If you want to see where a friend or family member is on a map, the Find My app has a polite, built-in way to ask. You send a request, they get a notification, and they decide whether to say yes. Nothing happens without their tap — location sharing in Find My is opt-in by design, and there is no hidden way around that.
This guide walks through requesting someone's location on an iPhone, what the other person actually sees on their screen, what happens if they say no, and how to share your own location back so it works both ways.
Before you start
A few things need to be true for a location request to work:
- Both of you need an Apple Account (Apple ID) signed in on your devices.
- The person needs to be in your Contacts, or you need the email address or phone number tied to their Apple Account.
- Share My Location needs to be turned on. Check Settings › [your name] › Find My › Share My Location.
- Both devices need Location Services and an internet connection to report a position.
If any of that is missing, you may still be able to send the request, but the map can stay stubbornly blank afterwards.
How to request someone's location in Find My
- Open the Find My app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the People tab along the bottom.
- Tap the person's name in the list. If they are not listed yet, tap the + button, choose Share My Location, and enter their name or number — sharing yours first is the usual way to start the conversation.
- On their card, tap Ask To Follow Location (on some versions this reads Request Location).
- Confirm when prompted. The request is sent immediately.
That is the whole process. There is no timer, no fee, and no way to escalate it. You have asked; the rest is up to them.
What the other person sees
They get a notification on their iPhone saying that you would like to follow their location, with two clear choices — something like Share and Don't Share. Tapping Share begins ongoing sharing, so you will see them on your map until one of you stops it. In many cases iOS then offers them the option to ask for your location in return, which is why reciprocal sharing tends to happen in one go.
Importantly, the request is visible. They know it came from you, and your name is on it. Find My has no silent mode.
What happens if they decline
If they tap Don't Share, nothing is shared and you are not told the reason. Their card in your People list simply stays empty, often showing "No location found" or nothing at all. You can send another request later, but repeated requests are not a workaround — they are just repeated requests, and they show up on the other person's phone each time.
If someone declines, treat that as their answer. A far better next step is a normal conversation about why you would like to see each other's location, and what the boundaries are.
How to share your location back
Sharing goes one direction at a time, so you may end up following someone who cannot see you. To fix that:
- Open Find My › People.
- Tap the person, then tap Share My Location.
- Choose a duration: Share for One Hour, Share Until End of Day, or Share Indefinitely.
Short durations are underrated. For meeting a friend in town, one hour is plenty, and it expires on its own without any awkward conversation about turning it off.
Stopping sharing later
Open the person's card and tap Stop Sharing My Location. They are not sent a "so-and-so stopped sharing" alert, but your name disappears from their People list, which is usually noticed. You can also switch everything off at once with Settings › [your name] › Find My › Share My Location.
Reading what the map is telling you
Once someone accepts, their card shows a location, a distance, and a timestamp. Those details matter more than people assume:
- A label like Live means the position is updating continuously rather than showing a snapshot — we unpack that in what "Live" means in Find My.
- A stale timestamp usually means the phone lost signal, went into Low Power Mode, or was switched off. See why Find My is not updating.
- Sometimes a pin lands correctly but the street name will not load, which produces the confusing "Address Unavailable" message.
- The wording "Can See Your Location" on someone's card is about what they can see of you — a common source of confusion.
Common problems with location requests
The person never got the request
Check that you sent it to the right contact detail. If their Apple Account uses an address you do not have saved, the request goes nowhere useful. Ask them to confirm the email or number their Apple Account uses — our guide to finding your Apple Account email shows them where to look.
They accepted but show as offline
An accepted request only works while their device can report in. No signal, no power, or Location Services turned off all produce the same empty result. Give it a few minutes before assuming something is broken.
They appear at the wrong device
If someone owns several Apple devices, their location comes from whichever one is set as their location device. They can change that themselves — see how to switch which device shares your location.
A note on consent
Find My is built around mutual agreement, and that is a feature rather than an obstacle. There is no legitimate method — and none we would describe on this site — for adding yourself to someone's location sharing without them approving it on their own device. If you are helping a family member set this up, do it together, with their phone in their hands.
In short
Open Find My, go to the People tab, tap the person, and choose Ask To Follow Location. They see a clear prompt and can accept or decline. If they accept, share yours back from the same screen and pick a duration that suits the situation. If they decline, the answer is no — and a conversation will get you further than the app ever will. For more Find My explainers, browse the rest of findmyiphone.onl.