Replacing an AirTag Battery was Frustrating
My AirTag showed low battery, so I had to replace it, and it was the most frustrating experience I’ve had for while, even more frustrating than dealing with AWS’s garbage web interface. So here I am, recording the actual tricks that helped me, in the hope that it might help in the future.
First I tried rubbing the new battery with alcohol solution after Gemini told me it could have a coating. This did nothing and I suspect the cheap battery I bought on Walmart from China does not have any coating. I’m including this because other batteries could be in this league.
After some fruitless attempt, my first consequential attempt was to try to fix the AirTag’s pins. Specifically, the AirTag side pins were pressed down and bent slightly inward, and it became hard to touch the top of the battery (+). I don’t have a toothpick—so I took a paper clip and bent it to separate out a pin. For clarity of orientation, let’s assume the AirTag, not its lid, is open and its inside facing upwards. After some practice, the trick turns out to be to push the paper clip pin into the little gap between each AirTag side pin and the side of the AirTag, and lift the AirTag side pin up. Use the AirTag’s side as a fulcrum and rotate the paper clip outwards s.t. the paper clip pin pulls the AirTag side pin upward. Since each battery side pins is in the shape of a spoon, if I pushed the paper clip into the “bottom of the spoon”, the paper clip pin could essentially grab it and pull it up. Do this gently until the AirTag side pin is fully extended, and the side pins will be lifted high up so it would be easy to contact the top of the battery.
But then the major problem was the cheap battery I bought tended to bounce out of the AirTag as soon as I stop pressing it down, probably a bit too wide, and the solutions turned out to be brute force. I tried many things, including pressing the battery down with a key while trying to put on the lid, but that was very fragile. By pure luck, one time I pulled the AirTag side pin super high up, and then slid the battery in from the opposite side to press the side pins tightly against the AirTag side wall, and the battery stuck inside the AirTag after I pressed it down! I suppose this was because the high side pin positions made the inside of the AirTag tight enough that it provided enough friction to hold the battery in place. So, I guess this’s the way to go: pull the side pins all the way up, and push the battery from the opposite side to get it stuck in.
At this point, I was pretty sure the battery was in place, but the stupid iPhone still could not detect it, neither in “Find My” nor in Bluetooth settings, even after I turned the Bluetooth off and on. I eventually remembered to reboot the iPhone, and it immediately started the AirTag pairing process! I suspect Apple was just constantly lying in my face: when I turn the Bluetooth off it was probably still on or had a cache that prevented it from detecting the AirTag, and the reboot cleared the cache or something. So, after this many years, rebooting still seems to be the Swiss army knife for technical problems.
Reflecting back, the most frustrating aspect was I had no idea whether the AirTag was powered or not after I close the lid—it only chirped when the battery first contacted the pins, and remains silent afterwards. Apple should really make the thing chirp when it’s not connected and you shake it, or something like that. But of course, they wouldn’t, and drive frustrated people to the “genius bar” or to just buy a new AirTag.
2026-02-16