Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The same problem applies to iOS 16. No battery status! Very inappropriate change from Apple!
 
Same logic behind removing the firmware upgrade option for their headphones with a system that "just works"...and then needs to be replaced by a tool only Apple techs get access to 3 months later.
Why do I need an update button for such a tiny update? It's not like I can use the AirPods while they are in their case, connected to power. My AirPods2 updated automatically in the background without having to press a button which is the very definition of "just works".
 
Last edited:
View attachment 2032609It does come back when it needs replacing.

This makes me wonder how widespread this issue could be.

If the battery level is not being displayed correctly, and seeing this that 'some features aren't available', my question is 'How many AirTags are incorrectly interpreting their battery strength and shutting down features that the AirTag needs to operate properly?'

Is it possible that this 'flaw' might be causing the AirTag to not operate properly (fail)? If so, wow. HUGE fail...

There are, what, MILLIONS of them out in the wild? How many are improperly failing due to this flaw?
 
Some of you have never binned mass quantities of batteries from various manufacturers and it shows.😆

Seriously though, I'm weirdly with Apple on this one. These coin cells can be all over the place with their voltages. Many will even advertise higher voltages than others. That doesn't necessarily mean they are fresher or will have more capacity. Sometimes it actually means the cell has an internal issue and will drain faster. If you don't understand how they can still send a fairly reliable low battery notification, look at a discharge curve. No matter where a battery voltage starts out at, there is a fairly steep curve downward when the cell charge begins to give out entirely. With something like a phone or laptop this can happen in a matter of seconds. With an AirTag, this would give you perhaps a few days or even weeks. It's still a very imprecise thing, but with a once-a-year battery that's really all you need. Either way, who actually cares if it's 40% vs. 80%? It's not like you can recharge the thing.
 
This was a nice feature (if accurate).

I bought 4 AirTags at same time. Recently I received my first low battery notification, so I checked the other 3 in the app. They were quite full.

This feature helps one to know if they should refresh batteries, say, before taking a trip.

I hope they fix it and it comes back.
 
Off the shelf batteries are hilarious. If I remove a dead AA battery form my BT Logitech mouse and put it back in all of a sudden it has power. These batteries are dumb, with no monitoring circuitry and come in a wide range of quality so it's no wonder Apple can't get an accurate reading from them. This kind of thing never used to matter, we would wait until our watch was dead and then change the battery without giving it too much thought, or we would just change the battery ahead of time if we thought there would be an issue with waiting until it was dead.

You can joke about Apple making the batteries not user replaceable, but that's the only way you will get accurate battery levels. You'd probably even get an accurate percentage value.
 
Last edited:
This is interesting. I updated to the latest iOS yesterday and overnight I received a warning that one of my AirTags was low on battery, though I have not had the AirTag that long and never had any other indication it might be low.

Not saying its connected, but it sure is interesting timing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: compwiz1202
What would be better is an accurate battery level indicator. A “you are critically low” message isn’t really useful. By that time it may be too late for you to be able to do anything about it.
If you want an accurate battery level, its not coming from an off-the-shelf CR which has no monitoring circuitry.

I'm willing to bet that Apple sends the low warning while you still have time to change the battery, assuming you have access to the tag.
 
Never found the it to very accurate most of the time in just at all most 100% till I got low batter notification which came and went a few times before I got around to replacing the battery lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: iGeneo
I’m tired of all the fear mongering around AirTags. You could stalk women before AirTags came out with other gps devices, it isn’t Apple’s responsibility to make my stuff work worse because media sites scare people with what could happen.
Fortunately Apple sees it differently.
 
I’m tired of all the fear mongering around AirTags. You could stalk women before AirTags came out with other gps devices, it isn’t Apple’s responsibility to make my stuff work worse because media sites scare people with what could happen.
Even before that you could stalk anyone, NOT just women, with highly specialized photon receptors with advanced tracking, stabilization AND recognition capabilities. And EVERYONE HAD THEM!!
 
If you want an accurate battery level, its not coming from an off-the-shelf CR which has no monitoring circuitry.

I'm willing to bet that Apple sends the low warning while you still have time to change the battery, assuming you have access to the tag.
It’s that second assumption that’s dangerous. If you put one on/in your own luggage so you might be able to track a lost suitcase down and it was low at the start of your trip then you probably would have preferred to know before your trip when you might have had a chance to replace the battery.

For me this problem is academic, I don’t use them right now. Honestly the only thing that I would buy an AirTag for is to put on an Apple TV remote because that doesn’t work with the “Find My” feature, with Apple saying it isn’t necessary and no one wants “Find My” to work with the remote. For something that is unnecessary I sure could use it a couple of times a month at the very least.
 
  • Like
Reactions: maternidad
It’s that second assumption that’s dangerous. If you put one on/in your own luggage so you might be able to track a lost suitcase down and it was low at the start of your trip then you probably would have preferred to know before your trip when you might have had a chance to replace the battery.
Remember when people would change batteries early if they anticipated a possible issue?

We have some battery powered Christmas lights in the house; if we are having people over I'm not waiting for the lights to die in the middle of the get-together. I'm changing them before the party, and will swap back to the old batteries afterwards.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.