AirPods Pro - Does Find My for AirPods Actually Work?

[jumpcutking]

The wonderful "Find My" app helps me figure out where I dropped my phone, left my watch... but NEVER my AirPods. Finding them is the most difficult thing I've ever experienced. I'm not talking about finding an ear, but the charger base (with the ears in it). It's honestly the most difficult thing to do.

Location, it has never been accurate. It seems to not show thew last time it was paired but some random update when it was used. What's worse, I see "location not found" - I was like, did someone steal it? It was at the office.

For some reason, when you use "play sound", it never plays. It says something like "when your AirPods are in range we will alert you" but they never do. Only when I find them, and open the charger case, does the sound fire. Worse, it seems to fire when I just put them in my ear. You get that wonderful "AirPods connected" sound followed by ear piercing "BEEP". That last one hasn't happened very often.

So I suppose this causes me to ask the question.

Does "Find My" by bluetooth - actually work? It's one of those Apple Technologies that sound awesome and ground breaking that just doesn't seem to be working for me.

Is it just all smoke and mirrors...?

AirPods Pro - iPhone 12 Mac iOS 14.2.1

Also, am I doing something wrong?

 

[Böhme417]

My short response would be "no." The location apparently doesn't get updated unless they are actively being used, which is almost no help in actually locating them if you haven't worn them recently.

 

[jumpcutking]

I know it's bluetooth which only has a 40 ft distance - and that constantly pinging it's location may lower battery but at the very least... I should be able to walk around with my phone and have it ping the AirPods to help me find it. They just gonna get lost all the time. It also means, I'll be scared with those new third-party tracking devices. Will it really find my keys... or just say it will?

 

[Christopher Kim]

My understanding is that’s it meant to be where the beeps only go off if the Airpods are out of the case. Ie. it’s meant for if you’ve left the pods out somewhere, or in my case, if you fall asleep with them on and they‘re somewhere in / around your bed.

I agree sometimes it would be useful when they’re in the case (and you don’t know where you’ve left them), as that probably happens more than misplacing them out of the case. But yes, you’re not doing it wrong, I believe that’s how it’s designed.

 

[redman042]

NO, it doesn't really work. I mean, it might help you find them in specific circumstances, but it didn't help me. Instead it led me in the wrong direction.

Last Monday I went in to the office (I mostly work at home). Used my AirPods Pro right before I left in the evening. Made a stop and then came home. Later that evening I looked for but could not find my AirPods anywhere. Checked "Find My" app, which said they were at the office and were last connected at around the time that I left. So I assumed I left them on my desk.

Went back the next day, searched everywhere, asked people, tried to connect to them in Bluetooth settings. But no luck. Came home, searched the whole house, tried to connect to them, no luck.

I let a week go by without them turning up, then decided to grab a new pair from Target because they were $50 off. I was angry at myself for losing them and having to buy a new pair. I left them unwrapped for several days to buy more time to find the old ones. I came to assume they fell out of my pocket while getting in the car at work and got picked up by someone. I trusted the Find My location and assumed that was the only possible outcome since the location and timestamp said so.

I finally opened the new pair of AirPods yesterday. I used them for barely an hour, then I happened to sit in a chair in my bedroom, and on a whim decided to check under the seat cushion. Lo and behold, my old AirPods were there! I was happy but also angry that I cracked open the new package that could have been returned less than an hour before.

I know Apple would still take the return but my wife is trying them out and might keep them.

But the bottom line here is that my phone sat by my bedside each night for the whole week, probably five feet away from that chair with my missing AirPods sitting under the cushion. They still had a charge. My phone never once connected or updated the AirPods location. I checked multiple times during the week too, by opening the Find My app and also trying to connect in Bluetooth.

Basically, if you lose your AirPods, try Find My but also look the old fashioned way and don't assume the Find My info is accurate. It's a feature Apple "tacked on" to the AirPods and turns out to have real limitations.