No clue, but have you tried the old ‘turn off your phone and turn it back on again‘ method of straightening things out? Sometimes lately with Apple updates, things seem to get out of whack and this works for me.

I dont use the ’find my phone’ feature on my devices except when I have actually misplaced it, so dont know if mine are acting this way. I do use the ’pinging’ method on my watch to find my phone when i am in range.

I'm not able to see the images you posted with any amount of reasonable resolution.

I can't offer any suggestions but if you find you can't resolve your problem, you might try doing it a different way, using a different app? Or, if needing to know, how about a call or a message? Failing that, you might try Android devices, they don't tend to have wonky, insurmountable problems and several free third party apps in addition to the built in Android capability are available. . ;-)

Personally, I keep "location" off except when needed by a particular app. Then it's on momentarily and off after use. It tends to suck up battery life big time. I don't need to track my wife's whereabouts at all times nor she mine.

Good luck.

First, I have no idea why there is so much space before and after the pics I inserted. There was no extra space when I originally wrote the post, and when I just edited it, I removed space but it's still there. Sorry about that.

@OutsidePlaying - Yes, we've tried the "turn off the phone and turn it back on again" thing, but that hasn't helped. From what you indicated are the ways you use the Find My app, you are using it to find your own phone with your own watch. And that does work correctly for my husband if he doesn't know where he set down his phone here at home. For example, he might set it down on a table in the back yard and not remember where he put it. So, he can use his watch to ping his phone and then wander around the house and yard until he hears/finds it. But on more than one occasion I have used the Find My app on *my* phone to assist him with an alternate driving route out of where he is, to get to where he wants/needs to be. And one time the Find My app on my phone was able to locate where his phone was, when it (the phone) was several miles from our home and he'd arrived home without his phone.

@Elmer J Fudd - you don't need to see the images with "any amount of reasonable resolution." All you need to see, which you should be able to see even with horrid resolution, is that when my husband's devices are here at home, the Find My app on my phone shows them with colorful icons on their screens, but when the devices are with him away from our home, the Find My app shows them with totally blank and black screens, and it shows them as being here at home. Sometimes, however, it will show a location for his watch, but it's never a current location, and it shows it with a black screen And, no, neither of needs or wants to track each other's whereabouts at all times. We just need and want it to work properly for those times when we do need it Yes, we can call or message each other if/when we need to, but calling his phone when he is here but his phone isn't here, isn't going to help either of us find his phone.

Sorry, I paid no attention to the images or descriptions, too small to make sense out of.

My friend has an Apple watch and he often calls me from it when he's out taking a walk, always making a point of saying that he's talking through wireless earbuds Bluetooth connected to the watch. And that the phone is at home. His watch can receive calls too and send and receive messages. Have you tried these capabilities, sounds like they may help.

Losing phones is something we've never done. That's an issue easier to deal with without resorting to an app, if possible.

Just guessing here. Double check that the ’share my location’ button in the Find My app is ON? On the phone and on the watch.

Good luck.

eta:

Nope, not ever lost mine either, but we have a large property, so I have been known to leave it at the barn or by the garden. Pinging it, or briefly turning on the finder on another device helps quickly locate it for sure before I go looking like a mad squirrel trying to find it.

My only other suggestionnis to go to the Genius bar and explain the situation. The folks on the phone help line are usually very helpful, but unless you can show them what you mean, its sometimes hard.

Good luck.

I have no idea, but it seems like the app is working well when connected to your wi-fi, but not when on cellular only. I'm wondering if there's a setting in one of the apps you are using that is set to wi-fi only or cellular data off.

elmer said, "I paid no attention to the images or descriptions, too small to make sense out of." You don't need to "make sense" of them - you just need to see that in the set of two side-by-side pictures there are colors on the screens but in the two individual pictures, the screens are black.

And, yes, my husband's Apple Watch has cellular capability, as well as Bluetooth and WiFi. But making/receiving calls and texts through the watch isn't the issue. It's the location of his phone and watch that's an issue.

@maddielee - Yes, we've ensured that the "share my location" is turned on, on all of our devices.

@Fun2BHere - No, cellular and WiFi are both turned on on all of the devices.

Of course this doesn't explain the black screen that you get for the iphone, but are you paying your cell service provider for the apple watch connection?

@blubird - Yes, we are. Even if we weren't, though, the Find My app is supposed to work properly with an Apple watch that doesn't have cellular.

I understand that both cellular and wifi are turned on, but check System/Cellular Data/Apple Watch and make sure that your watch is allowed to use cellular data.

Final Update -- My husband took his iPhone and Apple watch into the Apple store. Turns out there was something wrong with the watch and they gave him a brand new one. The Find My app is now working perfectly.

And, no, I don't know what was wrong. I wasn't with him when he went to the Apple store, and he didn't care enough about what was wrong to get the details. All he cared about is that there was something wrong, and now there's not. Can't really argue with that.

Yay! I’m glad you went to the store before you endured further frustration. Sometimes it’s just necessary.