How accurate is ‘find my iPhone’?

[FluentAquaMoose]

Myself, my other half and my kids all have me on ‘find my iPhone’ - just as a safety thing as we live in the sticks and I travel to work across country.
Most Thursdays I have counselling and I leave work, takes approx 25-30 minutes with hardly anytime to spare apart from slow traffic as I hop onto the A1 for approx 5 minS. This will make more sense to those that are familiar with the A1 Grantham to Newark etc. So according to hmy oh, when I left for my counselling session on Thursday, at some point between long Bennington and Coddington, his phone showed my car outside a house in Fernwood and a couple of minutes later I was in Coddington!!!!! So he’s put 2+2 together and come up with 10! My ex now lives at Fernwood!!

He divulged this at 10:30 last night

Im just incredibly disappointed that he thinks that little of me. I’d never break his trust like that and before anyone flames me and says that I must be having an affair etc, I can hand on heart assure you that I’m not and most certainly didn’t make any kind of detour off the A1. I used to live in Fernwood ( huge estate) then moved 9 months ago and hardly been that way since only driving past on the A1 to and from work.

OH is really jealous of my ex ( there is serious bad history there even though we were together for approx 18 months. I was shocked to be honest and now wondering how accurate’find my iPhone’ is.

It’s really common to not be that accurate especially when moving around we’ve found.

My husband once phoned me in a panic one night as I was out drinking and hadn’t responded to texts as I was chatting to my friends and when he checked the find my it showed me right in the middle of the train line when I was actually around half a mile up the road and nowhere near the train tracks. Even when all our family are at home one of us often shows as going for a walk around nearby streets.

Just last week our eldest was on a bus home from the city and when I checked it to see where the bus was it had them halfway across town where the bus doesn’t even go.

Are you sure your OH was telling the truth when he told you his phone was showing you at your ex's location?
Sounds to me that if he has jealousy issues about your ex he could have made this up as an excuse to start an argument about you and your ex.

Do you have Google maps timelines turned on? Worth checking to see if that shows a more accurate version of your route?

I don't have an iPhone but my phone locations have been all over the place and absolutely haywire recently- it's currently been showing for weekd that every time I've actually been home that it thinks I've been at a tourist attraction 16 miles away.

My child's tablet also thinks it's in Denmark.

Did he take a screen shot, and if so the lighter blue ring gives and indication to it's accuracy.?

Updates to the location can also be long, which is also indicated.

He said he wishes he had taken a screenshot as I can’t believe my car was showing there when I was driving past. He said it was showing as being outside a house.

I think he's misinterpreted the data, and beng a cock.

It’s not accurate at all and kindly showed my dd as being in the middle of a canal for 2 hours in the middle of the night when she was first away at uni. (She ASKED me to track her till she got home before you all think I’m a weirdo). She was socialising in the next street over.

I did thank that this morning but I didn’t bite. I had no reason to get into an argument. I was just in absolute disbelief because at the time my oh was up in Chester at a dinner and even though he was active on his social media, I got one short, curt text all evening, which implied that I’d know what ‘I’d done wrong’. I’ts just shocked me.

I’ve had my daughter on Find my IPhone since she started uni so not you are not a weirdo. X

How long have you been with him?
He sounds unpleasant.

The location accuracy varies, and is indicated by the size of the blue circle, meaning the user is somewhere within the circle.
It's also common for there to be large delays in updates, which is also indicated, but can be misinterpreted as the use is in one place for a period of time that may not be true.

The location is derived from GPS signals (usually a minimum of three satellites) and Wi-fi mapping. (i.e. It's location is derived from referencing available Wi-Fi networks) and frankly a miracle that it works at all.

The accuracy depends on GPS, how many there are over you at the time and how good a direct signal to your phone is. It can be affected by being in a built up area (sorry no clue where the A1 is) and also if your phone settings are set to low or high accuracy for GPS (reduced battery life on high) You're phone may need to reset some settings to get more accuracy

If all things are good GPS can be incredibly accurate to within metres

None of this is surprising. The world is in uproar at the moment so GPS will not be very accurate and phone location depends on GPS.

I’ve got screenshots from where Google maps has shown me in weird places- usually in the middle of an ocean when I’ve been near a beach

Your oh sounds disturbing to me - jealous of your ex? Grow up (him, not you)

And if he was out socialising why was he checking your location? You hadn’t gone missing, he wasn’t expecting you so checking your eta etc- I would not be sharing my location with someone like this

Well he sounds like a nasty, jealous and pathetically insecure prick.

It’s not that accurate at times. Once dh, dd, ds and I were all in the car together. It showed me, dh and dd as in the car but ds was apparently following on several streets behind!

My DD has shared location on her phone and she’s away at uni. She didn’t text goodnight one night so looked at where she was and it was some field about a mile outside the city. Got me a bit nervous!
Next day she called and said that she and a friend had spent the evening exploring the back halls and basements of their college (which is a string of listed buildings) and how spooky it was! So she was not in a field a mile away but about 100m from her room. It’s mostly accurate, but occasionally it’s not.

Why was he checking up on you at this time anyway? It sounds like he’s misusing information shared for safety reasons to keep track of you.

You’re asking the wrong question, OP. It’s notoriously inaccurate, but your issue seems to me to be the lack of trust in your relationship on his side.

I got home one day and my husband asked if I'd bought lots of treats from M & S food? Er no....I have been in the middle of the countryside walking the dog.

He said he'd looked at Find my Friends and it showed me in town at M & S food. I'd been nowhere near to the town, although I do go quite frequently and had been about a week earlier.

If I lose my phone indoors it say it is next door

Sorry OP it’s actually pretty obvious he needs an excuse for himself to do the deed …(or done already )

super obvious sorry you’re in the middle of this mess

I was going to post similar.

Do you want to be with someone who has you running around looking for answers to controlling nonsense like this?

My money is either on him projecting - he’s away and up to no good so he’s put you on the back foot to throw you off the scent.

Or he is using this as a way to shoehorn you in to signing up for an app like Life360 which will give him much more detail on your location.

Last weekend my 15 year old daughter was at RAF Cosford all weekend for a training course. 5pm on the Saturday night it showed as her being in a church in Bradford. When I messaged her dad to ask him to check his phone too, it was showing her in the correct location. Was worrying for a hot minute but very weird and never known it to be completely out of whack like that.

Mine has shown me in the middle of a river when I’ve been walking down a street before now.