How to update AirTag Location

I have a big problem with uploading location. I have an airtag in the car in case of theft, and as soon as the car is gone, the position is absolutely not updated, which makes the entire airtag unusable and completely useless. what is the point of having it if its only function doesn't work- locate it?

These airtags were a complete waste of money! Not only are they bigger than what I had pictured, but the location of the airtags NEVER update unless im next to the airtag and have service. I put one in my car bc i notoriously forget which street i last parked my car, and i attached another one to my dog’s collar so that i can find him if he runs off and/or know where he is when a dog walker takes him on a walk instead of me, etc.

Both of my airtags have proven to be completely useless and a huge huge waste of money. If anyone has a solution, please share! I’d very much appreciate it.

Fir example, I’m looking at the Chipolo tag in my son’s backpack right now. Last time its location was updated was 45 minutes ago at his school. The teacher has an iPhone, so, I should be getting regular updates about the Chipolo tag’s location. Sometimes, the updates don’t come for hours. When my wife picks my son up, there’s only one update within a 15 minute drive home (4 miles). How are you expected to find an object along a 4-mile stretch of road if there was only one location update along the route?

I've just called Apple about this, and I was told that in order for Apple to look at this as a systemic issue with Airtags, more people need to call in and open cases on this issue of the AirTags' location not updating frequently enough. I was told that Apple was not going to be looking at this issue as a systemic issue until they receive enough calls about it. They told me they don't consider this thread as any sort of signal that this happens to a lot of people - they need calls into the Apple support line complaining about it. Otherwise, they are going to treat this as a case-by-case issue, and they will be troubleshooting individual AirTags and not the entire system that's not updating the AirTag's location. Apple is a huge company and a big bureaucracy, so there is a lot of red tape to cut through before they send this issue to the engineers. Please do your part and call this in to Apple.

I’m sorry, but you are incorrect. Per the product description on Apple’s website , the Airtag is supposed to link to any Apple device on the Find My network and report its location. It is not supposed to be limited to “your iPhone” or only devices logged on to your iCloud account. The exact verbiage from their website says “…hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices around the world — helps track down your AirTag.”

I have a similar issue. Tracker was with a family member with an iPhone XR that had been updated to iOS 14.6 and the apple tag never updated its position during the entire 20 minute walk. The phone was set to use Find My... and I could see their phone in the and watch in "find my device" from my phone.

Hi. I've got the exact same problem (Sweden), the only time my Airtag updates it's location is when my phone is within reach. I've tried resetting Airtag several times, testing pairing with another phone, other appleID etc - nothing changes. I live in a very crowded area and the possibility that an Airtag moving in my area wouldn't meet a supported appleproduct within a couple of minutes is not likely. I've put the Airtag in my son's backpack trying to locate him when he moved around outside in the neighborhood for an hour, tried putting it on my cat leaving it on for a whole day - still only updates location when close to my device. Something must be wrong hardware-wise on this and others airtags posted in this thread. Any news from Apple support? Tried googling, haven't found much. Thank you in advance.

I am having the same issue. I live in Ohio, USA, so it isn’t a Korea thing for me at least. I put one on each of my dogs. Today, one went missing. I have been looking for him for five hours now. I have friends and family looking too. They asked what the alert would look like if we found him, so to test it, I sent the other dog collar with my husband and a family member, both with their iPhones. They were gone 15 minutes, and I had it in lost mode with notification on, and it kept showing our home address the whole time, with the time that they left.

I am agreeing that this is not helpful. I am hoping my dog finds his way home tonight somehow, or maybe someone picked him up but didn’t call the number on his tag. If I have an AirTag on my bag, and a friend drops me at home and I forget the bag in their car, they will leave and my bag will say it is at my house with the time that they left, and I’ll never find it again, unless they find it or I remember that it was last at my house when their car was and figure it out. NOT helpful. (I was switching from Tile to AirTag, and now I am regretting that.)

Hi miyalung,

We're glad you've reached out through Apple Support Communities for help with your AirTag. We're happy to help in any way we can.

So you're aware, an AirTag may update its location periodically when within range of an Apple device configured for use with the Find My network. If it's not updating its location when you're away from home, you'll want to ensure that your family members are using compatible Apple devices updated to the latest software versions.

The following guide has more information:

Find your keys, wallet, and more with AirTag - Apple Support

It's important to note that "the Find My network isn't supported in South Korea and might be unavailable in other regions due to local laws."

We're here for you if you've got any questions.

Have a great day!

AirTags also have Precision Finding, but you must have one of these phones:

• Phone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max

Supposedly, you can locate an item with an accuracy to an inch if you have one of those phones. With older phones, you can only see the general location and you can make it play a sound, so you hopefully you can locate the item by sound.

Because both my wife and I have older iPhones (mine is the 2020 iPhone SE and hers is the iPhone Xs), so the Precision Finding doesn't work with our iPhones. I stopped buying the latest iPhones some time ago. I am not going to shell out $1,000 for the latest iPhone, whereas I can buy a new unopened iPhone 2 generations ago for half the price, and it works just as well as the brand new one.

