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Battery depleted in 6 months

T

Theydonboi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 22, 2011
128
106
Bought a 4 pack in April. One of those has nearly no battery remaining, and is telling me that “Features are unavailable”. I’ve tried reseating the battery, but it’s made no difference.

The other 3 Airtags show no battery difference whatsoever.

The only thing of interest is that the drained AirTag is in a metal safe (it’s tucked into my passport holder, and I haven’t used my passport so not had a need to remove it in that time). I’m wondering whether that‘s affected its ability to transmit, thus draining the battery quicker. I guess I’ll see how whether this theory has any weight, by seeing how the new battery fares.
 
Being in a safe. It's likely losing contact with the phone and beeping. Thus draining the battery faster. Airtags are meant for stuff you keep with you most of the time. They'll randomly start beeping between eight and twenty four hours when separated from your iPhone.
 
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velocityg4 said:
Being in a safe. It's likely losing contact with the phone and beeping. Thus draining the battery faster. Airtags are meant for stuff you keep with you most of the time. They'll randomly start beeping between eight and twenty four hours when separated from your iPhone.
Click to expand...

…beeping when moved.
 
Probably the safe.

Many bluetooth devices have multiple power states that are switched between based on RSSI (signal strength). The target is using the lowest power state possible however if its the highest is required to function there will be a noticeable negative effect on battery life.

Toss another one in there and if it dies you know for sure. Those batteries aren't expensive.
 
Theydonboi said:
Bought a 4 pack in April. One of those has nearly no battery remaining, and is telling me that “Features are unavailable”. I’ve tried reseating the battery, but it’s made no difference.

The other 3 Airtags show no battery difference whatsoever.

The only thing of interest is that the drained AirTag is in a metal safe (it’s tucked into my passport holder, and I haven’t used my passport so not had a need to remove it in that time). I’m wondering whether that‘s affected its ability to transmit, thus draining the battery quicker. I guess I’ll see how whether this theory has any weight, by seeing how the new battery fares.
Click to expand...
Are these issues covered by warranty?
 
An update on this.

I replaced the battery and moved the problem AirTag elsewhere (clipped it on to a laptop bag, so nothing blocking the signal).

The replacement battery depleted in a month. I replaced it again last month..and this morning, it's run out AGAIN. On average, it can now drain a battery in less than 4 weeks.

There is a possibility here that the pack of replacement batteries I bought (a no-name brand from Amazon) is dodgy. Alternatively, the AirTag itself is faulty, and the first 6 months of being shielded away has damaged it permanently.

My three other AirTags are all working fine, and showing minimal battery depletion after 8 months.
 
You can get good batteries from Panasonic or ikea even do their own brand. No names are all quite crap. Coming from someone who needs CR32s for many a different applications and have used them for years.
 
Mine only lasted 6 months too. I use it on my dog's harness, so it's not a signal thing or anything.
 
My brother's spare home keys are in my car with an AirTag, and the AirTag has about 70% battery life left. I've gotten into my car after my 12 hour shift to hear the AirTag chirping.

This is what's causing the battery drain; not keeping the AirTag in close proximity to the iPhone at all times. The three other AirTags I have are still at >95% battery life.
 
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I guess I'm lucky got 4 on release date and one of them is under my car lol, all full batteries still.
 
I bought 6 and one was depleted in about a month, the rest that are active are still plodding away. I bought a family pak of panasonic batts to keep nearby, plus I mostly use the tags for travel so when I'm not on a plane (which is most of the time these days!) I remove the batts and store the tags empty.
 
My original personalized AirTag that I bought from Apple when AirTags were released still shows a full battery. However the second AirTag that I bought from Amazon a few weeks later because Apple was still on backorder shows that the battery is 3/4 full.
 
Perhaps the best explanation is that it is not the best product, and it might improve in the future. You shouldn't have to move this or change that to get decent battery life.
 
When people start replacing the original battery, my guess is we will see lot of post of people complaining about the new battery not lasting as long. There is so many counterfeit CR2032 battery.

To proove my point, go on Amazon and search for Sony CR2032. You will see tons of listing and they are all "freshly packed". Some listing are even "Recommended by Amazon". But the thing is, if they are "fresh" they are 100% fake. Sony no longer produce battery since 2016, it was sold to Murata. Source: https://corporate.murata.com/en-us/newsroom/news/company/general/2016/1031

Now they are all produced under the Murata brand since 2019. You can see the new packaging/branding here vs the old one: https://www.microbattery.com/sony-to-murata

It's the same for Panasonic, Energizer, Duracell, Maxell, Renata, etc. There is tons of copy. I did some investigation as my "Sony" CR2032 (exp 2030, so produced in 2020 with a 10 yrs shelf-life) were lasting around 25% of the life of a legit CR2032.
 
