Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How to Locate an AirTag in Find My on iPhone

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
65,232
33,508


Apple's AirTags are small, button-shaped devices that are designed to be attached to items like keys and wallets to allow these accessories to be tracked using Bluetooth right alongside Apple devices in the Find My app.

Apple_airtag-accessories-bag-042021_big_carousel.jpg.large_.jpg

If you've just set up a new AirTag, you'll want to know how to track it so that you can locate the attached item, should you misplace it. If your iPhone or iPad is running iOS 14.5/iPadOS 14.5 or later, you can use the Find My app to locate a missing AirTag that's linked to your Apple ID. Here's how.

How to View the Location of an AirTag Item

In the Find My app, tap Items, then tap the item that you want to locate.
  • If the item can be located, it will appear on the map. You'll see the updated location and timestamp under the item's name.
  • If the item can't be found, you'll see where and when it was last located. To receive a notification once it's located again, turn on Notify When Found under "Notifications."
    Apple_airtag-findmyapp_locate.jpg
How to Make an AirTag Play a Sound

If an AirTag is nearby, you can get it to play a sound so that you can locate it easier.
  1. In the Find My app, tap Items.
  2. Tap the AirTag that you want to play a sound.
    airtags-play-sound.jpg
  3. Tap Play Sound.
To stop playing the sound before it automatically ends, tap Stop Sound.

You can also get map directions to an item's current or last known location, and if you have a supported iPhone and are near your AirTag, you can find its precise location.

Article Link: How to Locate an AirTag in Find My on iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/locate-airtag-find-my/
johnalan

johnalan

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2009
848
989
Dublin, Ireland
Airtags are cool. Tested it today with a friend in the city and worked great.

I could track it easily in near real-time.

What’s lost mode though? I seem to
be able to track without it.
 
Last edited:
G

GC251114

macrumors 6502
Jul 28, 2015
452
243
johnalan said:
Airtags are cool. Tested it today with a friend in the city and worked great.

I could track it easily in near real-time.

What’s lost mode though? I seem to
Be able to track without it.
Click to expand...
I think lost mode is if you can’t find them anywhere at home, either by tracking or emitting the sound. If that’s the case then it’s probably safe to say you’ve lost them. If so, but I’m lost mode & I think it will then allow you to switch on the notifications that are greyed out otherwise. I think this is how they work. I may be wrong of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: johnalan
D

dneesley

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2014
4
3
And yet you can't ring the Apple Tag from your Apple Watch?

Chipolo One (non Find My version) and Tile can ring their devices from the Apple Watch.
 
sh20

sh20

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2019
17
118
London
I have popped one on the cat to see how it fairs, he’s quite a large breed so it doesn’t look too out of place, but it is probably too large for most house cats (but only in the sense that it would look strange).

One thing I don’t understand, is why they can’t/don’t augment on the Y-axis when using find mode. It does (sometimes) tell you the item is possibily on a different floor, but what you see on the screen doesn’t actually reflect exactly where the item is (on both axis).

For example, if someone has put an item on a shelf in a bookcase, you wouldn’t know which shelf it’s on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JDuggan
ImaxGuy

ImaxGuy

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2011
176
117
Toronto, ONT
The U1 chip makes finding these things a breeze - even when your SO hides it under the living room rug ?. Two things I miss from my Tile Pro though, are the much louder ringtone (also ability to customize tones) and the ability of finding my phone from my Tile. Still happy with my purchase as the Find My network is / will be orders of magnitude larger than the Tile network.
 
U

UnusedLoginID

macrumors 6502
Feb 28, 2012
343
290
Was just reading that if the Airtag is linked to another AppleID and that person can no longer be reached, the AirTag is good for the trash. Even Apple can't remove activation lock unlike on an iPhone. Apple can't remove Pairing Lock.

If an item or device is connected to another Apple Account - Apple Support

If you try to set up an Apple device such as AirPods, an item such as AirTag, or another Find My network accessory and see a message that it's paired to another Apple Account, the device or item needs to be removed from that Apple Account before you can pair it with a new Apple Account.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
S

syed93

macrumors newbie
Apr 7, 2015
9
5
I’ve found a potential major flaw with the AirTag. If the magnet in the speaker sticks to a metal item, the speaker feature on the AirTag is rendered almost useless. A chain on my keys got magnetically attached to the white part of the AirTag and I went to play the chime and I could barely hear it play. Most people will attach their AirTag to their metal keys and might have this same problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Spinn_ and haruhiko
S

Sasparilla

macrumors 68020
Jul 6, 2012
2,019
3,455
This is really slick. Apple is going to sell a ton of these little things. Still a Ver 1 piece of hardware though, so there will be things that'll turn up needing improving - both software and hardware.
 
veeco3110

veeco3110

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2007
331
145
brick nj
The annoying thing is you can’t just ask Siri to find whatever you’re looking for. You have to make a shortcut in order to do it. Something like this should be baked into iOS
 
dirtylilhobo

dirtylilhobo

macrumors demi-god
Oct 16, 2014
181
229
Southwest USA
Got the Belkin key and the loop airtag carriers yesterday still awaiting the airtags, perhaps tomorrow.. Ordered two for the keys and two of the loop for a total of four carriers. So, I expected Apple to have thrown all four in a box and shipped them. But instead, it was one box for each carrier, four boxes. Seemed a waste of shipping costs and materials…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom