8 Simple Solutions to Fix Find My iPhone Not Working

Do you use Find My iPhone on your device? You may find that it stops working sometimes. Do you know why it occurs and how to deal with it? To help you out, this post from NewsPivot offers you some workable solutions. Let’s take a look.

Also read: IP to Location: Geolocate the Location of an IP Address

Issue: Find My iPhone Not Working

Find My iPhone is a very useful and important built-in tool on iPhone. You can use it to track your Apple devices when they are stolen or lost, and also it can share your locations with your contacts. However, it can be troublesome when you encounter the Find My iPhone not working issue. The common cases are as follows:

• Find My is greyed out.
• Find My iPhone cannot share location.
• Find My iPhone cannot update location.
• Find My iPhone shows offline.

Luckily, you don’t need to worry about them. In the following sections, we will introduce the reasons and solutions to them. Let’s keep reading and get details.

You may also prefer: How to Ping a Phone to Find Its Location? Follow This Guide

Why Is Find My iPhone Not Working?

This part shows you why Find My iPhone stops working. Here are some possible reasons for this problem.

1. Weak or no internet connection.
2. Temporary system glitches.
3. Find My is not active.
4. Incorrect date and time on iPhone.
5. Have some restrictions on settings.
6. Low level of battery.
7. Outdated software.

How to Fix the Find My iPhone Not Working Issue?

Before proceeding with the methods below, try two easy ways first:

1. Enable Find My iPhone: go to Settings > tap on your Apple ID > Find My > turn on Find My iPhone, Find My network, and Send Last Location.
2. Check Date & Time Settings: go to Settings > General > Date & Time > toggle on Set Automatically.

Restart Your iPhone

Restarting your iPhone can resolve the Find My iPhone not working issue caused by tiny system glitches. Just press and hold the Volume-up button and the Side button together, drag the power-off slider to the right when it appears. After a few seconds, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo shows on the screen.

Check the Internet Connection

Find My iPhone can report the current location with a stable internet connection. If your device is out of Wi-Fi range or you enable the Airplane mode, the Find My iPhone not updating location issue will occur. To solve it, you can try the following tips:

• Reconnect your Wi-Fi or change to another stable Wi-Fi.
• Turn on Cellular data.
• Turn off the Airplane mode.
• Make sure that your iPhone allows Find My to use Wi-Fi and Cellular data.

Related post: Fix the “iPhone Connected to Wi-Fi but No Internet” Problem.

Full Charge Your iPhone

When your device runs out of battery, Find My iPhone cannot track its current location. Therefore, you need to charge your device when the battery is dead or low. However, if you set up Find My iPhone properly, the device will send a last location update when the battery is critically low.

Enable Location Services

You should know that Find My iPhone doesn’t work on your iPhone automatically. If you disable Location Services, Find My iPhone will show the device online but won’t show its location. Therefore, to address the Find My iPhone not sharing location problem, it is necessary to enable Location Services. To do so:

Step 1: Open Settings > tap your ID > Find My > turn on Share My Location.

Step 2: Then go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > toggle it on.

Allow Location Services Changes

If you apply restrictions on location services changes, some settings on your iPhone will be locked and new apps can’t use any locations. In this case, Find My is greyed out and you cannot tap it. To solve the Find My iPhone not working issue, here are the simple steps:

Step 1: Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. If it is off, turn it on.

Step 2: Tap on Location Services and check Allow Changes.

Give Permission to Find My iPhone

In location services, you can select which app uses the location data and deny access to other apps. If you don’t give permission to Find My iPhone to access location services, it won’t be able to locate itself. Thus, to fix this issue, follow the steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.

Step 2: Click on Find My iPhone and select Always or While Using.

Sign in to the Correct Apple ID

Signing in with different Apple IDs will also lead to Find My iPhone not sharing location. If you are using other Apple devices to discover your iPhone, please make sure you sign in with the same ID on both devices. Then you can use Find My to track your device or share your location with your friends and family members.

Update iOS to Its Latest Version

To repair the Find My iPhone not updating location problem caused by some software issues, you can perform a software update. Here are the details:

Step 1: Launch Settings > General > Software Update.

Step 2: Your iPhone will check whether there is an available update. If yes, tap on Update Now.

Also read: 7 Effective Ways to iOS 17 Update Not Showing up on iPhone.

Conclusion

After reading this post, you should have a general idea of how to solve the Find My iPhone not working problem. If you have the same issue, pick one solution that suits you and try it out. Hope this post can be useful to you.