How often does Find My actually update a location?

There is no fixed interval. Find My updates when a device moves meaningfully and has a network connection, which in practice ranges from a few seconds while someone is travelling to many minutes when the device is sitting still. Low Power Mode and weak signal stretch that gap considerably.

Why does Find My show a location from hours ago?

That is the last known location. The device stopped reporting at that point, usually because it was powered off, ran out of battery, lost signal, or had Location Services disabled. The timestamp under the name tells you exactly when the last report arrived.

Does closing the Find My app stop my location from being shared?

No. Location reporting happens in the background at the system level, so closing the app changes nothing. To stop sharing, turn off Share My Location in the Me tab of Find My, or stop sharing with one specific person from their entry in the People list.

Will restarting my iPhone fix Find My?

Often, yes. A restart re-establishes network connections and clears temporary glitches in background services. It is a sensible step once you have confirmed that Location Services, Find My, and the iCloud sign-in are all correct.

Why Is Find My iPhone Not Updating? Causes and Fixes

When Find My shows a friend or one of your own devices in the wrong place, or the map simply refuses to move, it is rarely a sign that something is broken. Find My is a low-power service that trades constant precision for battery life, so a location that looks stuck usually means the device has not had a chance, a signal, or a permission to send a fresh one.

This guide walks through the causes in the order they are most likely to be the culprit, with what to check and how to fix each one. Work down the list rather than jumping around. Note that this is an independent help site and is not affiliated with Apple, and menu names shift slightly between iOS versions, so treat the paths below as a close guide rather than a script.

Start with the obvious: is the device on and online?

Find My can only report a location that a device actually sent. If the phone is powered off, out of battery, or has no cellular or Wi-Fi signal, Find My falls back to the last known location and freezes it there with a timestamp.

What to check: tap the device or person in Find My and read the small grey text under the name. Wording like No location found, Offline, or a time such as 2 hr ago tells you the map is historical, not live.
How to fix: nothing on your end. Wait for the device to come back onto a network. Modern iPhones can still be located for a period after being powered down or while offline, using the encrypted Find My network of nearby Apple devices, but that only works where other devices are around and it updates far less often.

A dead battery is the single most common reason a location goes stale. If the last update time roughly matches when you would expect the battery to have run out, that is your answer.

Location Services turned off

Find My cannot work at all without Location Services. If it has been switched off on the device you are trying to locate, or on yours, you will see nothing useful.

What to check: on the device itself, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services.
How to fix: turn the main Location Services switch on, then scroll the app list to Find My and set it to While Using the App or Always. If it is set to Never, the device will not report in.

Precise Location switched off

Precise Location decides whether an app gets an exact position or a rough neighbourhood-sized area. With it off, Find My can appear to work while placing the device a street or two away.

What to check: in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Find My, look for the Precise Location toggle.
How to fix: switch it on. This is also a frequent cause of the vague or missing street name behind the Address Unavailable message.

Low Power Mode throttling background updates

Low Power Mode deliberately reduces background activity to stretch the battery, and background location reporting is one of the first things it trims. A phone in Low Power Mode may still show up, but it updates far less frequently and can look frozen for long stretches.

What to check: the battery icon turns yellow when Low Power Mode is on. The setting lives in Settings › Battery.
How to fix: turn Low Power Mode off, or plug the device in. It switches itself off automatically once the battery is sufficiently charged.

Wrong date, time, or time zone

This one surprises people. Location reports are timestamped, and a clock that is significantly wrong can make updates arrive out of order or fail to be accepted, which looks exactly like a refusal to refresh.

What to check: Settings › General › Date & Time.
How to fix: turn on Set Automatically. If it is already on, toggle it off and back on so the device re-syncs from the network.

Sharing paused or never started

For people rather than devices, the most common explanation is simply that location sharing is off. Find My sharing is opt-in and consensual: someone has to choose to share with you, and they can stop at any moment. If they have paused sharing, you will see them listed with no position, or they will drop off the list entirely.

What to check: open Find My, go to the Me tab and confirm Share My Location is on for your side, then ask the other person to check theirs.
How to fix: the only fix is for the other person to resume sharing. Our guide to what “Can see your location” means explains how the two directions of sharing work and why one can be on while the other is off.

Airplane Mode and Focus settings

Airplane Mode cuts cellular and, unless separately re-enabled, Wi-Fi. A device in Airplane Mode cannot transmit a location even though it is switched on and in someone's hand.

What to check: the aeroplane icon in the status bar.
How to fix: turn Airplane Mode off. Focus modes do not block location reporting, but they can suppress the notifications you would otherwise receive.

Signed out of iCloud, or Find My switched off

Find My depends entirely on the Apple Account signed in on the device. A sign-out, a password change that was never re-entered, or an accidental toggle will quietly remove the device from the map.

What to check: Settings › [your name] at the top of Settings. Confirm the account is signed in and no warning badge is showing, then tap Find My.
How to fix: make sure Find My iPhone is on, along with the Find My network option, which allows offline location, and Send Last Location, which sends a final position when the battery is critically low. Re-enter the Apple Account password if prompted.

Network and connectivity problems

Weak signal, a hotel or cafe Wi-Fi network whose login page was never completed, or a misbehaving VPN can all leave a device technically online but unable to reach Apple's servers.

How to fix: toggle Airplane Mode on and off to force a fresh network attachment, disconnect from a suspect Wi-Fi network, or restart the device. If problems persist across many apps, Settings › General › Transfer or Reset iPhone › Reset › Reset Network Settings is a reliable last resort, though you will need to re-enter Wi-Fi passwords afterwards.

Force a refresh

Once the basics are healthy, you can nudge Find My rather than waiting. Close and reopen the app, or pull down on the list to refresh. You can also request an updated location from a person, which prompts their device to send a current position, or play a sound on one of your devices, which both confirms it is reachable and helps you find it nearby. Checking whether the label reads Live or shows a timestamp instantly tells you whether you are looking at a real-time position or a snapshot.

When it is worth escalating

If a device has been offline for days with no explanation, or you believe it has been lost or stolen, use Lost Mode from Find My on another device or from iCloud in a browser. Lost Mode locks the device, displays a message with a contact number, and notifies you if it comes back online.

Conclusion

Nine times out of ten, a Find My location that will not update is a battery, signal, or permission issue rather than a fault. Check that the device is on and online, that Location Services and Precise Location are enabled, that Low Power Mode is off, that the clock is set automatically, and that iCloud and Find My are both switched on. Work through the list in order and the map almost always starts moving again.