How to Factory Reset an AirTag So Someone Else Can Use It

[Sasparilla]

Nice to see there's a way to set it so you can give it or sell it if need be. But does still keep locked so the stealing won't become an issue.

WARNING: Please do this away from children as they MAY swallow the battery... or the entire AirTag for that matter. Thanks, Officeworks for alerting me to this incredible oversight.

LOL, had me laughing. That whole things seems so weird. Somebody better not tell them how easy key fobs are to open and what size batteries are in them, they'll be next.

 

[Xak444]

AirTags are made to track LOST items, not stolen ones. It is not an anti-theft device. It is not made so you can hunt down a thief and retrieve your items. It is not made to be thief-proof. I feel like people are making the AirTag into something it’s not.

Maybe tile should make a UWB anti-theft item tracker.

 

[JosephAW]

Thieves just have to wait it out. Who’s going to keep a large inventory of lost air tags in their find my app?
Eventually it will be removed and can be repurposed.

 

[Xak444]

Thieves just have to wait it out. Who’s going to keep a large inventory of lost air tags in their find my app?
Eventually it will be removed and can be repurposed.

I will. Then one day when that battery is reinstalled just to check. I’ll be there. Waiting. Watching. 🤣

 

[SuperCachetes]

...So while someone won’t be able to disassociate the AirTag from your account for their own use, if you don’t have the item in your possession, someone could reset it and prevent you from tracking it.

That’s an issue.

Thanks for doing the research, but there are myriad other ways to prevent you from tracking your AirTag once a thief knows it's there. A hammer comes to mind.

As others have said - right or wrong, AirTags haven't been designed as anti-theft devices. They are indeed vulnerable, but so are all the competing devices that I'm aware of.

 

[randomthoughts]

AirTags are made to track LOST items, not stolen ones. It is not an anti-theft device. It is not made so you can hunt down a thief and retrieve your items. It is not made to be thief-proof. I feel like people are making the AirTag into something it’s not.

Don’t think anyone is wanting to hunt down a thief. It’s a new product and we are all trying to understand how it works. Yeah, anyone can take it off a key ring and throw it away and keep your stuff.

 

[larrylaffer]

AirTags are made to track LOST items, not stolen ones. It is not an anti-theft device. It is not made so you can hunt down a thief and retrieve your items. It is not made to be thief-proof. I feel like people are making the AirTag into something it’s not.

Regardless of the intended use, it's obvious that a lot of people are going to try to use this as an anti-theft device. If it fails to be good at this, that's going to result in some pretty bad PR.

 

[arn]

So this is what happens, you can’t pair it to the other Apple ID, but the Find My app on the original Apple ID can’t update the location. If I bring it to a device with the original Apple ID, it wants to try to pair again.

So while someone won’t be able to disassociate the AirTag from your account for their own use, if you don’t have the item in your possession, someone could reset it and prevent you from tracking it.

That’s an issue.

Are you sure? So I did this with my airtag and my iPhone.

I was still in the same house. But far away from each other. I did the 5 beep reset and was able to track it once I put the battery back. Tho I had to move closer to it.

I didn’t have to re-pair.

 

[subjonas]

WARNING: Please do this away from children as they MAY swallow the battery... or the entire AirTag for that matter. Thanks, Officeworks for alerting me to this incredible oversight.

It’s not a confirmed oversight. They’re waiting to see if it is, but the back plate appears to be removed the same way as other safety caps according to safety regulations. They probably just want to wait until it’s confirmed to be extra sure. As far as swallowing the entire airtag, it’s slightly larger than the US official choke hazard size (https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manu.../Small-Parts-for-Toys-and-Childrens-Products/), but a parent wouldn’t be blamed for playing it extra safe.

 

[Mutepointer]

Why do they even have the second option to remove from Apple ID? Makes this less and less secure, meaning people will still try to steal it and use it for themselves

Exactly.

 

[Mutepointer]

So someone can find my AirTag and reset it to take ownership before I even realize it’s lost? I would think that these would have the same ownership lock that iPhones do… (forgive me but I forget what they call it… maybe Authentication Lock or something?)

Indeed.

 

[dojoman]

I think a lot of features that we want like geofencing might come later in iOS15 or whenever. Remember this is just first gen product, Apple Watch can’t even track it and it’s perfect device for this purpose.

 

[SCUBA4K]

If you find my unopened box of airtags they are yours.
If you find my airtags that I removed from my account, they are yours.
If you find my airtags and I have them still linked, please return them, you can't do a thing with them.


I find it humorous that people think Apple didn't think this through.

 

[SCUBA4K]

So someone can find my AirTag and reset it to take ownership before I even realize it’s lost? I would think that these would have the same ownership lock that iPhones do… (forgive me but I forget what they call it… maybe Authentication Lock or something?)

No. You can't reset an airtag that is still linked to an account.

