Don't Get Fooled by an Airtag's Phantom Location

[mckinney3]

If you are new to using Airtag's, you will have expectations that exceed the capabilities of the tag, iPhone, and connection variables.
One of those location errors is what I call a Phantom Location. A Phantom Location is what will be reported and where you will chase off to find the lost tag and in reality the actual location can be very far off the reported location. You will be on a "wild goose chase."

In the attached image, I show the actual location of an AirTag. I also show the Reported and Phantom Location of the AirTag. The reported location, in this case , is about 1600 feet away from actual location. I have seen as much as several miles. The AirTag is in a wooded area but near a highway. A fast moving car has pinged the AirTag but due to the speed of the car and the spotty cell coverage and possibly a busy connection to the Apple Mothership, the location is reported long after the original ping. The car (and the iPhone) has moved down the road, turned right into a subdivision, and then the driver prolly has ambled down the lake and then the connection is made and the reported location is where the iPhone is at the the time a report is actually made not when the iPhone originally pinged the AirTag So, you will get a report and a location that, in reality, is 1600 feet across that lake from the actual location. .

Be careful , my friends, with the reports that you receive on a missing AirTag's location

 

[Slartibart]

look, while I appreciate the anectdotical value somewhat… if anything Apple provides clear infos on how Airtags work. If you lost it somehow close to a ”rural” road, exact pinpointing of the location - as long as e.g. moose and sea eagles do not use iPhones - will be quite inaccurate.

Airtags are not GPS-beacons, aren’t they?

 

[fischersd]

Heh. Apple IS doing something weird (wrong) with the algorithms that they're using though. Returning from Thailand (connecting flight in Tokyo), the AirTags in our luggage said our bags were 11,000km away, 7 minutes ago (as we're waiting at the luggage carousel in Vancouver). 7 minutes.

The bags showed up on the conveyor and FindMy updated 15 minutes later. Methinks they didn't travel that distance in 22 minutes.

Obviously, that's a corner case, but they need to sift out these false positives.

 

[Slartibart]

Heh. Apple IS doing something weird (wrong) with the algorithms that they're using though. Returning from Thailand (connecting flight in Tokyo), the AirTags in our luggage said our bags were 11,000km away, 7 minutes ago (as we're waiting at the luggage carousel in Vancouver). 7 minutes.

Well, last known location was shown…

The bags showed up on the conveyor and FindMy updated 15 minutes later. Methinks they didn't travel that distance in 22 minutes.

and then some iDevice registered your Airtags and the location was updated. 🤓

 

[fischersd]

Well, last known location was shown…

and then some iDevice registered your Airtags and the location was updated. 🤓

Umm, no. It's saying that the airtag was 11,000 km away 7 minutes ago. It (obviously) wasn't seem by another device on the FindMy network at that time, or the location would have been updated.

 

[arkitect]

I'll spare you all my anecdotal experiment using an airtag on my cat's collar. 😼

Spoiler

It didn't work.
I could see her a few metres away from me… she was tracked in a field half a mile away.
🤣

 

[Slartibart]

Umm, no. It's saying that the airtag was 11,000 km away 7 minutes ago. It (obviously) wasn't seem by another device on the FindMy network at that time, or the location would have been updated.

And that is the reason why the last known location was indicated as 11000 km away… as I wrote. 🤓

 

[fischersd]

And that is the reason why the last known location was indicated as 11000 km away… as I wrote. 🤓

Yeah...you're not getting it.

 

[madeirabhoy]

And that is the reason why the last known location was indicated as 11000 km away… as I wrote. 🤓

but shouldn’t it have said 11000k, away last updated 12 hours ago (or however long )

 

[Whathappened]

Yeah...you're not getting it.

No, you are not. He explained it pretty well to you and he is right.

 

[fischersd]

No, you are not. He explained it pretty well to you and he is right.

See the post above what you just put.

"Your AirTag is 11,000km away - 7 minutes ago" - but you landed 40 minutes ago (and been in the air for 18 hours) - and waiting not-so-patiently by the luggage carousel.

How could the AirTag have updated 7 minutes ago from some remote location????

FindMy updated the location a couple minutes before they rolled out, but that doesn't change the bug of stating a false update by the FindMy network.