iCloud: Troubleshooting Find My Friends

Products Affected

iCloud

Symptoms

With iCloud and iOS 5 or later, Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If these features do not work as expected, use the troubleshooting steps below.

Resolution

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General Issues

  • Make sure there are not any current issues listed in the System Status affecting Find My Friends on the iCloud Support webpage.
  • Make sure the issue you are seeing is not covered in the Help menu already. Find My Friends Help is available within the Find My Friends app (Me > Account > Find My Friends Help).
  • If you are signed in to Find My Friends on multiple devices (e.g. an iPhone an an iPad), make sure you confirm which of your devices is displayed to your followers by opening the app and tapping Me > Account > Active Device.
  • Quit and restart the Find My Friends app on your iOS device:
    1. Press the Home button.
    2. Double-press the Home button to open the multitasking menu.
    3. Tap and hold the Find My Friends icon until it jiggles.
    4. Tap the red "–" to remove it from the list.
    5. Press the Home button to go back to your Home screen. Wait a minute before reopening the Find My Friends app. 

Issues with location 

"No location available" label for friends

This can occur if:

  • the date on the device being located is incorrect. This can be changed in Settings > General > Date & Time.
  • the device being located:
    • is turned off
    • is not connected to a data network (cellular or Wi-Fi)
    • has Hide From Followers turned on in the Find My Friends app
    • has Location Services turned off altogether in Settings > Location Services or has Location Services turned off specifically for Find My Friends in  Settings > Location Services > Find Friends
  • your friend is currently not signed in to the Find My Friends app on the device being located.
  • the device being located is currently in a country where Apple does not offer this feature. This feature may not be available in all countries due to technical limitations or local law.

Location is old or inaccurate

This can occur if:

  • the device being located was previously located and has not yet provided an updated location to iCloud. Wait a few minutes and try again.
  • you are currently signed in to Find My Friends on more than one device. You are able to set which of your devices is displayed to your followers by opening the app and tapping Me > Account.

Note: A device's previous location will be available for two hours, after which it is deleted, and "Location Not available" appears.

Location circle is too large to be useful

This can occur if:

  • the device being located is still determining a more accurate location. Wait a few minutes and try again.
  • the device being located is unable to provide a more accurate location. This can happen if the device is indoors with no known Wi-Fi base station around.

Location label is not accurate

If you have set a label for a particular location you frequently visit, such has Home or Work, this label will only display if the location of your device is accurate enough. If your location accuracy is too broad to be narrowed down to the same location as the one used when you set as your label, the label may not show.

 

Issues with location requests

You are not receiving requests from others to follow your location

If you are certain someone has sent you a location request using Find My Friends, and you do not receive the notification:

  • Ensure you are signed in to the Find My Friends iOS app with the Apple ID your friend is trying to follow. If that was not the case, check the inbox of the email address your friend used, and see if there is any location request email from your friend. If so, tap View Request in that message to accept or decline their request in Find My Friends.
  • Ensure the option to Allow Friend Requests is set to ON. To check this, simply tap Me > Account within the Find My Friends iOS app.
  • Ensure you are within the limits to accept follow requests. If you have reached a limit, you may not be able to accept more friends until you remove one.

Your requests to follow others are not received

  • Ensure that you are sending your request to the Apple ID your friend is using to sign in to the Find My Friends iOS app.
  • Ensure you are within the limits to send follow requests to others. If you have reached a limit, you may not be able to send a location request to more friends until you remove one.

 

Issues with Temporary Sharing

iMessage not enabled for "Your Apple ID" alert

Find My Friends uses iMessage to communicate with members of a Temporary sharing group. This message can appear if you do not have iMessage enabled for the Apple ID you are using with Find My Friends. To ensure iMessage is set up properly, follow these steps:

  1. Tap Settings > Messages.
  2. Verify the iMessage slider is set to ON.
  3. Tap Receive At.
  4. Verify that you are signed in using the Apple ID you use to sign in to Find My Friends.

If you are on an iPhone, you may also want to set up your Caller ID to be your Apple ID in order to reply to the iMessage conversations from your friends using your Apple ID email address instead of your phone number. 

If you are having trouble setting up Temporary Sharing

Ensure you are within the limits of how many Temporary Sharing groups you can have at a time. If you are above this limit, you may not be able to accept or create additional Temporary groups until you quit or delete an existing Temporary group.

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