New AirTag battery doesn't work? Here's why

I've been using my AirTags for over a year now. I finally got a notification on my iPhone that the battery was low on several of them, and I needed to replace them. No problem — replacement batteries are inexpensive and easy to find. In fact, I already have plenty of them on hand. Or so I thought!

Apple's AirTags are one of my favorite new products; they are easy to use and work incredibly well for tracking just about anything. The included battery in the AirTag is supposed to last about a year, and in my personal experience, they last even a bit longer than that. At any rate, I finally got the notification that two of my batteries needed replacing. I know how to replace the AirTag battery, so I went to my battery keeper and pulled out some brand new Duracell CR2032 lithium 3V coin batteries and proceeded to swap them out. I didn't hear the expected "beep" to let me know that the new battery was working. Indeed, when I checked the Find My app, I saw that the new batteries appeared to be dead. So what was the issue? As it turns out, Apple had issued a battery warning to customers:

I checked my battery packaging, and sure enough, I noticed a mention of "bitter taste" (bitterant coating) for safety reasons: to prevent babies from swallowing the batteries. This is great for safety purposes, but unfortunately, the bitterant coating on the battery prevents it from working in the AirTags. I went to Amazon and ordered more CR2032 batteries, this time checking carefully for any mention of bitter or bitterant coating. The packing doesn't say there isn't, specifically, but the ones I purchased did not have the bitter coating. I popped them in, and they work great. Just be sure to store the batteries out of the reach of young children.

And if you'd like to venture out of Apple's ecosystem and track down an alternative tracker, there are a ton of other best Bluetooth trackers available on the market.