Apple Watch cellular not showing my position without iPhone

[Hergesheimer]

Hello,

I have a new Apple Watch with cellular this time. The watch has been set up and everything is working fine.

Except one thing. When I am outside wearing only the watch, my family can‘t see me in Find My. For them I am still at home with my phone.

In Find My my location is determined by the phone and watch. Is there a possibility to automatically switch to the watch as soon as I don‘t take my phone with me? Thanks a lot.

 

[mk313]

I don't remember where it is located, but I'm sure you can do a search. When you set up your watch, you select if you want the watch or the phone to be your primary location (so when they are separated, which one is 'you'). You'll just need to update that setting.

 

[Hergesheimer]

I don't remember where it is located, but I'm sure you can do a search. When you set up your watch, you select if you want the watch or the phone to be your primary location (so when they are separated, which one is 'you'). You'll just need to update that setting.

Many thanks! But it seems that is not possible (anymore). Maybe I have to switch off location sharing completely in my phone.

 

[arc of the universe]

Hello,

I have a new Apple Watch with cellular this time. The watch has been set up and everything is working fine.

Except one thing. When I am outside wearing only the watch, my family can‘t see me in Find My. For them I am still at home with my phone.

In Find My my location is determined by the phone and watch. Is there a possibility to automatically switch to the watch as soon as I don‘t take my phone with me? Thanks a lot.

hi
when i leave my iPhone at home, my family can see my location of Watch while im wearing it.
i cant think of any setting that could help you, except to make sure that on the Watch itself you have it set as follows:
Watch: Settings/Privacy & Security/Location Services/ and then turn on the three services of Location Services, Share My Location, and Find My network.
all other toggles lower in that same section should be greyed if you have your Watch set up to Mirror your iPhone on an app by app basis.

 

[Hergesheimer]

hi
when i leave my iPhone at home, my family can see my location of Watch while im wearing it.
i cant think of any setting that could help you, except to make sure that on the Watch itself you have it set as follows:
Watch: Settings/Privacy & Security/Location Services/ and then turn on the three services of Location Services, Share My Location, and Find My network.
all other toggles lower in that same section should be greyed if you have your Watch set up to Mirror your iPhone on an app by app basis.

Thanks a lot! All toggles are switched on. I contacted Apple and they promised me to call me back. According to them it should work but in my case it doesn’t.

 

[waw74]

you've tried toggling location sharing off and back on for those people you're sharing with?

 

[Hergesheimer]

you've tried toggling location sharing off and back on for those people you're sharing with?

Yes I did. I went with two Apple specialists through my settings. One took even over my phone. All looked ok. They will come back soon they told me.

 

[mk313]

I know you already talked to Apple Support, so this is probably something you already covered, but on your PHONE, if you Settings>Privacy & Security>Location Services>Share My Location, does that screen show your location as 'This Device & cellular Apple Watches'?

If not, not sure how you turn that on (it's on on mine, but you might be able to turn off Share my location & then turn it back on to enable the watches.

 

[Hergesheimer]

I know you already talked to Apple Support, so this is probably something you already covered, but on your PHONE, if you Settings>Privacy & Security>Location Services>Share My Location, does that screen show your location as 'This Device & cellular Apple Watches'?

If not, not sure how you turn that on (it's on on mine, but you might be able to turn off Share my location & then turn it back on to enable the watches.

Many thanks again! It is showing that.

 

[arc of the universe]

Many thanks again! It is showing that.

so, while at home, if you look at Find My on any of your other devices it does show your Watch as being at home in the Find My Devices tab, but, if you go outside without your iPhone if you check Find My on any other device it shows the Watch still at home. correct?

then, assuming you can make phone calls on your Watch when outside (in order to verify if has a cellular connection without relying on being in proximity to your iPhone), then i would check in Settings/Cellular/ and make sure that Celluar Data is turned on, and then, down further in the list, it should list your data carrier and that the status is connected. and make sure Find People, Find Devices, and Find Items are also toggled on.

finally, when you are outside, without your iPhone, check on your Watch by opening up the Find My devices app on your Watch and see if it says: "with you" for the Watch.

are your wife/family checking your location on your iPhone left at home? or on their own phones?

if all of the above settings are ok then there is nothing wrong with your own devices setup and no hardware problem.
therefore, the problem is on your wife/family's devices setup.

