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AirTag Sharing is broken

WolfSnap

WolfSnap

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
1,117
1,009
SoCal
Ever since upgrading to iOS 17.2, AirTag sharing is completely broken for me. Wondering if anyone else is having these issues:

  1. If I share an AirTag with someone, the AirTag shared shows “No location found” and the serial shows “Not Available” on the device of the person I shared the tag with.
  2. If someone shares a tag with me, I see ”No location found” and the serial number shows “Not available” on my device.
  3. My iPad and Mac have an old AirTag listed as being shared with me, that the person who owns the tag has completely removed from their device. The tag is not shared with me at all, and in fact that tag doesn’t even exist — but it still shows on my iPad and my Mac, but NOT on my iPhone.
  4. No matter how many times I try to remove the shared orphaned tag, it does not remove.
  5. No matter how many tags I share, or tags shared with me, they all show “No location found” with no serial #.
This started when I upgraded to 17.2. When I upgraded, my iPhone didn’t show any of the AirTags shared with me — while my iPad and Mac showed the entire list of AirTags shared with me. Prior to 17.2, things worked correctly.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix things? I have contacted Apple, but they’re not super helpful…
 
AirTag sharing is completely broken for me as well. All the shared AirTags show “No location found”, and these same AirTags were working flawlessly until last week. Now the person carrying the shared AirTag is being alerted that they being tracked by an unknown AirTag.

I’m not sure if this is a result of the iOS 17.2 update or the latest AirTag firmware update, but it is driving me absolutely mad.
 
YES! It is a known issue. Google "SHARED AIRTAG LOCATION NOT FOUND". Existing shared AirTags are working fine but any NEW shares added are failing. It's on Apple Support forum and all over Reddit. If you remove an EXISTING share and re-add it, it too will fail. I spent an hour on the phone with "support:" and other have gone to the "Genius" bar and no one can figure it out. They claim the issue has been reported to Apple. First 17.3 beta did not fix it either. Please report to Apple through their online reporting system. Seems to have started with 17.2.

www.apple.com

Feedback - iPhone

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about iPhone.
www.apple.com
 
OK, here is how I (inadvertently) fixed it: I updated to 17.3 beta 1 to see if that fixed it. It did not and the beta seemed a bit flaky so I did a restore back to 17.2 and now the sharing that hasn't worked works fine.
 
I’m noticing this now. When I view an AirTag that is shared it with me it says it hasn’t been seen in two weeks.
 
RetiredInFl said:
OK, here is how I (inadvertently) fixed it: I updated to 17.3 beta 1 to see if that fixed it. It did not and the beta seemed a bit flaky so I did a restore back to 17.2 and now the sharing that hasn't worked works fine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your info. Since I don’t plan on tinkering with the beta updates just for this, I’m hoping they will fix the issue with the next update.

I really don’t care for most of the new features introduced with iOS 17. AirTag sharing was the main reason why I upgraded. This really blows.
 
AirTag sharing is inexplicably working again as of this evening with no action on my part. Perhaps it was more of an issue with the Apple server rather than the iOS update? I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will stay functional moving forward.
 
Crazy thing -- most of the airtags started working again tonight, just as @rumongr said. BUT, my iPad and Mac still have an orphaned AirTag that's sticking around -- even though it was unshared and removed from the account of the person who shared it. Also, while most of the tags are working on the iPad and Mac, they're not 100% yet. The iPhone works perfectly though, so far! Hopefully that means apple is applying the fix to the servers!
 
rumongr said:
Thanks for your info. Since I don’t plan on tinkering with the beta updates just for this, I’m hoping they will fix the issue with the next update.

I really don’t care for most of the new features introduced with iOS 17. AirTag sharing was the main reason why I upgraded. This really blows.
Click to expand...

lol, I guess my “fix” was simply perfect timing!
 
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RetiredInFl said:
lol, I guess my “fix” was simply perfect timing!
Click to expand...
I almost downgraded to 17.1.2 yesterday — but figured I’d cause more problems than it was worth to do that. Glad I didn’t!

Now, if I could only get rid of the orphan AirTag on my Mac and iPad, everything would be right with the world again.. LOL
 
WolfSnap said:
I almost downgraded to 17.1.2 yesterday — but figured I’d cause more problems than it was worth to do that. Glad I didn’t!

Now, if I could only get rid of the orphan AirTag on my Mac and iPad, everything would be right with the world again.. LOL
Click to expand...
Sorry to say, :D. my Mac (Mini M2) and my iPad Mini 6 picked it up without issue.
 
WolfSnap said:
Crazy thing -- most of the airtags started working again tonight, just as @rumongr said. BUT, my iPad and Mac still have an orphaned AirTag that's sticking around -- even though it was unshared and removed from the account of the person who shared it. Also, while most of the tags are working on the iPad and Mac, they're not 100% yet. The iPhone works perfectly though, so far! Hopefully that means apple is applying the fix to the servers!
Click to expand...
Have you tried removing those orphaned AirTags from the Find My app on your devices?
 
Spoke to Apple again today. They confirmed they fixed the AirTag sharing issue. But, the orphaned AirTag will need until the next iOS/iPadOS/MacOS release to fix. Not the end of the world, but at least they're fixing it (generally) quickly.
 
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WolfSnap said:
Spoke to Apple again today. They confirmed they fixed the AirTag sharing issue. But, the orphaned AirTag will need until the next iOS/iPadOS/MacOS release to fix. Not the end of the world, but at least they're fixing it (generally) quickly.
Click to expand...
At least they’re promising a fix. Sadly, Apple’s software QC is not what it used to be. Let’s hope they don’t introduce three new bugs while fixing one with the next update.
 
WolfSnap said:
A million times. When I tap remove, absolutely nothing happens. They’re just stuck.
Click to expand...

Did you try fully factory resetting the AT (remove cover and press and release battery 5 + 1 times). That will remove it from your iCloud account and make it unregistered to start from scratch?

How to reset your AirTag - Apple Support

Learn when you need to reset your AirTag and how to do it.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
RetiredInFl said:
Did you try fully factory resetting the AT (remove cover and press and release battery 5 + 1 times). That will remove it from your iCloud account and make it unregistered to start from scratch?

How to reset your AirTag - Apple Support

Learn when you need to reset your AirTag and how to do it.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
If anything, it made it worse. For some reason, I’m getting the dreaded “No location found” message after removing, resetting, then sharing the AirTag again. Ugh.
 
RetiredInFl said:
Sunken on Reddit said after full AT reset then he “reset network settings “ and that worked.
Click to expand...
The iPhone doesn't show the orphaned AirTag. Just the mac and iPad. Although, I still tried it.. There was no effect. The orphaned airtag still shows up.

These two tags have the same serial number. Notice how the Shared with line one the bottom one is blank?
2023-12-16_09-53-11.png

If you tap on the tag, you see the differences. This one the "Shared AirTag" section is blank.
2023-12-16_09-55-49.png


While the working one (same serial #) has the info on who the owner is, and who it's shared with.
2023-12-16_09-55-40.png


My iPhone only shows the working Alfie tag. But, the iPad and Mac show both.

Nothing works to remove the non-working tag.
 

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