family locator not working

I just started having problems with family locator. It will say the locatee phone is one place, even when my daughter is at another location and none of the updates I set up are working. I called tech support but they can't figure it out. Anyone else having this problem? I read they recently changed the service...I don't know if that's why it's messed up or if my daughter did something to her phone. For instance, I was home with her and the locator was placing her somewhere else. That same location keeps coming up now. Yesterday, she was in school, but the locator placed her in another state! Does it have something to do with the 'refining'? First it says locating...I get a general area, within a large green circle, then it will say 'refining' and nothing...just stays at that same general area. Help!

Accepted answers

unknown

Ehl2828, What type of phone does your son have? If the location settings are turned on, phone turned on and getting service, Family Locator should be able to locate him. It sounds like it could either be an issue with the phone or a network issue. We may need to submit a trouble ticket. Have you contacted technical support about this issue?

All comments

Wade1

We are having the same problem. We have proximity alerts (e.g., when she arrives and and leaves school) and timed alerts (where she is at 5 PM). We only get e-mails from the timed alerts and they are consistently very vague - up to 1/2 mile off. The GPS functions on all our phones are not functioning properly - the GPS on the 4 separate smartphones is 1/2 mile off for ALL!! The proximity alerts used to at least send a message when she was not locatable, so if her phone was not working, we would expect to get that message, but we get nothing.

I can't convince any of the Verizon support people that there might be something wrong with their network. We have reprogrammed, re-booted etc. already.

We have also noticed that our Wi-Fi hotspot (on Palm Pre) has performed very poorly the last few months. SOMETHING is going on.

unknown

I have also recently been having issues with family locator. Very spotty notification updates and locations are usually off between 3 and 7 miles from actual location. I have a put in a engineering fix via the phone representative a couple days ago and still have not had a response as promised. I have been checking the location since late December/2010 and noticed that the phone location was off by a 3 miles back then as well.

budone

I have wondered about this. Do you have location turned on the phone? Basically is GPS turned on. If not I wonder if VZW uses the triangler method by using three towers to appoximate location.

doggystyle

My daughters locator is not working either. It keeps on showing that she is on the Wantagh parkway or in a warehouse in Farmingdale. Meanwhile she is in the house with her phone. I contacted verizon and they told me to take out the battery and wait 2-3 minutes then dial *228 then key 2 then press ok. It doesn't work. this is the only reason that I got the phone... so that I can track her. Any suggestions?

AyaniB_VZW

Hi doggystyle,

I understand the importance of being able to locate your daughter. It's unfortunate the basic troubleshooting steps did not resolve the issue. I have attached the steps to complete further troubleshooting: Family Locator Support. If you are unsuccessful after completing those steps please Private Message me a contact number for you.

Thank you for your patience,

Mar499

I called tech support and they checked a bunch of stuff on their networks and didn't find anything. They seemed to think that an update to VZW Navigator created in changes in all location based services. My phone would on update over air, so they recommended bringing it to a Verizon store.

evillhog

The first thread at the top says "Sloved!" so I clicked the link. This is NOT solved. The **bleep** application and service is way too much money fior such faulty crap. None of the previoyus suggestions worked. This is the second time I have posted about this problem. As of today I have cancled the service. No thanks to verizion :smileysad:

ehl2828

My sons locator used to work but in the last month or so, it is not locating him. It puts him 10 miles or so away from where I know he is. What is going on with it?

unknown