Unrealistic expectations thinking this is a gps device that gives constant updates. It’s not. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem it’s the best device for the purpose it’s intended for.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How has real world performance been for you?
- Thread starter darthbane2k
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Unrealistic expectations thinking this is a gps device that gives constant updates. It’s not. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem it’s the best device for the purpose it’s intended for.
Lol my only “unrealistic” expectation is that the Bluetooth signal and the UWB signal is a bit stronger since it has difficulty discerning the distance (and no indication of actual signal strength) anything more than 15 meters or so and UWB only works within 2 meters.
Okay so turns out my AirTags work fine on the second try in the wild.
Here's some stuff I learnt about how exactly they work:
I'm also very impressed with the range, since an AirTag I left at home was having its location updated through the Find My network. Whether this happens for you will obviously depend on the location of the items, how close they are to the street, how many people walk or drive by your home, how big your house is, how thick the walls are, etc etc... but I didn't do anything special with the one I left at home, I kept it where I normally do, not right up by the window or anything.
I do wish the AirTags would update from the Find My network if I disable location services but keep bluetooth on from my iPhone, but I'm guessing that's a battery saving feature and Apple is assuming most people using these will always have location services enabled.
Just a shame there's no support for the Find My network on my S6 Apple Watch especially as it has the U1 chip. I hope that gets added in a near future software update.
Either way - the Find My network clearly does its job, the number of times various iDevices pinged my AirTags in various locations was impressive and provided reliable data most of the time, and they do exactly what I expected from bluetooth based trackers. I'm pretty confident these would help me locate lost items.
P.S. Protip: do NOT put AirTags in those net things on the front of bags, for example like the net on the Sony WH-1000XM4 carry case. They will easily fall out. Put them inside somewhere instead.
Here's some stuff I learnt about how exactly they work:
- If location services and bluetooth are on, your iPhone will very frequently update the location of your AirTags in bluetooth range and it'll be highly accurate. So if you leave something behind by accident, even if no one else passes it, the last location it was seen by your phone will be shown and will be most likely correct.
- If location services is off on your phone, but your phone is in bluetooth range, no attempt is made by the AirTag to use the Find My network instead. The last location it logged from your iPhone is simply cached in the Find My app if "With You" shows up next to the AirTag.
- If you disable bluetooth so it no longer says "With You", but keep location services on, your AirTags begin using the Find My network including your iPhone. You can also turn location and bluetooth both off and it'll now be relying on other devices 100%.
- There is often (not always, but often) a 20-30 minute delay between location data being picked up by the Find My network and it showing up in the Find My app on your iPhone.
- Location is impressively accurate 90% of the time. If your item is indoors it isn't guaranteed to show the correct house number, or more likely the number will change when the location is updated and one might be correct but you won't know unless you already know which house it'd be in, but it will usually give you the correct street and generally the correct area within that street which is plenty good for a bluetooth tracker.
- If you leave an AirTag at home when you go out it'll start updating from the Find My network since your iPhone is out of bluetooth range.
I'm also very impressed with the range, since an AirTag I left at home was having its location updated through the Find My network. Whether this happens for you will obviously depend on the location of the items, how close they are to the street, how many people walk or drive by your home, how big your house is, how thick the walls are, etc etc... but I didn't do anything special with the one I left at home, I kept it where I normally do, not right up by the window or anything.
I do wish the AirTags would update from the Find My network if I disable location services but keep bluetooth on from my iPhone, but I'm guessing that's a battery saving feature and Apple is assuming most people using these will always have location services enabled.
Just a shame there's no support for the Find My network on my S6 Apple Watch especially as it has the U1 chip. I hope that gets added in a near future software update.
Either way - the Find My network clearly does its job, the number of times various iDevices pinged my AirTags in various locations was impressive and provided reliable data most of the time, and they do exactly what I expected from bluetooth based trackers. I'm pretty confident these would help me locate lost items.
P.S. Protip: do NOT put AirTags in those net things on the front of bags, for example like the net on the Sony WH-1000XM4 carry case. They will easily fall out. Put them inside somewhere instead.
Last edited:
That's me
But also I had to find an air tag for real this morning. The actual tag and not the car keys it was attached to.
I'd popped out of my house to get something from the car and back Inside the house noticed the tag had fallen out of its holder (cheaper off brand)
Took me five minutes it had bounced into a bush of tiny leaves in neighbours garden and needed to use the sound as well.
