Google Family Link - Location not working

Google Family Link - Location not working

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james_tigerwoods

Original Poster:

16,341 posts

212 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
Bit of a left-field one this - I've got Google family link installed on my phone (P20 pro) to connect to my daughter's phone (G6 Play).

It's working and I get notifications about application installs and usage, but the location portion of it just won't work - I've checked and it's turned on on from my phone and on, on hers, but when I try to track her phone, it just says "Location not found, device may be offline". I've reinstalled this several times and tried everything but I just can't find a reason why it's not working.

Has anyone else had this at all?

Thanks

JTW

Corso Marche

1,814 posts

216 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
My phone stopped logging location history last month. I visited the Google account settings page and discovered for some reason it was only logging location from my old phone, which never leaves the house. I removed that device from location reporting and added the daily as the solitary device.
I've no idea why it changed without my knowledge.
Might be worth checking as part of a process of elimination.

james_tigerwoods

Original Poster:

16,341 posts

212 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
Corso Marche said:
My phone stopped logging location history last month. I visited the Google account settings page and discovered for some reason it was only logging location from my old phone, which never leaves the house. I removed that device from location reporting and added the daily as the solitary device.
I've no idea why it changed without my knowledge.
Might be worth checking as part of a process of elimination.
I've just logged on as her to google maps and the location history is shared and I can easily see where she's been (and where her phone is) - I will have to go on to her phone the next time I see her to see whether it's set there properly.

Corso Marche

1,814 posts

216 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
In my case location settings were all correct on my daily phone, and it had been working correctly all along.
I never identified what changed to affect it.

For clarity, it was not settings on Google Maps or in the location settings on the phone had changed.
It was the list of devices on my Google Account management page. My daily phone was no longer listed as a device reporting location.

https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/loca...

Again, not saying it's your problem, but it's somewhere to start.

james_tigerwoods

Original Poster:

16,341 posts

212 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
There are 3 devices listed - all with the same name. There will be two that are from when the phone was hard reset, but as they're the same name, I don't know which one to delete.

Oddly enough though - When I tried it recently, it said "do you want to turn on location services on the phone" (or words to that effect).

I might try deleting the phones and see what happens.

djfaulkner

1,103 posts

233 months

Wednesday 17th July 2019
quotequote all
I had the similar issue when my son got a new phone, this fixed it for me.



I opened Google Maps on child's phone. Then click left top corner for options -> Location Sharing. On top I saw my picture grayed out. Clicking on said "Parents always see location in via family link". The I opened Location Sharing in Google Maps on my phone. My kid was picture was grayed out. Clicking said "The phone is not sharing location with you". I went back to child's phone and now saw a bar on the top saying "You are not sharing location. Click to fix". I clicked, it disappeared and the child's location is now back on!

DadStuff

1 posts

66 months

Friday 3rd January 2020
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I had this problem after setting up kid with new phones. He had location sharing on, set to high accuracy and all the other things Family Link says are needed. But solution was really obscure: go to Contacts on kid's phone, found myself listed as Dad without an email address. Changed card to my usual Google account name (first name and last name) and added my Gmail address to the contact card, saved it. Boom - his location immediately started showing in my family link.

james_TW

Original Poster:

16,341 posts

212 months

Friday 3rd January 2020
quotequote all
What fixed it was a combination of the above - It almost felt like it needed to establish a connection then it just worked/works.

Interestingly, I set up my son's tablet with family link and it just worked straight away with no messing about...