How to stop iPhone from repeatedly asking for Location and Focus permissions?

I have been having a strange issue since I upgraded to iOS 18.6.2 (iPhone 15 Pro) where as my iPhone continuously asks me whether I want to allow or not allow location access for my apps even though I have already granted the permission. It only happens with Apple apps such as Maps, Weather, Calendar, Reminders, and Camera. This happens multiple times throughout the day even at times a few minutes apart when I need to reopen the app again. It doesn’t seem to remember my responses.

This also happens with Focus where as every time I use iMessage app it asks me if I want to share my Focus status to let others know if my notifications are silenced. Again, this happens repeatedly even though I have already responded to it.

The last thing I want to do is reset my phone. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated since this has been very nuisance to deal with.




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Repeated Location and Focus prompts

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Sep 1, 2025 11:01 AM

Reply
14 replies

Sep 1, 2025 9:31 PM in response to Leo_18

"How to stop iPhone from repeatedly asking for Location and Focus permissions?: [...]This happens multiple times throughout the day even at times a few minutes apart when I need to reopen the app again. It doesn’t seem to remember my responses. This also happens with Focus where as every time I use iMessage app it asks me if I want to share my Focus status to let others know if my notifications are silenced. Again, this happens repeatedly even though I have already responded to it.[...]"

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Location and Focus Permission After an Update:


A. Rid of "System Data" (Formerly Called "Other"):

Clear your System Data, and you'd clear unnecessary files that may be remembering these settings. System Data is caches, and it is shown in a bright-great located in the bar chart of Storage. Caches are created for remembrance of application use, so that they open faster and more proficiently, all of which gathers over time. Here is how to clear it: How to Clear "Other" in your iPhone's Storage - Use Backup - User Tip


B. Report this to Apple:

Do your Part: Having just updated your deice, let Apple know what is going on here. Provide them with feedback on this. They may not get back to you directly, but the more feedback they received on this, the more they will know what is going on, and what needs to be fixed in updates to come.

  1. Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
  2. Select: "Bug Report" for the "Feedback Type"
  3. Comment: that it is after installing the update when the issue began. Include a link to this thread.
  4. Proceed from there as necessary

Nov 9, 2025 3:31 PM in response to Jiffy254

Jiffy254 wrote:

I’m still having the same issue and reluctant to try resetting my phone as I’m not sure what I’ll lose. It’s so frustrating having these pop ups constantly!

TheLittles' link contained the commands to backup and restore without data loss.

* Backing Up: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

** Restoring: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support


Dec 2, 2025 2:47 AM in response to TaylorJoo

TaylorJoo wrote:

Same thing happening with mine and driving me nuts. Initially started back in July and then stopped but started after most recent update. Talked to apple support both times and it was not helpful! They had me reset all settings which only made things worse. Going to try the suggest here and hope for the best!

TheLittles' link contained the commands to backup and restore without data loss.

* Backing Up: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

** Restoring: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support



Sep 2, 2025 3:02 PM in response to LD150

Yes, that is correct. I do not use " Ask Next Time Or When I Share". For these particular affected apps (Maps, Calendar, Weather, Camera, Compass) I use "While Using the App" always. I have not changed any settings nor did I have this issue prior to updating to iOS 18.6.2. It doesn't seem to remember my responses no matter how many times I choose it. I spoke to Apple Support yesterday and they escalated the issue to a higher tier department and tried the following fixes but to no avail:

  1. Force restarting the phone
  2. Resetting Location and Privacy settings
  3. Toggling on and off the location for these apps while waiting 20 seconds in between
  4. Remotely connected to my phone and checked all related settings

Nothing worked. I was told that they will raise this issue to the engineers and get back to me in a couple of days. One thing they mentioned is try to "Reset All Settings" but it may or may not fix the issue. I will wait until I hear back from them before resetting anything. Additionally I haven't tried TheLittles suggestion above since Pat702 said it didn't work.


Sep 3, 2025 3:51 PM in response to pat702

Pat702, thank you for your reply and clarification. I ended up following TheLittle’s advice as well yesterday and it seems to have fixed my issue also. The location and focus permissions no longer appear. It was easier for me to wipe the whole phone and restore from backup and reconfigure a few of the settings than going with “reset all settings” method and spending an extended period of time redoing everything.


Credit to TheLittle for his advice 👍🙂

Sep 11, 2025 3:18 AM in response to Leo_18

I tried all of this, plus reset all settings, plus wipe and restore. Nothing worked. In fact, it worsened the problem on my end.


Originally, I was seeing that if any of my contacts that shared location with me (but I don’t share with them) texted me it would ping find my on app privacy report.


That’s when I went through the steps of making sure location services were off as much as possible, changed find my and messages to never sharing location, & resetting privacy settings. That’s when it got worse – if I open the messages app just to look at the list of thresds available it pings find my. If I go into my contacts, select a contact that uses an android phone and from that menu text them - it triggers find my.


Then I tried resetting all settings, and ultimately wipe and restore. Nothing worked. This might seem trivial to a lot of people (to the point of asking how I even noticed,) but my boyfriend is deployed. I share my location with him so sometimes the only way I have of knowing that he’s OK is that he’s checked my location recently. 🥺

Sep 2, 2025 4:21 PM in response to Leo_18

Leo_18, I should clarify that I had done what LD150 said about going to settings, privacy & security, location services and that did nothing.


This afternoon I have also done the Littles suggestion above. As of right now it does seem to have fixed the problem. Just be prepared to spend some time resetting your phone up again.


I also gave feedback to Apple using the link from TheLittles.

Oct 25, 2025 10:51 AM in response to Leo_18

I am also experiencing this issue on my iPhone 13 Pro except it is since I updated to iOS 26. As a last resort I reset location and privacy and it did not work. My lock screen still says location services disabled and when I go to weather or maps I see nothing until I hit allow. As soon as I exit the app it goes right back to the way it was and I get prompted to do it all over again. Very frustrating.

How to stop iPhone from repeatedly asking for Location and Focus permissions?

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