Frequent Locations on iPhone: How to Find, Clear and Turn It Off

Years ago, iPhone owners were surprised to discover a setting called Frequent Locations buried deep in the privacy menus. It quietly kept a list of the places they visited most, how often, and when. The feature still exists, but it has a new name: Significant Locations & Routes.

If you want to know what your iPhone, or your child's iPhone, remembers about where you go, here is where to look and what you can do about it.

What Significant Locations & Routes does

Your iPhone uses location data to learn places that matter to you, like home, work, school and the gym, along with the routes you commonly travel. Apple uses this to power features such as:

• Suggested travel times and traffic alerts in Maps
• Location-based suggestions in Calendar and other apps
• Better grouping of photos and Memories in Photos
• Location-based reminders and suggestions from Siri

According to Apple, this information is synced between your devices with end-to-end encryption and cannot be read by Apple.

So why might you want to turn it off? Mostly because the data is a detailed record of someone's daily routine. Anyone with access to an unlocked phone and its passcode can see it. For a child or teen, that might include the route to school, a friend's house or a regular after-school activity.

How to find Significant Locations on iPhone

The setting sits at the bottom of the Location Services menu.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Privacy & Security.
3. Tap Location Services.
4. Scroll all the way down and tap System Services.
5. Tap Significant Locations & Routes.
6. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.

On this screen you will see whether the feature is on, and you may see a list of recent locations. On recent versions of iOS, Apple shows less detail than the old Frequent Locations list did, but it still reflects where the phone has spent time.

How to clear the history

1. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations & Routes.
2. Tap Clear History.
3. Confirm.

Clearing the history removes the stored locations from this device and from other devices signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud.

How to turn it off

1. On the same Significant Locations & Routes screen, switch the toggle off.
2. Confirm by tapping Turn Off if asked.

Turning the feature off stops new locations from being recorded, but it does not delete what is already stored. Clear the history as well if you want a clean slate.

What changes when it is off

You may notice that Maps gives fewer predictions about your commute and that some location-based suggestions disappear. Everything else, including Maps navigation, Find My, and location sharing with family, keeps working normally.

Doing this on your child's iPhone

Significant Locations is a device setting, so you need to change it on your child's phone itself.

• If you have set up parental controls, you may also want to stop your child from changing Location Services settings. In Screen Time's Content & Privacy Restrictions, look for the privacy section and set Location Services to don't allow changes. On iOS 27, this is under Settings > Family > [your child] > Content & Privacy Restrictions on your own device, once your family's devices are updated. Our guide to keeping your child's location private explains the full Location Services menu.
• Locking location settings prevents changes in both directions, so set things the way you want first.

Other location settings worth checking

Significant Locations is only one of several places an iPhone records or shares location. While you are in System Services, it is worth looking at the rest.

Turning on the Status Bar Icon is a simple way to see when your phone is using location in the background.

Also check:

• Individual apps in the main Location Services list. Set most to "While Using" or "Never," and turn off Precise Location for apps that do not need it.
• Photos. The Camera app can save location in each photo. You can turn off location for the Camera in Location Services, or remove location when sharing a photo by tapping Options in the share sheet.
• Location sharing. Who can see your location in Find My and Messages is a separate setting. Our article on location sharing on iOS walks through it.

Should you turn it off?

There is no single right answer. Some families find the commute predictions and photo memories genuinely useful. Others prefer not to keep a running record of everyone's routine, especially on a child's phone.

A reasonable middle ground:

• On your own phone: leave it on if you use the features, and clear the history occasionally.
• On a child's phone: turn it off and clear the history, since kids rarely benefit from the features and it removes one more record of their routine.

Checklist

• Find it at Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations & Routes.
• Tap Clear History to delete stored places.
• Switch it off to stop recording new ones.
• Review the other System Services and app-by-app location permissions.
• On a child's phone, consider locking Location Services changes in Screen Time.