5 ms·

I have an older AirTag, which cannot be seen by my iPhone any more but gives a slight beep whenever it gets shaken. Anyone ever heard of the behavior?

by _ph_ 8mo ago

wmeredith 8mo ago
The battery needs changed.
- _ph_ 8mo ago
  Changing the battery was the first thing I did. No change. But if that is the official signal for "battery low", I can try a few more. Thanks.
  - brigham 8mo ago
    Make sure the battery doesn’t have bitterant coating on the edge where it meets the AirTag contact. The first time I replaced my AirTag batteries I had to remove some of the coating or it wouldn’t power the AirTag.
    - _ph_ 8mo ago
      Thats worth a try, because if the batteries have that, trying several ones of the same brand would produce the same results. Now, do I try to test this by licking the battery or should I try to sand the surface without pre-testing? :)
    - radicality 8mo ago
      Oh yeah totally, that “feature” of a Duracell cr2032 battery screwed me over in that exact case. They just don’t work at all with an AirTag (battery bought from afaik reputable supplier, Home Depot). Switched to Energizer cr2032 and it’s been great.
    - _ph_ 8mo ago
      Tried with a cleaned new battery. It beeps when I put the battery in, that is it. When I scan for unknown objects, I get shown an air tag, but it doesn't tell me anything about it. So probably I should just remove the battery - I must have gone through a heap of them debugging this - and just smash it.
MikeFez 8mo ago
IIRC, this indicates that it's linked to someone else's account, and has not been shared with you. The "beep when moved" feature is to alert people they're being tracked. For example, I let my mother in law use luggage of mine with an airtag still in it and every time she moved it after the first day or so, it would play a noise.
- _ph_ 8mo ago
  I had the thought too, but there is no way anyone else could have gotten physical control over this and shouldn't I see that AirTag when I scan for things in my surrounding as an anti-tracking protection?
  - skygazer 8mo ago
    I've had similar issues -- consider it a bug -- and unpair and re-pair with your phone, and likely the issue will go away.
    - _ph_ 8mo ago
      I think I unpaired it, but I cannot pair it again, as it isn't recognized by the iPhone at all.
  - tefkah 8mo ago
    i’ve had this happen due to going from beta builds to stable builds or vice versa. not super clear exactly which of those triggered it, or whether it was just a beta build bug, but the 5x reboot always fixes it
cyann 8mo ago
I had a similar problem, the 5 reboots fixed it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102577 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102577
theshrike79 8mo ago
Mine started doing this and the reason was an Android phone I had laying around with an app that scanned for airtags. Basically it thought it was being used for stalking (close to an unknown device) and started beeping. Turning off the android phone stopped that.

I have an older AirTag, which cannot be seen by my iPhone any more but gives a slight beep whenever it gets shaken. Anyone ever heard of the behavior?

by _ph_ 8mo ago

I have an older AirTag, which cannot be seen by my iPhone any more but gives a slight beep whenever it gets shaken. Anyone ever heard of the behavior?

wmeredith 8mo ago

The battery needs changed.

_ph_ 8mo ago
Changing the battery was the first thing I did. No change. But if that is the official signal for "battery low", I can try a few more. Thanks.
- brigham 8mo ago
  Make sure the battery doesn’t have bitterant coating on the edge where it meets the AirTag contact. The first time I replaced my AirTag batteries I had to remove some of the coating or it wouldn’t power the AirTag.
  - _ph_ 8mo ago
    Thats worth a try, because if the batteries have that, trying several ones of the same brand would produce the same results. Now, do I try to test this by licking the battery or should I try to sand the surface without pre-testing? :)
  - radicality 8mo ago
    Oh yeah totally, that “feature” of a Duracell cr2032 battery screwed me over in that exact case. They just don’t work at all with an AirTag (battery bought from afaik reputable supplier, Home Depot). Switched to Energizer cr2032 and it’s been great.
  - _ph_ 8mo ago
    Tried with a cleaned new battery. It beeps when I put the battery in, that is it. When I scan for unknown objects, I get shown an air tag, but it doesn't tell me anything about it. So probably I should just remove the battery - I must have gone through a heap of them debugging this - and just smash it.

MikeFez 8mo ago

IIRC, this indicates that it's linked to someone else's account, and has not been shared with you. The "beep when moved" feature is to alert people they're being tracked. For example, I let my mother in law use luggage of mine with an airtag still in it and every time she moved it after the first day or so, it would play a noise.

_ph_ 8mo ago
I had the thought too, but there is no way anyone else could have gotten physical control over this and shouldn't I see that AirTag when I scan for things in my surrounding as an anti-tracking protection?
- skygazer 8mo ago
  I've had similar issues -- consider it a bug -- and unpair and re-pair with your phone, and likely the issue will go away.
  - _ph_ 8mo ago
    I think I unpaired it, but I cannot pair it again, as it isn't recognized by the iPhone at all.
- tefkah 8mo ago
  i’ve had this happen due to going from beta builds to stable builds or vice versa. not super clear exactly which of those triggered it, or whether it was just a beta build bug, but the 5x reboot always fixes it

cyann 8mo ago

I had a similar problem, the 5 reboots fixed it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102577 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102577

theshrike79 8mo ago

Mine started doing this and the reason was an Android phone I had laying around with an app that scanned for airtags. Basically it thought it was being used for stalking (close to an unknown device) and started beeping. Turning off the android phone stopped that.