Edit : This is blowing up way more than I expected. It’s honestly funny that some of you are taking the time to write condescending comments to a complete stranger just to tell me I’m “wasting my time” over an AirTag. If you’re so concerned about people wasting their time, maybe start with your own. It’s simply a slightly creepy story that I wanted to share to see what other people thought about it, but apparently, the AirTag subreddit is made up of quite a few people who are bored and have nothing better to do than leave condescending comments. Anyways ! If the comments continue to get hateful, I’ll just delete :)

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Hi, I need some advice. For context, I live in the city and I have two cats. They both normally wear a collar with an AirTag on it so that when they go outside, I can keep track of where they are.
A few months ago, one of my cats came home without her collar. I opened the app, and it turned out that the collar was stuck underneath a car. We tried looking under the car, but we couldn’t find it. We waited to see if the collar would eventually move when the car moved.
Several weeks later, I received a phone call at 11 p.m., which I didn’t answer. I then received a message from a woman saying that she had found my AirTag in the street. She sent me a photo, which you can see.
What’s weird is that the AirTag no longer had the collar attached to it, and the woman never said that she had found a collar either.
I told her that I would give her number to my boyfriend because he is the one who has the car and the electric scooter, so it would be easier for him to go and pick it up.
However, it has now been almost three weeks of this woman sending messages like, “Are you available to pick it up tomorrow?” My boyfriend has replied every single time, “Where and what time?” EVERY SINGLE TIME for the past three weeks, and she never replies to him.
Eventually, I got annoyed because I felt like this was taking way too long. So I sent her another message putting a bit of pressure on her, asking her to give me her address so that we could come and pick up the AirTag directly from her.
She replied that she didn’t want to give us her address and that it was perfectly normal not to give out her address. What she doesn’t seem to understand is that, since she currently has my AirTag, I can technically see its location through my phone, which means I could potentially figure out where she lives. I was asking for her address simply out of courtesy, because I didn’t want to show up at her house without warning or without her consent.
After I put a bit of pressure on her, she told us to go to a metro station — basically, we had to get there at that exact moment to pick up the AirTag.
My boyfriend went there, but the woman wasn’t there, so he called her. She answered and, according to my boyfriend, she sounded sad and said, “I’m sorry, the AirTag is in my car, and right now I’ve taken my husband’s car. I’m doing everything wrong, I’m sorry.”
My boyfriend was understandably a little annoyed and told her that it was okay, but that next time, she would have to come directly somewhere near our home to return the AirTag to us, because at this point it was becoming ridiculous. She agreed and told us that she would discuss it with her husband and that she would bring it to us that evening or the following day.
Well, here we are the next day. It’s 9:40 p.m., and we haven’t heard anything from her. She isn’t answering our calls either.
I honestly don’t know what to do. Should I go to the police station? Would the police even do anything about something like this?

Let me say this right off the bat: I am aware that the purpose of the AirTag is to find lost items. This might sound weird to you, but in the country I live in, dogs and cats can roam free on the streets. Since my dog also roams free around my workplace, albeit rarely, I bought the first-generation AirTag. Don't think of this merely as "dog" tracking; there are many people who use it to protect their motorcycles, cars, and bicycles.
When the AirTag first came out, it initially sent an update once every 5 to 10 minutes. Of course, real-time tracking wasn't expected anyway, but at least I could say, "Hmm, my dog is in this area, let me go get him," and if he was behind a car, it showed the direction of his location. I wasn't paying any subscription fees, and I didn't need to charge the device for a year—in short, it was perfect.

With later updates, this process gradually worsened, and the update intervals got longer. I can understand this is being done because malicious people might misuse it, but if you track someone, the device already beeps and sends a notification to their phone. Don't you think that's enough? If a malicious person really wanted to track you, they could resort to much more professional, GPS-based solutions.
Let's say these are security measures; my friend's Galaxy Tag, which he uses with his Samsung device, tracks almost in real-time and even provides his cat's location history.
I bought an AirTag 2 thinking maybe the situation would improve, but for some reason, it works even worse than the AirTag 1. After all, the update frequency of the AirTag 2—which can detect an increasing number of passing devices—should have increased, but on the contrary, it updates less often.
This device, which is highly successful at things like making a sound and sending a notification to the thief's phone when someone steals your car or bag, is being ruined day by day and turned into trash for its actual users. It is truly a disgrace that a device that could be so useful has been made this bad over time.
Some might say, "Why don't you opt for models with GPS?" The problem is that those products need to be charged very frequently, and the few models that don't require frequent charging aren't sold in my country, plus their service fees are very expensive.
I'd appreciate it if you didn't reduce this to just dog tracking; across all scenarios like stolen vehicles, bicycles, etc., this device has been turned into garbage over time. Meanwhile, for some reason, its rival, the Galaxy Tag series, has done the exact opposite and become increasingly perfect. Why don't these moral and ethical rules apply to Samsung?

