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Air Tags Connection Errors Max Number of Devices

I just purchased four air tags today. When trying to connect them, I receive the error "Maximum Items Added - To add AirTag, open FindMy to remove one of the items that is paired to your apple id."


I have only 1) Iphone12 running iOS 15.2; 2) AppleWatch 6; 3) iPadPro 10.2; 4) AirPods Pro. I saw one suggestion to remove the air pods then try, and I was able to get further than the error.


I have removed the AirPods, restarted, and was able to get to the label prompt, then it won't connect and back to the same error as above. I have reset network settings, reset the AirTag (remove battery 5 times), and still I get the same error.


This is highly frustrating. I don't think that having 4 apple devices is too many. I know you can have a max of 10 devices total so I know this is a software issue most likely. I just updated to iOS 15.2 today.


Does anyone have any advice? I have already followed everything I can on this error.

iPhone 12, iOS 15

Posted on Dec 16, 2021 2:13 PM

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Posted on Dec 20, 2021 6:42 AM

I was able to finally get them added. I had to do it with my iPad instead of my phone. I made sure the iPad was updated, logged out, and logged back into my iCloud account, removed all bluetooth devices from my iPad, turned on airplane mode and turned off bluetooth. I also reset each AirTag before adding them.


I don't know what caused this to happen, but there is a definite issue with iCloud, FindMy, and/or iOS/iPadOS 15.2 that prevents them from being added immediately. Apple Support was able to help me a little, but the representative was even at a loss.

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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 20, 2021 6:42 AM in response to JovonaP.

I was able to finally get them added. I had to do it with my iPad instead of my phone. I made sure the iPad was updated, logged out, and logged back into my iCloud account, removed all bluetooth devices from my iPad, turned on airplane mode and turned off bluetooth. I also reset each AirTag before adding them.


I don't know what caused this to happen, but there is a definite issue with iCloud, FindMy, and/or iOS/iPadOS 15.2 that prevents them from being added immediately. Apple Support was able to help me a little, but the representative was even at a loss.

Dec 24, 2021 8:21 PM in response to BLRice

I believe that it is an iCloud / Find My iPhone software problem. The only thing that helped me was signing out of my iCloud account and then signing back in. Doing this allowed me to add another AirTag before it went back to the same “Maximum Devices Added” error. Logging out again allows another AirTag to be added before it goes back to “Maximum Devices Added”. Very frustrating and seems like an Apple software issue.

Feb 15, 2022 10:54 PM in response to AKRHewitt

I’ve tried updating my phone, getting a new phone, trying on an old phone, deleting everything off my account and trying again, resetting the phone, changing my password, logging out of every device I can find, trying my iPad, turning find my off and on at least a dozen times, removed my AirPods no less than 14 times, removed my watch 3 times, logged out of my computer, logged back in, and seven phone calls with Apple support that cannot figure out why a PC, an iPhone, an iPad, a watch, and AirPods counts as 10 items. I’m out of ideas. And for whatever reason my computer, find my, and my iCloud show completely different numbers on what I have. My PC only sees the PC, my iPhone, and my iPad. Find My sees my iPhone, my iPad, my Apple Watch, my AirPods, and my Apple TV. iCloud sees those but not my AirPods. You would think there would be some consistency across but there isn't.

Feb 19, 2022 10:13 AM in response to BLRice

I've been facing this same issue since I got my AirTags in December. Senior tech support went through all the troubleshooting steps they could think of including screen sharing so they could watch me trying to add the Tags, delete everything from iCloud, and sent diagnostics reports to them. They forwarded everything to the engineering team but apparently, Apple is unable, incapable, or unwilling to actually fix this issue. I assume the few of us that are having this problem won't generate enough revenue for Apple to offset the cost of paying an engineer to look into this issue further so were pretty much out of luck until the problem becomes systemic enough for them to stop ignoring it. In the meantime, if you need to track an often misplaced Apple device I suggest just duct taping the device to a large cinder block so that the item will not be easily misplaced or accidentally left behind.

Apr 19, 2022 3:52 AM in response to BLRice

SOLVED! I was getting this same message and got an answer after a lengthy chat with Apple support. Like many, I went through the process of unpairing bluetooth devices, signing out from iCloud, turning location services / find my on and off…. I rebooted my phone and did all of these combinations together. Nothing worked and my Airtags still kept showing the “Maximum items added” error. The same Airtags would pair with my wifes’ iPhone.


After speaking with two exceptionally helpful people, it was suggested I re-pair a set of my Airpods back onto the iPhone, then remove them again. Yeeeee haaaa! It worked. I added four Airtags without issue. The key is to remove the Airpods, add them back, then remove them again…. I’m hoping this helps anyone with the same issue.

Air Tags Connection Errors Max Number of Devices

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