Why doesn't Find My iPhone update location?

Question

Level 1

15 points

Why doesn't Find My iPhone update location?

Two Questions:

1. Why doesn't Find My iPhone update location? I have Family Sharing, and Find My Friends is updating location, but Find My iPhone is not. I just had to use Find My iPhone on NYE to locate a missing phone, so it concerns me that it is not updating every time I refresh it.

2. What would cause the location of a device to get stuck in one spot on Find My Friends? Perhaps it's the same issue. One time I was in one spot, and Find My Friends showed a device in the same spot, but it was clearly not anywhere in the vicinity. It wasn't until the device was turned off that the location icon disappeared.

Thank you for any input you can share.

Sincerely,

Imazay

iPhone 6

Posted on Jan 4, 2017 1:17 PM

Reply

Answer 1

darren.s

Community Specialist

Oct 11, 2017 6:55 PM in response to imazay

Hello imazay,

Thanks for asking the Apple Support Communities about your iPhone and location information. I would like to offer two help articles that talk about find My iPhone, and the second regarding Location Services and privacy.

Here is the first article: Get help using Find My iPhone . Though the entire article is great and I encourage you to check over it, I believe the most relevant part for the issue you described is this:

The location circle is too large to be useful

The location circle might be large if your device is still determining a more accurate location. Wait a few minutes and refresh the map again. If the location circle is still large, your device might not have access to a Wi-Fi or GPS signal.

I understand it talks about the location circle being too large, but it also talks about refreshing the location, the need for the device to be connected properly to a Wi-Fi or a GPS signal, and most importantly, that it may be required to wait a few minutes and refresh the map again to get an updated or more accurate location.

You may also need to check your settings relating to privacy and location. This article talks about that: About privacy and Location Services in iOS 8 and later .

Thanks again for asking the Apple Support Communities for help with this. Have a great day.

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