A major fault with Find My???

[scouser75]

Over the last couple of days, I've been adding user account for my wife, kids and mum to my MBP running Ventura.

One thing I noticed was, when I turned on Find my for my wife, who was the first user account I set up, it asked for my password to allow me to do turn on Find My. I'm the administrator on the Mac.

But then I added my youngest kid, but when I turned on Find My for them, it asked for my wife's password! A bit strange!

I then added my eldest, and this time, to turn on Find My, it asked for my youngest's password!!

Finally, I added my mum. Turning on Find My, guess who's password it asked for??? Yup, my eldest's password!!!

Surely this can't be right, can it??? It should be the Admins password it should ask for???

 

[iStorm]

This is expected behavior. Find My can only be linked to one account at a time. When you turned it on for your wife, you essentially turned it off for your account (which is why it asked for your password), and linked it to your wife's account...and so on as you added the other accounts. If you go back into your account, or any of the others besides your mum, you'll see that it's no longer turned on.

If you're familiar with the Activation Lock feature, this is the same thing...it can only be linked to one Apple ID.

Find My User Guide for Mac

Learn how to use Find My on Mac to locate your friends and your devices.

support.apple.com

Decide who you want to be the "owner" of the MBP, and turn it on for only that account.

 

[mmkerc]

A point of clarity, as iStorm said the Find My "Device" is linked to one account, but if everyone had their own device (say an iPhone) with is linked to their account you can still share locations between accounts. My computer & iPhone are linked to my account. My wife iPhone and iPad are linked to her account, and my daughter's iPhone, iPad, laptop, AirPods are linked to her account however since they share location with me I can see their devices on my iPhone, and Mac.

 

[scouser75]

@iStorm and @mmkerc thank you guys for this. I've now reset Find My to my account.

Having read iStorm's reply, I didn't half feel like a right plonker for not sussing that out myself 🤦‍♂️