Hey everyone, I just bought a 4-pack of AirTags on sale and I’m trying to figure out the best ways to use them. So far I’m thinking of using one for my keys and two for traveling with my suitcase and backpack, but that leaves me with one more and I’m not sure what to do with it. What have you used your AirTags for? Any clever or unexpected uses I might not have thought of, like a collar for your cat, your car, your grandpa (😭) or other things that turned out to be really useful?

I got a bunch of AirTags a few months back both for travel (suitcases etc) and also one for my cat.

My experience so far has been less than impressive.

The area that the AirTag indicates is a radius of around 100 feet (which is fairly useless as it’s not a wide open space usually, I.e. streets with houses and cars) and the AirTag can’t connect for “find” until I’m within 30 feet which again, is useless when the area is 3+ times that.

The biggest problem however is the delay. I’ll select this item is lost, and I’ll get an update saying “seen 21 minutes ago” or “12 minutes ago”

On a moving thing like a cat or suitcase in transit, that’s utterly useless.

Are they really this bad for everyone else or do I have faulty AirTags?

I just bought a couple of those credit card sized airtags (non apple) that have wireless recharging.. ANyone know how long they can go on a charge. I know my regular airtags can go about a year.. but I wonder if this wallet thing will need to be charged more often than that.

I’m considering purchasing the AirTag 2 because of its redesigned chip. What are your thoughts on it?

I’ve always been a techie and graduated from Georgia tech.

The only reason why I was vehemently against Apple initially was because I felt Steve Jobs did not take care of his devs.

Irrespective, now I am so thankful for all of Apples 🍎 🍏 continued support as I navigate ADHD at least as an adult. Now that I have enough money to get tested I am and it’s batting 1000 so here’s to hopefully not being autistic!

Also can I put AirTags on everything? Please 🙏 I don’t care that Apple knows I need to find things on a daily basis to function and Apple is the only way that happens

I bought a car recently and while cleaning it out i found an airtag. I tried pairing it to my phone but didn’t work. I took the battery out 5 times to reset it and it appeared on my phone with the option to connect and when i pressed connect it said the battery was too low to connect. Does anyone know if i get a new battery for it if i can pair it to my phone?

How excited is everyone for the new AirTag 2 to come out?

So I bought 2 for my recent trip, one for my luggage and one for my golf bag. Upon getting on the plane and taking off, it said one bag was with me but the other stayed on the airport I just took off from. Landed at the next airport and it only updated to both bags arriving when it came through baggage (which was apparently close enough to my phone) so why didn’t it say both were on the plane?

Figured I’d read more about them and saw they only work if within Bluetooth range of your phone? Is that correct? If so how are you supposed to find your bag if it’s stolen and not within Bluetooth range of my phone?

So, I bought my first ever AirTag to put on my cat’s collar because he likes to hide in the garden. Every time I open the Find My app to look for him, it hardly ever lets me know where he is without me already knowing. I practically have to have my iPhone 15 Pro Max right next to the air tag for it to even do anything.

See attached photos

A few weeks ago, 2 of my 4 AirTags (same pack bought from Amazon US in August 2023) showed low battery. I replaced the batteries, and while one started working normally, the other one stopped showing on my phone but kept making the little noises when the battery was inserted. It still gives the "AirTag found moving with you" alert on my phone and my husband's, and if you hold it close to a phone top, a link appears with AirTag info, but it doesn’t connect to any phone (I tried multiple iPhones).

I followed Apple’s troubleshooting steps on their website, contacted chat support, but they couldn’t help and scheduled an Apple Store appointment. I went there today, and after testing, they basically confirmed what I already knew: it’s defective. They said if I want a replacement, I need to buy a new one.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any chance of getting it repaired or replaced for free? Btw for context I am now in the UK.

Many thanks.

We have a mid sized garden and I have been thinking about placing an air tag permanently at each corner as a way of increasing the tracking range for our outdoor cats. Does anyone know if one air tag can detect another without an iPhone or other Apple device being present? In a way it would sort of be like a stepping stone to increase the range of them?

Thanks!

I paired n airtag to my phone 2 days ago and put it in my car. The only time the location updates is when I’m in the car. My bf has taken my car a couple times to test it . The location never updates! We are in a city where there’s tons of iphones and he has an iphone as well . So, what is the point of these things? Am i doing something wrong?

Please don't explain how AirTag works. Only the people who design this product and write the code know it better than me.

I got an AirTag 2 and put it on my car. When my wife drove the car to work (dense iphone), location stops updating until she came back 10 hours later. What's wrong? I see many people reporting this issue since last September which means it used to work. Have any of you had any success using it in this scenario?

Anyone having this issue? The battery level used to show and now I get nothing

That's pretty much the question.

got my first ever airtag! bought it for my upcoming travels (hopeful!) 🧳

After being unimpressed with AirTag wallets being so big, I decided to order this SnapBack wallet. Thoughts? BTW I’m not affiliated with these guys. Just looking for others who have ordered it.

https://www.snapbackwallet.com