FindMy AirPods. What is the point?

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Just spent the whole morning freaking out because the AirPods Pros I bought literally a week ago went missing. No problem, right? Just pull them up on FindMy. Last seen, 5:48pm at my gym. OK/not great. Moved some things around for work, drove to gym in a literal snow storm, place was empty. No big deal, it’s a 24/7 gym just need my key fob for entry. Which of course I forgot at home. Not able to pickup on bluetooth from the front door though, and its not a big gym. Could’t play sound because it wasn’t connected. Drove back home in snow storm, got key, drove back, finally got in, swept the place, nowhere to be found. Then there was some cussing (LOTS of cussing), frantic voicemail to the office which was not yet staffed, back home in the snow storm. 45 minutes later my daughter up to me with them, found them on her sister’s bedroom floor, where I was laying last night putting her to bed.

All’s well that ends well but I’ve got some questions. What is the purpose of FindMy in this product? Sure, it’s on me for forgetting they were in my pocket the whole evening, and had made it back from the gym. But telling me where they were the last time I used them is entirely not helpful if the device is actually lost anywhere outside the home. I sense that I am going to be tremendously flamed for this post, perhaps deservedly so, but I just had higher expectations from Apple, surprised that there is no “phone home once every few hours even when the case is closed” feature; I would gladly sacrifice some case battery life for the additional peace of mind.

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I agree, FindMy is not helpful with AirPods. Over the last three years, I have been using AirPods, and not a once FindMy helped me finding them.
My recommendations, open the case and connect them to the phone every now and then. Keep them ALWAYS in your pocket, literally never leave them anywhere (except few predetermined locations), like on desk and nightstand. So you limit the places where to look for them.

I am sorry for your experience, I am glad you are doing great. Driving in snow storm is not a fun experience at all.

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It is a strange service. Especially the FindMy feature to play a sound on the AirPods “when connected”. I assume that means when I next wear the AirPods then a sound will play. When, ahem, means after I found them myself. :roll_eyes:

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The exact same thing happened to me on Christmas.

I was walking my dog, listening to music. I was out in the open (rural area). At some point I stopped listening to the music and I put the AirPods Pro back into their case and into my trousers’ pocket. At least, that is what I thought. Several hours later, I wanted to grab those AirPods again. They were gone. I fired up Find My. And oh boy, those AirPods were seen last at that place where I put them into my trousers. Oh well. Another hike. I looked for them. I did not find them. They were gone. I went back home. One day later, I found them by accident being buried in the couch at home. They never showed up on Find My although they were at home within range of WiFi and even Bluetooth for that matter. When I opened the case, all hell broke loose: Apple found my AirPods Pro for me. I received an email and a Push notification. Yay. I was not sure if I should have laughed or if I should have been angry. I sighed and moved on.

FindMy AirPods is useless as far as I am concerned.

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100% agree - most of the time you need to find your AirPods - they aren’t in a state where find my AirPods has any hope of helping.

I’m hoping that if Air tags ever happen, then maybe there will be air tags built into AirPods and AirPods cases, and find your AirPods should be much better.

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I agree. It’s a pain to lose the AirPods and it’s a rather useless feature. My answer was to use a Tile. This only works if they are in the case, so I get it doesn’t necessarily cover the conditions mentioned so far. But every time I lose my AirPods they are in the case.

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It helped me once when I lost them in the apartment, knew they were in the apartment, and still connected to my phone - but yeah, the service needs work. “You can find them if they’re not lost in any serious way” isn’t great. :slight_smile:

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I had a similar experience. I returned home from a Las Vegas business trip and discovered my AirPods were missing. After searching the house thoroughly, I turned on Find My and located the AirPods precisely, in the Mandalay Bay casino–specifically, inside the Starbucks on the walkway between the hotel and convention center.

That was amazing. The Starbucks was included in Apple Maps, even though it’s inside the larger hotel, and there was that little blue dot showing my AirPods. I could even figure out which seat the AirPods were near. All from hundreds of miles away!

I immediately knew exactly what had happened: I had a meeting at Starbucks the last day of my trip, and the AirPods slipped out of my pants pocket when I was sitting. I was used to wearing jeans most of the time then, but that day I was wearing a suit, with looser, low-friction pockets.

