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Find My iPhone and Send Last Location help

A

AppleDogs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 5, 2017
28
2
I decided to test Find My iPhone in iCloud. Send Last Location is turned on.

I used my phone until it powered itself off due to the battery draining. I am looking at Find My iPhone in iCloud. iCloud just tells me my iPhone is offline. I even put the phone into Lost Mode in case that is necessary and it doesn't help. The screen just says the phone will go into Lost Mode when it connects to the internet.

I was using Google Maps all day on my phone so I know it had a data connection and GPS location was working. I was on a data connection when the phone powered itself off.

Apple website indicates that if Find My iPhone just says offline, it means it has been over 24 hours since a location was logged.

1. I thought iCloud is supposed to show the last known location for 24 hours. Why can't I see where my phone was before it powered off a few minutes ago? Why don't I see any location at all even from earlier in the day?

2. Why don't I see the last location that should have been sent when the battery drained since Send Last Location is on? Does Send Last Location really work?

After recharging the phone a little and turning it back on, I can see its location in my house when I refresh iCloud.

I then drove down the street and turned off the phone. iCloud showed it as offline but with the last location at my house (from several minutes earlier) instead of down the street where I turned it off.

Is the phone supposed to send its location to iCloud or does iCloud just poll the phone for a location when you are in iCloud?
 
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So can someone confirm that the iPhone is supposed to update its location in iCloud (without me having to go to iCloud to force a location refresh)? Mine is not doing that. Do I need to turn on anything on the phone besides enabling Find My iPhone under Settings\iCloud?

I left my phone charging overnight and then turned it off this morning. I then went to iCloud Find My Phone. The location showed as being last updated 9 hours ago, about the time I last refreshed the location in iCloud. It isn't showing the last location as being about 5 minutes old, the time when I turned off the phone this morning.

What am I missing here?

Right now, if someone steals my phone and turns it off, I would only get a last location if I refresh the location in iCloud before they turn it off. Otherwise, iCloud will show the location from the previous time (if under 24 hours) I refreshed in iCloud, like before it was stolen. How is this useful?
 
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Is the phone supposed to update its location in iCloud on its own? So far, I only get a location when I log in to iCloud to locate the phone. I can use the phone around town and then turn it off. When I check in iCloud, it always only shows the time and location of the last time I pinged it from iCloud. No updates while I used the phone after pinging it in iCloud. The Send Last Location does not send a location when the battery goes into critical mode like it is supposed to either.

Is this normal behavior?
 
As you have discovered, the whole process is imperfect and subject to certain limitations and caveats.

If you want better, send a letter to Apple.
 
bufffilm said:
As you have discovered, the whole process is imperfect and subject to certain limitations and caveats.

If you want better, send a letter to Apple.
Click to expand...
Sounds like part of it is to see what kind of experience various others have had with it and/or what additional information/details someone might perhaps know as to how it all supposed to work.
 
C DM said:
Sounds like part of it is to see what kind of experience various others have had with it and/or what additional information/details someone might perhaps know as to how it all supposed to work.
Click to expand...

Yes, is my experience what is supposed to happen or is my phone set up improperly? Is the phone supposed to update iCloud on its own or not? Does anyone know?
 
C DM said:
Sounds like part of it is to see what kind of experience various others have had with it and/or what additional information/details someone might perhaps know as to how it all supposed to work.
Click to expand...

I get the vibe from the OP that the process it is lacking in areas or could be made better.

And the only way to get that across to Apple is to communicate that to them. /* shrug /
 
bufffilm said:
I get the vibe from the OP that the process it is lacking in areas or could be made better.

And the only way to get that across to Apple is to communicate that to them. /* shrug /
Click to expand...

Can you tell me if my phone is behaving correctly (according to Apple's intentions) or not? I am trying to figure out if I have set it up properly. Thanks.
[doublepost=1490206263][/doublepost]Has anyone experienced the Send Last Location actually sending the location when the phone goes into critical battery mode? I can't get that to happen on my phone.
 
AppleDogs said:
Can you tell me if my phone is behaving correctly (according to Apple's intentions) or not? I am trying to figure out if I have set it up properly. Thanks.
Click to expand...
You need to have "Send Last Location" enabled in the Find my iPhone section of iCloud settings. Even then, it *should* only send the location when your battery is about to die. Not when someone powers it off...
 
theshoehorn said:
You need to have "Send Last Location" enabled in the Find my iPhone section of iCloud settings. Even then, it *should* only send the location when your battery is about to die. Not when someone powers it off...
Click to expand...

Send Last Location is enabled. For my test, I browsed on Safari until the phone powered itself down and the battery died. No location showed when I then logged into iCloud. Has the feature ever worked for you? Thanks.
 
Lobwedgephil said:
Your phone is behaving correctly. It only sends last location once every 24 hours.
Click to expand...
That doesn't quite seem to follow the explanation of the setting that talks about it automatically sending the location to Apple when the battery is critically low.
 
AppleDogs said:
Send Last Location is enabled. For my test, I browsed on Safari until the phone powered itself down and the battery died. No location showed when I then logged into iCloud. Has the feature ever worked for you? Thanks.
Click to expand...
I haven't had my phone die at that low of battery life for a long time so I haven't ever checked, sorry.
 
I have tested letting my phone go into critical battery mode a few times now and the Send Last Location has never sent the phone's location to Apple. Has anyone experienced this feature really sending out the location?

The feature is enabled and location services is on.
 
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