Excellent tips @ddmiller !
In troubleshooting to turn of the iPad being my location, I think I did try turning on Share My Location just to see if it had any effect, and was still not able to tell it not to be my location.
I don’t share my location in the first place, so am not sure how iPad got set to that! Maybe I was fiddling around with settings when I got it several years ago.
Anyway, I’m sort of in ‘hide me’ mode now with everything turned off, letting the digital dust settle and then when the tags I ordered arrive, take it step by step.
Both iPads (air 4 and mini 6) were went thru ‘erase all content and settings’ and ‘set up as new’. Although it was somehow not successful at the ‘erase all’ part, these are the only two devices that appeared in Find My so 2. might be right about that.
Thank you for the kind suggestions. For now my 4 main Devices are minimized in personal content, relaxing in anonymity, unfindable, and I’m using enhanced physical procedures to keep them safe.
I rarely lose anything for long so haven’t used Find My much since it first came out, other than thinking I had it turned on and Devices findable. The recent Topic on new AirTags and losing track of car keys for about 15 minutes got me thinking it might be useful to have one, and things went downhill from there.
My iPhone and keys and wallets travel mostly in velcro’d/zippered pockets and are physically checked often so are fairly safe in my modest lifestyle for now.