How to Add AirPods on Your iPhone’s Find My Phone

Apple’s AirPods are one of the most popular wireless headset solutions on the market today. The small buds have great battery life, noise cancellation, and they’re quite comfortable to wear for hours on end. Like most Apple products, you may wonder if they work with the company’s Find my iPhone.

Due to the size of the AirPods and their portability, it’s easy to misplace them. This is when Find my iPhone is most helpful. Locating your Apple products using the secure tracking software is ideal for most situations. But, AirPods aren’t directly linked to your Apple ID like other devices.

In this article, we’ll show you how to connect your Find my iPhone and AirPods, as well as how to track them.

Set Up Find My iPhone and Your AirPods

The Find My iPhone feature won’t work for your AirPods if you don’t first connect your buds to a device that is linked to your iCloud account. Since the AirPods aren’t linked to the iCloud, you’ll need to rely on a secondary device for setup. You can use your Mac, iPad, or iPhone to do this.

Note: You can use your AirPods with the Windows and Android operating systems but Find My iPhone will not locate them unless they’re also paired with an Apple device.

Fortunately, all you need to do is pair your Airpods to your Apple device; you won’t need to take any additional steps to pair the buds with Find My iPhone.

Here’s how to pair your AirPods:

1. Open the lid on the AirPod case. Leave both AirPods in the case during the setup process (they will not pair if one is missing).
2. Open the Bluetooth Settings on your device.
   • iOS users will need to go to Settings > Bluetooth and make sure the switch is toggled On.
   • macOS users will need to click on the Apple icon > System Preferences > Bluetooth.
3. Now, press and hold the Setup button on the back of your AirPod’s case until the light begins to blink inside the case.
4. Tap on the name of your AirPods from within the device’s Bluetooth settings.

The two should pair without any issues. But, if you do have trouble pairing your Airpods, we have this article to help you resolve any problems that you may encounter.

Now that you’ve paired your AirPods to an Apple device, let’s talk about how to find them using Find My iPhone.

Turn on Find My iPhone

It’s a good idea to make sure that Find My iPhone is active on the device that’s paired with your AirPods. Let’s take a moment to check.

To turn on Find My iPhone, do this:

1. To start, open up the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your name and then on iCloud, or go straight to iCloud if you have a 10.2 or an earlier version of iOS.
3. Now, scroll down and select Find My.
   
4. Next, tap Find My iPhone again.
   
5. Move the toggle to On for Find My iPhone and Send Last Location.
   

The devices you’ve paired with your phone will automatically be set up when you set up this feature, including the AirPods.

It’s crucial to set up this app as soon as you get a new Apple device. If you want to track something after it’s lost, this feature is useless.

Locating Your AirPods When They Are Online

If your AirPods are somewhere near, like under the couch, your iPhone will easily track them down. Find My iPhone will show you a map where you’ll be able to see their location, as well as where other devices you’ve paired with your phone are.

You can use ‘Find My’ via your computer or your iPhone.

On your computer, do the following:

1. Visit iCloud.com and log into your Apple account.
   
2. Click on Find iPhone.
   
3. Select All Devices at the top and choose your AirPods to see where they are.
   

Here’s how to check the same thing on your phone:

1. Open the Find My app on your iPhone.
   
2. Tap on Devices and then tap on your AirPods.
   

If the app can’t locate your AirPods, you’ll see a notification on your screen – No location found. If each earbud is in a different place, the app will show them one by one. When you find one, you should refresh the map and see where the second one is.

If the app shows you a location, but it’s too big, refresh the map and wait for a few seconds for the location circle to become smaller.

What if the AirPods are close to the device you’ve paired them with, and the Bluetooth connection wasn’t interrupted, but you still can’t find them? Use Find My iPhone to make the AirPods play a sound that slowly gets louder. It lasts up to two minutes unless you turn it off.

Please take the AirPods out of your ears if you’re testing the app before playing the alarm.

Locating Your AirPods When They Are Offline

What to do if your AirPods are out of range, out of battery, or offline? You may have a problem because, in this case, Find My iPhone can’t locate them.

However, it still can be helpful because you can see the last location and time when the AirPods were online. The ‘Play a Sound’ feature is unavailable if the AirPods are offline. You can still click the Play Sound option, and if the AirPods come back online, Apple will initiate the audible alert.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some more answers to your questions about locating your Airpods.

What do I do if I can’t find one of my buds?

Whether you’re using an older model of AirPods or the ones, you don’t have to buy a brand-new set. Fortunately, you can buy a replacement bud from Apple. It will be even cheaper if you have Apple Care on your AirPods.

Visit the Apple website and order a new bud for your model or go to an Apple store to pick up the replacement directly. You can order a new case too!

If someone steals my AirPods, can I still track them?

Unfortunately, no. If someone takes your AirPods and pairs them to their device, you can no longer track them because the buds are now connected to the other person’s iCloud account.

What can I do to prevent losing my AirPods?

As mentioned above, AirPods are one of the easiest tech devices to misplace due to their size. Fortunately, Apple developed separation alerts for the newer versions of AirPods and iOS. This alert will sound an alarm on your iPhone when you move too far away from your AirPods.

All you need to do to enable this feature is have an iPhone 12 or newer and toggle the option in Settings. The Notify When Left Behind selection is under the Devices tab in Find My iPhone.

Keep Track of Your Stuff

The best thing you can do is be careful and take care of your AirPods. Of course, this is easier said than done because they’re so small. ‘Find My’ is an excellent backup option, provided you remember to set it up before the unfortunate event. If your AirPods get disconnected, at least you’ll know where to start looking.

Have you ever needed to use Find My to track your AirPods? Leave a comment in the comments section below and let us know if the search was successful!