AirPods last address

As Mac Jim ID suggests, the evidence suggests the missing AirPods might have been carried through a neighbour's property, or at least within Bluetooth range of their Apple devices. This could be consistent with theft by local wildlife.

You should also consider the potential (in)accuracy of any GPS fix which might be involved. In an open environment I would expect most fixes to be within about 5 metres of reality. With the GPS receiver inside a building the accuracy will be degraded to an unknown extent but probably still within about 30-50 metres for a single spot fix, and rather better if multiple fixes are averaged. That would be the position of the iOS device which detected and reported the AirPods, and the AirPods themselves would probably be within about 10m radius (Bluetooth range) from the reporting device.

If the Airpods continue to be reported from the neighbour's property for more than 24 hours it might be that a thieving monkey discovered they were not edible and discarded the stolen AirPods within range of the neighbors' iPhones. If they continue to be reported from around the same location there is a chance you and the neighbour might be able to find the missing item.

Nothing can be proved by the last known address in Find My. Since the AirPods use bluetooth to get their location from a nearby device, the location is not always accurate, although newer devices are able to use Precision Tracking to locate them. Also they can be moved without a device nearby and the location will not update. You do have the option to play a sound using Find My if there is a device nearby to communicate the message to your AirPods.

Once the AirPod is detected by Bluetooth, the phone gathers location information from GPS, Cell Towers and Public Wifi locations to determine the location and transmits it along with the AirPod serial number to iCloud on a private network with the encrypted data that does not include the phones serial number that detected it. The location of the AirPod is more accurate if the device has the Ultra Wideband chip that can determine direction and distance from the device.

hartmut144 wrote:

Since the AirPods use bluetooth to get their location from a nearby device, on

what basis is the address given based? i.e. how does Apple establish the address (blue tooth location)?

Usually the GPS receiver in an iPhone or iPad which detects the Airpods. Th actual position in Find My would be the position of the iOS device rather than the AirPods which would be nearby.