Find My and Contact Widget location issue on iPhone 16

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Level 1

4 points

Find My and Contact Widget location issue on iPhone 16

I had always enjoyed and needed being able to know where my loved ones are at a glance on my iPhones and iPads, through Contact widgets and Find My widget, until I got a new iPhone 16 recently. For whatever reason, neither type of widget would show my mom’s location. All other people show up just fine. My immediate thought of course was that my mom changed something. Nope. And her widgets on all my other iPhones and iPads show her location just fine. It’s just not working on my iPhone 16. However, when I launch the Find My app, it does show her location immediately. I have tried removing and reinstalling the Find My app. I have tried turning my location on and off. My phone is indeed running the latest software 18.2.1.

This is making no sense and driving me mad as the problem happens only to her and only on this one device. She lives in another city. She is in her senior years and doesn’t understand modern tech at all. Telling her remotely to reset things simply isn’t a viable option. Plus I don’t think the problem is on her end at all because her location shows up perfectly in the widgets on all my other Apple devices and in the Find My app on this problematic device as well. I really don’t want to resort to do a clean reset of my phone as that would require transferring eSIM and calling the banks to reactivate some cards for Apple Pay. A colossal hassle!

I see other people have reported similar issues but I can’t find any resolution. I hope someone can help me out here.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16

Posted on Jan 9, 2025 09:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 9, 2025 09:09 PM in response to Eli YZ

If Person A stops sharing their location with Person B on Find My, Person B will not be notified directly that Person A has made this change. The location will simply no longer appear for Person B in the Find My app, and they won't be alerted with a notification or message. However, Person B may eventually notice that they can no longer see Person A's location when they check the app.

The change made by Person A, such as stopping location sharing, may not always be intentional. There are several reasons why this could happen, such as:

Person A's device may not be connected to the internet, which could prevent the location sharing from updating properly.
Person A may have reset their settings for another reason, like troubleshooting or updating their device, and forgotten to re-enable location sharing.

These factors can lead to Person B noticing the absence of location sharing without understanding the full cause.

To use Find My and Location Services on an iPhone effectively, both your iPhone and the device you're trying to locate must have an active internet connection. These services rely on internet access to share your location with friends and family and to track the locations of devices, people, and items. Without internet connectivity on either end, the sharing and locating features of Find My and Location Services will not function properly.

If you connect to Wifi, doesn't necessarily mean you are connected to the internet. --> nternet not available WiFi and Cellular … - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Eli YZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2025 09:28 PM in response to SravanKrA

No that’s clearly not the case. As I repeatedly clarified, I can see my mom’s live location in the Find My app any time. It’s just the Contact widget and Find My widget that aren’t working. And those widgets on all my other Apple devices do show her live location.

Please do not condescend with suggestions such as checking the internet connection before you are capable of comprehending the actual problem. Thank you!

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Find My and Contact Widget location issue on iPhone 16

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