So, because we couldn't take advantage of Precision Finding, instead of buying Apple Air Tags I bought Chipolo One Tags. They are the first non-Apple tag compatible with Apple's Find Me via iCloud feature, but they don't have the Precision Finding feature in them (and neither do my iPhones). The benefit of the Chipolo One is that it has a hole in it, so you don't have to buy a case for each tag just to be able to mount it on a ring. Chipolo One are also water proof (just like Apple's Air Tags) and they sound louder than the Air Tags. Outside of the Bluetooth range of the iPhone they are paired with, Apple's Air Tag and Chipolo Tag function the same exact way. They use the same Apple's iCloud framework for reporting their location, and both of them have the same issue with very infrequent location updates.

Interestingly enough, I mounted a Chipolo tag on our dog's collar and paired it with my wife's iPhone Xs. After I take my dog for a walk and come back, I have an alert pop up on my iPhone that a tag not registered with my iPhone has been accompanying me, and when I tap on that alert, it opens the Find Me app with several options (Mute alert for today, Disable the tag, etc.). Along with those options, I also see an accurate route of my walk with the dog with multiple points connected together with straight lines. So, I know that within a 25-minute walk, my iPhone records at least 12-15 locations (every couple of minutes) and is able to chart my route on the map, but yet, my wife's iPhone barely gets one update of the location (and that is on a good day). So, I believe that Apple intentionally suppresses the frequency of the updates to prevent accurate tracking of another person by planting your airtag on that person's body or in his/her luggage. That does prevent being able to track a person in real time, but it also completely defeats the purpose of the location tracking feature in a tag. If someone steals your computer bag with a tag in it, you will not be able to track the thief. Apple had to walk a fine line here between the usability and the privacy, and - IMHO - they failed in both.

For Precision Finding, we use Tile tags, which work fine even with our older iPhones. Tile tags don't have the accuracy to an inch, but it can pinpoint a general area within the room where the Tile Tag is located, and it can definitely guide you to the correct room, using Bluetooth proximity indicator. Additionally, Tile now partnered with the Amazon's Sidewalk service, so some devices (like most Amazon's Echo smart speakers, Ring Floodlight Cam, Ring Spotlight Cam, etc. ) can function as Amazon Sidewalk Bridges and can assist in locating a lost Tile tag, which means that if a dog runs along a street with a row of houses on each side, chances are that the dog's location will be reported by at least one Amazon Sidewalk bridges installed inside or outside one of those houses. Amazon even advertises pet trackers compatible with Amazon Sidewalk.

I don't know which system is better at locating a moving object. I'd probably use both iCloud-comapatible tag (like Air Tag or Chipolo) and a Tile tag on the same pet at the same time.

Snap! That hurt. (Not).

it’s not about not being technical. That’s what these forums are for. It’s about refusing to read the post that I spent hours on to explain how it works and coming here just to vent your frustration from understanding how this technology is designed to work. There is nothing wrong with the AirTag. I thought it wasn’t working right either n the beginning until I spent some time with it, tested it in various scenarios, understood how it was designed, and then piste the explanation here. It’s all explained. Just read it.

We still haven’t found our dog. 😭. He’s on cardiac medication, so I think at this point all hope is lost. I spent an hour and a half with Apple support and they couldn’t answer that either, about the frequency of updating the location. She said it certainly shouldn’t take 15 minutes. I’m looking at GPS collars for my remaining dog now.

So after two weeks, we found our dog’s collar. We searched about 60 acres, no luck. Now we find it, dirty, clasp still closed, down by the creek behind our house where we searched a hundred times in the first week. No sign of our dog or his remains, but since the collar was closed and not open, I’m guessing the coyotes or hawks or other wildlife have separated him from his collar. Complete failure. What could have saved my dog’s life, completely failed me. I was counting on you Apple, after the tiles kept failing, I’m guessing from water exposure when my chihuahua would drink from his bowl. What a disappointment.

I have been in contact with Apple about this issue. Apple support just explains how the Airtag 'should' work: 'The location is only updated when there is an iPhone nearby. Once close to it the App will guide you towards it'. But, when I walk to the last reported location WITH MY IPHONE the 'Last seen' timestamp is not updated, you are not guided towards it and you get the 'Airtag not reachable, move around to connect' error when trying to play a sound. We also asked a couple of other iPhone users to walk around the last reported location and the neighborhood but that did not help. Most of the time the last reported location is near where we live (within 100 meters, hopping around within a radius of 10 meters), but what is a bit odd that sometimes the last reported location is near the entrance of a nearby shopping mall (and perhaps other odd locations as well, we do not watch the location all the time). Perhaps there is a delay reporting the location of the Airtag to Apple, and when reported it uses the current GPS location of the iPhone instead of the GPS location when the Airtag was seen?

That is patently wrong. The whole point of the Air Tag is to be able to locate it when it’s NOT within the Bluetooth range of your iPhone. It has NOTHING to do with it being or not being a GPS device.

The location of the Air Tag when outside the Bluetooth range of the iPhone it’s registered with relies on other iPhones reporting their location when their Bluetooth radios detect the Air Tag in their proximity.