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Ev0d3vil

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2014
485
87
So had a call with a senior Apple tech support agent and after going a little back and forth he was suggesting me to try some other battery optimisation methods.

I mentioned to him that this has categorically started happening from the day I paired my AirTag. He then suggested to turn the AirTag pairing off when I think I’m not going to need it. I said that defeats the whole purpose of having it. I might as well just return it.

He has now booked an appointment for me at the store. Let’s see what happens there.
I found that this issue came up after the latest firmware for the Air tags.
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
So just got back from the Apple store and as I expected there’s no solution to the problem. There’s no way to actually check if the AirTag itself is faulty. Basically I was incorrectly informed by the tech support person on the phone that they can diagnose the AirTag at the store.

So my next course of action is to unpair the AirTag and see what happens to my battery life. If after unpairing the Find My app stops sucking the battery overnight then it will categorically point to the AirTag being the problem.

Then I’ll pair it back and see if the issue returns. Depending on the situation at that point I’ll contact Apple again.

The Genius Bar rep mentioned that there’s no known issue on this at present but after seeing my battery usage stats they agreed that there’s definitely some problem. Either with the AirTag itself or the app.
 
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bradbomb

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2002
566
309
Los Angeles, CA
So just got back from the Apple store and as I expected there’s no solution to the problem. There’s no way to actually check if the AirTag itself is faulty. Basically I was incorrectly informed by the tech support person ok the phone that they can diagnose the AirTag at the store.

So my next course of action is to unpair the AirTag and see what happens to my battery life. If after unpairing the Find My app stops sucking the battery overnight then it will categorically point to the AirTag being the problem.

Then I’ll pair it back and see if the issue returns. Depending on the situation at that point I’ll contact Apple again.

The Genius Bar rep mentioned that there’s no known issue on this at present but after seeing my battery usage stats they agreed that there’s definitely some problem. Either with the AirTag itself or the app.
the weird thing is I have no battery issues with my iPhone 12 Pro and the airtag. It is my 2015 iPad Pro that is suffering
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
the weird thing is I have no battery issues with my iPhone 12 Pro and the airtag. It is my 2015 iPad Pro that is suffering

Not sure if it’s just the older devices that are facing this issue. I’m on a 11 Pro.
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
Update! I unpaired my AirTag last night and lost only 2% of battery life overnight instead of the average 20% that I’ve been seeing since the day I paired the tag with my phone.

This goes to show that the culprit is the AirTag.
 
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great_vc

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2021
42
20
Update! I unpaired my AirTag last night and lost only 2% of battery life overnight instead of the average 20% that I’ve been seeing since the day I paired the tag with my phone.

This goes to show that the culprit is the AirTag.
i do not believe anyone thought dirrefently, as i said i have unpair it and it dropped to 1% from 80%

Also i think one factor is where the airtag is and how ofter your iphone gets a reply from ping. As i said i have it on my Dog, another one mentioned that the one giving him trouble was the airtag on his Car. Again just speculating but this info should be enough for the "genius" support staff and not recommendations on how to preserve battery. Or close messenger.

It is not on old model only , i have an iphone 12
 
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Ev0d3vil

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2014
485
87
Update! I unpaired my AirTag last night and lost only 2% of battery life overnight instead of the average 20% that I’ve been seeing since the day I paired the tag with my phone.

This goes to show that the culprit is the AirTag.

Does your Airtag have the latest firmware?
 

fischersd

macrumors 603
Oct 23, 2014
5,380
1,942
Port Moody, BC, Canada
Those experiencing the battery drain should be using the feedback app to send additional information to Apple development. Continuing to contact support and the stores seems somewhat pointless.
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
Those experiencing the battery drain should be using the feedback app to send additional information to Apple development. Continuing to contact support and the stores seems somewhat pointless.

You would think contacting the support more often will mean they’ll know more people are facing the issues and do something about it?!
 

fischersd

macrumors 603
Oct 23, 2014
5,380
1,942
Port Moody, BC, Canada
You would think contacting the support more often will mean they’ll know more people are facing the issues and do something about it?!
You're not actually going to resolve anything by just calling in. People reporting the issue with the feedback app is a more constructive use of everyone's time.

Nuisance calls to the call centres contribute to long wait times...
 
