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Can you share AirTags with family members?

Can two accounts track the same airtag? Can me and my wife track the same airtag if we are in the same family account?


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Posted on Apr 22, 2021 7:03 AM

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Posted on Apr 30, 2021 6:49 AM

I can understand some people not wanting other members of their family to see their tags (I don't know why but I'm sure some would) but I do think having the ability to allow them to be selectively shared would be very useful. We got one to put on our dog's collar so if he got out or ran off while out we could track him - but only I can see that tag which makes it useless for what we wanted. Also sharing a tag could disable the tracking warnings - although that might need the other person to accept the sharing as a backup

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Apr 30, 2021 6:49 AM in response to justin1969

I can understand some people not wanting other members of their family to see their tags (I don't know why but I'm sure some would) but I do think having the ability to allow them to be selectively shared would be very useful. We got one to put on our dog's collar so if he got out or ran off while out we could track him - but only I can see that tag which makes it useless for what we wanted. Also sharing a tag could disable the tracking warnings - although that might need the other person to accept the sharing as a backup

Apr 30, 2021 8:48 AM in response to jerminho

A "Share items" option or something like that into Family Sharing settings would be a great feature.

The possibility to track an AirTag for two or more family members is very useful.

For example, if there's a common item, like car keys, more family members should have the possibility to track an AirTag and/or share an AirTag position.

Apr 26, 2021 5:50 PM in response to sberman

Or when someone goes out of their house, deliberately leaving any of their tagged items at home that day, while other people remain at home who aren't on the same Apple ID. The beeping would be endless until their rightful tag "owner" returns to reunified? These items haven't been separated, as in lost: they've been intentionally left somewhere. Just like the office example you mentioned. Potentially a much more potent tracking network than Tile, but with possibly annoying consequences. Let's see on Friday.

Apr 27, 2021 5:10 AM in response to Ryan2026

Hopefully Apple support is wrong. Because if they a correct and a wife was to drive the car using her husband keys and he didn’t go with her. Then the system would warn her she is being tracked.


We need to have the option to share tracking items among friends and family. The second person should be able to be invited to share access to the tag.

May 1, 2021 7:25 PM in response to Joe Dawson

This is going to be a problem. I put Airtags on our keychains. We don’t carry keys for both cars at the same time, so we grab the keychain for the car we need to drive. But if 1 keychain is associated with the other person’s phone, and the keychain goes missing, they won’t be able to find it. Seems like they need a family sharing feature.

Jun 15, 2021 6:09 AM in response to jerminho

Not having family sharing is a major oversight by Apple!


Sure, family members can choose to "permanently ignore" the alert once it comes up. And Apple has mitigated others from getting an alert if a tracker is nearby them when the owner is absent by not triggering the alert unless the tracker is moving with them. In other words, a stationary (not moving) tracker will not trigger the alerts. Ok that's fine, but here's a real scenario that is NOT mitigated and needs to be, which has happened 2 times in the last week and I've only had these AirTags for a week!


  1. My tracker is attached to my set of car keys. My wife has her own tracker on her keys. We have a daughter of driving age that borrows the car frequently and will take either my or my wife's keys (obviously) when she does.
  2. 1st time my daughter does this, she gets the alert and chooses to "ignore permanently" which is fine (though she has to do this for each sets of keys).
  3. My daughter then picks up 2 friends and goes to the mall. Now what happens?!?!?! Each of her friends now get an alert as they are traveling with my daughter (with my keys), as does every person in the mall that happens to cross paths with my daughter 2-3 times throughout the day.

3b: Hasn't happened yet but will in September when my daughter occasionally borrows the car to go to school... at which point EVERY student in the school, or at lest those within her classes will now get alerts, while at the same time my daughter will be getting reciprocal alerts at the same time from others doing the same thing who happen to have AirTags of their own (borrowed parent's car/keys).


BTW, adding her own (a second) AirTag to the set of keys does not solve this problem.

...going a step further on this REAL scenario....


5. I meanwhile borrow my wife's keys and take our 2nd car to do some grocery shopping. As I travel up/down the grocery aisles, I notice that people around me start looking at their phones! What's happening??? Turns out everyone in the grocery store that has an iPhone is getting nuisance alerts that an AirTag is traveling with them!!


Why? Because I have my wife's AirTag with me (obviously without my wife's iPhone) and now everyone in the grocery store thinks they have a stalker AirTag on them.


Both situations above would be entirely eliminated with Family sharing... where the AirTag, although "owned" by one person could "Family Share" it with everyone in my family and thus the system would realize the tag was traveling with an "authorized" person and not issue these embarrassing, nuisance alerts to everyone in the area when the one "owner" is not also in the area.


MASSIVE oversight by Apple on this one and if not addressed shortly, we'll be disabling the AirTags we currently own because of this and my guess is that so will everyone else.


Cheers...

Apr 30, 2021 1:04 PM in response to jerminho

It is extremely disappointing that there is not currently an option to share AirTags with family members. This is a very convenient feature that Tile (as well as other trackers offers). I suppose I should have looked into this before ordering them. I suppose it just seemed like such a no-brainer feature that I didn't even think to checking.


I hope this is functionality they add soon. If Tile could figure out how to do it I am sure Apple can. This is kind of a bummer.

Apr 30, 2021 2:41 PM in response to jerminho

No. The answer is no.


