find my app not sharing location

I’m trying to set up the find my friends with my partner. I’ve done all the steps. Enabled location in privacy settings, in the app settings and in the Apple ID find my settings. Added eachother, he can see my location I can’t see his. I’ve tried deleting and re adding, restarting iPhone and also added another friend and it worked both ways. When I click share my location from his phone, it says “enable location go to settings > Apple ID > find my” but when I go there it’s on! It’s driving me bonkers and I’m starting to wondering if he maybe has a VPN set up on his phone. Does a VPN stop this service working? when on his app it says his own location just fine. Also I’m using latest IOS and he is one behind but when my phone was on that IOS it still worked for me.