So my real world experience is that air tags are great for finding air tags. Less useful for the items. Have ordered new holder.
I asked my wife to hide the airtag and tried to find it. Never succeeded without sound even though my phone said here. It’s just too small and can be stuck anywhere. I taped it on my Dyson fan remote because my toddler often misplaces the remote and I need it as it’s getting warmer.
Oh, one bug I did encounter, but it's a mild one easily fixed in a minor iOS update: sometimes the Find My app shows outdated location info for the AirTags. For example if they were picked up by the Find My network while you were out of bluetooth range, but then you come back into range and open Find My on your iPhone, it sometimes shows the location last cached on the iPhone even if the location the AirTags last picked up from the Find My network is newer and more accurate.
Sometimes this can be fixed by closing Find My from the multitasking menu then opening it again. That will usually make it show the newer, more accurate info. Sometimes you need to also disable bluetooth on the iPhone otherwise it shows totally wrong info from yesterday even if it got a ping from the network 30 mins ago.
I've noticed this happen twice, but to put that into perspective I've been playing around with tracking these AirTags in Find My for hours on and off. My screen time went up like 120% since I got my AirTags lol. So it's a rare bug but it's there. If this happens to you, now you know what troubleshooting steps worked for me.
I love those Dyson fans, they actually work! Like the closest thing you can get to aircon from a fan.
Sometimes this can be fixed by closing Find My from the multitasking menu then opening it again. That will usually make it show the newer, more accurate info. Sometimes you need to also disable bluetooth on the iPhone otherwise it shows totally wrong info from yesterday even if it got a ping from the network 30 mins ago.
I've noticed this happen twice, but to put that into perspective I've been playing around with tracking these AirTags in Find My for hours on and off. My screen time went up like 120% since I got my AirTags lol. So it's a rare bug but it's there. If this happens to you, now you know what troubleshooting steps worked for me.
I love those Dyson fans, they actually work! Like the closest thing you can get to aircon from a fan.
Add another Dyson fan fan (see what I did there?). I have the Dyson Pure Heat+Cool and it's amazing.
I’m still trying what “alerting nearby devices” means, as it makes no difference if I set lost mode or not! It doesn’t chirp automatically nor any notification appears on nearby iOS devices, so for now the “lost mode” added functionality is to provide contact infos through NFC
Yeah I read the alerting nearby devices thing was supposed to be a feature of AirTags lost mode but it seems like it isn't, at least not yet.
I have only needed to actually find something once since attaching these to various items, I put one in my sunglass case and needed to find it at the house, the precision finding arrow was useless and when I played the sound, I could barley hear it through my sunglasses case, if I didn't know approximately where to look, I would not have found them using the sound. Now granted the AirTag was in my case but I had a Tile Pro in there before and it was way louder!
I also do not like the way the sound ramps up as opposed to just playing full blast from the start, they probably do this for battery life. The sound does not play for very long either.
I will say that that Apple is known for releasing superior products/features but thats not the case here, if the precision finding worked off cell towers, that would be more Apple like.
The one missing feature that I'm disappointed has not been included at release, is the geo fence. I would like to be alerted I'm leaving the house without my wallet or sunglasses.
I just pulled up Find My and it does show the location of all my items so I will keep the AirTags because I like that better than a separate Tile app that has to be running in the background.
I also do not like the way the sound ramps up as opposed to just playing full blast from the start, they probably do this for battery life. The sound does not play for very long either.
I will say that that Apple is known for releasing superior products/features but thats not the case here, if the precision finding worked off cell towers, that would be more Apple like.
The one missing feature that I'm disappointed has not been included at release, is the geo fence. I would like to be alerted I'm leaving the house without my wallet or sunglasses.
I just pulled up Find My and it does show the location of all my items so I will keep the AirTags because I like that better than a separate Tile app that has to be running in the background.
I can't comment on Precision Finding since my iPhone has no U1 chip but I agree the sound should be louder. If the AirTag is even just inside a bag the room needs to be completely silent to even hear it. Working out where it's coming from unless you already know vaguely where to look is basically impossible.
Hopefully this can be fixed in a software update.
I'm wondering if the notify when found feature doesn't work the way we think it does also. I've left AirTags at home, sitting right next to my iPad, and turned on notify when found. You would think I would get a notification somewhat quickly. And yet I didn't get one until I got home, even though I could see that the location and time was getting updated in the Find My app. As for lost mode, Apple did update their documentation for Find My to include AirTags, but nowhere in the document does it say anything about sending you a notification when your lost item is found. I really think Apple needs to clarify how the notify when found switch works.