So, the scenario is: your household has 2 vehicles, 2 sets of keys. You have two airtags, one for each set of keys. You attach an airtag to your keys, and your family member to their's and you each sync the airtag to your own phone. Your keys are attached to an airtag on your phone and their's their's. Make sense? You and a family member primarily drive different cars, but occasionally drive each other's car (for any of a bunch of different reasons).


For whichever reason you are in a position where they other family member has taken the car you primarily drive and you are also going to go somewhere and you need to find their keys can you do so with your phone? No, no you cannot. Unless you have their phone.


You would think you could share an airtag, just like you can share the location of your phone with someone, but you would be wrong. You cannot.


The airtag is attached to a single appleid. You could remove it and someone else could sync to it, or vice versa, they could remove it and you could sync to it. But in the case of keys or just about anything else you could share, tv remote's etc. The answer is no, no you cannot.


What you could do is take 2 air tags, and sync one to your phone and one to another phone. And then you could take both airtags and attach them to one thing. Then you could share location finding of a single thing with 2 people, but if you're asking if you can use one airtag and attach it to a device that might get misplaced regularly and have 2 people find that one thing with 2 different devices, the answer is no, you cannot.


Say you're married and have 2 kids. And between you, you have 3 phones. Say the oldest kid has a phone, but the youngest doesn't. And say also that the oldest kid also drives a car to school. Basically, how about say you have 2 cars with 2 sets of keys each, a remote control to the tv, and something else, like say a wallet or purse, or toddler or cat, or something, and you want all 3 people to be able to find those 6 things (4 sets of keys, a remote, and something else) using their 3 devices.


To do this you would need, 3 airtags for each thing. So that would be 12 airtags for keys, 3 for the remote, and 3 for the something else. So 18 airtags, for 6 things, able to be found by 3 devices with different appleids. And, of course, each thing would have to 3 airtags attached to it. So, yeah, no you cannot. You can, sort of, but no, you won't.


Will Apple fix this, yes, eventually. Will it be so long from now that you don't care anymore and ApplePro

Airtags 6's are out in 2030? Yes....probably.


Range is about 20 feet before precision kicks in. So you still have to search your entire house to narrow it down but once you're in the same room it will probably give you an arrow, which is cool. You have to search the whole house but you probably won't have to tear it apart.


That should be the airtag pitch right there. "If you know what you lost is within 20 feet you're good, and if you lose something at home, it will keep you from having to tear the house apart, but you still have to look everywhere."


Apple AirMarcoPolo's. That's it. Apple if you're hiring I'm your guy, just rebranded a product for you. Marco Polo without a pool, and you don't have to tear your house apart. And also you can't close your eyes or precision tracking won't really work.


New single person game, Single player Hide 'n Go Seektags. That's it. Nailed it.


And for people that want to complain just imagine a scenario where someone wants help finding whatever the Airtags are attached to but you just really don't want to help...Well Apple has you covered. They thought of everything.


Wife: "where's the baby"

You: "IDK, I'd help you look but the airtag we fed him is attached to you're appleID so...."

Wife: "You're right honey, have you seen my phone?"

You: "No, you have to find that with your Apple watch"

Wife: "You're right have you seen my watch?"

You: "Here, I can help you find it since we attached two Airtags to it"

Wife after finding apple watch, her phone, and eventualy the baby: "We need to go"

You: "Where for what?"

Wife: "We need to get the baby a retirement gift since that just took 50 years."

Both: "Thank you Apple!"


End Apple ecosystem commercial.


Noyoucannot.

Apr 22, 2021 7:13 PM in response to sberman

They are associated with one Apple ID, not any particular hardware.


Family Sharing brings up an interesting question. It is possible for a person to track another person't devices if configured properly in Family Sharing. Might this not also be possible with Airtags and work in the OP's scenario? I guess we'll have to wait until the release to discover the details.

Apr 22, 2021 8:08 PM in response to sberman

That image you included... I can see people sharing an office and then one person goes down to the coffee shop taking their phone with them but leaving an Airtag attached to a bag or keys or something in the office space with the colleagues nearby with their iPhones. Suddenly everything starts beeping because you're near an AirTag but the owner isn't nearby.

Apr 25, 2021 9:40 AM in response to Limnos

I just spoke to Apple Support and this is going to be a problem for many. If I setup an air tag for my wife camera. It will warn her that she is traveling with someone else’s air tag.


This is going to be a problem for sharing of items such as luggage. If I use the luggage it will be fine but if my wife was to use it it would warn her she is traveling with someone else’s air tag. Hopefully they fix this ASAP.

Apr 29, 2021 1:07 AM in response to jerminho

I hope you can share with other family members. We've ordered 4 tags, one each for our keys and one for our dog's collar. We are expecting that we can both see where all the tags are. If our dog walker takes the dog out (she has an iPhone too) I would expect her iPhone to warn her she is being tracked but for her to pause the warning. He currently has a 4G tracker so she is aware that we see where she has taken him and know when she is on the way back. Only another day until we find out if these are great or just a terrible implementation!

Apr 30, 2021 6:45 AM in response to Clansfolk

Yes just got 4 airtags and connected airtags to my wife’s keys and purse, but don’t show on my Find My. Given her iPhone, iPad and watch all appear on my Find My app via family sharing, I think Apple needs to rethink how “Items” in Find My works with family sharing. I’m the only person that drive’s her car, and wife is always “borrowing” my wallet!!

Can you share AirTags with family members?

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