Family Safety location tracking not working

Anonymous
2023-03-05T01:16:51+00:00

Hello. I have two children with Android phones (Samsung S21's). We have used Microsoft Family Safety for a few years and location tracking has worked perfectly until a few weeks ago when it stopped updating their locations.

I looked at every setting on both their phones, making sure all of the recommended location settings, security settings, battery settings were correct. Still couldn't get their location which showed they were both "In the house" when they were actually at school.

I uninstalled the app from both phones and reinstalled it. I followed all of the security prompts for the recommended settings. Both phones started to report their location again.

However... one of my children is on a school trip. Their phone last reported in five hours ago from a service station 250 miles away. They are now at their destination, but the Microsoft Family Safety app still shows them where they were five hours ago (extremely worrying for a parent).

Looks like the probkem has happened again. This must be a Microsoft problem What are the chances of both my kids phones stopping reporting their location at exactly the same time?

Come on Microsoft please fix this. Our children are very important to us and the app is called Microsoft "Family Safety".

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Family and online safety

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

115 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Simon Allison 166 Reputation points
    2023-11-18T11:17:45+00:00

    Wow that is the first I heard, thankyou for sharing.

    The other features of the App, you can get through the Xbox App.

    This is not what we wanted to hear. We have fed back the comments here and value your input.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-27T14:40:32+00:00

    This seems to be a problem with the Android app starting 2 - 3 weeks ago. Force stopping the app and clearing data & cache will fix the problem temporarily (usually a few hours). Of course this triggers a fresh login and permissions grant.

    On my Samsung Galaxy S9+, I know the app is working correctly when I see a persistent notification that Family Safety is using my location data. It stops working when the notification becomes an Android prompt to view/confirm location permissions. This seems like Android is losing track of full-time location permissions grant or perhaps the app is resetting the permission by mistake.

    My family members using IOS are having no problems whatsoever. So assuming the servers are cross-platform, then this issue is very likely with the app and Android.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-21T21:17:28+00:00

    I have been having the same issue for the past several weeks. Using 2 Samsung Galaxy S21+ phones and a Motorola phone, all of which have the latest updates. I can see my location on my phone, but updates for the rest of my family members are sporadic. One was updated 21 days ago and the other was 3 days ago. Each of the other family members have the same issue I do - they can see their own location but not any other family members.

    I don't see this as specific to a manufacturer since my phones are Samsung and Motorola. I noticed someone else posted they were having this issue on iPhone. This is certainly a Microsoft issue at this point.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-21T08:33:23+00:00

    Also experiencing the same issue on a variety of Samsung Phones - Locations for all family members have not been updated for 30 days - Only getting message "We couldn't find their location". I have reviewed all of the recommended settings on all of the phones to no avail. Quite interesting to see Microsoft's response above - I too would like to see an update

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-10T17:47:58+00:00

    See, even online the 3 phones are showing at the location they "last synced". The only place location appears to be correct is on each individual phone, for its own location. Definitely something disconnected for us between phone reported location and Family Safety received location.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments