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AirTag randomly chirping

I

ignatius345

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 20, 2015
8,181
14,368
I keep an AirTag in my glovebox. Sometimes, randomly, it will start this chirping sound right when I get in my car and start driving. It's not the same as the sound you can trigger in FindMy, but more of a cricket-y chirping. It stops after a minute or so, but it's irritating as hell.

- I don't get any alert of any kind of my iPhone (which is with me in the car)
- The AirTag is not in Lost Mode or anything.
- I haven't activated any sounds on it through Find My.
- The AirTag is registered to me on the same Apple ID as the iPhone.
- There are no low battery warnings for the AirTag in Find My
- The chirping happens very randomly. No real pattern I've been able to determine.
 
sublunar said:
When I have had the chirping I just replaced the battery, never had a battery warning.
Click to expand...
Interesting. My other AirTag gave me a warning when the battery got low. I'll swap this one out and see if it helps. Thanks for the tip.
 
AirTags will chirp when they detect movement and they are not in range of a paired device for some amount of time.

Maybe your phone hasn’t yet connected to it before the AirTag senses motion.
 
ignatius345 said:
I keep an AirTag in my glovebox. Sometimes, randomly, it will start this chirping sound right when I get in my car and start driving. It's not the same as the sound you can trigger in FindMy, but more of a cricket-y chirping. It stops after a minute or so, but it's irritating as hell.

- I don't get any alert of any kind of my iPhone (which is with me in the car)
- The AirTag is not in Lost Mode or anything.
- I haven't activated any sounds on it through Find My.
- The AirTag is registered to me on the same Apple ID as the iPhone.
- There are no low battery warnings for the AirTag in Find My
- The chirping happens very randomly. No real pattern I've been able to determine.
Click to expand...
I had the same thing. Very strange
 
erihp said:
Did you read my post?

There are very specific conditions for the chirp. And leaving one in your car overnight then pushing off before the phone has connected, would do it.
Click to expand...
Excuse me? Yes I read your post, but as with all forum posts I take it with a grain of salt until it's verified or there's a reference. There's another poster claiming it's a battery issue, so I'm gathering information.

If you believe you have the definitive answer, do you have a reference to share? Thank you.
 
erihp said:
AirTags will chirp when they detect movement and they are not in range of a paired device for some amount of time.

Maybe your phone hasn’t yet connected to it before the AirTag senses motion.
Click to expand...
I doubt this is true. Otherwise AirTags left in checked luggage would be constantly chirping. Its the battery.
 
nebo1ss said:
I doubt this is true. Otherwise AirTags left in checked luggage would be constantly chirping. It’s the battery.
Click to expand...
It’s true and anyone can reproduce this. The key is the amount of time the AirTag and owner are separated. Additionally, they don’t chirp forever in this state.

Typically your bags are not separated from your devices for long enough to trigger this in a flight scenario, not to mention, the chirping can barely be heard buried in luggage or through the various logistical steps in a multi-hop flight. I assure you, these trackers are beeping occasionally, and baggage handlers either don’t hear them or don’t care.

Take a paired AirTag and leave it somewhere far away from any paired devices, including watch. Wait 12-24h. Return to your AirTag without any paired devices. Move the AirTag, hear chirp.
 
Last edited:
ignatius345 said:
Excuse me? Yes I read your post, but as with all forum posts I take it with a grain of salt until it's verified or there's a reference. There's another poster claiming it's a battery issue, so I'm gathering information.

If you believe you have the definitive answer, do you have a reference to share? Thank you.
Click to expand...
I am the reference, I know this to be fact from experience and experiments. If you want to validate my claims, feel free. I posted how you can very easily reproduce this in the previous post.

You can likely also reproduce the inverse fairly easily:

Carefully get in and sit in the car for a while before you push off (do not move the AirTag, even slightly). Load up Find My, ensure you are connected, and then leave/move the tag. No chirp. It’s likely that having the AirTag hidden adds to the amount of time it takes to detect/connect.

I had one of my AirTags hidden in a bike tube, guess what, phone couldn’t see the tag through the metal tube, and it would chirp every time I rode it. Once I repositioned where I stashed it, the signal was solid and it would connect before I could move the bike. No chirp.


Additionally, having a weak/low battery can cause the chirp, but can also cause the AirTag to not connect as quickly and not have as much radio range For detection. So, yes of course it could be the battery. Or, the reboot that occurs when you replace one.

It’s more likely that you are moving it after it’s sat disconnected from your phone for more than 12-24hrs (probably why it feels ‘sporadic’) and the AirTag starts moving before it’s connected again.
 
Last edited:
I have a couple of airtags in a drawer that I never use. When I open the drawer, they chirp a couple of times. I think they also chirp when the battery is low.
 
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