Maximum amount of AirTags

AAGism wrote:

I was able to find a solution online for being stuck at 14 airtags. I have my airpod pros connected to my account and available in Find My. Apparently the airtag limit counts the two airpod pro buds as two airtags IF added before a maximum of 16 airtags have been added to your account. Unpairing the airpod pros allowed me to add my two remaining airtags making my total connected equal 16. After successfully pairing the airtags I was able to pair the airpod pros with no issue and they appear to have the same Find My functionality as before.

This also is how I ended up getting it to work. However I only had 4 Airtags on my account. I suspect it is not actually counting the AirPod Pros as tags, but somehow having them associated with your iCloud account is causing an issue anyway.

Ok, I had 3 AirPods that I removed and once I removed all 3 AirPods, I was then able to connect my remaining 2 AirTags. Hooray! Thanks for the advice to remove all the AirPods. That did the trick. Now my question is why is there even a limit on how many we can have!?

Ok, so I found the answer to this question. I’m going to save you a LOT of time and hassle. I called Apple Technical Support and they had me literally signing out of all my devices and having my iPhone forget them, etc. That took me hours to get things connected back up with Bluetooth etc. and in the end, their fix did not work! First things first, I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max and I had 15 AirTags in my Apple Find My app. I had one more AirTag that I needed to get activated and I got the same error message as above. Before you wipe out your phone and start blanking devices - stop! Check your devices section of the Find My app. I have 3 different sets of AirPods. I have an original set, a set of AirPod Pros and a set of AirPod Pro Max headphones. I had gone to each pair of headphones and had them removed from the Find My app and, originally, that did not work. I think there are some factors at play in my situation that may be helpful. Since I’ve spent the past month and a half unsuccessfully trying to get this resolved, I hope to save some fellow Apple family the same frustration!

First, make sure your software is up to date on your iphone.

Second, take the AirTag you are having trouble getting to pair and remove the backing cover off of it and remove the battery. Place the battery back in the AirTag and press down on the battery until you hear a chirp. Do this 4 more times (a total of 5 times) and you will hear a different chirping sound than the other times. At that time, replace the backing cover and you have successfully restarted/reset your AirTag.

Go into your Bluetooth app on your iphone and select your AirPods info (the circle around the lower case i ) and select forget this device. Repeat this for each set of AirPods you have. You DO NOT need to do this for any other devices that connect via BlueTooth. You don’t need to do this for your Apple Watch or your iPad, etc. Don’t waste your time.

Once you have gone through Bluetooth on your phone and forgotten your AirPods, then open the Find My app and then select each AirPod and select Forget This Device from that location. Do this only for each AirPod on your Find My app. No need to forget any other device.

After you do that, turn off your phone.

Now here’s something that I did that was different that may actually make a difference for you! I took only my iphone and my 16th AirTag outside. I walked out into my driveway to get away from the myriad of other Apple devices in my house that could potentially interfere. I have 3 AirPods in the house, an iPad, a MBP and an iMac. I wanted no other interference. I did have on my Apple Watch and a Fitbit that connect via Bluetooth to my phone, but they didn’t interfere. Once I was a good 10 yards away from all other Apple devices, I powered my iPhone back on. I brought the AirTag out of my pocket and when the AirTag showed up in the lock screen of my iPhone, I tapped connect and it immediately began the set up process. I was stunned because I have been negatively conditioned to nothing working and getting that annoying error message. Anyhow I was able to set up the 16th AirTag and then add all my AirPods back to my Bluetooth and Find My accounts.

Whew!

Remove the batteries from all AirTags and leave aside for a bit, make sure you are updated to iOS 15.2, remove ALL bluetooth devices from your phone/iPad, reset your network settings, sign out of your iCloud account on your phone/iPad, then sign back in. Restarting your phone/iPad after sign in seems to help.

Once you've restarted your phone/iPad after the steps above, you will need to clear each AirTag one a time. To do this you remove and replace the battery five times. On the 6th time, put the cap back on and secure the battery. It will beep. Go to FindMy and set the AirTag directly on your phone/iPad screen and go through the steps to add it.

This is what I did to make it work finally. I couldn't use my phone because I didn't want to have to repair my watch, etc. I used my iPad to do it. I noticed on the iPad, that while I was adding them, it was only showing one or two in the items screen. When I looked at my phone, they were all there.

