Find My Friends stops working when location services are off, the app needs an update, or permission settings have changed

Find My Friends (now called Find My on newer iPhones) relies on three things working together: location services must be on for the app itself, you must have given the app permission to see your location, and both people in the friendship must have enabled location sharing. If any one of these breaks, the app shows no location or says the person is offline. The most common fix is checking whether location services are actually on for Find My — not just turned on globally, but enabled specifically for that app.

Before you troubleshoot, restart your phone. This solves roughly half of these problems and takes thirty seconds. Hold the power button, slide to power off, wait ten seconds, then turn it back on. Then open Find My and check whether the person appears.

Key Takeaways

  • Find My needs location services on both globally and specifically for the Find My app itself — turning on location services in Settings does not automatically turn it on for Find My.
  • Both people must have location sharing turned on in Find My, and both must have accepted each other's friendship requests within the app.
  • If the app shows a person as offline or their location as old, they may have turned off location sharing, disabled location services, or closed the app.
  • Updating Find My from the App Store often fixes problems where the app crashes, loads slowly, or shows blank screens.
  • Signing out and back into your Apple ID in Find My settings can restore the connection when the app stops seeing people you previously tracked.

Check location services for Find My specifically

Location services being on globally does not mean Find My has permission to use it. Open Settings, tap Privacy, then tap Location Services. Scroll down and tap Find My. You should see three options: Never, While Using the App, and Always. Tap Always. This tells the phone to share your location with Find My even when the app is closed.

If you see Never selected, that is why the app is not working. If you see While Using the App, Find My will only work when you have the app open — if you close it, your location stops updating and other people will see you as offline within a few minutes. Always is the setting that keeps you visible to people who are tracking you.

After you change this setting, go back to Find My and wait thirty seconds. The app should refresh and show locations. If it still does not work, move to the next step.

Verify both people have location sharing turned on

Open Find My and look at the People tab at the bottom. You should see a list of people you are sharing your location with. If the person you are trying to find is not on this list, you have not turned on location sharing with them yet. Tap the plus sign, search for their name or phone number, and send them a location sharing request. They will see a notification and must accept it before you can see their location.

If the person is on your list but shows as offline or their location is hours old, they may have turned off location sharing. Ask them to open Find My, go to the People tab, find your name, and make sure they have not tapped Stop Sharing. They should see your name with a green dot next to it if location sharing is active.

Location sharing can also turn off automatically if someone has not opened Find My in several days or if they restarted their phone and did not open the app afterward. The app needs to run at least once after a restart to reconnect to Apple's servers.

Update Find My from the App Store

An outdated version of Find My can cause crashes, slow loading, or blank screens where locations should appear. Open the App Store, tap the profile icon in the top right, scroll down to see your apps, and look for Find My in the list. If you see an Update button next to it, tap Update. If you do not see Find My listed, the app is already current.

After the update finishes, close the App Store completely and reopen Find My. Wait a full minute for the app to load and refresh. If you were seeing blank screens or old locations before, they should now appear correctly.

Sign out and back into your Apple ID

Sometimes Find My loses its connection to your Apple ID without showing an obvious error. Open Find My, tap the profile icon (usually in the top right or bottom of the screen depending on your phone model), scroll down, and tap Sign Out. You will see a warning that you will no longer be able to share your location. Tap Sign Out again to confirm.

Wait ten seconds, then tap Sign In. Enter your Apple ID and password. The app will reconnect to your account and refresh your location data. This usually takes thirty to sixty seconds. After it finishes, check whether the people you are tracking now appear with current locations.

Check whether the other person has closed Find My or disabled location services

If someone's location shows as offline or has not updated in hours, they may have closed the Find My app, turned off location services entirely, or put their phone in Airplane Mode. You cannot force their phone to share location — you can only see what they have chosen to share. Ask them to open Find My and confirm that location services is still on in their Settings.

Some people also turn off location sharing when their battery is low or when they want privacy for a period of time. If they have done this intentionally, you will not see their location until they turn it back on. There is no way to override this from your side.

Restart Find My and clear the app cache

Close Find My completely by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (on newer iPhones) or double-tapping the home button and swiping up (on older models). Wait ten seconds, then tap the Find My icon to reopen it. This clears temporary data the app was holding in memory.

If the app still shows blank screens or old locations after restarting, you can also try clearing the app's cache. Go to Settings, tap General, tap iPhone Storage, find Find My in the list, and tap Offload App. This removes the app but keeps your data. Then go to the App Store, search for Find My, and tap Get to reinstall it. Sign back in with your Apple ID. This is a more thorough reset than restarting alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Find My show someone as offline when they are using their phone?

They likely have location services off, have not opened Find My recently, or have turned off location sharing with you specifically. Ask them to open Find My and check their Settings. If they have not opened the app in several days, it may not have reconnected after a phone restart.

Can I see someone's location if they have turned off location services completely?

No. If someone has turned off location services in Settings, no app on their phone can access their location, including Find My. You will see them as offline. They must turn location services back on and open Find My for you to see their location again.

Does Find My work if someone's phone is in Airplane Mode?

No. Airplane Mode turns off all wireless connections, including the cellular and Wi-Fi that Find My needs to send location data. You will see them as offline. Once they turn off Airplane Mode, their location should update within a few minutes.

What does it mean when Find My shows a location but says it is from two hours ago?

The person's phone last sent a location update two hours ago but has not sent a new one since. This usually means they closed the Find My app, turned off location services, or their phone lost internet connection. Ask them to open Find My and confirm location services is on.

Why did Find My stop working after I updated my iPhone?

After a major iOS update, location services sometimes resets to off for individual apps. Go to Settings, tap Privacy, tap Location Services, scroll to Find My, and change it from Never to Always. You may also need to sign out and back into your Apple ID in Find My.