When a member’s location stops updating

Fix it on the phone that is not updating, not on yours. If you cannot see your daughter’s location, the settings below have to change on her phone. This is the single most common reason people spend an hour getting nowhere.

Start here — let the app diagnose it

Open that member in the app and tap Ask to fix. They get a notification that opens a screen listing exactly what is wrong on their device — location off, permission not set to Always, Precise Location off, Low Power Mode, or Background App Refresh — with a button straight to the right settings page.

That is faster and more accurate than anything on this page, because it reads the actual state of their phone. Everything below is for when it is not available or has not helped.

Look at the member’s avatar first. A red badge means sharing is broken and nothing is arriving. Orange means it still works but is degraded. Both show how long the problem has been going on.

iPhone

• Location permission must be Always, not “While Using the App”. This is the usual culprit, and it hides well — the app looks fine while it is open and stops the moment the phone is locked. Settings → Family Nest → Location → Always.
• Precise Location on. Without it the phone reports a neighbourhood, and place alerts stop firing reliably.
• Notifications must stay allowed. Not obvious: the app is woken by a silent push to report its position while closed, so turning notifications off stops location updating, not just alerts. If they do not want to be pinged, leave the permission on and switch off sounds, badges and banners instead.
• Background App Refresh on. Settings → General → Background App Refresh.
• Low Power Mode off, at least while you need live updates.
• Do not force-quit the app. Swiping it away stops iOS handing it location until it is opened again. It does not save meaningful battery.

Android

• Location permission set to Allow all the time, and Physical activity allowed. Settings → Apps → Family Nest → Permissions.
• Battery optimisation off for Family Nest. It must show as Not optimised. The app can walk you there: menu → Settings → turn off battery optimisation.
• Background data allowed, and Data Saver either off or with Family Nest excepted.
• Wi-Fi on, even when not connected to anything — phones use nearby networks to place themselves, and it measurably improves accuracy.

Two short walkthroughs for the battery-optimisation screens: Samsung and Lenovo · other devices

Phones that kill background apps aggressively

Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, Huawei, Vivo and Samsung all ship their own battery manager on top of Android, and each one needs its own setting — usually enabling auto-start and excluding the app from the battery saver. The app’s own “disable battery optimisation” screen handles the common cases.

For anything stubborn, dontkillmyapp.com keeps up-to-date instructions per manufacturer: Xiaomi · OnePlus · Huawei · OPPO · Samsung

If none of that works

Check that both phones are on the current version of the app (iPhone · Android), and that neither is behind a VPN that blocks the app’s servers.

Then email support@familynestapp.com with your nest code and which member is affected. Reinstalling is worth trying, but it is rarely the answer and it loses nothing except your time — so try the settings above first.

See also: common pitfalls and the full FAQ.