How to update AirTag Location

Apple does not recommend using AirTags on pets or children, just things. Besides, AirTags only send location information on occasion and need to be near a Apple device. That wouldn't be the best option to find a lost pet.

The issue is not if it’s suitable for tracking dogs or cats. Obviously, it’s not suitable for that purpose because you can’t ensure that there’s an iPhone in close proximity of the animal to be able to follow the animal in near real time to have a chance at finding it.

The problem is that even when there is an iPhone near the tag at all times, the tag’s location is not updated for long periods of time. There is no excuse for it. It means that AirTags and any third-party tags that rely on the Apple’s Find Me frameworks (such as Chipolo One tags) are completely useless for tracking an object outside the Bluetooth range of the iPhone with which the tag is registered. Effectively, the AirTag is as useful (or useless) as a Tile tag.

I am not here with a helpful comment, I only navigated here because I have the exact same issue and I live in Maryland, USA. It’s truly frustrating that my air tags aren’t updating frequently. This is the same

frustration I have whenever I misplace my AirPods. I was hoping to find answers myself because I’ve misplaced my keys a few times. Sometimes the sound will go off and other times it won’t.

I bought a 4 pack of these this week and none of them are updating their location when they are away from the phone they are paired to. I even tried taking 3, up to date IPhones with me (not the one the airtags are paired to) and the airtags did not once update their location. What a waste of money, i don’t see any options but to return these.

So if my keys are in a taxi and it's moving, it'll take me THAT much longer to find them? You see how it still isn't a great tool even for "things". I have one that I put on my daughter's backpack and I have better chances tracking her in real-time on the Verizon app instead of using the Find My with the Airtag. In addition, when the "Find My" app is advertised to locate your friends to know when they make it home safe (I just checked the Apple page on Find My), then it is assumed that the app itself should update in real-time regardless of the device. Regardless of the device, it's the app, I feel that isn't updating in real-time and that's the biggest issue. Maybe they should ask Verizon what they are doing with their Smart Family app to allow me to track my daughter's phone as her bus moves through its route to our home. I bought an Airtag for her and was disappointed when 30 minutes had gone by and it still showed that she was at her school, when in fact she was in our neighborhood. If someone had stolen my keys, that's 30 minutes that I lost in finding them.

That would certainly explain the widely varying times that the AirTags update their position when they are in the constant presence of the iPhone that is accompanying them. I’m going to experiment with your idea to see if I can replicate your results. Thanks for the idea.

i think they are useless. bought two of them and neither updates. had my son walk around neighborhood with one in his pocket. (with his iphone in his hand). didn’t update the whole 28minutes. would be useless to quickly track dog.

I am absolutely furious that I wasted 100 dollars of my hard earned money on this crap. I share a truck with another driver and I bought these to put one in the truck so I can see how much longer it will be until he gets back to the yard. It’s not updating. Complete waste of money

And made it so the airtag isn’t working as advertised.

if you leave your bag on a train or live in New York, that’s fine. If you live someplace like Ohio, that means it won’t work at all. On a school bus, the kids will only ‘encounter’ the bus driver’s phone. When I forget my bag in my friend’s car, it will only ‘encounter’ my friend’s phone. When my husband walks the dog, it will only ‘encounter’ my husband’s phone.

You can state any reason / rationale, but the bottom line is that they don’t work. It isn’t like you can set it to lost mode, and the phone traveling ‘with’ it will get a notification. Wouldn’t it be nice if my friend would see a notification “Jane’s bag’s airtag is marked as lost, and close to your location” and then you could say to yourself ‘I just dropped Jane off at home 20 minutes ago….. I bet she forgot her bag in the backseat.’??? Tile has it figured out. I have never had a problem with the Tiles working, just not lasting. And I thought that the iOS devices would be better than just the devices with Tile apps. Wrong.

And just for the record, as you must have missed it, when my husband’s phone did pick up the Airtag of our missing dog, neither of us got an alert. His phone connected on a Tuesday and on a Saturday when a neighbor said they saw our dog, I opened the app to see where my husband was going / to see it the location in the other tab ‘item’ updated when he got there. It was only then that I saw the location at our house updated from Aug 1 to Aug 11, still marked as lost, still with our home address. When he got home we walked the property again, where he was spraying for poison ivy while I was at soccer with the kids, and that’s when we finally found the dog’s collar at the creek 100 feet from our house. He washed it and we put it in the garage until we could tell the kids. An hour later, I got an alert it had been found. So for 11 days, we had my iPhone, my husband’s iPhone, a family member’s iPhone, my two sons’ iPhones, out looking for him, plus two other friends came to visit with iPhones. Seven iPhones, 11 days, no updates on location. It.doesn’t.work.

Ok, clearly you are dense.

When my husband walks the dog, you meet NO one on the route.

When you are on a school bus, besides the driver, there are no phones.

When you forget your bag in someone’s car, if you knew where it was, you wouldn’t need the **** airtag to find it, you would call your friend.

That’s the point. To help you find what you have misplaced. If w remember where stuff is, you don’t need the airtags. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Who puts their phone in a bag?? It’s in your pocket or in your hand.

ok. Let me make it simplistic for you. Reviews online for tracking pets say use Airtags. When I bought mine there was nothing on Apple’s page about not using them for pets. The day after my dog disappeared, after multiple people with multiple phones searched for multiple hours, I called Apple support & spent two **** hours on the phone with the woman, second level of support up. She couldn’t tell my why they weren’t working. She read everything I had already read, and we tried everything I had already tried, and nothing worked.

The dog was gone August 1. On August 14, when I was looking at the app, it said that the last known location was on August 11. There was never a notification that the lost tag connected to the system. In fact, it was in my possession for almost two hours before any notification ever came though.

My dog didn’t run. He could barely walk. He was mostly blind and mostly deaf, and the collar was 100’ from our house, which likely means that the eight days I spent walking, loops past where the collar was found, it never connected.

They don’t advertise it as something that won’t work when you have the same phone by it. They don’t advertise it as something that won’t work with multiple phones looking for it. In fact, the APPLE SUPPORT person said that when my husband took it in the car for 15 minutes with his cousin, and it never updated the location, that it WAS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.

So maybe you should contact Apple and explain to their support people how it works, or maybe you should advise them to advertise their products’ capacities and capabilities correctly before people rely on them to their detriment. Or maybe just scroll on, and let someone else read the post and be warned to save their $200 and just get a Tile instead, as it would work better.

So essentially this is useless unless the airtag is near your own apple device. It does not update off the find my network, only the people who are linked to my own personal find my network. Great idea but not performing to how it should - can you let me know your official complaint and refund procedure as this is not fit for purpose currently.

I have been taking my AirTag with me in my car. I’m in traffic and I have my son at home, who’s phone it was connected to first time, check the location and it said it can communicate with it but the location is still at our home. Not in traffic.

Um no. My AirTag worked just fine for months. Now it’s not updating to Antibes phone except mine. I am aware how they work. And now it’s not doing what it’s supposed to. Why are you in the thread if you don’t want to trouble shoot?

Not helpful and rude. Maybe the user did not understand the solution. BTW the only solution for the airtag is it doesnt work period. Look up the description on amazon and let me know if that corresponds to what its suppose to do on here.

I am sorry you are having a bad day and I do apologize for my lack of knowledge, I just joined the Community a week ago. I will try to watch what I write or maybe just watch the Experts.

I hope you have a better day