Share my location on iphone is one of the ways to see someone’s current location especially when it comes to friends and family. The feature is very helpful as it can be used to know the actual location of a family member.
Now the question being asked by iphone user’s is the possibility of share my locate working irrespective of the fact that the phone is switched off.
This I will explain in this post.
Share my location will not work if the phone is switched off because it requires the phone to have an active internet connection in order to work.
GPS and maps are required and these two requires internet connection else they won’t work.
Before I came up with this post, I first did a test on my two iphones and my friends iPhones to see if share my location will work even when their phone is switched off.
SO HERE’S THE TEST RESULT
I used the iphone xs max and 11 pro max to run the test. The two phones were connected to each other on share my location along with other iphones.
When the iPhone 12 Pro Max was switched on and has an active internet connection, I tried to locate the phone and was able to see the current location on the map, along with a direction to the location.
After few seconds I switched off the iPhone 12 Pro Max and waited for 10 minutes to pass. Without switching on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I used the iPhone xs max to try and track the 12 pro max and what I saw was the previous location or old location.
The location I saw was the last time the iPhone 12 Pro Max was on and has an internet connection, and which was ten minutes ago. Also the picture on the map was a generic phone which indicates thar the current location of the phone cannot be accessed.
No matter how hard I tried to find the Iphobe 12 pro max current location using every tricks I know, all to no avail.
I gave up.
The after few seconds I switched the phone back on and enabled internet connection. Once again I tried to see the location of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and this time around I was able to locate the phone and on the map it showed an iphone 12 pro max picture instead of a generic phone picture.
This explains the question being asked on if at all does share my location work when phone is off.
As long as the phone is switched off, share my location will not work even on the latest ios 15.
- The phone must be switched on
- The phone must have an active internet connection
- Location services must be enabled
- Share my location must be enabled as well
Once again if the phone is switched off or has no active internet connection, what you will see will be the previous location or the old location of the iPhone or the user and whicg doesn’t make sense at all.
However, once the phone is on and has an active internet connection, then you will be able to see the person’s current location.
Does turning off phone stop sharing location?
The answer is yes. Once you have turned off your phone, you have automatically stop sharing location because it will unavailable. If someone happens to track your phone or probably track you, what the person will see will be your old or previous location.
Let me tell you this, one of the ways to prevent someone, a friend or a family member from tracking you or tracking your iPhone is by switching off the phone.
Once you have done that, the person won’t be able to track you. If tried to track you on iphone, what the person will be seeing is your previous location.
For example, you were staying in Los Angeles and which your iPhone was very much active. After six hours you left for San Diego and before going to San Diego you switched off your iPhone.
Now if any family member of yours, friends or any other person wants to track you and see where you are, what the person will be seeing is Los Angeles six hours ago.
The person will never see your current location and whicg is San Diego.
But immediately you switch on the phone and has an active internet connection like Wi-Fi or cellular data, that’s it. The person will now be able to see your current location and same time be able to track you.
So this was my test result trying find out if at all does share my location work when phone is off.
How do you know if someone turned off their location on iPhone?
To know if someone turned off their location on iPhone, once it shows no location found while tracking the person, then it means the person turned off location on it’s iphone.
Once you are not able to find the current location of the person, then it simply means that the person has turned off location services on its phone.
On iPhone you can easily tell when someone turned off their location and below is a typical example of when someone turned off location on their iPhone.
From the picture above you can see that it shows no location found and this indicates that the person turned off location services on it’s iphone.
Also if you happen to be sharing location with the person, what you will see is Not sharing location along with a blank picture of the iPhone.
Once the person enable location services on it’s iPhone, you will be able to the current location of the person and also the phone picture will no longer be blank but rather will display the colored screen.
Why is someone’s location not updating?
This is caused when the person’s phone is switched off, location services disabled or has no active internet connection.
Also if someone removes you from location sharing, you won’t be able to see the current location of the person.
1. No active internet connection
As location services works with internet connection, the person’s phone must have an internet connection else the person’s location won’t update and display the current location of the person.
Immediately there is an active internet connection on the person’s phone, the person’s location will be updated. So if you want to track someone and to find out the current location of the person, then you have to pray that the person’s phone has an active internet connection.
2. When the phone is switched off
Another reason why someone’s location is not updating is because the person’s phone is switched off. When a cell phone is switched off, every aspect of the phone including internet, maps, GPS, etc won’t be available and this affect location services.
Because of this, you won’t be able to track the person.
3. Location services is disabled
Not everyone would like people or even family members to know their current location, and instead of switching off their phone or turning off internet connection on their phone, they will disable location services.
Once location services is disabled, you cannot track the person or the person’s location update. This will in turn prevent you from knowing the current location of the person.
How often does location sharing update?
Location sharing usually updates every time you open the find my app on your phone or try to see someone’s current location.
If someone moves from location A to B and you try to find the person’s location, it will automatically update to the person’s current location but only if the person’s phone is not switched off, has an active internet connection and also location services is not turned off.
Related Questions
No you cannot share location when your phone is switched off. You can only share location when your phone is on and has internet connection as location sharing mostly requires an active internet connection.
The answer is no. Once you turned off your phone, location sharing will automatically stop working and the other person won’t be able to track you or know your current location.
Location sharing requires the phone to be active along with an active internet connection for it to work or share your current location to those involved.
Talking about does share my location work when phone is off, kindly note that it won’t work as long as your phone is off.
