"Unknown accessory detected near you" on iPhone

While I was traveling by car, alone, on Friday night I got a notification "Unknown Accessory Detected" - "This item has been moving with you for a while. The owner can see its location." When I clicked through, it said "Your current location can be seen by the owner of this item"


It followed me across the state and into the next state.


It was really late when I arrived at my destination, and I was creeped out and didn't have enough personal bandwidth to try and work out how to address whatever was happening. When I woke up in the morning I figured out I could disable it, I tried to disable it and it said "Unable to connect to server. Please try again later." I haven't gotten another notification since then.


I didn't interact with anyone on my trip, I didn't notice any vehicle traveling super close to me for long amounts of time.

When I called apple support, they didn't really have any practical advice other than look for an unknown airtag on your car, and if you see the notification again, disable the device right away.


Is there anything else that could give this "unknown accessory detected" notification? This felt invasive and creepy, and I really don't want it to happen again, I'd rather just get it figured out, rather than wait to get another weird notification. Any advice or thoughts feels helpful, thank you in advance!




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 11

Posted on Oct 10, 2021 06:27 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 11, 2021 01:05 AM

Good morning gh!

I would suggest you first rule out that you are being monitored against you will, which is the less likely option here.

To do that, try to just go out for longer (while preferably covering some distance) and leave your AirPods at home. If you have the same problem as me you should get a notification (at the end of the day for me) telling you that there is unknown accessory near you which will also tell you the route it took with you.

So I would check once you get this notification whether it is your AirPods by looking at the route in the FindMy App.

If it is your AirPods, you should only get a notification once you get home.

It you left your AirPods home and still get that same notification I would contact law enforcement to let them help you find whatever is causing this!

I hope you understand what I mean as english isn't my first language.

Also I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here!

Have a good day

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"Unknown accessory detected near you" on iPhone

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