Is Apple Find My a Joke?

Not a joke for me, I've found my Airpods Pro 2 in a supermarket, found my parents iPhones multiple times, and found my Apple Watch several times using these features. It's a game changer in my experience.

Seems to work for me in Japan, although the "u left ur ipad behind broooo!!!!!" feature is not useful (100s of notifications; never actually left unintentionally).

AirPods specifically: annoying alerts in airports, like 20 minutes after going through security (this is in USA, so that means doing the security theater boogie). That made me think AirPods had a severe latency that made the alerting even less useful than usual.

Also I lost a set of AirPods Pro (original generation) and I am 90% sure it was because they fell out of a pocket -- but no alert.

Prior to the AirPods Pro 2 released this fall, none of the AirPods devices or cases had hardware support for location. The best they can do is a very low resolution location of the actual pods using Bluetooth. When in the case, all it knows is where it was when you put the pods in the case. I had turned off that feature for my older AirPods as it was not useful.

If you had AirPods Pro 2, it can locate the device as long as there is an iPhone or similar device in the vicinity to relay the signal. This is handled by the U1 chip in the APP2 and in the iPhone. the location can be identified quite closely in this case.

Find My works well for devices that have a U1 chip or GPS like phones, iPads, and Macs.

I've used it to track my child at Tokyo Disneyland via an AirTag, I've been notified when I left one of my headphones behind within about 100 meters, and I've used it within the house to find a phone that (somehow) had slipped behind the couch.

It's been a nice feature for us.

The AirPods seem to stop broadcasting their location very quickly, perhaps as a power-saving measure. It's unfortunate because it makes the Find My feature basically useless. I went ahead and attached a Tile tracker to my AirPod Pros because the feature was so unreliable.

It tends to work very well for AirTags and Apple devices that have actual connectivity (until their battery dies.)

Yes, it works for me, most of the time. It tells me when I have left things behind, when I have left them somewhere other than home. Sometimes it tells me I have left behind things that are with me, in which case I've just laughed at it and gone on with my day.

I have used it several times to try to find things I have lost (around the house, that is)...phone and Airpods, specifically. It has been successful with the phone. The Airpods...well, they were chirping as requested, but they were also in the pocket of a pair of trousers that had just gone through the wash, so I didn't hear them right away, and they wouldn't. stop. chirping after I did. Thank heavens for AppleCare (and the fact that, even after going through a wash cycle, worked well enough to identify themselves).

Try restarting your phone. My partners device had some kind of bug where it wasn’t communicating with Find My properly so it would keep alerting them for their items not being with them (my phone being near was enough for the items to relay their info)

That kind of sounds like what you’re facing. Your phone isn’t communicating with Find My so your AirPods in your pocket are seen as missing, but when they’re left at home it’s likely marked as a trusted location or it’s near your other Apple products that are marking it as safe.

I have the same issues with Find My.

I will have my AirPods Pro 2 in my pocket and just left work, and Find My is notifying me that I left them behind. This happens every day.

Then one time I purposely left them behind at work while I went home, and Find My DID NOT notify me that I had left them behind.

So there is some bug or glitch in the way that tracking system works.

Edit: I am in the USA

Works well enough that I bought air tags to track a number of my important items. My only problem with it is an edge case pertinent to me in that I live in a shared building that’s large enough that it can occasionally warn me that I’ve left an item if the item and myself are on opposite sides of the house

I'm in the US and have an airtag on my keys. Life changer for a forgetful person and works well for me.

To help future readers, would you mind rephrasing the title for clarity? I found it quite impenetrable.

Perhaps "...Apple's Find My app..." would make it clearer what the post is about.

And, while you're at it, also the body of the message ("I have find my enabled...")

Thanks!

Works great for me.

I suspect it might be an issue with your specific pair of AirPods, which sucks. Sorry.

Don't know if it's something you could get them exchanged over at the Apple Store.

Might also be radio interference, something to do with your room or even your clothing.

It works here fine (~99.99%) for me.

It works with my AirPods (x2), iPad Air M1, MagSafe Wallet, AirTags, and so on.

Works fine for me. I’ve had great success with it in Switzerland, Italy, Thailand, California.

Works on my machine.

I didn't know where my iPad was this morning. I'm not so sure if Find My would accomplish much because I only have 1 mac from 2013 in the house but I called my Skype and heard the ring.