Location sharing is a great feature of the iPhone. It lets apps on your iPhone optimize according to location and give accurate information. Apps like maps, Find My iPhone, iMessage, Social media apps, etc., often use location data. But it does come at the cost of your privacy. And if you want to protect your privacy, you may ask, ‘How to stop sharing location on your iPhone?’
There are many ways you can turn off location. For example, you can turn off location sharing for the entire device, individual apps, and individual people. You can also turn off location sharing by turning off the Location Sharing option, turning off the Find My iPhone, enabling airplane mode, or completely removing your Apple ID from the device.
If you want privacy and want to turn off location sharing on your iPhone, we have prepared this guide on how you can do so. Several methods are described in a step-wise process. Please read ahead.
Solutions To Stop Sharing Location On iPhone
Location sharing is sharing the location of your iPhone with other apps and services to make the service delivery personalized. This works across most apps such as Maps, Find My iPhone, Social media apps, etc. But once you turn off the location sharing, the apps will not be able to use the location of your device.
There are many different ways to not share the location of your device. There are extreme solutions such as:
- Turning off your iPhone,
- Enabling Airplane mode,
- Logging out your Apple ID from the device
And some solutions are functionally there provided by Apple. These solutions include:
- Turning off the location-sharing option
- Turning off location sharing for specific apps
- Turning off location sharing for specific people
The first solution, which is the extreme one, can be executed by Switching off your iPhone using the power button.
Airplane mode can be enabled by simply swiping up from the home screen and turning on the Airplane mode.
Logging out from the iPhone can be done by going to Settings> Clicking your Apple account on the top> Scrolling down and clicking on Sign Out button.
Now the functional method lets you turn off the location sharing.
Turning Off The Location Sharing Option
Turning off the location-sharing option can be done within the settings app. It will disable location sharing on your entire device, and no apps or people will be able to access the location of your device.
Follow the below steps to turn off the location-sharing option.
- Step 1: Open Settings App
- Step 2: Scroll down and click on the Privacy option.
- Step 3: You will now see the Location Services option at the top of the screen. Tap on it.
- Step 4: Toggle off the Location services option. This will disable any app from tracking your location using GPS, WiFi connections, etc.
- Step 5: You will see the Share My Location option below the Location services. Tap on it.
- Step 6: Again, toggle off this page’s Share My Location option. This will disable any family members and friends from accessing your location using iMessage or the Find My iPhone app.
If you follow the above steps accurately, you can turn off the Location sharing from the entire device. It will stop any apps or people from accessing your location.
But not everyone wants to do that. For example, some people may only want to turn off location sharing to certain apps.
Turning Off Location Sharing For Specific Apps
Turning off location sharing for specific apps is also available. You can simply do it from the same settings as above. Then, follow the steps below to stop sharing locations with specific apps.
- Step 1: Open the Settings app and click on the privacy option.
- Step 2: Tap on the Location Services option at the top.
- Step 3: Now, you can select any app from the list of apps with which you want to stop sharing location.
- Step 4: will present you with options such as ‘Never’ or ‘While Using the App.’ These options depend on the version of iOS you are using. But basically, you can click the Never option and disable the location access for the specific app.
Turning Off Location Sharing For Specific People
Turning off the location sharing for specific people, such as friends and family members, can be done using the Find My iPhone app. This app is designed to track the people who are connected with you on the app. So, if you have already set up the Find My iPhone app, you can turn it off by following the steps below:
- Step 1: Open the Find My iPhone app.
- Step 2: Tap on the People button in the bottom-left corner.
- Step 3: Select the person you want to stop sharing the location with.
- Step 4: Tap the Remove Friends option. Tap on the Stop Sharing Location option.
These steps will stop any location sharing with the person in the future. They will no longer be able to locate you with their Find My iPhone app.
FAQs On Sharing Location On iPhone
No one will be notified if you stop sharing your location with them. Neither the application provider nor the people you share your location will know when you stop sharing your location on your iPhone.
If you want to check who can see your location on your iPhone, simply open the Find My app and tap on the People button? Here, the app will list everyone who has access to your location and can locate you whenever they want. To stop this, you can simply unfriend them.
No notification will be sent to you by apple when someone who has access to your location sharing checks your location. Although this is a privacy issue, you will still have to give them access to your location at first on the Find My iPhone app.
But if you want to stop this, simply tap the people tab on the Find My iPhone app and unfriend the person. This will immediately stop them from accessing your location and tracking you.
Yes, you can always stop sharing your location on iMessage. To do this, simply open the chat screen with the person, tap on the ‘i’ icon on the top, and tap on the ‘Stop Sharing My Location’ option. It will then stop showing your location on the chat.
Although anyone can track your location from a text if you have your location-sharing option turned On, it is not always practical. Also, you will have full control over if you want to stop sharing the location in text with them.
Read another article on How To Change Location On iPhone?
