We noted recently that Apple was beginning to roll-out firmware updates to AirTags. That roll-out was supposed to be a gradual one, completing on April 9 – but that’s not what happened …

AirTag firmware update

We reported on the update last week.

The new version of AirTag software build rolling out is build number 2A73 and firmware version 2.0.73. This is up from the previous firmware version of 2.0.61, which was released with “bug fixes and other improvements” back in October.

To avoid its servers being hammered by every AirTag in the world updating at the same time, Apple schedules a phased roll-out, with different serial number ranges being updated on different dates. Macworld reports that this one was supposed to begin on March 19 and complete on April 9.

Apple date format error

What actually happened is that every AirTag in the world did indeed get updated on the same day, with Twitter account iSoftware Updates sharing the reason: Apple used the wrong date format.

Looks like Apple accidentally set the deployment dates for the 2.0.73 AirTag firmware to “m/d/24” instead of “m/d/2024” that has used in previous versions and which the AirTag update system uses as date format. As a result, AirTags think the deployment dates are in the year 24 and they just skip to the 100% rollout batch

Which explains why everyone’s AirTags are getting it.

Some are commenting that a two-digit year should never have been accepted in the first place, instead throwing up a validation error. We’ll just leave this here …

Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash