How to Turn Off Find My Friends without Them Knowing? 2026 Update

Nowadays, it’s very easy to find your friends or let your friends find you with the location-sharing services on your device. Apple has the “Find My” app, which allows people to easily check where they or their devices are. However, location-sharing is not always secure and may compromise your privacy like the following user case:

How do I temporarily stop sharing location on Find My Friends without them receiving a notification? Unsolved

I have a really strict mom that made me share locations through Find my Friends a long time ago, which I completely understood, however now I’m 18 and living my own life away at college but she still checks it and invades my privacy.

I deleted the app and she got a notification saying I stopped sharing locations and she immediately called and started freaking out on me saying I clearly have something to hide… I’ve been looking for a way to hide my location temporarily, maybe an hour or two, without notifying her of that at all. Does anyone know a method that would for sure keep me off the radar for a few hours but still allow me to use my phone freely while I’m out?
–From Reddit

For these reasons, you may ask what you do if you want to stop sharing your location with your friends or how to stop your iPhone from sharing location without notifying others. Can you turn off “Find My Friends” without them knowing? The answer is YES! The article below introduces 3 methods for you to turn off “Find My Friends” without letting other people know. Let’s go through them now!

Can I Turn Off Find My Friends without Other People Knowing?

When you want to stop sharing your location with someone, it’s often an awkward situation to discuss why. Even if your reason is to simply protect your own privacy and information security, your friend may understand it in a different way that may damage your relationship. Therefore, you may wonder: Is there a way to turn off location-sharing with friends without letting them know? You can find your answers in this section below!

Can you turn off Find My Friends without someone knowing?

Yes! The easiest way to temporarily hide your location is to turn on airplane mode, and your friends won’t know. On their “Find My” app, they will only see “No location found” or “Location unavailable”, which is the same as the message shown in the app when your phone is off.

Now, if you want to start to protect the privacy of your location without hurting your friends’ feelings, you can stop sharing your location, either permanently or temporarily, with the methods in the section below!

Can you temporarily hide your location on Find My Friends?

Yes! The easiest way to temporarily hide your location is to turn on My iPhone in airplane mode and your friends won’t know. On their “Find My” app, they will only see “No location found” or “Location unavailable”, which is the same as the message shown in the app when your phone is off.

Now, if you want to start to protect the privacy of your location without hurting your friends’ feelings, you can stop sharing your location, either permanently or temporarily, with the methods in the section below!

How to Turn Off Find My Friends without Them Knowing

Continue reading and see how to stop sharing your location with someone without alerting them. The following method shows 3 effective ways on how to turn off Find My Friends for one person without them knowing.

Method 1. Turn on Airplane Mode

To temporarily hide your location from your friends, you can enable Airplane Mode on your device. Most location-sharing services requires an iPhone network connection. Therefore, when Airplane Mode cuts it off, other people won’t be able to find where you are. This method is very easy to operate with the following steps:

1. Go to “Settings” or “Control Center”.

2. Toggle on the “Airplane Mode” option or tap the icon.

Method 2. Turn off “Share My Location” on Your Device

Turning on Airplane Mode is only a temporary method to stop sharing your location, and it interrupts your network connection. Therefore, if you want a more long-lasting method that still lets you surf the internet, you can turn off the location-sharing feature on your device.

There are 2 ways to turn off the location-sharing services for your “Find My” app. These 2 tips let you pause location tracking on Find My iPhone and stop sharing your location with all your friends at once.

#1. Turn off Location Services for the Find My App

You can turn off “Location Services” for the “Find My” app. With this method, the “Find My” app will not access your location at any time, and thus it’s a very secure way to protect the privacy of your location. Here’s how to turn it off:

1. Go to “Settings” and navigate to “Privacy”.

2. Tap on “Location Services”.

3. Scroll down to find “Find My” and tap on it.

4. Choose “Never” under “ALLOW LOCATION ACCESS”.

#2. Turn off the Share My Location Feature for the Find My App

Although the above method provides sufficient information security, it prevents you from using the “Find My” app to locate your devices. Therefore, if you are looking for a less limited option, you can choose to turn off the “Share My Location” feature for the “Find My” app. With this method, you can still use the “Find My” app to locate your devices, but your friends won’t be able to see where you are. See the steps below:

1. Go to “Settings”.

2. Go to “Find My”.

3. Toggle off “Share My Location” and done!

Method 3. Stop “Sharing Your Location” on Find My App

The above 2 methods teach you how to update settings on your device to stop sharing your location. But that’s not the only way to turn off Find My Friends without them knowing! You can also disable location-sharing in the “Find My” app. Moreover, unlike method 2, you can choose to pause location on Find My iPhone and stop sharing your location with a particular person.

If you want to stop sharing your location with a specific friend without notifying him/her, you can do so with the following steps:

1. Go to the “Find My” app > Hit the “People” section.

2. Tap on the person with whom you wish to stop sharing your location.

3. Scroll up to find “Stop Sharing My Location” and tap on it.

4. When prompted, confirm it by tapping on “Stop Sharing Location”.

Now the person chosen won’t be able to see your location, and they won’t receive any notifications.

If you still want to stop sharing your location overall to all people, like method 2, you can do so in the app as well, with the following steps:

1. Go to the “Find My” app.

2. Go to the “Me” section.

3. Toggle off “Share My Location” and done!

This method will also update your settings of the “Find My” app in “Settings”, just as the first method in part 3.

How to Selectively Stop Sharing Location with One Person

Often, the goal isn’t to go completely off-grid but to manage privacy with more precision. You may need to stay visible to a family member for safety, but prefer that a specific friend no longer has access to your live location. The Apple Find My app provides the granular control needed to stop sharing your location with one person only, without altering your settings for anyone else.

