Find My iPhone Accuracy – If you’ve lost your iPhone and you are trying to locate it using either the Find My iPhone application on another iPhone or logging in to the web via iCloud you may have noticed that sometimes the accuracy of your iPhone’s location can change. You may also notice that sometimes there is a big green circle around your iPhone’s location.
Find my iPhone – Large Green Circle
So what does it mean when there is a large green circle around the iPhone’s location?
Essentially it means that the iPhone’s location is approximate. The larger the green circle the more approximate it is. In the example above this iPhone was inside our office. It’s a six story office complex and the phone was placed in an office without any direct line of sight to a window. The image with the large green circle around it was taken after we turned off Wifi on the device.
Why does it make a difference if Wifi is turned off?
Find my iPhone makes use of the inbuilt GPS and your Wifi when determining the location. What happens when Wifi is turned off is that it is only relying on one piece of information instead of two to locate the device. When you’re inside a building or there is any sort of interference, Wifi helps quite a great deal in pinpointing your iPhones location.
Conclusion
The accuracy of Find my iPhone will depend on a number of factors including interference, the GPS signal and whether Wifi is turned on. The size of the green circle around your phone’s location will give you an indication as to how accurate that information is. It’s also important to note that if your phone is sleeping, Wifi may be disabled which will probably mean you will see a green circle more often than not.
iPhone location app was 60 – 75 feet off.
At 1:30 AM, I woke up and discovered my iPhone was missing so after checking everywhere including my car, I pulled out the iPad Air and the location app. Curiously, the green dot appeared without a halo indicating my next door neighbor had the phone. So, I walked outside to make sure the location was correct. I was really disturbed as I walked back and forth along the street to make absolutely sure the phone was in my neighbor’s house and for ten minutes the green dot didn’t budge. I was also using the sound option in the app which causes a sound to be emitted by the phone. I waited to see if a light went on in my neighbor’s house… Nothing. So I began to lock the phone… And at the last minute I hesitated and went back in my house thinking of the implications that just didn’t make sense. I just couldn’t believe my neighbor swiped my phone. As I opened the door to my house, I heard an unfamiliar sound… Turns out it was that alarm sound the app causes the phone to emit when you select to do so in the app. After some careful re-looking around, I found my phone lodged in the recliner mechanism of the chair I feel asleep in.
Imagine you did trust the location tho.
storming into your neighbors’ house close to midnight . . . Waking them up . . . Looking like some deranged thief/murderer . . . accusing them of stealing your phone.
This happened to me tonight… neighbor thought I had their ipod. Called the police. 1:30 am. Seriously? Threatened us.. bullied their way in to search. Surprise surprise.. no ipod found because we don’t have it. Our rights? Violated. NOT accurate.
I had the same situation happening. People coming at my door saying their phone is at my house when I do not have it. I tested the location on fine my own phone and it’s off, it shows the phone is at my neighbor’s house. Is there any way to deal with this? The neighbor next door kids are bad kids, and police have come often, chances are their phone is with them based on my tested experiment and knowing these kids stole in our neighborhood.
wife having an affair based on the location of IPhone…but still cannot confirm …supposed to be at the gym but phone shows at an apt complex a quarter of a mile away…Is the iphone that inaccurate???
Well well I was mad today while I was chucking some ones where about and find my iPhone indicates me in one one of the restaurant near by and l did refreshed it two three times no change at all was lucky not correct.
my wife is going crazy trcking me telling me im at all these places ive never been to always they are close to where I really am but never where she says she also saying that im at a location for a certain amount of time its crazy cause im not how is this happening any one know
Everything you just said is what I’ve been going through for about 6 months now. The worst is when I’m in the garage (which is often), because the WiFi signal is terrible so the map leads her to believe that I’m always at the neighbors house and we are sleeping with each other. I’ve never even met the neighbor. One day she is going to go there in a psycho rage, confuse & scare the neighbors, and get herself arrested.
My cell phone with a SIM card seems to be the most accurate. It must be the GSM network assisting the WiFi when I’m almost out of the WiFi coverage range. I say that because I’ve put my iPhone 6 (with my SIM card), my old iPod, and my no SIM card old iPhone 5 in my pocket and my laptop showed them all about 20-30 feet apart with the iPhone 6 being the closest
Yes I’m thinking my husband is having an affair because he works next to a hotel and the location says he is like exactly in the middle of the hotel but it has a blue circle around the pinpoint but the pinpoint and blue circle is on the hotel so I’m hoping that is wrong. So I’m so glad to hear that someone else is experiencing the same thing lol.
i am so glad to hear this because i feel like accusing my bf of cheating because it shows him at a certain location for a long time and i know he’s not there. this app can cause a lot of problems!
Yes I agree my husband was at work and it said he was 10 minutes away it’s doing my head in and causing problems
Maybe you all should stop tracking your spouses like weirdos and TRUST them since you are MARRIED
I’m about to be divorced because my wife believes I’ve been at a hotel instead of work based on the find my iPhone app. She refuses to believe anything I tell her.
I’M DEVASTATED
Do you think that this is 100 percent correct because I tracked my husband and it said he was 8 minutes away from work he’s telling me he was at work I don’t know what to believe ??
Hi yes This is causing problems with my marriage as well my husband said he was at work but iPhone showed he was 10 minutes away
if you don’t think they’re where they say they are ask them to FaceTime you then they can show you exactly where they’re at come on guys yes I have the same problem with my phone too
leave the app running in the background with your precise location on.
Sounds more like her excuse to get out of her relationship with you cause she’s actually the one cheating
Seems odd that it would show 10 mins away and they not be there! I’ve watched the phone travel from one location to another, initially the green circle appeared, but claims he was at work. Hard to know which is true, not like he would tell me he was somewhere else ?.
FaceTime
Could it be true that Apple is keeping this a secret from us housewives? My husband said he was 10 minutes away on Monday, and he is still gone. My app isn’t accurate is it? Could it be traffic? Do you think he will tell me where he was?
reading all of these are pretty entertaining tbh
Had to use find my iphone today and yes it was off the location by about 20 yards. But then I tried searching it at work to see how accurate, it showed it at a different business nearby. So it can easily show a house or so away from where it actually is. I would never accuse anyone of anything based on this app alone – that’s for sure…
Trust me I was driving myself and fiancé crazy crazy with find my I phone I was constantly tracking him to work every night but once you leave the app and they have bad Wi-Fi connection or gps whatever the app goes off with a mind of its own! Trust me do not go by this app unless your live my fiancé face times me every time I send an accusing message with screenshots telling him he’s somewhere he shouldn’t be and believing with all my two eyes he’s definitely up to no good this app don’t lie how can it it’s satellite gps ITS IPHONE THE LATEST UPDATED IOS 15 was to fix bugs and fix this app find my I phone to make I work without gps and Wi-Fi that’s what the whole point of a 45 minute up date was meant to be for you should be also able to still locate devices when phone is off. Well what a load of shite that is I learnt this the embarrassing way. Now I can’t even bring myself to question things that I think is to be questioned because of my previous embarrassing antics. So if you think your partner is somewhere they shouldn’t be FACETIME CALL then see how real time moves before or while your on that call you have to have some sort of data for that if there not doing anything wrong it shouldn’t be a problem to answer. And stop watching and looking for something it will send you potty watch eastenders instead ??
Hey I tracked my partner she was supposed to be at casino on the Gold Coast but find my I phone said she was 1.3 kms away when I text her or tried to call to ask where and what she was doing no reply
It was stationary for 20 minutes then I watched it slowly walk back to the casino