See if this helps! I know it's frustrating, and it seems to be an issue with iOS 15.2, FindMy, and iCloud. My guess is it's an iCloud issue that needs work on the back end. Other people I know have been able to add them with no issue until iOS 15.1 and 15.2 were released.

In response to BLRice's comments, the proposed solution may work but seems more radical than is probably required, especially if one has a lot of Bluetooth devices and AirTags.

The AirTag issue does not appear to be 15.2 specifically related. When I had issues trying to connect my 13th AirTag via 15.2 on multiple devices, I did get it connected on a not-yet-updated device that was on 15.0.1. However, when I tried connecting the 14th via that device, I got the same error message. That said, my iCloud "knows" my other devices are on 15.2 so perhaps BLRice's comment on OSs is valid if one has no up-to-date devices.

However, if one has AirPods paired, removing those then pairing the AirTags (with OS 15.2) is a lot simpler than BLRice's solution. One need not even clear (remove the battery) the AirTags before pairing them. I got the 15th and 16th paired immediately once the AirPods were unpaired, then the AirPods easily re-paired after i had the maximum 16 AirTags connected.

Hey here’s a tip if you tried removing your air pods first and it still doesn’t let you afterwards.. reconnect one of them and then remove it from Bluetooth once again, force close find me app and then re open it and try pairing AirTag again. It worked for me, definitely a software glitch

I tried everything imaginable but finally got AirTags 15 and 16 connected by unpairing AirPods. Then the AirTags set up perfectly. Of course then remember to repair your AirPods.

Pancake Bill, have you read through the earlier posts? Turning off Bluetooth won't help. (What else have you tried, since that's all you were specific about?) Removing ("forgetting") any AirPod devices should allow you install all 16 AirTags. Then reconnect the AirPods--after all 16 AirTags are connected. Do make sure your iOS is up-to-date first, of course.

I spent time reading for a solution and even with Apple Tech Support and still no resolution.

Well I found one that will work hopefully for you all with this issue.

I signed out of ICloud, then signed back in. It them recognized my Apple Tag and I was able to get it connected.

Unfortunately, you have to sign out and sign back in to activate each one or new one. Only took a few minutes but at least the 3 Apple Tags I was having this issue with are all connected again

Hopefully this helps some of you out there

After a lot of tries i have read something related to the airpods.

So i tried and worked for me.

Removed the airpod from the account, and i could activate the airpods i wana to and was not able to the error mentioned above.

After that done sucessfully, added the airpod again.

@apple new change for the next version. 15.3.1 does not solve it.

What I did with Apple Support was to log out of your Apple ID account under settings and log back in. I called because I was barely adding my second air tag and it showed me the same message. Logging back in helped me but someone please confirm if this could be a solution for this issue.

Same issue trying to add my very first AirTag. After trying everything and nothing worked; I’m so glad I found this and read all the responses. I removed my AirPod device and it finally let me add the AirTag.

Had the same problem and as you know no one had an answer. I just corrected my issue. Delete (Forget) all of your bluetooth devices in Settings, Bluetooth then reboot your iphone. From that point I was then able to load up my airtags.

I FOUND A SOLUTION!! … I think lol

So I have been getting this error for over a week and gave up on a fix. I only had 4 tags was trying to add 5th and said I had to remove one.

I removed one then it gave me the message again but then I only had 3 connected.

randomly I opened my iPad and it asked if I wanted to connect to the tag I said yes and it worked! I added the tags to my apple account on my iPad instead of my phone (both obviously logged in to same apple account).

I then tried to add on phone but wouldn’t work there. I don’t know why my iPad lets me add but because they share it now is on my phone too!!! Totally random chance to find a fix but it worked!!

I'm encountering the exact same issue as the previous poster.

My Apple ID is linked to 14 Airtag. If I try to add another Airtag, I get the same message as posted above "Your apple ID cannot add another Airtag until one or more have been removed. "

I just got back from an appointment with the Genius Bar of a local Apple Store, and they were stumped. Although there are various non-Apple articles online that indicate the Airtag limit per Apple ID is 16, Apple's support team could find no official documentation indicating a specific number.

At this point, I suspect that the actual Airtag limit per Apple ID is 14, not 16. It would be very helpful if Apple could officially confirm the limit so that there is some clarity on this.