AirTag Battery Indicator

[fischersd]

I know a lot of people have lamented about how the battery indicator has gone away. Well, the good news is, when your battery does get low, it comes back.

See attached screenshots:



This is, btw, a Chipolo Card Spot that I only got July 20 (they're replacing it under warranty).

 

[fischersd]

And just got one for the actual Apple AirTag on my keychain - which I picked up at launch - so, that's what, about 16 months of battery life?

Edit: Additional info - when you replace the battery, it's still showing the low battery indicator on the item, but before I could click on "Replace Battery" it updated, no longer showing a low battery. (so just took it a couple of seconds to get the update from the AirTag).

 

[lostPod]

Mine have lasted about a year, and I have backup batteries on deck to replace. It's not an issue for me.

 

[MrTSolar]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-needs-to-give-us-the-80-max-charge-option-on-the-iphone.2365460/post-31653730

Due to events ^, all I have to say now is:

 

[fischersd]

Kinda dismayed by the battery levels disappearing. It was good to know when one was starting to get low so that I could have a spare ready or replace it ahead of time when I'd need it to not go dead while I'm away.

We don't know what percentage that Apple triggers the alert and the return of the indicator, prior to you swapping the battery out. Others have commented that, while they got a message that all features won't be available, while operating in low battery mode, that they couldn't determine what features didn't work.

I suspect Apple is likely being cautious on behalf of customers and alerting early (say, 10%-15%) - which should still leave several weeks of usefulness before they actually die.

Maybe we'll see others chime in about how long they continue to function after the alert - but usage is going to vary - 5 AirTags bought at launch and only the one on my keychain needed to be swapped out (so far).

 

[MrTSolar]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-needs-to-give-us-the-80-max-charge-option-on-the-iphone.2365460/post-31653730

Due to events ^, all I have to say now is:

 

[fischersd]

But it begs the question, why remove it in the first place? The phone still has to pull the battery level from the AirTag, so there's no technical reason to drop the meters. Better yet, why was its removal not listed in the changelog for the update? I'm still on iOS 15, so it was a small update. No more quick check to see that one AirTag is still nearly fully charged, another is at 50%, but oh, the one on my keys is at 30%. I better pick up a battery at the store soon. Now, it's, "Surprise! 4 AirTags will die soon."

I'm getting tired of these asinine changes.

I never once got percentages on any of my AirTags - they always showed as fully charged. Been on the beta train - so we saw this removed some time ago. It could be that the percentage reporting was inaccurate, so they removed it. Better that, than having people calling support when their airtag dies, but it was reporting 90% remaining earlier in the day.

 

[MrTSolar]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-needs-to-give-us-the-80-max-charge-option-on-the-iphone.2365460/post-31653730

Due to events ^, all I have to say now is:

 

[Complex757]

I noticed that.

I received a low battery notification on my phone for the air tag.

 

[Leo90]

My AirTag had the low battery icon for 3 weeks before I exchange the battery. So it is totally not an issue that they removed the full battery icon.

 

[nickbelane]

Also mine has lasted approx 1 year. As soon as I saw the red icon I changed the battery, or otherwise, murphy's law will hit (losing the keys the day the battery goes off)