How to share AirTag location history

Export the record and send the file. AirTag History gives you CSV for anyone who will open a spreadsheet, GPX for anyone who wants it on a map, and a timestamped PDF evidence report on The Move pass and above for a claims adjuster or a moving company. What decides whether it gets acted on is the covering message and the timezone you quote.

What can you actually send someone?

Three things, all of them files. There is no share link and no read-only guest view. That is a limitation of ours, not a design principle. You export the range you care about and attach it to whatever thread the dispute is already living in.

• CSV: one row per recorded report, with coordinates and timestamps. Opens in any spreadsheet.
• GPX: the same points as a track, for anyone who wants to drop it on a map.
• The timestamped PDF evidence report: the route written out as a document, with named places and flagged stops. Available on The Move pass and above.

Which format suits which recipient?

Match the file to the person who has to read it. An adjuster wants a document that can go in a file. An engineer at a logistics firm wants the raw rows. Sending the wrong one is how a good record ends up unopened.

If the airline asks for a Find My share while the bag is still being searched for, that is a separate thing and worth doing, because it shows where the bag is now. The exported history is what covers where it has been.

How do you write the covering message?

The file rarely fails on its own merits. It fails because it arrives with "see attached" and lands on someone processing forty of these a day. Do the reading for them.

1. Put the reference first: claim number, booking number, job number, whatever they index by.
2. State the specific claim in one sentence: "the shipment sat at your Long Beach depot from 24 to 30 June", not "there were delays".
3. Quote two or three timestamps, no more. The ones that carry the argument.
4. Name the timezone next to every time you quote.
5. Say what the attachment is: a location record from an AirTag travelling inside the shipment, recorded every 5 minutes.
6. Say plainly what it does not show: gaps where nothing was reported, and that the tag proves the tag's location.
7. Ask for one specific thing by a date: a written response, a revised claim decision, a call.

Keep the whole message shorter than the attachment. The record is the argument; the email is just the handle somebody picks it up by.

What do you need to say about timezones?

Say which one you are using, every time. A move crosses time zones and so does a flight, and the same event honestly described by two parties can look like two events three hours apart.

• Check what timezone the timestamps you are reading are shown in before you quote any of them.
• Write the offset out in the message, as in "14:03, UTC−7", rather than assuming the reader shares your clock.
• Quote one timezone throughout. Mixing local-at-origin with local-at-destination invites a rebuttal that costs you a week.
• Expect the other side's timestamps to come from a scanner or a dispatch system in its own timezone. Line the two up yourself rather than leaving it to them.

What should you not claim when you send it?

Overstating the record is the fastest way to lose the part of it that was solid. Three things are worth conceding before anyone raises them.

• The tag's location is the tag's location. If somebody removed the tag from the box, the record follows the tag.
• Gaps are ordinary. An AirTag reports only when a passing iPhone relays a sighting, so an empty stretch means nobody walked past, not that nothing happened.
• Accuracy is approximate. A point places the tag near a location, not on a particular loading bay.

Whether a record like this is treated as evidence is decided by the party receiving it, whether an insurer, a carrier or a court, and the rules differ by jurisdiction and by contract. What you can control is that the record is complete, unedited, and honestly described.

When should you export rather than wait?

As soon as you know you need a record for a third party. While your recorded points remain stored on your private timeline, exporting a CSV or GPX file ensures you have a standalone copy ready to attach to an email, insurance claim, or dispute.