Check it out: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210515
Check it out: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210515
Can you post a pic of how you attached the tag to him/her/it? Wondering how to attach this to my petite cat and have it not get into her water/food bowl/litter box.
Last edited:
So far I'm impressed with the airtags. Yesterday I accidentally locked my keys in the car while it was still in the ignition. This week will be a super busy and full week for me at work basically taking photos of graduating classes for the college to post on social media, getting our new downtown location opened by getting stuff prepared for our big ribbon cutting of the building, getting all prepared for a bunch of graduations we'll be having within the next two weeks. Mind you I'm the only photographer and graphic designer that the college has so everybody was competing for my attention. I was in a rush to get into my office to get a couple of things printed for some of my colleagues and I was distracted by a written list of things I needed to take care of when I was walking towards my office. About halfway walking into my office, I realized I didn't have my keys on me and I was confused because I normally am pretty good about keeping my keys on me and I couldn't find my keys in my purse. So I pulled up the 'find my' app and it tracked me back to my car showing me that the keys are locked inside my car. I was embarrassed and ended up having to call campus police to help me break into my car to get my keys since my car is not the most modern cars — I don't have powered locks/windows or cruise control haha. So thankfully campus police was able to help me rescue my keys. I did notice that it had a little bit of a hard time trying to locate my keys since the airtags were in a big metal box (aka my car).
But other than that, it's been a huge help for me in locating my most important items. I'm liking them a lot so far! I may also have to order one or two airtags for my father for father's day as he's always losing his keys and wallet. ;-)
But other than that, it's been a huge help for me in locating my most important items. I'm liking them a lot so far! I may also have to order one or two airtags for my father for father's day as he's always losing his keys and wallet. ;-)
I added it to my apple remote using a 3D printed clip. “Lost” the remote twice.
In both instances, I was able to narrow down where it was, but it still took time to actually find it. One time I had a magazine on top of it - that was the hardest to locate because of how the sound bounced around. Precision finding got me to within a foot of it. The other time it was on a different end table, and locating was easier as it was the only object on the table.
So… I’m happy it reduces the area to about a few feet where I have to search… however I’m not sold on the sound it makes for locating it.
In both instances, I was able to narrow down where it was, but it still took time to actually find it. One time I had a magazine on top of it - that was the hardest to locate because of how the sound bounced around. Precision finding got me to within a foot of it. The other time it was on a different end table, and locating was easier as it was the only object on the table.
So… I’m happy it reduces the area to about a few feet where I have to search… however I’m not sold on the sound it makes for locating it.
Umm… You lock the car. Then close the door with the keys still inside it.
Never done it myself, but it’s a thing that happens to people.
Yeah thanks for the explanation. I mean even my old 2007 Toyota refused to lock the door with the key inside and would sound a warning beep to warn me that the key was still inside.
Today is kind of my first test. I dropped my dog off at the vet this morning at 8:00 AM for a bath and nail trim (spa day!). His AirTag has updated pretty regularly (every 30 minutes or so), likely when an employee with an iPhone is nearby.
It's interesting that it doesn't work for some people in the same house or even the same room, but for other people neighbors' phones pick up a kid riding by outside on a bike.
My car does make an alert to let me know that my key was still inside, however, I'm Deaf with cochlear implants. Sometimes my cochlear implants can't catch the beeping noise when there's a lot of background noise. We have a lot of renovations happening on campus so the renovations on campus covers the sound that my car makes. To me it sounds like a very quiet muffled noise when there's a louder noise on top of whatever is going on in my environment. I rarely accidentally leave my keys in my car but on a really busy day where my mind has a bunch of things listed in my head, but it can happen to anybody really. Thankfully the campus police was able to rescue my keys that day I accidentally locked my keys in the car. I was stressing that day trying to get a bunch of stuff accomplished in the office and get things prepared for graduation this week. So, it happens! 🤷♀️ 😅
Also, my car doesn't have powered locks. I have a very basic 2013 kia forte with no powered windows, powered locks, or cruise control. I have to lock my car from the inside instead of using a switch. I don't have any fancy buttons on the car's exterior handle like the newer car does to help me unlock my car with a keyless fob to start the car. So I wasn't thinking and I accidentally locked the car manually from the inside with my keys still inside the car.
I apologise for my question since I didn’t know your condition. Sorry.