So I haven't read this whole thread but I wanted to give people my findings in case it helps you too. Like most in this thread my iPad Pro started to have a battery drain issue where I will loose as much as 15% of battery per day and the culrpit was Find My. I don't use my iPad every day and was really annoyed to find the iPad at less than half the charge if I left it iddle for more than a couple of days.
I saw
this Apple post which suggested that it was due to AirTags and that turning off BlueTooth did "solve" the problem but I wanted to know the root cause of the problem. Then one of my friends, who knows I have a dog and that the dog destroyed lots of Apple cables, said it could be my dog. And he was right! Well my dog is not a sorcerer that can destroy batteries with black magic, he just has an Apple AirTag fitted to him because he got lost a few times and we have been able to find him thanks to the AirTag. So after my friend's suggestion I took the AirTag off my dog and left it on a quiet place for 24hs. Bingo! My iPad's battery did not drain. As soon as I fitted the AirTag back to my dog again the battery drain issue started back.
So here is what I think is happening. AirTags don't have a GPS nor have wifi so they don't know the location and when the location changes, nor can they send that information back to Apple. That's way AirTags rely on iOS devices around them to communicate their position. The AirTag will say "Hi I am here and here is my ID" via Bluetooth. Then the iOS device will pick up this Bluetooth transmission and check it's GPS and send the location data back to Apple. Using the GPS and wifi to transfer data to Apple's servers is not a "cheap" activity, this explains why my iPad's battery is being drained. I presume this issue is also affecting my other iOS devices like iPhones but since there are getting used throughout the day the additional battery usage is being hidden away. And in any case iPhone's get recharged every night so it's not a big deal if some battery was used for Find My.
AirTags probably have an accelerometer to detect when they are being moved so they can send another Bluetooth ping. If the AirTag is still and not moving it can save battery and don't send any updates since it can assume to be in the same place. But the fact is that my dog moves all the time (even at night dogs move from time to time) means his AirTag is sending updates very frequently.
Now is this a bug? Could Apple do anything to "fix" this problem? I doubt it. How could an AirTag know that is being moved around in the house rather than going out to prevent sending updates? Could Apple prioritise AirTag updates for devices that are charging rather than on battery? Maybe but that will reduce the effectiveness of the Apple tracking network.
So in my case I have 3 possible wprk arounds:
- Remove the AirTag from my dog (not acceptable)
- Turn off the iPad's Bluetooth (not acceptable)
- Keep my iPad charging while not in use (acceptable)
So I hope this post helps someone else. Please share your experiences, do you have a battery drain issue due to AirTags? Do you have an AirTag placed in a place that may cause it to move a lot and send lots of updates?
Thanks!
