AirTag not showing on map when away from home

I bought one for my daughter. I attached it to the inside of her backpack (she's only five) in case the bus is late I can see where she is at. Or when she goes to her grandmother's, I can randomly check her location. The air tag is never in real time. It's always "17 minutes ago" or some other time shown, but not at that precise moment. The air tag is useless if I'm looking to see where her bus is but it still has her at school.

so how come that my dad has his iphone with him have 4g/5g sginal while walking with my dog in a park, my dog has an airtag and the location is not being reported back at any time, thats 30feet away, location from my dad it is reported live but not the air tag, so what is going on with it, it only reports back when they are both at home.

i am currently on vacation and my dog is with my MIL who has an iPhone and her location is hated with me. My dogs are staying with her and they both have air tags but their location will not update even though and iPhone is near them at all times. Why are they not working. Is there a setting she needs to turn on on her phone to do air tags? She has WiFi and blue tooth and location services on. What am I missing?!

Same thing here, my dad goes to the park to walk our dog, location is never showed, he has his iphone 14 pro max and his apple watch with him and should be reporting the location back but it isnt, if i track my dad location with find my, it is show live while walking but the air tag doesnt do anything.

Yes this is precisely the situation I am experiencing with the AirTag on my dog's collar. I'm out WITH him at nearby park and my phone shows he's with me. But my husband's phone shows the dog at home. Same thing happens when I stay home and he walks the dog.

Same issue. Changed from XR to iPhone 13. Worked fine with XR could see son at his mates house but now on iPhone 13, on find my phone, it shows at home all the time. Doesn’t locate him but the AirTag works. Any thoughts?? All my privacy settings look correct.

As stated previously, the location of the AirTag can only update when there is a phone nearby. The AirTag is not a device that has GPS tracking built in and has to rely on a bluetooth connection to a phone that does have the GPS capability. When you see a location that says "17 minutes ago", then that is because there was a device within about 30 feet of your daughter that transmitted the location at that time. If you are looking for real time tracking, it would be better to put a phone in her backpack with the sound turned off to avoid distractions. Since she is only 5, you could put a luggage lock on a zipper inside the backpack.

Ok, let's make sure I understand your post correctly.

Are you saying that when you are home with both your iPhone and this AirTag, and then, travel with both to another location, that the AirTag still shows up as though it is still located at your home?

iPhone, Bluetooth on, find my on, key chain on, 2FA on, running latest iOS, , only works when within distance of registered iPhone.doesn’t work with shared device.

told by Apple support that device needs to be iOS 17 and device needs to be iPhone 12 and above.

anyone been able to resolve this issue?

Let say you have two iPhones and the air tag at home if you look at it shows at home, if one of the persons takes his iPhone and the dog out the air tag won’t report back is out there will remain saying it’s at home, even if you locate the second iPhone will give you a live view of the person but the air tag won’t update no matter what

It still needs an iPhone within 30 feet that has Bluetooth and Location Services turned on to update its location. The AirTag does not have GPS and needs to rely on getting the location from a nearby device.

I think most of us have stated with phone in proximity it is not working.

Like all the types of tag, bar those deliberately designed to be full GPS trackers and hence having a SIM card, outside Bluetooth range requires someone to be nearby with the relevant tracking app and in Bluetooth range. I don’t know whether Android phones can have an app that tracks all makes of tags, certainly my old Chipolo app was device specific. So an Apple tag is liable to be seen by an Apple phone and Apple phones are very numerous where’s phones running Chipolo may not. The Android app for checking Apple tags but it does gives alerts if someone is close to your tag and enables you to identify contact details for a found tag. For complete tracking you must have a racket with both GPS and a sim card

I had the same problem with no location found. So, instead of using Siri to find the AirTags I open find my and tap on the air tag that I want to locate and it shows the location every time. Hope this helps.

Does it need to be an iphone or even an android phone within 30ft works?