How to troubleshoot an 'unknown item' alert from Find My with a disconnected AirTag?

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Level 1

34 points

How to troubleshoot an 'unknown item' alert from Find My with a disconnected AirTag?

I received an alert from Find My that an "unknown item was traveling with me". When I tap on the item under Find My, it gives me a two-hour window between First Seen and Last Seen, with the Last Seen being about 2 1/2 hours. When I try to find it, the signal is not detectable. I have checked my hand bag and walked around my car, but my iPhone 16 can't find it or connect to play sound. Is it possible that this was just a glitch, and the Air Tag on my car keys was disconnected? That was the only Air Tag that I had with me during the two-hour window. TYIA.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Unknown Air Tag

iPhone 16, iOS 18

Posted on Dec 8, 2025 2:03 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 8, 2025 2:12 PM in response to Fantine

About 2 plus hours ago, there was another AirTag that belonged to someone else which was in close proximity to your iPhone briefly at the time and your iPhone forwarded location information about that other AirTag to the Internet. You won't be able to "see" that other AirTag because it belongs to someone else.

That's how AirTags work.

The more iPhones there are in close proximity to an AirTag, the better the chances that the owner of the other AirTag will be able to to see a precise location of his / her AirTag.

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Answer 2

Fantine Author

Level 1

34 points

Dec 8, 2025 2:25 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you very much for this information. Just to be clear, there is a map under the Find My information for the unknown device that does track exactly where I was running errands in my car for the two hour window. How is it possible that somebody else’s AirTag could trace me over that two hour period? It does look like the unknown AirTag was in my car during that two hour period, but I took my car out again and my iPhone cannot find the unknown AirTag in the car.

If the fact that my iPhone doesn’t see it anymore and hasn’t since three hours ago, then I guess that I don’t have to worry about this anymore?

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