Causes
- The Tile Pro has no GPS — it depends on other phones relaying it — the Pro (2024) broadcasts a low-energy Bluetooth beacon that any nearby phone running the Tile or Life360 app silently picks up, encrypts a location estimate, and sends on to Tile's servers. The 122 m (400 ft) range is the longest in the Tile line, but that first relay still depends on a phone being within range. If you've been somewhere no one with the app has passed, the map simply shows the last-known location — that's normal behaviour, not a fault.
- You're in a quiet or low-traffic area — the Tile/Life360 network is dense where phone users are dense. Keys left in a home office, a locked car in a quiet street, a storage unit, a basement, or a rural area can sit un-updated for hours or days. The same tile that refreshes every few minutes in a city centre goes silent in a spare-room drawer until you carry your own phone near it.
- Location or background access is off on your own phone — your phone only shows the relayed position if Location Services is on and the Tile app can run in the background. If you denied location permission, the app shows a stale view even while the tile is being relayed by other phones. Aggressive battery optimizers on Android (or Low Power Mode on iOS) quietly stop the app from refreshing in the background.
- The Bluetooth connection grew stale — a tile that was paired once and left unused can occasionally keep an out-of-date connection profile, so the app keeps displaying an old timestamp even when the tile is within range and healthy. This usually clears on a fresh re-pair.
- The sealed battery is nearing end of life — the Pro (2024) runs on a non-replaceable 5-year battery. As the voltage drops, the effective broadcast range shrinks first (the 122 m spec is for a fresh battery), so relays slow down and updates become rarer well before the tile fully stops working.
How to Fix
- Walk toward the last-known location with your phone — you can't push the tile to report from a distance, but once you're within Bluetooth range your own phone becomes the relay and the timestamp refreshes. Walk the perimeter of the last known spot (a room, a car, a desk) with the Tile app open — the update usually lands within a minute of getting in range.
- Turn on Location Services and let the Tile app run in the background — on iOS go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services and set Tile to Always, then disable Low Power Mode. On Android open Settings → Apps → Tile → Permissions, set location to Allow all the time, and under Battery choose Unrestricted so the optimizer doesn't kill it. Restart the Tile app afterwards to pick up the new settings.
- Refresh the app and pull-to-refresh the tile's page — force-close the Tile app (swipe it away in the app switcher) and reopen it, then open the tile's detail page and swipe down to force a refresh. A stale cached view is the most common false alarm and this clears it in seconds.
- Mark the Tile as Lost to prioritise relaying — open the Tile app, tap the Pro, tap Mark as lost, optionally add a message and contact number, and confirm. Lost mode flags the tile in the network so nearby Tile/Life360 phones prioritise relaying it — Tile documents this as the way to get a stuck tile updating again. You can un-mark it once it's found.
- Re-pair the tile to clear a stale pairing — if the location is still frozen even when your phone is right next to it, remove the Pro from the app (tap the tile → settings → Remove this Tile), then press the button on the tile and re-add it through the app's pairing screen. A fresh pairing clears the stale connection profile that blocks updates.
- Judge the staleness before assuming it's broken — under an hour is normal even in dense cities; overnight gaps are normal for tiles stored indoors or in suburbs; multi-day gaps are normal in rural areas. If the tile updates the instant you walk near it with your phone, it's working and the network around it was simply quiet. If it stays silent even when you're next to it and the app shows a low-battery alert, the sealed battery is near end of life.
- Plan a renewal when the battery is the cause — the Pro (2024)'s sealed battery can't be replaced at home. When the app shows the low-battery warning or the tile goes permanently quiet, contact Tile support for a replacement under warranty if it's under 1 year, or use Tile's Renew program — check tile.com/renew for a discounted replacement and free recycling of the spent tracker.