SP7 Settings Find my Device and Location both ON - but my MS account says Location disabled?

[DarioR]

Core issue is stated in the Subject line.

I have both a Surface Pro 4 and a Surface Pro 7.

I can see both under Devices in my Microsoft account.

Both devices are configured the same way in Settings. Location ON. Find my Device ON.

When I sign in to my In my Microsoft account online with my web browser, I can see both devices under Devices.

The Find My Device service works OK for the Surface Pro 4. I can see my SP4 on a map.

But the Find My Device service is not working for the Surface Pro 7. In my MS account it shows as having Find My Device ON, but when I try to find it using the Find My Device online service, it tells me "Location disabled". So it does not show my SP7 on a map.

In the SP7 Settings I have tried turning both Find My Device and Location OFF and then back ON to reset things, but this did not fix it.

I have acquired and configured the SP7 only several days ago. Is there a time lag issue causing this?

Another difference is that the SP4 is running Windows 10 Pro while and SP7 is running Windows 10 Home. Both are original installations.

This same problem was reported by others in a Microsoft Community thread at answers.microsoft.com, running from February 2020 to August 2020 (thread closed now), but the thread died without anyone reporting an explanation or resolution.

Has anyone else encountered this problem and been able to fix it?

Thanks for any and all help with this.

 

[sharpuser]

This happened to me on both my Surface Book 2 units sometime in 2020, but it turns out I had disabled location tracking on my Microsoft account (Account, Privacy, Settings). Not sure if that Microsoft still has that option still exists or has moved it to another menu. After enabling the location option, clearing what was previously tracked, and rebooting, all was well.

 

[DarioR]

All my location settings are turned on, same on both devices.
It is really maddening.
I am signed in to both devices with a local admin account.
I can see both devices when I look at my Microsoft account through my browser.
Find my device service on the website works for the SP4, but does not work for the SP7.
As soon as I sign in to my SP7 with my Microsoft account, find my device starts working.
As soon as change back to my local account on the SP7, find my device stops working.
What I don't understand is, why does find my device work with local admin account on the SP4, but not with the SP7?

I am thinking that maybe Microsoft tightened the rules around using "find my device" between the SP4 and SP7, to "encourage" people to sign in to their device with their Microsoft account, and maybe my SP4 was grandfathered in under the old rules?

 

[jnjroach]

All my location settings are turned on, same on both devices.
It is really maddening.
I am signed in to both devices with a local admin account.
I can see both devices when I look at my Microsoft account through my browser.
Find my device service on the website works for the SP4, but does not work for the SP7.
As soon as I sign in to my SP7 with my Microsoft account, find my device starts working.
As soon as change back to my local account on the SP7, find my device stops working.
What I don't understand is, why does find my device work with local admin account on the SP4, but not with the SP7?

I am thinking that maybe Microsoft tightened the rules around using "find my device" between the SP4 and SP7, to "encourage" people to sign in to their device with their Microsoft account, and maybe my SP4 was grandfathered in under the old rules?

Find my device is dependent on using a Microsoft Account (within Enterprises Azure AD Accounts are required). Is it possible that you used your Microsoft Account previously on the SP4? If so, that would explain why it shows up in the account page.
Here is the article discussing the feature as part of the 2015 Threshold Release -

How To Use Find My Device Feature In Windows 10

The Find My Device is one of the security features that users should turn on immediately after installing Windows 10. The feature was introduced with

www.intowindows.com

 

[DarioR]

Find my device is dependent on using a Microsoft Account (within Enterprises Azure AD Accounts are required). Is it possible that you used your Microsoft Account previously on the SP4? If so, that would explain why it shows up in the account page.
Here is the article discussing the feature as part of the 2015 Threshold Release -

How To Use Find My Device Feature In Windows 10

The Find My Device is one of the security features that users should turn on immediately after installing Windows 10. The feature was introduced with

www.intowindows.com

Thanks for your feedback.
Just to be clear about the situation.
I can see both devices in my Microsoft account, evn when I am signed in to Windows with a local admin account.
In this scenario: find my device wotks for the SP4, but does not work for the SP7.

Yes it is possbl that at some point n hte past I may haveI signed in to Windows on the SP4 wth my Microsoft account (e.g., [email protected]). However, at this time I am sgned in to Windows on hte SP4 witk a locan admin account (e.g., USER). And when I go to my Microsoft account with my web browser, find my device works ok for the SP4.

But I I did this same "work flow" on the SP7 too. Sgined in to Windows with local adim account USER. Then signed in with my Microsoft account [email protected]. Then went back to signing in with my local admin account USER.
In this situation, when I go to my Microsoft account with my web browser, fI can still see the SP7, but find my device does not work.

So. - same sign in pattern on both devices. I can see both devices in my Microsoft account. Find my device works ok for the SP4, but does not wrk for the SP7.

Why this difference?

 

[jnjroach]

Not sure the root cause but if I were to speculate it's probably because the SP4 was a pre-Threshold device and still has some legacy hooks - Microsoft is moving away from local anything - Cloud native and Cloud Services (not saying that it is the correct move)

 

[DarioR]

Yes I am coming around to the same conclusion.
Still I am curious to understan how this is acheved.
BTW I upgraded the SP7 to Win10 Pro (same as the SP4) to take that differenceout of the equation. Same reslult.