AirTags and VPNs

[icanhazmac]

I just wanted to relay and odd scenario between my iPhone 15 Pro, AirTags and NordVPN.

So I just purchased 4 AirTags and set paired 1 to my phone. What I found was I could find it and play a sound to it but when I would try to "find" it inside the house it would either not find the signal or say weak signal:

Even with the phone directly on top of the AirTag these screens would never change. I went through all the troubleshooting steps and could not fix the issue. I finally reset and re-paired the AirTags to my wife's 15 Pro and they worked perfectly!

The only major difference is my phone has NordVPN.

I removed Nord and rebooted the phone, reset and re-paired the AirTag and it worked fine.

Here is where is gets weird, I then reinstalled and re-logged into NordVPN and it still works. Very odd.

Anyway, that was almost 2 hours of my life I won't get back, I hope this info helps someone else.

 

[BigBlur]

The action of you unpairing and repairing the AirTag is probably what fixed it. You communicating with the AirTag (to locate it or play a beep) does not rely on the internet at all, so it shouldn't have anything to do with NordVPN.

Also, AirTags are not paired to your phone like a Bluetooth device. The phone (or an iPad) is used to pair them to your Apple ID.

 

[waw74]

a couple weeks ago, I was getting unknown AirTags traveling with me notifications, when I used the find feature, it took me to my keys (still showing as an unknown AirTag). When I tired to find or ring my keys directly, it couldn't.

it started with an iOS update, and was fixed by rebooting the phone, no AirTag settings were changed.

I also use Nord and have had no issues, no matter if the VPN is connected or not.

 

[erihp]

has nothing to do with a VPN