Why do my AirTags (and other Find My devices) give so many false warnings?

[blw777]

Some (not all) of my AirTags sometimes to frequently yield lots of false warnings. The worst offender is the one on my keyring. Pretty much every time I leave the house and go further than maybe 3-4 miles (= 5-6 min), my watch turns up a complaint that my keys have not been seen. Considering that I'm driving and I *know* *for sure* that my keys are less than 1m from the watch and phone, it's pretty obvious that it's a false alert.

If I am going somewhere with my MBP, there's a decent chance (35%?) that I get a warning on it too. I am a creature of habit, and if in fact that laptop is traveling with me, 99.99% chance it's in my shoulder bag, which also has an AirTag. Yet the chances of that AirTag throwing a warning are probably 5%, not 35%, despite the fact that that very likely the MBP is less than 1cm from that AirTag.

Everything (iPhone, watch, MBP) is running current releases, and this has been going on for months. AirTag batteries are of course up to date.

 

[TokyoKiller]

Some (not all) of my AirTags sometimes to frequently yield lots of false warnings. The worst offender is the one on my keyring. Pretty much every time I leave the house and go further than maybe 3-4 miles (= 5-6 min), my watch turns up a complaint that my keys have not been seen. Considering that I'm driving and I *know* *for sure* that my keys are less than 1m from the watch and phone, it's pretty obvious that it's a false alert.

If I am going somewhere with my MBP, there's a decent chance (35%?) that I get a warning on it too. I am a creature of habit, and if in fact that laptop is traveling with me, 99.99% chance it's in my shoulder bag, which also has an AirTag. Yet the chances of that AirTag throwing a warning are probably 5%, not 35%, despite the fact that that very likely the MBP is less than 1cm from that AirTag.

Everything (iPhone, watch, MBP) is running current releases, and this has been going on for months. AirTag batteries are of course up to date.

Curious, what are your devices in more specifics? ie. iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch Series 7/8/9, etc.

 

[blw777]

iPhone 12 Pro, Apple Watch 6, MBP M1 Max 14" are the main ones. Why would their specifics be relevant? Surely even if they have the old wideband chip (U1?) at a distance significantly less than 1m they should still be able to work properly?

 

[EVPAT]

If you have a Mac at home that you use for FindMy, it could be that which is alerting you. The alert is going to your iPhone which in turn alerts your watch.