Having trouble using Find My Friends? Location service not working properly? Find My Friends says location not available? These are common app-related issues but can be fixed with a few tweaks. This tutorial will walk you through these tweaks so you can get the app up and running again.
Dear friend tracking app or dystopian nightmare. Both are terms used to describe Find My Friends when discussing them in the office. Both are one force for good and two more for evil. Whatever your opinion, the Snap Maps-like app can be used to find your friends and family who let you.
Available for Android and iOS, the app has more positive uses than harmful ones. I know people who track their kids, use it to meet friends in the city, and a couple who take an Uber and want to know where each other is at any given time. Once agreed, Find My Friends is a force for good. It can help you find people, put your mind at ease when you know where your children or spouse are, and relax if you’re generally an anxious person.
With so many uncertainties in 2020, Find My Friends is a way to get to know and follow your loved ones. So what do you do when Find My Friends stops working properly?
Find My Friends keeps saying location not available
Find My Friends depends on the phone’s GPS and location services to work properly. If there is a problem with the app, the phone, the phone’s GPS or location tracking, the app will say ‘Location Not Available’. It’s not necessarily something that goes terribly wrong. It could be a simple bug or issue with the app.
This message would appear even if the person was out of range and didn’t have their GPS turned on, their phone was out of battery, they closed the app, reset their phone, or forgot to sign in. Find My Friends after restarting their phone. Before trying any of these fixes, it may be helpful to call the person you are trying to track. It can save you some time!
Once you’re with the person you’re trying to track, one of these troubleshooting steps should fix the location not available message.
Make sure the GPS is working
Most of us are used to turning off GPS when we don’t need it to save battery. Sometimes old habits die hard and we turn it off without thinking. Find My Friends finds you using cell data if there is no GPS but it is imprecise and depends on you being in a network area. As soon as the cell is out of range, you’ll see ‘location not available’.
Apparently this is a very common cause of the error and can be easily fixed by turning on GPS or Location Services depending on the phone you have.
Restart the app and login again
The simplest fix for most app issues is to restart the app and sign in again. You need to log in and reboot to enable the monitoring feature. Even if you’re watching the kids, it’s an engagement feature.
restart phone
If restarting the app doesn’t work, restarting the phone might. The application that will clear the memory, reinstall the operating system and this should fix the error. Once it restarts you will need to log back into the app and hopefully it will work properly when you log back in to the app.
Check the date and time
Apparently, having a slightly wrong date or time on your phone can prevent Find My Friends from working properly. Set the phone to automatic clock so that it can get the time from the network and the application works properly again. Find My Friends isn’t the only app affected by an incorrect date or time, so this one is worth checking out.
If you’re a new Find My Friends user and you’re using an iPhone, you need to enable location sharing in iCloud. This is an essential part of how Find My Friends works and should be done as soon as you install the app.
- On your iPhone, select Settings and your account.
- Select iCloud and Share My Location.
- Turn it on and make sure it is set under This Device.
As long as you’re on your iPhone and signed into iCloud, the location should be shared with Find My Friends and you should be able to see it.
Make sure you still share your location
If you’re only having trouble with a friend’s location, make sure you’re still actively sharing your location with the person. If they have updated their iCloud account, you may get location errors as the app tries to get the location of their old account.
If you need to add the contact again, simply tap the plus icon and type their name. Once the tracking request is approved, any location errors should disappear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it safe to use Find My Friends?
Find My Friends is as secure as any other location tracking app. Much of your privacy goes out the window with any internet-based account, so if you’re concerned about privacy, a location-sharing app in general might not be for you.
Next, you should consider that your account security is only as strong as your password. Because of the ‘Accept/Remove’ feature of Find My Friends, your location is relatively safe, assuming you’re removing people you don’t want to see.
If I can’t see someone’s location, does that mean they’ve turned off location sharing?
If you can’t see someone’s location, they may have hidden their location or not have a cellular signal.
