Why the heck can't I locate a phone that I KNOW is live, turned on (because I was talking to him while I was checking where he was). and working??
I keep getting unavailable all the time. I know he's in a good zone, and I know the phone is OK and on. This is ridiculous. To pay for a feature every month and not get the service sucks.
It might be that the person you are trying to locate has switched the GPS function to 911 only or has disabled it altogether... And does not want to be Tracked... Or Stalked in some instances....
Most kids learn how to do that fast........ I taught my own kids how to disable it if need be (my kids are all grown)
Note: Parents track in good faith.. But Boyfriends & Spouses Stalk...... Ask your self which are you???
......am the survivor of a thousand psychotic wars..........Axis
My son's phone meets all of the requirements. I suspect that will he can receive and send messages/phone calls at school, the reception is poor but not roaming. Sometimes I can locate, other times not.
Either the system is flakey or the tower signal is week. I got an alert at 3:30am this morning that he had left home (false).
I am amazed that the system can't validate if the phone is on or not. It would be helpful to know if the phone is powered on but not locatable.
The entire reason for getting a new phone and renewing a two year service was to use Family Locator. This service needs some engineering and customer attention from Verizon.
bosslady85 wrote:
- When the device is disabled, the battery is drained, or it is out of the National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area, you will not be able to locate the device.
- Service and location information presented could be delayed, inaccurate, interrupted or disrupted due to atmospheric, environmental and geographic conditions, inaccurate ephemeris (satellite) data or other factors associated with use of satellites and satellite data, cell site location and information or other network conditions.
Bosslady, it seems that you are agreeing with me - that there are technical factors that effect the networks ability to locate a phone even though it is on and capable of making calls. Is that what you are trying to say?
My question to Verizon is that wouldn't it be helpful for a parent to know if a child's phone is on but not locatable? The goes for TXT.
Correct, there are technicalities that interfere with the locating of devices.
@seanc I think you have struck upon two very important improvements which are shortly forthcoming, look for updates in the forum or on vzw.com/familylocator in the next few months
- when signal is weak, still provide a location, even if it is not as accurate as that which can be done with a strong signal
- let us know when the phone is off, so that you can understand clearly why no location fix is possible
One additional point that is worth discussing is your 3:30am that your child left home. This is something you can correct right now. The smaller you make your Arrival & Departure Update radius, the less accurate it is. To get the "left home" alert your phone indicated to the Family Locator system that a number of consecutive readings indicated the phone was outside of the home boundry. I am certain if you expand it to a greater radius you will see that false-positive error resolve itself.
Of course if you live very close to school and other sites, so that the boundary cannot be increased and still provide you useful information, then you will have to recognize that some false-positives will occur, and weigh the decesion between the two options of false-positive versus larger radius.
Thank you
I travel a lot and wanted my wife to be able to locate me when I'm on the road. Alas, it rarely works even though my phone meets all the prerequisites.
Does the service not work when the phone is in a moving car?
@Joe
Were you aware of the following requirements:
- 3G coverage (or EVDO) will not work in 1x, you can see at the top of your phone.
I would suggest your wife put 1 mile boundaries around the highways you take at the entrance to cities you go to or the airports/trainstations you most frequently use, that way she can passively get updates without logging on to fl.vzw.com
- you cannot be talking on the phone, using the phone for music etc at the time, have her text you to get off the phone so she can locate you
Those are the two most likely reasons it would fail, being in motion is not one of them.
good luck
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