Location on an iPhone is not one switch. There is a master control, a per-app permission, a precision setting and a sharing setting, and they do different jobs. Most “my location is not working” problems are one of the lower switches being off while the top one is on.
The master switch
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security.
- Tap Location Services.
- Turn Location Services on.
With this off, nothing on the phone can determine where you are, including Maps and Find My. It is the switch to check first.
Per-app permission
Below the master switch is every app that has asked for location. Tap one and you get four choices.
- Never denies access outright.
- Ask Next Time Or When I Share prompts each time, which is a good default for apps you rarely use.
- While Using the App gives access only when the app is open and on screen.
- Always allows access in the background, including when the app is closed.
“While Using” is the right answer for the overwhelming majority of apps. Maps needs it while you navigate. A shopping app does not need to know your movements at three in the morning.
Genuine exceptions are few: weather apps that give local alerts, fitness apps that track a run with the screen off, and Find My. Everything else asking for Always is asking for more than it needs.
Precise Location
On the same screen is a separate toggle called Precise Location, and it is genuinely useful.
Switched on, the app gets your exact position. Switched off, it gets an approximate area, typically a few square kilometres. Navigation and ride-hailing need precision. A news app showing regional headlines, or a weather app, works perfectly well with the approximate version.
Turning this off app by app is one of the few privacy settings that costs nothing in usability while meaningfully reducing what is collected.
Sharing your location with people
This is separate again, and it lives in the Find My app rather than in Settings.
Open Find My, go to People, tap the plus and choose Share My Location. You can share for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely.
The time-limited options are underused and are usually the correct choice. Sharing for an hour so someone can see you arrive is a very different decision from sharing permanently, and the phone will not remind you later that the permanent one is still running.
Review who can see you occasionally. In the People tab, tap a name and choose Stop Sharing My Location. It is worth a glance every few months, because these arrangements outlast the situations that prompted them.
When location is wrong or missing
- Check you have signal or Wi-Fi. The phone uses nearby networks to speed up positioning, and pure satellite fixing is slower.
- Turn Wi-Fi on even if not connected. Location accuracy indoors depends heavily on it.
- Go outside. Thick walls, basements and multi-storey car parks defeat satellite reception.
- Toggle Airplane Mode on and off to reset the radios.
- Check the date and time are set automatically. A wrong clock breaks satellite positioning in ways that look unrelated.
- Reset Location & Privacy under Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset. This clears every app permission, so you will be asked again as you open things.
Low Power Mode also reduces background location activity, which can make tracking apps appear to lose you for stretches.
The arrow in the status bar
A small arrow appears when something is using your location. Solid means it is being used now; hollow means a geofence is set, so an app will be alerted when you enter or leave an area.
If that arrow is appearing when you are not doing anything obviously location-related, go back through the per-app list. It is the phone telling you something has more access than you meant to grant.
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