iOS 17 AirTag sharing with child

Hey there RARMiddleton,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities.

Just to confirm, does your daughter currently have a child Apple ID account? If so, then we do want to let you know that this would be expected, and it would not be possible to share an AirTag with a child account.

Check out this link here for more details: Share an AirTag or other item in Find My on iPhone - Apple Support

Note: You can only share an AirTag with someone who has an Apple ID. You can’t share with a child account.

We hope that's able to help.

Have a great day!

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. On Monday an Apple technician confirmed it should absolutely be possible and Wednesday they have found out Child accounts have been excluded for unknown reasons and any invite will remain ‘pending’. It does seem to work with a Mac , which I don’t own (see Reddit), but that sounds like a policy glitch. I’ve bought a refurbished iPhone 12 for my son so he could upgrade to iOS 17 for this single purpose (he’s autistic, has ADHD and misplaces or loses everything) and as long a he has a child account (which is until the age of 18 years in The Netherlands (!)) I can’t share AirTags with him. Spent 500 euros on a phone, a decent case and a bunch of AirTags but I can’t use them as shared AirTags. He can use my credit cards, he can use Apple Pay from the age of 16, but Apple in it’s unspeakable wisdom denies him to share AirTags. Who on earth came to this brilliantly policy and on what grounds? Only one solution left: Tile, here we come…

I’m glad I found this topic. Was getting very frustrated after several hours of trying to share my airtag with my kid.

And the funny thing is that you can add the airtag to childs account as a standalone tag, but you can’t share it from his phone, neither from parent phone.

Very disappointed how this is handled. There should be a clear message/error when you try to share a tag with child, instead I just see “pending”. In fact there should not be an error … it should just work…

I’ve contacted Apple Support again today, after being referred twice to apple.com/feedback and asked them to file a complaint, which they fortunately did. I ordered multiple AirTags as sharing would become available as of iOS 17. Now the AirTag sharing functionality has arrived, it has been crippled by excluding child accounts, so in all honesty, I feel mislead and I can’t figure out what Apple has made this policy decision. I’ve returned serveral orderded AirTags in the meantime, until this is sorted.

So to every one struggling with same and willing to take the effort: contact support, request a senior support agent and them to file a complaint/request to consider their policy. I have no confidence in Apple

Feedback. I’ve been a dedicated fan for nearly three decades and Apple Feedback has never brought me anything (although actual useful feedback was given). Please, let’s bring this to Apples attention, it’s a waste of great multi use functionality. Thanks!

DeeJayWoody wrote:

Please prove me wrong and fix this.

No one reading or participating here can fix this. You can let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

However, they may have reasons they have not shared with the public for setting it up this way that they don't want to change.

Correction: 16 years seems to be the correct age.

Tom O'Drain wrote:

This is not a very helpful answer. My 12-year-old daughter has an EpiPen that she needs, and has in some cases left it behind. We didn’t know about the limitation when we purchased our AirTag, and I don’t understand why this would be a feature Apple wouldn’t add. I would like to know if she leaves without the EpiPen, or suitcases if she left it behind I need to find it. Why would you limit this feature in a child account?

No one here in this user-to-user forum would know why Apple made the decision they did. And Apple doesn't participate here. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

This is what doesn’t work. My daughter needs an epipen, and when she doesn’t bring it I wanted the AirTag to alert her. I had hoped that the wife and I could have visibility, when she leaves it at places she goes, but there is no ability to share with adults.

Hey Chris_V89,

why is it not possible? My son has his own Apple ID and I ca n’t share “keys” with him.

Apple, please reconsider. We have been waiting for Ios17 to make airtags useful for people with families. After all the hype, you pull the rug out from under us.

Also, when you do unexpected things like this, why not have an error message pop up as opposed to just no response. It took me a lot of googling to find this page and realize why it wasn't working.

JoseRoque wrote:

Someone please bring Apple to the reason?

You have as much ability to bring this to Apple's attention as anyone else here:

Product Feedback - Apple

I think you just gave the reason

I’m confronted with the same problem as the rest here. The fact that it is not explained why children accounts are excluded from this sharing feature is not acceptable. This feature is mostly needed especially between a child and its parent or vice versa.

Either apple should enable airtag sharing between family members. Or simply have all airtags automatically shared between the family members.

come on apple!!… protect the family!!