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One further update from the OP. I inserted a 4th(!) battery (a GENUINE Panasonic so not a cheap brand) a couple of weeks back when I last posted.

The bag I've attached the tag to is less than 3 feet away from my phone, and hasn't picked up a signal for 3 days, so it's already useless again.

Just to reiterate; it's perfectly possible that I'm to blame for the AirTag having become unreliable due to unable to communicate with the phone for around 6 months...but there is potentially a flaw in how the AirTag behaves AFTER that. It is now able to drain a battery (irrespective of make) at a rate of one a fortnight despite being mostly in a clear line of sight of the phone throughout that period.

This AirTag is now probably going in the trash. I don't see a way of getting support from Apple easily on this, and it's simply wasting money on batteries.

In the interests of balance; the other three AirTags from the multipack I bought in April (all with their original batteries at 75%) continue to function without issue.

This is what's causing the battery drain; not keeping the AirTag in close proximity to the iPhone at all times.
Click to expand...

Apparently not, as this proves.
 
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Theydonboi said:
Bought a 4 pack in April. One of those has nearly no battery remaining, and is telling me that “Features are unavailable”. I’ve tried reseating the battery, but it’s made no difference.

The other 3 Airtags show no battery difference whatsoever.

The only thing of interest is that the drained AirTag is in a metal safe (it’s tucked into my passport holder, and I haven’t used my passport so not had a need to remove it in that time). I’m wondering whether that‘s affected its ability to transmit, thus draining the battery quicker. I guess I’ll see how whether this theory has any weight, by seeing how the new battery fares.
Click to expand...
I bought a pack of 4.

One of them is also flat now. The other 4 barely changed.

It’s in a fabric bag which I take playing sports but the one on my keys and in my wallet is fine, so is the one in my other bag.
 
What brand batteries does Apple use? Do we know?

I just checked my AirTag battery indicators, and they're all still full except for my luggage which I do not carry everywhere. That's at maybe 75%-80%. Purchased in April as well.
 
I have 7. The 7th one was purchased about 2/3 months ago. However the first 6 were purchased in April when they launched. They all have varying levels of battery left. The worst is the one that is attached to my AirPods Pro case. It's down to about 20% now. I have 3 that don't seem to have depleted at all in that time. One of them is on my keys so leaves the house every day. At work I can be quite far away from my keys for long periods of time.
 
Prof. said:
My brother's spare home keys are in my car with an AirTag, and the AirTag has about 70% battery life left. I've gotten into my car after my 12 hour shift to hear the AirTag chirping.

This is what's causing the battery drain; not keeping the AirTag in close proximity to the iPhone at all times. The three other AirTags I have are still at >95% battery life.
Click to expand...
I have one on my keys. At work my phone can be far away from where I've stored my bag for many hours but that one is still at 100% judging by the indicator. I've had that airbag since launch day. It's been really random for me. I don't really mind as the batteries are cheap. I ordered a pack the other week as I have another one that's down to 20%.
 
I’ve ordered new Panasonic batteries. Two of my day one airtags still showing as virtually fully charged and the other two are down to less than 25%. It must be something to do with activity and which ones are left at home and which ones aren’t. I’m not really sure
 
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Anyone contacted Apple on this?
Would be interesting to see what they suggest/do....
 
Bought a 4 pack on release, 2 in use... 1 of those has drained and is kept in my insulin wallet, the other has about 70% charge left and is kept in my card/cash wallet. Both are kept with me for the majority of the day!

No rhyme or reason as to why the insulin wallet tag drains in the time it does, although I'd wager around 8 months isn't exactly a short time.
 
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OP here. I had a chat with Apple Support online earlier today. It quickly became evident that there's not really much they can suggest in terms of remote troubleshooting beyond doing a reset...which, if you've already replaced the battery (and I've replaced mine three times already), you've already done.

They obviously want to inspect it. It was initially suggested that I'd be able to return it by mail, but the support person then corrected themselves and said that wasn't available. I've made an appointment to get it looked at next week in store, but I'm expecting that to be a formality (frankly, if I don't leave with a new replacement, I'm going to be pretty peeved).

I would suggest everyone having similar issues to at least get a case logged while it's still in warranty.
 
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