 

[subjonas]

Why do they even have the second option to remove from Apple ID? Makes this less and less secure, meaning people will still try to steal it and use it for themselves

So someone can find my AirTag and reset it to take ownership before I even realize it’s lost? I would think that these would have the same ownership lock that iPhones do… (forgive me but I forget what they call it… maybe Authentication Lock or something?)

According to the article, removing the Apple ID from the airtag is a two part process, in the cloud and on the airtag itself, and both must be done to complete the disassociation process. The cloud part is always done in the cloud through one of your other devices, and the airtag part is done automatically through Bluetooth if the airtag is within range of your device. This manual option exists if the airtag wasn’t within range at the time of disassociation, to later complete the process. It does not override the entire process.

So this is what happens, you can’t pair it to the other Apple ID, but the Find My app on the original Apple ID can’t update the location. If I bring it to a device with the original Apple ID, it wants to try to pair again.

So while someone won’t be able to disassociate the AirTag from your account for their own use, if you don’t have the item in your possession, someone could reset it and prevent you from tracking it.

That’s an issue.

That’s done on purpose to prevent stalking. Airtags cannot prevent both theft and stalking at the same time, so Apple prioritized stalking-prevention, therefore airtags are not a theft-prevention device.

 

[Macaholic868]

Regardless of the intended use, it's obvious that a lot of people are going to try to use this as an anti-theft device. If it fails to be good at this, that's going to result in some pretty bad PR.

How is what a certain number of uninformed people do Apple’s fault? If some nimrod drinks bleach to stop COVID is that the bleach manufactures fault?

 

[SCUBA4K]

I have done enough trade-ins to know that if your device is connected to the cloud all bets are off. That device is locked and dead to the rest of the wqorld.

 

[wbeasley]

AirTags are made to track LOST items, not stolen ones. It is not an anti-theft device. It is not made so you can hunt down a thief and retrieve your items. It is not made to be thief-proof. I feel like people are making the AirTag into something it’s not.

its a fine line between lost and theft...

havent people tracked phones to recover them and they warned people to inform the police to get involved rather than turn up on doorways? (and didnt they hide exact location for safety?)

 

[diamornte]

AirTags are made to track LOST items, not stolen ones. It is not an anti-theft device. It is not made so you can hunt down a thief and retrieve your items. It is not made to be thief-proof. I feel like people are making the AirTag into something it’s not.

Too bad for you that people wont do what you tell them to do, no matter how much you gripe about the CORRECT way to use AirTags.

 

[randomthoughts]

According to the article, removing the Apple ID from the airtag is a two part process, in the cloud and on the airtag itself, and both must be done to complete the disassociation process. The cloud part is always done in the cloud through one of your other devices, and the airtag part is done automatically through Bluetooth if the airtag is within range of your device. This manual option exists if the airtag wasn’t within range at the time of disassociation, to later complete the process. It does not override the entire process.


That’s done on purpose to prevent stalking. Airtags cannot prevent both theft and stalking at the same time, so Apple prioritized stalking-prevention, therefore airtags are not a theft-prevention device.

You are speculating. Unless you work at Apple on the product team, or for AppleCare, you have no idea what the product designers and engineers intended. And speculation is fine, as long as you say “I think.”

 

[subjonas]

You are speculating. Unless you work at Apple on the product team, or for AppleCare, you have no idea what the product designers and engineers intended. And speculation is fine, as long as you say “I think.”

No, not speculating. Apple explained the stalking-prevention features with the release of the airtags, which are the very features that make it a bad theft-prevention device (which they also never advertised it to be).

 

[randomthoughts]

Are you sure? So I did this with my airtag and my iPhone.

I was still in the same house. But far away from each other. I did the 5 beep reset and was able to track it once I put the battery back. Tho I had to move closer to it.

I didn’t have to re-pair.

Yeah, did it a few times. I did it close and far. Same result each time. When doing Find Nearby wouldn’t show anything either and last time updated was 9-15 mins.

 

[randomthoughts]

No, not speculating. Apple explained the stalking-prevention features with the release of the airtags, which are the very features that make it a bad theft-prevention device (which they also never advertised it to be).

Yes, that is the unknown item tracking. That doesn’t have anything to do with resetting the AirTag while still associated to your own Apple ID and not having it show up on the map with the updated location. It stays at the last known spot up until the battery was popped out and reset.

Saying that behavior is on purpose is speculation.

 

[SigurTom]

So set all my airtags to lost as soon as I set them up. Got it.

 

[Douglas B]

So this is what happens, you can’t pair it to the other Apple ID, but the Find My app on the original Apple ID can’t update the location. If I bring it to a device with the original Apple ID, it wants to try to pair again.

So while someone won’t be able to disassociate the AirTag from your account for their own use, if you don’t have the item in your possession, someone could reset it and prevent you from tracking it.

That’s an issue.

Thanks for your testing.
Question: You say it wanted to pair again. Were you able to pair again? Did you need to [Remove] the tag from your items to enable you to re-pair it?

Cheers.