What is proper way to set up Notify When Found on an AirTag?

Question

What is proper way to set up Notify When Found on an AirTag?

I have an AirTag paired with my iPhone 14 Pro. If I leave it somewhere can I just set Notify When Found without setting Lost Mode. I just want to be alerted if an iPhone is in proximity. When I do this , I get a single alert as to Last Seen and that is where I originally lost the item. THEN THE SLIDE FOR 'NOTIFY WHEN FOUND' IS RETURNED TO OFF POSITION. I would like to have the Notify When Found say in the ON position so I can see if multiple occurances of proximity of an iPhone with my AirTag occur. Since the exact location varies in the alert, multiple notifications helps "triangulate" the exact position.

Do I have to set BOTH Notify When Found and Lost Mode. I am hesitant to enable Lost Mode and make public a phone number or email addy.

AirTag

Posted on Dec 22, 2023 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 22, 2023 9:14 AM in response to Tesserax

Thank You! I know that the AirTag is different than the TILE device in that only one alert is made if an Iphone senses the Tag. There is no history. I have to manually log a location from the alert. So, after each alert does the AirTag Notify When Found have to be manually reset?

I am guessing that I get the alert one time and each time it is reset to Notify, the notification will be the last instance and if another iPhone has not sensed the AirTag, the last instance will be my own. The problem is that after alerting , the Notify is reset to off and I am guessing that I will not get another alert triggered by a different iPhone. OR when I set Notify to ON, I will get a different last alert that occured while the Notify was set to off?

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

151,665 points

Dec 22, 2023 10:04 AM in response to Dan Mckinney1

Apple has yet to provide a lot of details behind the "Notify When Found" feature of their AirTags.

AFAIK, you cannot turn this button on if the AirTag is currently being located (e.g. the display says "Now" instead of x minutes ago.) On the other hand, when it does say "last seen x minutes ago", you can.

The next time the AirTag is located (e.g., its signal is received by another iPhone with access to the Internet,) you will receive a notification and you can see where the AirTag is located. Note that the button is automatically turned off when this happens, so if it disappears again, you will have to turn it on again ... which I'm sure you are already aware of.

As far as Lost Mode, you of course, are free to decide to not provide any contact information. Should someone physically find your tag, they will have no way to contact you ... and Apple won't let them know who the tag's owner is either. Should they decide to keep the tag, their iPhone will continue to display the "An AirTag is following you" message until they remove its battery. Of course, putting the battery back in, or even resetting it, will not remove this message ... as the AirTag is still associated to your Apple ID. Only you can remove it from your ID.

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Answer 3

zoran288

Level 1

8 points

Feb 12, 2024 3:15 AM in response to Dan Mckinney1

I apologize in advance for posting this in multiple places, but I hope to bring Apple's attention to this issue. Unfortunately, the "Notify when found" feature hasn't been working correctly since the release of iOS 17 in October/November 2023, alongside the new AirTag sharing feature (great job, by the way!). Now, when you turn "Notify when found" on, you get a notification after a few minutes showing the AirTag's last known location (already seen on the map) but with an outdated time. Since then, this feature has become practically useless. It used to work perfectly, notifying you with the location only as soon as a new signal was found. Apple, please fix it to its pre-iOS 17 behavior, when it was actually a very useful feature. Thank you

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

151,665 points

Dec 22, 2023 9:03 AM in response to Dan Mckinney1

At this point in time, Apple's AirTags do not support what you are looking for.

As such, I suggest you let them know directly by going here: Product Feedback - Apple

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What is proper way to set up Notify When Found on an AirTag?

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