Latest AirTags Firmware Update Tunes the Unwanted Tracking Sound for Easier Detection

[_Spinn_]

I just want family sharing.

 

[OCS12]

I have one on my bike and often we I go get my bike, it starts beeping at me as if My phone is not connect to it. The Find My actually says the bike is with me. I don’t know why it beeps, when I’m just going to my bike and not when I’m on the move.

And yes, family sharing is a must!

Im thinking about Tile because of these issues. I have one Tile but I would miss the tracking part as not a lot of Tile users here. However if I’m just using it to locate something in my home (spare keys) then Tile is more than enough.

I have two AirTags that I haven’t used and I don’t know where to use them. Would love to have it on my key but no family sharing and therefor a constant reminder for my SO.

I removed the speaker from the air tag on my spare set of keys for that very reason. My friends and family borrow and drive my truck more than I do, so they'd probably go insane if the keys were beeping at them the whole time. I just warn them that they might get an alert on their phone about the tag.

 

[Gasu E.]

Familysharing - when? I want to give an AirTag to my minor who just started walking to his school by himself. He has no phone yet but iPad at home linked to his own AppleID. If I put an AT linked to my own AppleID into his backpack - will it alert his school teachers of an unknown AT tracking them?

If the teachers and the kids movements aren't in sync for a significant period, then no. If their movements ARE in sync, you have much bigger problems.

 

[mingoglia]

I disabled the sound on one of mine. I keep it in my trailer in storage as a backup device to the asset tracker I have (for theft). Since the trailer is in covered storage, the solar panel can't top off the battery and the asset tracker dies after about a month. Figure if it's stolen, the Apple Tag can still be used. I followed one of the YouTube videos that shows how to pull it apart and remove the speaker.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Not sure I do. I didn't mean how they are managing it. Is it by serial number, location, maybe "left behind" notification? Nobody's noted any pattern.

That is the thing about an SQL select statement. Unless you give it a sort clause, the results are not sorted. They can come out in order. They can come out completely random. It gets even a bit stranger when you are dealing with a distributed database.

 

[svish]

Small changes but useful!

 

[dannys1]

It has zero use with Airtags, otherwise there would be no people complaining about family sharing, I have family sharing enabled on icloud, some weeks ago I lended my keys (airtagged) to my sister since she didn't want to search for hers (no airtags) just for a quick walk wth the dog, she forgot to return it to me and I to ask it back, next day I was stuck inside home with no keys when leaving for work, and she texted me soon after that she forgot to give me it back yesterday and it was beeping on her work and her phone was displaying a prompt that a unnintendified airtag was with her.

Ah maybe it's just because my phone is always close to hers so this doesn't happen for us.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

.

 

[Ashwee]

Did you read the article?

 

[DotCom2]

About the "Low Battery" notification after replacing, I remember a article her eon macrumors about airtags having a lot of problems with duracells and other brands who used the anti-child swallowing coatting, as it caused connection problems with the small pins used on the airtags since it didn't provided enough contact surface to trasnmit enough electricity, acting as insulators. and since you managed to have it working by pressing harder I think that that is the problem here, you can use something to brush to try to remove a little bit of coating where it connects to the airtag, but I don't know the best method for it.

This just happened to me. Replacement battery is a Duracell with the child safety coating and it doesn't work. Ordered new Panasonic regular 2032's from Amazon and will see if they work. I did a search on the web and from what I found, this is a known problem.

 

[redheeler]

I remember times when opening Apple products was easy, as well as fixing them. Compared to HP or Asus MacBooks or IPhones were amazing for 3rd party servicing… but then Jobs died and here we go :/ all glued, parts digital signed to motherboard or not possible to remove without heatgun, heat table and soldering iron

Jobs helped design the original Macintosh to be far less user-serviceable than other computers of its day. He's the one who pioneered the lack of reparability at Apple, and many later products under his leadership such as the original 2008 MacBook Air continued to push the bar lower.

 

[BlueCreek]

I'm a little confused as I bought one of these for the first time this week.

If I say, put one of these in my backpack, then take my phone and go out to run an errand with just my wallet (leaving my backpack behind) will this thing beep back at my house when I'm not there?

