Find My People Doesn't Work When Data Runs Out

[RAINBOWBRITE]

I got this phone line for my son, for emergencies and to know where he is when he goes out biking/rollerblading with his friends. I only got the 250 MB deal, so he went through the data within a couple of days. Now, I can't locate him using Apple's Find My People. Is it because he's run out of data? I thought it was outside of that. 

[BKNS27]

@RAINBOWBRITE 

It sounds like your son’s Find My iPhone is disabled.

Go to Settings>tap on the Apple ID name>Find My>enable Find My iPhone>enable Share My Location. Also make sure that My Location is on This Device.

I hope this helps!

Find My iPhone uses very little data so I am surprised that it uses 250mb in 30 days.

Either your son is streaming or watching YouTube etc.

Remember kids are very smart these days with smartphones so he may have turned of the app.

[CountyDownIeUk]

@RAINBOWBRITE 

If you need a free Lucky SIM card let me know. 

[LeePublic]

@RAINBOWBRITE If you're wanting to access his location, I personally would recommend moving to either a higher plan or switch to Lucky Mobile as they have unlimited data after the data cap is gone. The unlimited data is only on plans $25 and above. Kids tend to go overboard with their phones, given 250 MB isn't enough data for kids.

[DDM69]

This app uses data.  You will need to upgrade his plan to include more data if you want access to his location.  250mb is not much unless you teach him how to manage when he is allowed to use it.

[softech]

@RAINBOWBRITE   All these Find a person or locate device apps need data, via Mobile Data or Wifi.  In order for it to be useful, you need Moible data enable, which you did.  This is strictly an app issue.  I do not aware any useful locate person app without the need of data.   Also, with data enabled, kids can be browsing internet and sending pictures with friends as well, the data could have been drained from other usage instead of this Find person app

In your case, you likely need to up the plan to something with more data.  With kids, they can easily use 5Gb or more per month

Also, you should check which app used most of the 250MB so far (and maybe use app to track future data usage as well)

If you are using Android, you can use the Mobile Data usage page and track and data usage that way, make sure you change the cycle start date to match PM's cycle start date and you can look back to the usage in this cycle:

A better way would be to use app like "Data Usage Manager and monitor" to track the usage, it can change the cycle to 30 days cycle to match PM's 30 days cycle without manually changing the cycle start with the build in Mobile Data usage page

[Metal1967]

@RAINBOWBRITE  Don’t know too much about them but maybe an apple air tag in the backpack? That is if you use an apple phone.. maybe something to look at..

[Meow · Accepted solution]

Most likely that Apple app uses Data to send coordinates of other phone.

PM (and any other providers) do not use regular cellular network for transmitting coordinates from one phone to another.

In case this is very important to you, you should consider higher priced plan with more data; but if your son likes to be on social networks all data will be quickly exhausted.