I was surprised to learn recently that it's really simple to change the battery in your Airtags and it's a standard issue watch battery. This is so un-Apple to make something that is DIY friendly, easy to do and doesn't require a proprietary expensive Apple purchase.
I'd suggest you do this before each trip, or perhaps twice a year or so. You can find tutorials online and on Youtube.
Of course, I think I heard the next gen was going to do away with this feature.
You get a warning when the battery is low (and you can see this in the app). The batteries are supposed to last a year and I got the low battery warning about 11 months after purchase.
Yes! The process turned out to be much simpler than I was trying to make it. And you’re right about being surprised that it actually was this easy since you are so right about how proprietary Apple is with their products. I did get a notification the battery needed replacing just about a year after I first bought mine. Wait…..NOOOOOO! I hope your last sentence isn’t true!
I’ve changed the battery on one of mine, and another one is now giving me a warning. Very easy to do and a nice feature.
FWIW, if Apple did get rid of the battery and the ability to change it, it would only be because they found something better, like making it chargeable. I love the ability to charge my Magic Mouse, and am so glad the days when I had to change the batteries are long gone.
I think there is a general misconception that Apple tries to be proprietary for the sake of being proprietary. They don't!
Look at their earlier version of the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard. All used AA batteries and were easily accessible. Current versions are now built-in rechargeable.
When proprietary connections are being used, there's typically a technical reason such as it offers something technically better. Or, people mistake something as proprietary when it isn't, such as the FireWire connection which for years the general public (or at least some segment of it) made a fuss about how it's proprietary when actually FireWire is industry standard and just that Window PCs didn't often incorporate them. The same fuss was made about Thunderbolt cables when it's not Apple proprietary and is in fact industry standard.
It does get very tiresome to hear silly arguments put forth about Apple being proprietary (and the unspoken part being "for the sake of being proprietary). Time to update that impression.
Unfortunately, Apple might follow Tile's example and start making its AirTags with non-replaceable batteries. Tile says their batteries last up to 3 years. I would much rather have a device that has replaceable or rechargeable batteries, than something that will have to be thrown away after "up to 3 years."
Thanks for posting this, because I hadn’t even thought about the batteries. I’ve had mine for a year and when I just checked the app there was no indication that I needed to change them. I’ll make a note to myself to change them before my trip in December.
Andrea, it's very simple. When you're ready, just go to the Find My app. There wil be a diagram and text saying "Low Battery." Underneath, is a link that says "Replace Battery" - just click on it, and a diagram appears that shows you how to replace it.
Thanks Mardee! I’ve already put a reminder on my calendar to check them in late November.
Thank you all. My tags are 1 year old. I had not thought to check. The Find My app indicates they are all still good. I'm going to pack a CR2032 battery just in case one goes bad while traveling in September.
Note that some CR2032s night not work with the AirTag. This happened to me. If you go to #3 under "Replace Your AirTag Battery" you'll see something about bitterant coatings.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211670
DB is correct - the "bitterant" coating is on some batteries to stop kids from putting them in their mouths. It should be clearly labeled on the package, though.
My Duracell CR2032's are "child secure" with bitter coating. I would never consider that an issue. Thank you for the warning. I'll look for non-bitter coated CR2032's.
Here’s one article I found that has clear pic of the battery contacts on the AirTag and a suggested way to deal with the coating.
