Question about summoning with password

Hey guys,

So I've had a lot of time to play the game and got to a high level (61) and my friend is very early in the game and a smaller level (17). I heard that if you both have the same password you can summon in your friend regardless of level difference and it will nerf down the higher level character.

We tried this for a while at the high wall of lothric bonfire and just couldn't get it to work. We triple checked that we had the password right, so that wasn't the issue. I was leaving my soapstone sign and he was definitely embered. He could even see other people's summons but not mine.

We play on xbox one. Anything that we were doing wrong or is it probably just a server thing?

He hasn't beaten the area boss yet and I have a while ago, not sure if that really makes a difference.