AirTag tracking my phone instead of the AirTag.

None of you are getting what he’s trying to say. We know the AirTag isn’t a GPS. We aren’t talking about that. What he’s saying is instead of his phone locating his AirTag in the find my app, instead it’s acting as if his IPhone is the AirTag instead and following his phone.

Useless device. Unfortunately, time can't be returned once it's passed. I cannot return device. I believed all this time I could see my cat, but I was foolish because it only tracks my phone.

Last night, my cat disappeared, and for 10 hours, I was running around the neighborhood believing I could see my cat on the map. However, it was just my phone displaying my own location as with tracker “name”.

🤦‍♀️ It was a disappointment to realize what was happening, and I saw this waste of money as a foolish advertisement for that piece of junk.

If I tracking my phone except AirTag what the point to have that device?!? I put it on my cat 🐈‍⬛ and tracking my phone 🤦‍♀️ looks like it is less useful device… and no way to find my anything with this AirTag, very disappointed and want to return it to Apple back

AirTags are not gps trackers. If you have an AirTag attached to your keys, and you drop them in a store, the location will update if it continues to come in contact with devices on the FindMy network. Learn more AirTag - Apple

I have the same problem… still

As muguy has already mentioned, an AirTag does not rely on GPS. Instead it uses Bluetooth to send its location data to an iPhone (that is participating in the Apple's Find My Network.)

That would mean that, either your iPhone or another iPhone, would need to be within 30-40' of the tag to receive this Bluetooth signal, so that it can relay over the Internet to the Apple servers. That is where the Find My app on your phone can "see" the tag's location.

If the person you gave the tag to has Find My Network enabled on their iPhone (its default), then their phone should have picked up the tag's signal (which broadcasts every 3-5 mins to save battery life). Their phone then needed to have either a cellular or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to relay that signal.

If what you are looking for is a dedicated tracking device, then you need to look at ones that use GPS, not Bluetooth. For example, Lo-Jack is one such device designed to be used with cars to help recover them when stolen.

The point is placing an AirTag on an iPhone has no useable function. The iPhone already is part of the Apple's Find My Network.

Although it may seem like a good idea, it serves no purpose. However, if used with with other items, like your keys, it will help you locate it by using your phone.

The bottom line is that Apple did NOT design the AirTags to be trackers, only to help you locate an item that you misplaced. If that is what you purchased it for, then by all means return it. You have 14 days, from the purchase date, to do so and still get a full refund.

I see no one has solved this yet. I haven’t either but I found a workaround. Turn off Location Services in the settings of your iphone or ipad. Make sure you’ve selected “Items” in the little floating menu thingy of The FindMy app and it should now show your AirTag(s) instead of your device. There’s another thread about this on Reddit where someone is suggesting this is only a problem with older phones like my SE 2020.

An AirTag on a phone can be very helpful. If the phone is off, and Or has no data of any kind, cellular or Wi-Fi, the AirTag will communicate with other peoples iPhones when they are nearby, and may give you a shot at finding your device.

Having the same issue.

Instead of leading me to the ITEM that has the Air Tag on it, Find My points to the location of my laptop (a DEVICE) even though that location is displayed on the ITEM screen.

There is NO Air Tag on the laptop.

When the Air Tag is shared with someone else (to their phone) it is still wrong: It follows their phone around.

Just like the original poster said, the AT on her cat POINTS TO her phone and follows her phone. It thinks her phone is the Air Tag rather than the actual tag--wherever it may be.

I have two tags. One is hidden in my Jeep in case it gets stolen. The other I use for misc things. Today I clipped the misc tag to my dog's collar and let him run outside. I see the Jeep tag located in my garage on the satellite pic of my house. I see the blue dot (my iPhone) on the other side of my house. Dog goes outside and is running everywhere but the misc tag shows as if he is staying with me everywhere the blue dot goes in the house. It must be an out of range thing? If the tag is not in bluetooth range of any device it just shows that it is with the tracking phone??? I know it can work because my wife tested it by taking it with her to town. I could see where she was miles away. Weird

@Justarandom101

Then please feel free to offer your explanation to why this is happening and your solution to resolve it to the OP.