“Unknown AirTag” that wasn’t really unknown
Today my wife returned home from a shopping trip and when she checked her phone after arriving home she had an “unknown AirTag moving with you” alert. It very accurately traced her movements from shortly after leaving home until just prior to returning. It could not be contacted by moving the phone near everything she had with her (purse, shopping bags, etc.), or inside the car.
There is a known AirTag in the car she was driving, shared between our iPhones. It would react to play sound on my phone, but could not be located on hers. Hmm.
I removed the known AirTag from her phone and reshared it, at which point it would respond to play sound from her phone.
It seems to me that somehow the ID record on her phone of the known AirTag became corrupted, and the phone was responding as if it was unknown. That doesn’t explain why she couldn’t locate it when it was showing as unknown, but I don’t have a better theory.
Anyone have a better explanation?