This is the most discreet method to revoke access for an individual. It does not send a notification and does not require a global shutdown of your location services.

Here is the procedure for disabling sharing for a specific contact:

• Open the Find My App: Launch the application from your home screen.
• Select the ‘People’ Tab: Tap the ‘People’ icon in the bottom-left corner. This displays a list of everyone you are currently sharing your location with.
• Choose the Person: Scroll through the list and tap on the name of the person you wish to stop sharing with.
• Confirm Your Choice: Scroll down in their contact card and tap ‘Stop Sharing My Location.’ A confirmation pop-up will appear. Tap ‘Stop Sharing My Location’ again to finalize your choice.

That individual will no longer be able to see where you are, but your sharing settings with all other contacts will remain unchanged.

What Others See: Does Turning Off Location Sharing Send a Notification?

One of the biggest anxieties when managing location sharing is whether the other person receives an alert. The answer is no—Apple does not send a direct notification stating that you have stopped sharing your location. The change is passive and discreet.

Instead of an alert, the person will simply be unable to see your location. To give you complete peace of mind, we tested this exact scenario. When the other person opens the Find My app to check on you, your name will still be in their ‘People’ list, but a message stating “No location found” will appear underneath it.

This message doesn’t specify why your location is unavailable. The reason could be that you stopped sharing, turned off your phone, or have no cellular service. This ambiguity allows you to manage your privacy without creating unnecessary social friction.

Your Action	What They See in the Find My App	Does It Send a Notification?
Stop Sharing with One Person	“No location found” under your name.	No
Turn Off “Share My Location” (Global)	“No location found” under your name.	No
Turn on Airplane Mode	Your last known location is shown briefly, then “No location found.”	No
Turn Off Location Services (System-Wide)	“No location found” under your name.	No

People vs. Devices: A Critical Privacy Distinction

A common point of confusion comes from Apple merging the “Find My Friends” and “Find My iPhone” apps. This leads many to believe that disabling one affects the other. Here is the critical insight: stopping location sharing with people does not disable device tracking.

This distinction is crucial for your security. You can completely hide your location from every person you know and still retain the ability to track, lock, or erase your iPhone if it is lost or stolen. The two functions are managed separately:

• Sharing with People: This feature is for sharing your real-time location with trusted contacts. Controls are located within the Find My app under the ‘People’ and ‘Me’ tabs. This is what you manage for personal privacy.
• Tracking Your Devices: This is a security feature tied to your Apple ID that lets you locate your own Apple devices. You should not turn off this feature in your iCloud settings if your only goal is privacy from others, as doing so removes a vital security layer for your device.

In short, you can maintain your personal privacy from others without sacrificing your device’s security.

The Family Sharing Exception: Why You Might Be Blocked

Important Note for Family Sharing Members

If your Apple ID is part of a Family Sharing group, particularly as a minor, it can be frustrating to discover you are blocked from turning off location sharing. If you navigate to the ‘Me’ tab in the Find My app and find the ‘Share My Location’ toggle is grayed out and cannot be changed, it is almost certainly due to a Family Sharing restriction.

This setting is controlled by the Family Organizer (e.g., a parent) and is often enabled for safety reasons. In this scenario, you cannot independently turn it off. So, can parents still see my location if I turn it off? If you are under these restrictions, you won’t be able to turn it off in the first place.

Any attempt to bypass this, such as turning off Location Services entirely, might be visible to the organizer through Screen Time reports. The only official method to disable sharing in this context is to have a conversation with the Family Organizer, as they are the only one with the credentials to change the setting.

The Bottom Line

Now that you’ve learned so many methods about how to turn off “Find My Friends” without letting them know. Don’t hesitate to try them out to pause location on Find My iPhone, so as to protect the privacy of your location. If you still have any questions, please feel free to comment below!

FAQs About How to Turn Off Find My Friends without Them Knowing

Still have questions about how to turn off Find My Friends without others knowing? Here are some frequently asked questions and their answers to help you stay hidden without sending notifications.

Q1. How do I turn off Find My Friends on my iPhone?

The fastest way is to open the Find My app, go to the ‘Me’ tab in the bottom-right, and turn off the ‘Share My Location’ toggle. This stops location sharing with everyone at once.

Q2. Does turning off Find My Friends notify others?

No. Apple does not send a direct notification. The other person will simply see a “No location found” message under your name in their Find My app, which doesn’t explain the reason.

Q3. Can I stop sharing location with one person only?

Yes. In the Find My app, go to the ‘People’ tab, select the person’s name from the list, scroll down, and tap ‘Stop Sharing My Location.’ This will not affect your sharing status with anyone else.

Q4. What is the difference between Find My Friends and Find My iPhone?

“Find My Friends” (now the ‘People’ tab) is for sharing your location with other people. “Find My iPhone” (now the ‘Devices’ tab) is a security feature to locate your own lost or stolen devices. Turning off location sharing with people does not disable your ability to find your own phone.

Q5. Can parents still see my location if I turn it off?

If you are in a Family Sharing group with restrictions enabled by the organizer, you likely cannot turn off location sharing. The toggle switch in the Find My app will be grayed out and disabled.

Q6. How can I pause location sharing temporarily?

The most effective way to temporarily ‘pause’ your location is to enable Airplane Mode. This disables your device’s cellular and Wi-Fi radios by default, preventing it from broadcasting a new location. Others may see your last known location for a short time before it updates to “No location found.”

Q7. Is Airplane Mode a foolproof way to stop tracking?

It depends. Airplane Mode is effective for immediate, short-term purposes because it cuts off your iPhone’s connection. However, be aware: if you enable Airplane Mode and then manually turn Wi-Fi or Bluetooth back on from the Control Center, your iPhone can connect to a network and may update your location. For a true pause, ensure all connectivity icons (Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) are off.