You can set exceptions on the notifications you receive when left behind, so for example your house, so that you don’t get notifications for items that are left there as it’s a known safe location.

 

[sachind1231]

To echo others, family sharing has to be implemented. If my wife takes my car she gets alerts about the “unknown” AT attached to my keys. Not every unknown AT is a stalker. And if they’re making the sound louder it would pretty much mean the end of AT’s in our family. Will go back to using Tiles I guess.

You can tell the Find My app to “ignore” a specific unknown AT once it shows up in your app. That’s what we did for the same purpose – swapping keys. No more beeps.

 

[sachind1231]

I have nothing but trouble with these things and I wish I never bought them.

• I just replaced the batteries and 2 of 5 already claim they are low on battery again
• 3 of 5 refused to connect after replacing the batteries because it claimed the battery is too low to connect or something like that (new batteries!). - Somehow they were able to connect just fine using the same batteries after opening the back and pressing the battery against the AirTag with my hand. Once connected, I could put on the back thingy again and they would stay connected.
• Maybe it is my imagination but it seems to hit my battery life on iPhone / iPad a lot ("Find My") always in my over night battery stats
• Getting the annoying notification of my BFs AirTag. They need to add an option to mark an AirTag as known like "I know this AirTag. Please stopp bothering me FOREVER, not just for this day

To your last bullet - that exists. You can tell the Find My app to “ignore” a specific unknown AT once it shows up in your app.

 

[contacos]

To your last bullet - that exists. You can tell the Find My app to “ignore” a specific unknown AT once it shows up in your app.

I only have the option to ignore it for the rest of the day

 

[OpenWheelFan]

Looks like it’s only way to mute…

So basically, all the firmware changes are for naught, if the stalker merely removes the speaker from the airtag?

 

[addamas]

So basically, all the firmware changes are for naught, if the stalker merely removes the speaker from the airtag?

Well, everything can be used to do good or evil. Spoon, kitchen knife, taxes…
Already there were hacked AirTags or modified probably similar way on black market so doing SW changes is pointless for me.
I posted it to help secure bike or any other property

 

[scaramoosh]

I bought a pack of these to put in valuable items in case they get stolen.... but the speaker going off makes it pretty useless.

 

[MrGimper]

They’re not designed to prevent theft.

Not sure why someone put a “disagree” on this. It’s a statement of fact.

 

[hortod1]

You can tell the Find My app to “ignore” a specific unknown AT once it shows up in your app. That’s what we did for the same purpose – swapping keys. No more beeps.

Had no idea. Will look into it. Thx-

 

[jopiek]

Maybe it's not the AirTag that's making the dog go nuts but rather the absence of the dog's owner. Separation anxiety?

No that is not it, sometimes refuses to voluntarily leave us, we care for her a lot and she sees our place also as her territory. It was also just for a few minutes and stopped right away when we took the tag off and cuddled with her, but is still annoying that the tag seems to go off when my brother's phone is not close by. And of course those annoying messages 'an AirTag seems to be traveling with you'. I also care for privacy and safety but I don't see how that would be a problem to not integrate it with Family.

 

[yosef019]

I got 2 new airtags yesterday and
I installed 15.6 beta and airtags not updated to 301 they still at 291

 

[babyexercise]

Familysharing - when? I want to give an AirTag to my minor who just started walking to his school by himself. He has no phone yet but iPad at home linked to his own AppleID. If I put an AT linked to my own AppleID into his backpack - will it alert his school teachers of an unknown AT tracking them?

Interesting idea

 

[babyexercise]

anyone has good or bad experience with AirTag for your kid in school? Yeah anti stalking for adult is good, but trying to keep protect kid is another story.

 

[DreadedFun]

anyone has good or bad experience with AirTag for your kid in school? Yeah anti stalking for adult is good, but trying to keep protect kid is another story.

The biggest issue I see is when you (or your child) walks with someone for a while and the AirTag starts warning about stalking.
I have an AirTag on my bike and sometimes when I start riding my bike, the AirTag plays a sound. Don’t know if it reacts to my non Apple laptop or non Apple Bluetooth headphones or it’s just buggy, but it is annoying that it warns me multiple times a week.