If we talk about our core topic of this article “how often does AirTag update location, this question must have popped in your head while using the AirTag to track the location of your belonging like car keys, bags, etc.
AirTag comes very handy when you are a frequent traveler or have a abbit of loosing your stuffs around.
Apple users simply attaches the AirTag to the stuff they don’t want to loose and become carefree as AirTag helps you to track your items which lost or forget where you put them.
But, some curious users asks about the how often does AirTag update to identify the accuracy of the product.
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How often does AirTag Update Location?
AirTag updates its location in every 3 to 5 minutes when comes in close proximity of an active iPhone.
So, it depends on how far you are from the AirTag. If you are in the range of AirTag, the the location will update right away as soon as your track the AirTag.
But, it has been reported that sometime it takes about an hour or so to update it’s location.
One major role that affect AirTag location update frequency, is availability of an active internet connection.
Below are some of my finding when I tried using my AirTag. So, let’s understand how often do AirTags update location
How do AirTags Update Location
Availability of Active Internet
So, if you as when does AirTag update location. The AirTag works is it uses Apple’s wide band Bluetooth technology to connect to nearby Apple devices and share location it requested.
Now, suppose you lost an item which has artag attached to it. You need to have an internet connection to location that AirTag on the map through find my app.
Which means if your Apple device is not connected to internet you won’t be able to track your device even though your Bluetooth is on.
Availability of an Apple Device Nearby
If you are looking for an answer to Bluetooth, then understand AirTag is basically a hardware that get active when it comes in the close proximity of an apple device be it iphone, ipad or mac.
Based on my experience, i would suggest you use your iPhone for tracking as in ipad and mac the location accuracy is not good.
One thing to note here is, if you lost your item in place where there are lots of Andoid user. Then you will have a hard time location the AirTag of refreshing AirTag location in your phone as android frequency band may interfere with the AirTag’s frequency.
Below is a image of how your AirTag will be show in find my app when no other apple device is around.
As you can see in the image above, the the AirTag says location unavailable. It means, you are far from the AirTag and no other iphone is around to establish a connection and update it’s location on the map.
How to Get AirTag to Update Location
Now, let’s see how the situation changes when the any other phone comes near the AirTag.
Seeing the image above you must have understood that after coming contact with another iPhone, the AirTag has started refreshing it’s location on the map.
After this, you can simply use your iphone to track and navigate to the location where your AirTag is and once you got AirTag. The status in the map will start showing “With you” message.
This message indicated that the AirTag is with the owner. You can see this in the image below.
So, when it comes to answering the question, how often do apple AirTags update location, then it is must to have an iphone around the AirTag to refresh its location.
AirTag Location is not Accurate
Sometime users complain about the inaccuracy of AirTag location.
This could be due to the un-availability of precise location feature.
So, to incorrect location of AirTag, Simply enable the precise location function in your iPhone. Step for the same is given below.
- Go to settings
- Scroll to the Privacy and Security and open it
- Tap on the location service to enable it
- Again, scroll down a bit till you see Find My
- Tap on it and enable the precise location option
Turning “Precise location” option on helps in accurately tracking the location of your AirTags.
How to update AirTag location
To update AirTag’s location, you simply have to somehow go near the AirTag and this will allow AirTag to update it’s location on the map.
One thing you have to note that AirTag are not like regular electronic gadget which you can charge. So, apple designed it in such a way that based on the availability of the nearby apple device. It changes it location update frequency.
How does AirTag update location
AirTag is a bluetooth powered device which works on bluetooth technology and connected to nearby apple device to update it’s location.
When any again asaying any iphone comes near the AirTag, the AirTag will quickly share it’s location to apple’s navigation servers anonymously. and all this happen in a nick of a time that too in the background without disturbing any running app.
So, in a way we can see the more apple device near the AirTag the more accurate will it’s location on the map.
Once the AirTag’s location is update. The owner can track it on the map inside Find My app and navigate precisely.
Does Apple AirTag show real time location?
Yes, apple AirTag shows real time location when it is nearby an iphone.
Talking about the How often does AirTag Update Location?, it roughly update the location between every 2-5 minutes till it find any iphone nearby.
And once it find a iphone nearby, it instantly updates it location to apple map servers which helps user to track their AirTag in the find my application.
