There's a funny reason why all the world's AirTags update at once

There’s a funny reason why all the world’s AirTags update at once

Usually, when Apple releases an AirTag update, it rolls it out in waves over several weeks to balance the load on its servers. One of these firmware updates was supposed to start rolling out on Wednesday, with version 2.0.73 reaching 100% of users by April 9.

But this gradual rollout didn’t happen: instead, it was applied to all active AirTags in the wild at the same time. And the reason is rather funny. On X (officially Twitter) @iSWUpdates

spilled the beans: Apple incorrectly entered dates into the system, causing the update to be released to all AirTags at once.

It appears that Apple accidentally set the AirTag 2.0.73 firmware rollout dates to “m/d/24” instead of “m/d/2024” used in previous versions and that the AirTag update system uses as date format.

As a result, AirTags think that the deployment dates are in the year 24… pic.twitter.com/dH5s0FrgTy

– iSoftware Updates (@iSWUpdates) March 21, 2024

In screenshots provided by @iSWUpdates, dates from a previous update, 2.0.61, are entered in mm/dd/yyyy format. However, the dates for the new 2.0.73 update are entered as mm/dd/yy, which means that Apple’s system interpreted the year as 24, not 2024 – and as we have well past year 24, Apple’s system went ahead and released the update all at once.

The only consequence for the user is that it is possible that updating an AirTag took a little longer than usual due to a blockage. Users cannot control when an update occurs; This usually happens when the controlling iPhone is in range. However, chances are you didn’t even notice the update installed.

As for what’s in the update, no one really knows outside of Apple. The company has not yet updated its support document for updating AirTags with information about version 2.0.73. If you really want to know, come back later.