps do not resolve what you're experiencing, you can find further troubleshooting for Find My Friends here:

Get help using Find My Friends

Location accuracy is also dependent on GPS, this would be something to check on your son's device, if possible:

Improve GPS accuracy

GPS accuracy depends on the number of visible GPS satellites. Locating all visible satellites can take several minutes, with accuracy gradually increasing over time. To improve GPS accuracy:

  • Make sure that you've set the date, time, and time zone correctly on the device in Settings > General > Date & Time. If possible, use Set Automatically.
  • Keep a clear view in several directions. Walls, vehicle roofs, tall buildings, mountains, and other obstructions can block line of sight to GPS satellites. When this happens, your device uses Wi-Fi or cellular networks to determine your position until the GPS satellites are visible again.

If you'd like more information about Location Services you can find it here:

About privacy and Location Services in iOS 8 and later

Have a great day!

Jun 28, 2017 12:35 PM in response to foreverabeyergirl

I've done all the steps to try to resolve this issue. It seems to be just a certain location that I'm having this problem. Its about 2 miles off...

My quesetion is this:

When I first open the location tracker and it shows the marker at location X (2 miles away), but then quickly changes to location Y (where its supposed to be) is it because they were at location X recently or is there a problem with the GPS?

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Find Friends/Location Sharing jumps around all the time!!! Confused...

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