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airtag help, broken?

Bought my first airtag, attached to my wallet, activated and see it under my devices in the find my app.


To test it out, left it at my house while I went to gym.

when I was done at gym I brought up the find my app, and it said my AirTag was last seen more than an hour ago.

but NOT where it is now.

I tried turning on lost mode, maybe that triggers it to start pinning location.

nothing.


it didn’t respond til I was ten foot away at home again saying it was found.


I thought it was supposed to piggy back on other phones anonymously and ping it’s location. There are four other devices with location services turned on at the house. Small house, 3 devices are within 2m, one 4m away.


I have seen people on YouTube saying they know their luggage got to the airport because their AirTag shows it there. Thousand mile trip and it knows where their tag is, I went a mile and a half away and mines just saying “last seen at 9:58pm”m more then 1.5 hours ago where it WAS not where it IS.


Is it broke? Did I do something wrong? Do they actually work like advertised or did I waste more money?


thanks for any help

jason


AirTag

Posted on Jul 9, 2023 8:42 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 28, 2023 12:02 PM

Solution


since there is no reboot option on an AirTag, I figured maybe if I “disown” it, I,el disconnect from everything. It might reboot or reconfigure somehow back to initial settings.

so did that, answered all prompts, including the warning anyone can claim the AirTag if I continue.


waitied, rebooted phone (might not be necessary), and reconnected from scratch.

the only thing i did differently was tell it there was to delete any locations it recommended I ignore leaving it at. (Which shouldn’t have been a problem as I left it at the office as a test before and it still didn’t warn me I left it behind)


this time it seems to be working, I got an alert I left it behind and it updates about every fifteen minutes when I tested it.


one last tests at office next week and I think I can sign off on this finally as solved.

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7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 28, 2023 12:02 PM in response to jaxjason

Solution


since there is no reboot option on an AirTag, I figured maybe if I “disown” it, I,el disconnect from everything. It might reboot or reconfigure somehow back to initial settings.

so did that, answered all prompts, including the warning anyone can claim the AirTag if I continue.


waitied, rebooted phone (might not be necessary), and reconnected from scratch.

the only thing i did differently was tell it there was to delete any locations it recommended I ignore leaving it at. (Which shouldn’t have been a problem as I left it at the office as a test before and it still didn’t warn me I left it behind)


this time it seems to be working, I got an alert I left it behind and it updates about every fifteen minutes when I tested it.


one last tests at office next week and I think I can sign off on this finally as solved.

Jul 10, 2023 7:46 AM in response to jaxjason

It's important to understand that the Apple AirTag relies on Bluetooth and not GPS for providing its current location. As such, either your or someone else's iPhone must be near the AirTag in order for it to receive its Bluetooth signal. From there, the iPhone must have either a cellular or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to send the location information to the Apple servers BEFORE you can see it in the Find My app on your phone.


If I had to guess, while you were at the gym with your phone, no other phone was nearby to pick up the signal.

Jul 10, 2023 8:13 AM in response to jaxjason

Tesserax is spot-on.


Airtags work best in areas with good mobile data connections and lots of iPhones. (e.g. Airports)


They perform poorly in areas with few iPhones and/or poor mobile data.


They don’t work at all in areas lacking iPhones or mobile data. (e.g. deep rural or wilderness areas)


Also be aware that an AirTag doesn’t transmit it’s beacon continuously. (that would require too much energy)


Anecdotal evidence indicates beacon transmits occur maybe every 10m or so.

Jul 11, 2023 8:49 AM in response to jaxjason

Then, in theory, if each of those other iPhones had "Find My Network" enabled on them, your AirTag should appear in the Find My app on your phone when you were away from it.


There is also a possibility that this tag is defective ... and should that be the case, and you got it within the last 14 days, you can return it for either a replacement or a full refund. After that, you can still bring it to your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Reseller to have them verify that it is indeed defective and you should be able to get a replacement at little or no cost to you.


Alternately, you can contact Apple Support directly for further assistance with this matter. To do so, simply select the "Support" link on the lower left-hand side of this forum's web page.

Jul 10, 2023 9:00 PM in response to Chattanoogan

AirTag was at home with multiple devices nearby to ping to.

it didn’t ping even one time in 90 minutes.


it wasn’t until I got home that my phone detected it directly and said it was nearby.

which would imply I have to drive around until MY phone is nearby, not my wife’s, sons or any other persons, which was the case.


there were 2 iPhones and a iPad nearby and with location services turned on.


so according to both of you, I should have gotten at least one ping in 90 minutes.

airtag help, broken?

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