AirPods “this item was seen near”

Question

AirPods “this item was seen near”

The last location of my AirPods in Find My shows as “5 days ago” and hasn’t updated.

I turned on Notify When Found, and I just got a notification saying: “This item was seen near …”.

My questions are:

Is the new location in the notification an updated location detected by another nearby iPhone?
Or is it just repeating the old location I already had?
What does “was seen near” actually mean — does it mean someone opened the AirPods, or simply that an iPhone passed nearby and detected them?

I’ll attach a screenshot of the old Find My location and the new location shown in the notification

[Edited by Moderator]

AirPods Pro (2nd generation)

Posted on Sep 28, 2025 3:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Xjxjnm

Level 1

110 points

Sep 28, 2025 3:56 AM in response to Ameerabuhanna

I think that means an iPhone has connected to the case like an AirTag (using connections from other iPhones) and the case is at that golf club.

If you have lost your Airpods case, then one of your best bets would be to visit where Find My says your case is and use “Find” and the Sound feature to locate them.

I hope they haven’t been water damaged outdoors.

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Answer 2

Sep 29, 2025 8:37 AM in response to Ameerabuhanna

I managed to find the AirPods after long time, the upper left image saying where the AirPods are is not accurate at all, the AirPods was not there!

I don’t know why I got the message, but for sure the location the notification gave is incorrect!

the only thing to trust is the location in the findMy app inside (the notification just says the same location of it, even if it’s not updated)

Thats a bug for sure, and little disappointing, made me think the AirPods are in a location, where it was in another

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Answer 3

Xjxjnm

Level 1

110 points

Sep 30, 2025 7:57 AM in response to Ameerabuhanna

Maybe it was just telling you the nearest location on the map? And the location from inside is where your case was after it updated?

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