How do I improve an inaccurate location?

If you are having trouble locating someone in your Circle, the problem is usually with the connection and signal on their phone, not yours. Be sure to share this FAQ with them so they can check their settings. 

Make sure each phone has all location services turned ON, including GPS and WiFi. Turning GPS on for your phone does not improve the accuracy of your Circle member's locations- they must turn this ON for their phone.

Turning on WiFi on your device dramatically improves location accuracy, even if you are not actively connected to a WiFi network. Your device uses the WiFi sensor to detect nearby WiFi base stations and narrow your exact location based on that information. With WiFi turned on, your device can quickly locate you within the bounds of a building; but with WiFi turned off, your location accuracy can be off by more than a mile as your device needs to rely on less precise location inputs (e.g. the location of cell phone towers).

Accuracy depends on many factors, such as your environment and your phone. At times, a highly accurate location won’t be available as some areas might have very poor signal or no signal at all. 
Having the app open on your phone improves your location accuracy; when the Life360 app is running in the background, location accuracy will not be as high.

If your phone has shut down due to running out of battery, or you have turned it off, you should open Life360 once after the phone is back on to establish a good connection to the app.

NOTE: CDMA cell carriers (including Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular) do not always support internet while on a phone call. If your cell provider does not support internet while on a phone call, our system will not be able to update your movement, driving behaviors or detect a collision if you are on a phone call.

TIP: A member can only be logged into one device at a time. For example, if you get a new phone, you should log out of Life360 on the old phone before logging into the app on the new phone. Many connection and location problems can be caused by being logged into multiple devices at the same time.

Apple and Android Settings for Best Accuracy:
ALL PHONES:

• Log out of Life360 and turn off the device for at least two minutes to refresh it
• A VPN will interfere with accuracy - do not use a VPN with Life360
• Vehicles with Wifi Hotspot - using this will prevent accurate location and drive details from being collected by the app since your signal provider location moves with your phone.
• Mobile hotspots - will not provide accurate location as the Wifi signal is not based on a fixed physical location
• Cellular Data - Life360 must be allowed to use cellular data to function properly

ANDROID (all versions):

Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on Apps, tap on Life360

• 'Data usage' setting: turn on 'Background data' and turn on 'Unrestricted data usage"
• OR you may see: ‘Mobile Data’ setting: turn on ‘Allow background data usage’ and ‘Allow app while Data saver on’
• ‘Permissions’ setting: turn on ‘Location’ (other permission settings ensure Life360 features work as intended. ‘Calendar’ is not required)
• ‘Notifications’ setting: these settings should be turned on in order to receive Place alerts, driving alerts and other notifications from the app

Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on ‘Device maintenance’ (for Android 7 OS)

• ‘Battery’ setting: turn off power-saving mode
• ‘App power monitor’: make sure Life360 is not in the list in this section
• Scroll down to ‘Unmonitored app’ section and tap on it. Add Life360 to this list to help ensure location data is always current

Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on ‘Connections’ OR 'Network"

• 'Wifi’ setting: turn on Even when not connected, Wifi can detect the location of routers, helping to improve location accuracy
• 'Mobile data' OR 'Data usage’ setting: turn ‘Data saver’ off. Turn on ‘Mobile data’
  OR turn off 'Limit mobile data usage'
• Android 8 OS or lower: 'Keep Wifi on during sleep': Go to the Wifi setting, tap on 'Advanced', turn on 'Keep Wifi on during sleep'. This will help prevent location inaccuracies while the phone is not being used.

For Android 9 (Pie) OS:

• Go to 'Settings' on the phone
• Tap on 'Apps', tap on 'Life360', tap on 'Battery' (may have to tap on 'Advanced' to see this)
• Find 'Battery optimization'. This needs to say 'Not optimized'. If it does not, go to next steps
• Tap on 'Battery optimization' here, and again on next screen, then tap on 'All apps'
• Find and tap on 'Life360' in the list, tap on 'Don't optimize'

For Samsung phones on Android 9 (Pie) OS:

• Apps that have not been opened in three days go into 'sleep mode' on Samsung phones
• Life360 in 'sleep mode' will not update a member's location
• Open Life360 every two days to prevent it from going into 'sleep mode'

For Android 10 ( Q ) OS:

• Go to 'Settings' on the phone
• Tap on 'Apps', tap on 'Life360', tap on 'Permissions'
• Change the 'Location permission' access to 'Allow all the time'
• Change the 'Physical activity permission' to 'Allow'

For Huawei phones: (depending on device model)

• Go to 'Settings'
• Tap on ‘Advanced settings’, tap on ‘Battery Manager’
• Tap on ‘Protected apps’, find Life360 and toggle the setting to protect it from having background data restricted
  
  
• Go to your phone's settings 
• Tap 'Battery'
• Tap 'Launch' 
• Set Life360 to Manage manually
   Note: Make sure Auto-launch, Secondary launch and 'Run in the background' are enabled

APPLE/iOS:

• Location Setting needs to be set to 'Always'. Using the setting 'While in Use' will not allow the app to work correctly or maintain location accurately.
• Precise Location needs to be turned on for Life360 to show an accurate location.
  (this setting is new in iOS14)
• Low Power Mode: turn off Low Power mode as it will prevent Life360 from updating in the background
• Background App Refresh needs to be turned on
• Motion and Fitness needs to be turned on
• See the screenshots below for correct iPhone settings