If the AirPods you use with your iPhone are unlocatable and you’ve already looked for them in the most obvious places, don’t panic. First you should know that it is very likely that they can be found with the Find app on your iPhone.
Find is an Apple platform integrated into its consumer devices such as the iPhone and iPad, and which in turn is part of the iCloud ecosystem. It is used to locate compatible Apple devices using communication or wireless information transmission technologies such as GPS, Bluetooth and of course the Internet.
Most AirPods models that are associated via Bluetooth with an iPhone connected to iCloud through an Apple ID account are immediately connected to the Find My platform, allowing them to be tracked or located, whether they have been left between the cushions of the sofa as if they have been forgotten at a friend’s house.
In any case, Apple’s Find My technology will allow you to locate them. You just have to make sure that the Find my iPhone feature is activated beforehand, as well as the Find My Network and Send Last Location features. All of them are available in Settings > Your name > Find My > Find my iPhone.
How to find your lost AirPods?
Open the Find My app on your iPhone. Click on the Devices tab. All Apple devices linked to the same Apple ID set up on your iPhone will appear.
Tap on the AirPods you want to find. The headphones may appear separately or the charging case (models equal to or later than the second generation AirPods Pro). Choose what you want to search. If the device is close to your location, the Find My app will detect it and help you locate it.
You can choose to Play sound or Search (AirPods 3rd generation or later). In the first case, you can help yourself by the sound emitted by the AirPods to find it. In the second case, on-screen instructions will take you to your AirPods.
On the other hand, if the Find My app does not detect them nearby, that is, they are out of Bluetooth range or downloaded, the Directions option will appear. Click on it to open a map with its last recorded position. Use the map to find your lost AirPods.
What to do if the location on the map is not correct?
If the last position of your AirPods recorded on the map is no longer the current one because someone else found them and has them in their possession, the task of finding them will be more difficult.
In this case you can resort to Lost Mode. What this recovery mode does is notify you when the AirPods are again located on the map, so that you can reach them or notify the authorities if their disappearance was the result of a theft. Furthermore, in case the new owner wants to use them with his iPhone, he will be warned that he is not the legitimate owner.