 

[Hergesheimer]

Thanks so much for trying to help. You might be right as we just checked again and as soon as I switched off the phone and had only 4G on my watch I wasn‘t visible for my wife and my brother. So there is something wrong with the watch (settings).

I hope Apple will call me back soon, as they checked my watch settings twice already and couldn’t find it in there. Thanks again.

 

[Hergesheimer]

Just an update. I wiped my phone and watch and started from scratch. Nothing changed. Then Apple finally called and advised me, that my family can trace me only through one device.

So I have to switch off the phone tracing as soon as I leave the house without it.

That is totally contradicting what is written in the Apple documentation about this. I told the person and she said that this writing must be changed by Apple.

Yesterday my wife could see me very briefly outside wearing the watch only. So I still don’t know, I think even Apple doesn’t know either.

 

[arc of the universe]

Just an update. I wiped my phone and watch and started from scratch. Nothing changed. Then Apple finally called and advised me, that my family can trace me only through one device.

So I have to switch off the phone tracing as soon as I leave the house without it.

That is totally contradicting what is written in the Apple documentation about this. I told the person and she said that this writing must be changed by Apple.

Yesterday my wife could see me very briefly outside wearing the watch only. So I still don’t know, I think even Apple doesn’t know either.

appreciate the update. i was wondering how you were faring.

but i think something is wrong with that latest advice they gave you.

there are various tabs within Find My.
if a person has chosen to share their location with (for example, a family member), the other person can be given permission to see where the "person" is, as well as where the devices are.
apple has uncannily good implementation which device is moving with us and which devices haven't been used during the past few moments (that's why i get notifications exclusively on my watch if i havent used my iPhone in a while).

additionally, i checked on apple support forum pages. and there is an official reply to a person with the same exact case as you and your family.
here is the apple support person's reply to that person:

quote
" If your friend is wearing an Apple Watch with cellular and is sharing their location, but they don’t have their iPhone with them, their location will be tracked using their Apple Watch."
endquote

here is a link to the apple support thread this is located in:

Location sharing from Apple Watch, when i… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

your issue doesn't seem to me to be either mechanical or software issue. it seems to me to be a couple of user settings that are in conflict about what to do. Family Sharing, and within that, Sharing Location is the easiest to accomplish what you want to do.
verify it through: on iPhone: Settings / Family Sharing / then make sure all the info is set the way you want it to be. at the bottom is Location Sharing (within Family Sharing) that tab takes you to the people who are listed who can see you and your devices locations. i think it best to also make it Automatic sharing which you can do on that tab.

 

[Hergesheimer]

appreciate the update. i was wondering how you were faring.

but i think something is wrong with that latest advice they gave you.

there are various tabs within Find My.
if a person has chosen to share their location with (for example, a family member), the other person can be given permission to see where the "person" is, as well as where the devices are.
apple has uncannily good implementation which device is moving with us and which devices haven't been used during the past few moments (that's why i get notifications exclusively on my watch if i have used my iPhone in a while).

additionally, i checked on apple support forum pages. and there is an official reply to a person with the same exact case as you and your family.
here is the apple support person's reply to that person:

quote
" If your friend is wearing an Apple Watch with cellular and is sharing their location, but they don’t have their iPhone with them, their location will be tracked using their Apple Watch."
endquote

here is a link to the apple support thread this is located in:

Location sharing from Apple Watch, when i… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

your issue doesn't seem to me to be either mechanical or software issue. it seems to me to be a couple of user settings that are in conflict about what to do. Family Sharing, and within that, Sharing Location is the easiest to accomplish what you want to do.
verify it through: on iPhone: Settings / Family Sharing / then make sure all the info is set the way you want it to be. at the bottom is Location Sharing (within Family Sharing) that tab takes you to the people who are listed who can see you and your devices locations. i think it best to also make it Automatic sharing which you can do on that tab.

Thanks again so much! After spending an entire weekend trying to solve the issue I am very frustrated.

I reset all of our sharing options by removing and reinstalling them. Switching back on all possible tracking options and agreeing to them but I am still not visible for the family wearing only my watch.

According to your link from Apple, it should go automatically but it doesn’t unfortunately. The answer from Apple secondary support (by phone) was wrong and not helping.

So I will keep and eye on it but won‘t push it any further. Sad, that even Apple doesn’t know or unable to help, just saying that they have to change their wording. Very strange. I will of course report here in case of a change.

Thanks a lot again for your effort @arc of the universe!