Similar story, but Swiss Air only had one flight per day to Budapest and the airline (well really a subcontractor handling the luggage) said it would be sent to our hotel the next day. Having the AirTag let me know it had arrived in Budapest the next day. Numerous phone calls, but we had to return to the airport after about three days and I knew where my bag was.
I also am in the peace of mind club or other bags and my bike. I’ve left a few things behind in the past and no doubt will do it again. In fact right now I have a backup hard drive which I’ve stored in some obscure (to me) place. I guess it didn’t get an AirTag.
I’ve been waiting for about two years to buy another batch.
I’ve got a ton of them deployed, but often they help me find where I left something intentionally and not accidentally: both cars have AirTags because this helps my wife and I find them in parking lots and garages that we have parked in so many times, we can’t remember which space we parked in this time! (It’s happened a few times. Yes, in airport and other lots, I often take a picture of the floor/number!)
I wrote a whole book about this if you really want to know! The brief answer is anything that can connect to the Internet can directly report its whereabouts when connected, which includes certain relay items (audio gear, Apple Watch without cellular, etc.). Anything with no Internet connection (either by design or at the moment) can use the crowdsourced Find My Network, which uses Bluetooth and a privacy-preserving design to relay encrypted location information via the nearest Apple device connected to the Internet. So an AirTag or an MacBook Pro without an Internet connection can both relay via someone’s nearby iPhone, pulling location information from that phone.
Strictly AirTags. Like a lot of people I do get frustrated here and there with Apple, but I’ll still take their products (this one excepted) over its rivals. But as explained, AirTag’s competition is better, and in most cases cheaper, in my experience.
Have lots: keys, suitcase, wallet, backpack, camera bag, bike, etc. Much better than Tiles.
I left my wallet on a bus in Sydney last year. Being able to track the bus that it was one and retrieve it once it came around on it’s route to and from Bondi Beach meant I got my wallet back. Without the AirTag, quite possibly won’t have seen it again.
My suitcase was lost in Seattle Airport and didn’t turn up on the carousal, but I could see where it was so it could be retrieved before I missed my connection.
Probably won’t upgrade but might replace my main ones at some point.
One of my cats who loves to roam wears an AirTag. The range sucks and you can barely hear it beep, but it still made is possible to track him down and find him numerous times. He may have been lost forever without it. I will most definitely get the new one.
I am surprised this hasn’t come up in the discussion yet. AirTags will not work when you or the tag don’t have service. I use them for travel like others and that’s works well. But I also spend a lot of time in a national forest area with no service doing work that means I get in and out of the car a lot. I like to have something on my key chain to find it if I happen to drop it or put it down in the car somewhere. The latter has happened once. I use a Tile for this which works using only Bluetooth. It would also work if you dropped something track-able along a remote trail, but I haven’t had this situation. I’m not a fan of some aspects of a Tile (e.g. no replaceable battery), but works in this case where an AirTag doesn’t.
I use AirTags a lot: bike, car, keys, luggage… but I find that there are cheaper devices that use the AirTag network and don’t seem to have any disadvantages. Most have the same form as the original Apple device, but one can also get credit card sized ones for a wallet or purse. I have used them to find stuff a lot, including my car when I forgot where it was parked.
I have just acquired some new hearing aids (Phonak) which appear to use the FindMy network but which need a manufacturer-supplied app on my iPhone to provide location data. I’ve already used this twice to find lost aids, including one that was detected many miles away from my own location.
I wonder how long it will take for the AirTag imitators to improve their specs to match AirTag 2.
Absolutely necessary when flying with a checked in bicycle bag. Makes it lot less stressful knowing if it might be on the way or went somewhere else. Could save you hours of time.
Several folks here have talked about using AirTags to keep track of a parked car. AirTags can be useful for tracking a car that has moved by someone else (spouse, thief, etc.), but if you have a Bluetooth-enabled car and are using an iPhone, you can have your Apple Maps automatically remember where you left the car.
Interesting that you find Eufy tags better as they are using Apple’s FindMy network, according to their promo material.
I tried using Tile trackers during a five month trip all around the EU and UK. (Pre-AirTag availability) and in all that time they never worked, not even once. There are simply not enough people using them to establish a workable network.
Fascinating topic! I didn’t realize these things were so widespread and what they are good for; thanks TidBITS!.
I rarely lose track of anything for long and when I do I usually find it, but am now thinking there might be a couple of uses in my situation. It’s amazing how many folks don’t trust airlines to keep track of their bags. I haven’t traveled in almost 9 years so this is an eye-opener.
I reviewed Apple’s info on how to detect tracking devices and in the process saw the term ‘find my network accessory’ or similar and didn’t know what they were talking about. Dug a bit more and came across Chipolo, a similar product similar price. Would be interested to hear anyone’s experience with that. Dug some more and found many variants on this. I take it looking for product that is MFI certified would be important.
Can these tag things be used in like a single user enviornment, that is, if they have a range of 200 meters, then as long as I am within that distance, the iPhone should find it directly over bluetooth, without having the FindMy Network setting on? I am usually within that distance of my important stuff. Other iPhone users will be able to see my tags too is that correct?
I’m not sure what you mean by no service. AirTags basically hijack any nearby iPhones to report their location. AirTags don’t connect to cellular or anything on their own.
So if you’re in a remote area without many cell phones, then yes, an AirTag is basically useless.
I have a special tracker for my dog (Tractive GPS) that uses cellular to connect to the network. It works even in remote areas, as long as there is cellular signal. But because it uses cellular, there is an annual fee ($100) for the cellular network use. But since I go on hikes with my dog, I like having that extra security of being able to track him (and someone could use it to track me if I’m with him).
Great to know! I wasn’t sure how that worked for non-AirTags.
(Though I do have a weird problem on my new MacBook Pro – it’s never been able to activate Find My. Long chats with ChatGPT says this is known issue and is caused by corrupt OS stuff and requires reinstalling the OS or some major low-level resetting. All the easy solutions didn’t fix it. This laptop never leaves my house so I haven’t bothered, but it sure is weird.)
I assume he means a location with no radio (cellular or Wi-Fi) coverage.
I assume that in this situation, a nearby iPhone will record the location and will transmit it to iCloud when it moves to a location that has coverage. So the location will be tracked, but the data may be outdated by the time it is made available for the owner to use.
Of course, if there are no phones nearby (e.g., on a pet’s collar if it wanders into the woods), then the location won’t be tracked at all.
Find My would not have alerted you to it. Find My only lets you know where something is (active query via the app) or when you leave it behind. Otherwise, the notion is that it could be used for stalking. There’s at least one Find My Network compatible device for deterring bike theft that also lets you arm it, so that if it moves, it sets off a very loud alarm, but that feature is unrelated to Find My.
Of course, the moment you noticed it was missing, finding an airport police officer might have worked with a live map!