How To Disable Apple AirTag Speaker Sound | Voltlog #440

→Get some Apple AirTags on Amazon
→Get some Apple AirTag Keychain Holders

→Support the channel via Patreon, Paypal or Bitcoin

→Support the channel by clicking these links (CommissionsEarned)

→Blog Post

#Apple #AirTag #speaker

So first of all what is an Apple Air tag? Because there might be some people that haven’t heard of this. It’s this small coin sized device, powered by a CR2032 battery, it features a Ultra Wide Band & Bluetooth radio connectivity in there, due to the apple U1 chip, which is capable of both low power data transmission but also measuring of the time it takes for these radio waves to bounce back which can be translated into measurement of distance with a precision of 1cm within a limited range.

Now because Apple built its own Ultra Wide Band chip, the so called U1 chip and because it operates a fleet of roughly 1.8 billions of iphones globally you can imagine how it makes sense for them technically and financially to sell such a tracker because it doesn’t need to transmit too far before it’s been picked up by one of those 1.8 billion iphones that are active globally. So every time this little tracker is within range of an iphone, the phone will pick-up its signal and will report back to the mothership with the air tag serial number as well as the GPS position of the phone at that time. And this happens transparently, you don’t even know it and while you can turn this feature off if you wanted, the setting is buried deep and it affects things like how you connect to other apple products so you wouldn’t really want to have it disabled.

Another feature of the Air Tag is that it contains a small speaker which is capable of playing sounds, it can be triggered from the Find My app and you can see how this can be useful for locating your stuff, like when you lose your keys and they are under a pillow or something.

So people started using these things to track their keys, their personal belongings like a bicycle, a car, a suitcase during travel, whatever you own and legally have the right to track. But bad people also started using these to track other people which is illegal so following up on those cases, Apple decided to introduce a new feature and now AirTags will play a sound without any way of stopping that, wherever they’ve been connected to the same iphone for several days in a row. As you can imagine this is the case when someone is trying to illegally track you by placing one of these in your car or purse, because the airtag will only be connecting to your iphone which is always with you.

So here is what you’ll need, just a utility knife and with some careful prying, you should be able to disable the speaker with minimal damage to the air tag. It’s best if you use a beefy utility knife, with a strong blade which would prevent it from snapping in the process. I’ve seen a bunch of other videos showing you how to take it apart but they almost always use excessive force, which breaks the little clips holding the case together. What I’m gonna show you allows you to open this without destroying it.

So first step is to remove the battery and then hold the airtag in this position. There are 3 clips holding it together and the enclosure is a very tight fit. But you should expect the clips to be roughly at these positions which I’ve marked on the case. So by prying with the knife blade at exactly those positions you are able to unclip the retaining clips one by one without destroying them.

Once you have it opened, we get a clear view of the speaker which is composed of two parts. The coil and the magnet. The simplest way to disable the sound is to remove the magnet, you can pry it open with the knife as it’s only held in place by some light adhesive. And at this point you can put the airtag back together. And if at any point in the future you want to restore the sound you can just place the magnet back in the same position.

One mention here is that a speaker coil even without a magnet, still makes a very small amount of noise, it’s something that if you have good hearing you can only hear in a quiet room by placing the air tag next to your ear. Certainly not something you would hear from 1-2m away in a normal environment. But if you consider that sound to be audible and you want it completely removed, you would have to gently disconnect one of the coil contacts which would completely disable it. I don’t find that to be necessary but I thought I’d mention it.

[redchip]

Thank you. I have a motorcycle and sometime my brother takes my motorcycle and he got notification on airtag I was affraid of if someone steals my bike and get the notification and then disable the airtag.

[alexanderchurikov]

Thanks to you I broke the clips on my airtag. (just like you did on yours in the video). The clips positioning different.

[genericwannabe]

Skip to 4:36 to see the content you came for.

[norcalnewsnetwork]

Can we demagnetize the magnet without opening it to stop the speaker from working?

[LunaticTheCat]

Thanks for the video. My dad has a highly desirable old Toyota pickup that we're going to put an Airtag in, and I want to make sure that any potential thief won't be able to find the tag by making it ring after they get a notification telling them they're being tracked by it.

[waynestevenson]

thanks for the video! the newer airtags have a lot more adhesive around the speaker. when I opened the airtag the speaker was on the circuit side not the cover. with some magnifying glasses i was able to remove the glue and the speaker without damaging the coil, just in case I have to or want to put it back later.

[AndreasSpiess]

Unfortunately, the iPhone also shows messages now. So the thieves know that they are tracked. I am not sure if this hack still is useful (I found our two stolen e-bikes with these trackers). Maybe somebody knows the timing of the sound and the messages?

[paulcrocker]

Very useful, thanks. I used a Stanley blade works well, followed your instructions and only broke 1 clip out of the 3 so not bad and still attached secure after and my speaker was in the bottom white section but I removed it, put it back together and it’s working fine without sound 🙂

[hansmeiser]

Dont explain airtag. Just do what you promise on the title

[AlbertoRodriguez-jvdy]

Bro. I know what an airtag is. Be true to the title and tell us how to disable it

[kinocchio]

I removed the magnet and heard the sound still playing. I would like to disconnect it completely but I am afraid I will damage it.

[AndreasRP.]

I did this and tried to test the sound via the app, the AirTag no longer makes any sound. Now I can install it in my car and any potential thief won’t know there’s an AirTag.

[P-Bizzy]

Another reason I use Tile (and have for years). My car key do not beep at home while I’m traveling away from home.

[gingerwebuk]

I got it apart without breaking the clips, took the battery out put it all back together and the Airtag hasnt worked since !

[tekink]

Have 2 year old modified AirTags and they were low on battery. Tried replacing them and now my phone won’t recognize them. These tags are older gen where they were glued to center on the board and not on the lid. Now they are useles. Think Apple changed things with recent iOS updates.

[THATHATSALLFOLKS]

Took coil out of all of mine. They work fine

[FriendSanjay]

This video could have been of 3 minutes keeping in mind its title

[Tim_Small]

I suppose it would be possible to connect a resistor in place of the coil to evade detection? I was wondering if they could detect the magnet removal in software with back-EMF sensing (this would also detect a resistor), but I'm guessing probably not. Maybe an alternative (but non-reversible) technique would be to fill the interior of the tag with silicone or ms-polymer sealant / adhesive?

[AM-nmoe]

Thank you so much i put one on my dogs and when they move too much it chimes

[andrewrance]

I'm finding the Airtag is still making sounds after completing this process (it is significantly quieter) hence I suspect this isn't a speaker and likely more of a resonator.