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PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Why won’t my AirTag work with Duracell batteries?
Q I’m not a tech geek, but I do have an iPhone and often misplace my keys, so when Apple released its AirTags (www.apple.com/uk/airtag, pictured below) last year I bought one and attached it to my keyring. So far, so good. Recently, though, my iPhone told me that my AirTag battery was low and needed replacing. I bought a CR2032 battery from Amazon and swapped it for the old one. To my surprise, it didn’t work.
Fearing I’d been supplied a dud, I tried the battery in our kitchen scales, which use this type of cell – and it was fine. I then put the battery from the scales into the AirTag and it was accepted. But putting the new and tested-as-working battery back in the AirTag still did not work. The only obvious difference I could notice was the brand (Apple’s original was a Panasonic, but I’d bought a Duracell). Surely the brand doesn’t make a difference?
Jeremy Morton
A The brand won't make a difference, but the specific manufacturing processes used in the battery. That’s because, while any two CR2032 batteries might look more or less identical, some are now treated with a special chemical coating.
This bittering agent, or ‘bitterant’, has a revolting taste, designed to dissuade small children from swallowing the battery.
The trouble is, on batteries from some brands – including new Duracell CR2032s, pictured left) – the bitterant coating is applied in a way that blocks the AirTag’s electrical contacts.
In other words, the battery fits, but the extent of the bitterant layer means the precision pins inside the AirTag can’t quite touch exposed untreated metal on the battery’s negative electrode. Apple warns about this problem on its support website, at www.snipca.com/43779 (pictured above).
So, that’s the root cause of this frustration. Evidently, the