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Shark5150

macrumors 68000
Sep 24, 2014
1,619
1,511
Dallas, Texas
You're not actually going to resolve anything by just calling in. People reporting the issue with the feedback app is a more constructive use of everyone's time.

Nuisance calls to the call centres contribute to long wait times...
I've reported it several times including on my 15 beta. No feedback response yet
 

contacos

macrumors 603
Nov 11, 2020
5,489
20,901
Mexico City living in Berlin
I also wondered why my iPad Air 4 is having such bad battery life lately and surely enough, "Find My" shows as 70 % within the last 24 hours. I have turned off location services on my iPad now as this device never leaves the house anyway
 

jakmac

macrumors newbie
Nov 7, 2020
19
12
I had the same problem after adding AirTags, after few days I could see drastic battery drain from Find My app. My 12 mini could not make it to the night, when before adding AirTags I could have 50% at the end of the day (I'm not a heavy user).
I tried installing iOS 15 beta with the though that newer build may contain fix for that but behaviour was exactly the same.
Finally I went for full iPhone wipe (reset + erase data) and this fixed my battery issues.
 
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Spaceboy88

macrumors regular
Apr 2, 2005
209
442
New York, NY
This has been happening to me too, however it’s my iPad that is seeing the issue and not my iPhone. I had a 2018 iPad Pro which I first noticed it on a couple months ago and just upgraded to a 2021 iPad Pro. Still happening, and very frustrating.

And FWIW, I already reported via feedback assistant.
 
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Heiner030

macrumors newbie
Dec 25, 2017
29
11
So I Switches from my iPhone SE 2020 t an iPhone 12.

For many reasons I did set it up as complete new, means I did not installed any backup.

I see up 2 air tags and will see how it goes and will report it here.

the only Setting I changed which is related to airtags is I disabled the find my (network) option. Cause I don’t want to let my device look for air tags ;-)

will report back.
 
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Heiner030

macrumors newbie
Dec 25, 2017
29
11
Looking not so good.
 

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gregconquest

macrumors member
May 17, 2016
46
19
near Yokohama, Japan
This happened on my iPhone 11 last night. When I woke up this morning, the phone was warm. That never happens. And the battery was in the red at just a few percent (from 100% 8 hours earlier (I think)).

In my case. though, there were two culprits:
1) Exposure Notifications (Japanese COVID app)
2) Find My

Since both of these use bluetooth scanning, my guess is this is not an AirTag problem specifically; it is a bluetooth scanning problem on the phone.
 

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iterva

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2013
397
289
Sweden
Find my shows 96%/24hrs on my XS that has sat unused on the table. 8% on my 12P and 9% on my gen 3 iPP 12.9.
XS and 12P running 14.7.1 and IOS 15 PB3 on iPad.
AirTag has been in the same room as all these devices the last 24hrs.
 

Heiner030

macrumors newbie
Dec 25, 2017
29
11
So finally decided Air Tag are the worst. Its leeching my battery like hell from my new (no backup setup) Iphone 12. Even though I noticed my iPad 2018 behaives the same.

Uninstalled Air Tags again.
 

Heiner030

macrumors newbie
Dec 25, 2017
29
11
Here are the results
 

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Rexy01

macrumors newbie
Aug 2, 2021
1
0
Geelong, Australia
Hi everyone,
I have this issue also, but only on my iPadPro 12"
I have 4 airtags setup and my iPhoneProMax11 is fine as well as my iPadPro 10.5" no issues.
I can't seem to see the difference in the setups. All running IOS 14.7
Airbags on latest firmware.

So on the iPadPro 12" if I turn off bluetooth, the issue goes away..
This doesn't concern me and I turn it back on only when needed for my Apple Pencil or bluetooth audio.
At least this way the battery doesn't drain when its just sitting around. I could also just shut it down but that is a pain.

Anyway thought I would just throw that in the ring..
 

addamas

macrumors 65816
Apr 20, 2016
1,314
1,342
I found that restarting phone sometimes solved the drainage and not using Location app at all does also help. When I finish using it I kill the app from last apps.

As a result it’s way better than it was before on iPhone 11 Pro and iPad Pro 2018 11” , what is 3-4% of total battery drain not 20-30%.
 
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