AirTag Setup: Wrong Phone Number (Trusted Phone Numbers)

[John.B]

While setting up my AirTags this morning, I ran into a situation where the setup sheet showed my correct Apple ID email address but, instead of my phone number, it showed my adult child's number. At first I thought it was the emergency contact that was causing it, but no dice. Turns out I had recently setup that phone as a "trusted phone number" for my Apple ID, and the setup sheet was showing that number instead of mine. As a workaround, removing it from my Apple ID fixed the issue.

Weird that Apple doesn't have a pecking order for trusted phone numbers and appears to have picked either randomly or the most recent one. I believe this the default contact number when you put AirTags into lost mode. I have to think this should have stood out as a UX issue in the development process? The foibles of linking a version 1.0 product to existing identity management...

 

[fezzzer]

I also noticed this when setting both of mine up, no option to change the number either. Hopefully an update will correct this

edit: I’ve noticed that the number that appeared when setting up my airtags isn’t even listed as a ‘contactable at’ number in iCloud settings (although it is one of my numbers)

edit 2: the ‘airtag’ number is listed as a trusted number under ‘password and security’ as the second in the list - so most likely the last one added

 

[TylerL]

Same here. My AirTags are showing my email address but my wife's phone number.
We're pretty miffed that AirTags can't be "shared" in the Find My app like all other Find My devices, so at least this helps spread out the contact info in case it gets lost...

 

[dgold1055]

While setting up my AirTags this morning, I ran into a situation where the setup sheet showed my correct Apple ID email address but, instead of my phone number, it showed my adult child's number. At first I thought it was the emergency contact that was causing it, but no dice. Turns out I had recently setup that phone as a "trusted phone number" for my Apple ID, and the setup sheet was showing that number instead of mine. As a workaround, removing it from my Apple ID fixed the issue.

Weird that Apple doesn't have a pecking order for trusted phone numbers and appears to have picked either randomly or the most recent one. I believe this the default contact number when you put AirTags into lost mode. I have to think this should have stood out as a UX issue in the development process? The foibles of linking a version 1.0 product to existing identity management...

Same here. Surprising they didn't pick up on this. Are you saying you deleted the trusted phone number and then re-added it or that you have to permanently delete it to get your number to work? Also do you need to re-set up the airbag?

 

[michaelb5000]

This happened for me as well. It seems like this happens enough not to be random error. I would think the set up process would know the phone number of the phone that is being used for setup, so to have another number pop up would be intentional.

 

[John.B]

Same here. Surprising they didn't pick up on this. Are you saying you deleted the trusted phone number and then re-added it or that you have to permanently delete it to get your number to work? Also do you need to re-set up the airbag?

I did delete the trusted number because I knew AirTags are activation locked to the original Apple ID. Once deleted, my number showed up so I could complete the AirTags setup as normal. After all my AirTags were setup, I went ahead and added back the trusted number (which, for those who haven't done this, immediately sends an automated iMessage confirmation).

 

[countryside]

It happened to me. My work number showed up as it is apparently a trusted number. I removed it.

 

[HarryMudd]

SOLUTION;

Update, Oct 2023, I just got a new phone and I was setting up a new AirTag. One of my trusted phone numbers was tied to the AirTag. I read this post and deleted that number (one of four) from my trusted numbers, but re-pairing the AirTag resulted in the SAME number being tied to the device. Since this was a new phone, I used my free tech support and called Apple. We tried for 42 minutes to fix the issue.

Here‘s what worked, I had to delete ALL of the trusted phone numbers, after I did that, my phone number auto populated the field. Then I was able to pair with the newly reset AirTag showing the correct number.

To be clear, the advice in this post worked perfectly if you have only one trusted number. If you have more than one you must delete them all.

I asked the Apple rep to report this bug. She said not only would she do that, but also put out a service bulletin.