The timestamp puzzled me at first–the meeting had been 1 pm, and the timestamp when my iPhone last saw the AirPods was 5:30 pm. Then I figured it out: I’d walked PAST the Starbucks at 5:30 pm to start on my way home. I just imagined my AirPods plaintively calling for help as I walked by, oblivious, pulling my rollaboard overnight bag behind me: “Help! Don’t forget me! Take me home with you!”

I called the hotel, but they didn’t find my AirPods. After a few weeks, I replaced them.

I have also had the experience of thinking I was putting my AirPods away and instead dropping them on the floor. More precisely, I thought I was putting the left AirPod in its case, but instead I dropped it and did not notice. The dog thought it was tasty, but, after gnawing on it thoroughly, not something she wanted to swallow. The replacement AirPod was expensive. Yes, you can buy just one AirPod as a replacement.

So that’s 2-1/2 pairs of AirPods I have purchased, PLUS a set of AirPods Pro that is my current daily driver.

And yeah the AirPods live in my pockets 24x7, except when they’re in my ears or charging. Or in the dog’s mouth (which was only that one time).

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I seem to recall hearing on a podcast, maybe it was MPU, that FindMy would anonymously utilize any other iPhone within range to forward the location of the missing device. Does this work for any device in Apple’s current lineup or is this just a feature that is merely anticipated, perhaps in the rumored Airtags if/when they ever come into existence?

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I suspect this has something to do with preserving the tiny battery in the AirPod.

The whole AirPods Pro experience has been inferior to my original AirPods (probably the fault of the iOS, iPadOS and macOS updates). They randomly connect the iPad while I’m listening to my phone, the FindMy is marginally useful (though the “play sound” has been helpful if it connects), and half the time I can’t establish a connection despite opening and closing the case, inserting and removing the things in my ears. Here’s to hoping macOS 12 is better. And yet still better than any other bluetooth headset I’ve owned.

Have you ever dropped the case with the AirPods in them? They shoot so far! It’s kind of fun to watch. It’s like they’re rocket propelled. :rocket:

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I have PopSocket cases on my AirPods and AirPods Pro. These have the key rings that can come with those cases attached. It makes it more difficult for them to to slide out of things (like my bag), and easier to find as they’re bright colours.

I wish the battery life on the AirPods were better to be able to communicate with the iPhone regularly, or the iPhone would scan for the AirPods so it knew where it had last seen the case as well as when it was last connected.

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I stuck a tile sticker on my case.
Come in handy a few times

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Got this message while I was walking around New York on holiday. I was wearing them at the time…

The irony of Siri telling me that my AirPods being left behind and it being read aloud through my AirPods…

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I’ve asked Siri to cancel navigation, and had its “we’re not navigating anywhere” message interrupted by it giving me directions. :slight_smile:

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I think FindMy is a failed project. FindMyFriends is great and useful, I track my elderly mother from an ocean away.

But FindMy Items has literally never done anything useful for me, much like the others posts here. And I think the AirTags are the most ridiculous, useless device that Apple released in a long long time, it brought them so much bad publicity and PR (stalkers, etc) and for what? Nearly-disposable plastic $10 discs that any OEM manufacturer could have made? It flies in the face of the culture that is supposed to say “1000 nos for every yes”.

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It’s not perfect, but I’ve used find my to track down my lost AirPod pros several times recently.

Not the “play noise” function - that,seems pointless.

The Bluetooth tracking works well though. And I’ve used it to figure out which room the case is in and then I go hunting from there.

I pretend I’m Sigourney Weaver tracking an Alien.

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I like the AirTags. Having them in my luggage is awesome (thanks Cortex).

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Why? For doing the same thing most of have done, i.e. losing our AirPods Pros and thinking FindMy would actually work. :wink:

My AirPods Pro now reside next to my keys in a bowl, in my left front pocket (with my keys), or on a specific charger.

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FindMy has helped me find AirPods twice directionally, 2-3 times with noise, and failed one or both maybe 8-10 times? A 30-40% success rate isn’t hot.