> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.assetinfinity.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Finding a Bluetooth tag
> Following a bar, a distance and a beep to an asset's Bluetooth (BLE) tag with the phone in your hand — from the asset itself or from Home — and what stops a phone from hearing one.
**Find a BLE tag** turns the phone into a hot-and-cold finder for an asset's Bluetooth Low Energy tag: a bar, a percentage and a rough distance rise as you close on it, with a beep that quickens. The floor plan says which room a tag is in; this screen finds the shelf.
If you don't see this in your navigation, your administrator can switch the module on under **Administration → Modules**, or it may not be included in your plan. Indoor location and BLE tags are part of the same module.
It needs no signal. The tags come down with the assets they are fitted to, because the places equipment goes missing — basements, plant rooms, the back of a store — are the places without one. Nothing on the screen fetches, and nothing it does is sent to the server: looking for a tag changes no record.
Finding a tag uses the phone's own Bluetooth radio, so it works only in the installed app on an Android phone or an iPhone. The screen cannot be pictured here for that reason.
## Two ways in
| From | When to use it | What happens |
| - | - | - |
| **Find its BLE tag** on an [asset's own screen](/field/register#the-asset-screen) | You know which asset you want — you scanned its label, or opened it from a job | The screen opens with that asset's tag already chosen. **Asset** at the top goes back to it |
| **Find a BLE tag** on Home, under **The plant** | You only know that something has gone missing — "the defibrillator from ward 4" — and want to start from a list | The screen opens with a picker of every tagged asset on the handset. **Home** at the top goes back |
The asset button and the Home door appear only when all three of these are true: your organisation has indoor location switched on, the handset holds at least one asset with a tag fitted (for the asset button, *this* asset), and the phone has a Bluetooth radio the app can use. On an iPhone the button is still shown for a tag the phone cannot hear, because the screen behind it says why — see [iPhones and iBeacon](#iphones-and-ibeacon).
Tags are fitted to assets in the web app, from the asset itself or the BLE tags register — see [the asset screen](/assets/detail). Sync afterwards and the tag appears on the handset.
## Choosing the tag
| Field | What it means | Notes |
| - | - | - |
| **Which asset or tag** | The tag to look for | Search by **Asset number, name or tag MAC**. Each row shows the asset number and name, with the tag's own name and MAC address underneath. **No tagged asset on this device matches that.** when nothing fits. The scan button beside it reads an asset's label and picks the tag fitted to that asset — an asset with no tag is refused at the scan with **This asset has no BLE tag fitted** |
Once a tag is chosen, a **Looking for** panel shows what the phone will listen for: the tag's name, **MAC {address}**, and **iBeacon {UUID} · {major} · {minor}** where an iBeacon identity is recorded. Choosing another tag ends the search for the first and starts clean.
## Looking for it
The first press is also when the phone asks for any permission it needs. Before you press it, the meter reads **Press Start, then walk slowly and watch the bar.**
The bar, labelled **How close the tag is**, fills as the signal strengthens, with a percentage and **About {n} m away**. The words under it move in three steps so they can be read at arm's length: **Heard, but far away**, **Getting warmer**, **Very close**. **Not heard yet — keep moving** means nothing has answered — or that a tag you were hearing has gone quiet.
Leaving the screen stops the search too, and so does putting the app in the background, so a forgotten search does not drain the battery in your pocket.
| Control | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Start looking** / **Stop** | Starts and stops the search |
| Speaker button (**Turn the beep off** / **Turn the beep on**) | Mutes or un-mutes the beep. The beep and the bar follow the same reading, so with the sound off the bar still tells you everything |
The distance is rounded and says "about" on purpose. Indoors, walls, bodies and metal shelving bend a Bluetooth signal, and an estimate from signal strength is good to roughly a factor of two — use it to choose a direction and the bar to close in, not as a tape measure.
## What stands in the way
The screen says what will stop it before you start rather than after a fruitless sweep. Each problem has a sentence, and where the phone allows it, a button straight to the settings page that fixes it. Coming back from the settings checks again on its own.
| Message | Why | What to do |
| - | - | - |
| **Bluetooth is off** | The phone's Bluetooth is switched off | Android: **Open Bluetooth settings** and turn it on. iPhone: turn it on in Control Centre (an iPhone app cannot open that page for you). Then press **Start looking** again |
| **Location is off** (Android) | Android hears Bluetooth tags only while Location is on | **Open location settings**, turn it on, then press Start again |
| **Location Services are off** (iPhone) | An iPhone finds a tag through Location Services | Turn them on in Settings, under **Privacy & Security** |
| **The app is not allowed to look for tags** | A permission was declined | **Open settings**. On Android, allow **Nearby devices**, and **Location** with **Use precise location** on. On an iPhone, set **Location** for this app to **While Using the App**, with **Precise Location** on |
| **This phone cannot look for Bluetooth tags** | The phone has no Bluetooth Low Energy radio the app can use | Use another phone |
| **This device cannot look for Bluetooth tags** | The app is not running as the installed phone app | Use the app installed on an Android phone or an iPhone |
| **There is nothing to look for on this tag** | Neither a MAC address nor an iBeacon identity is recorded for the tag | Add one to the tag in the web app |
| **Wait a moment before starting again** | Android allows only a few Bluetooth scans every half-minute | Press Start again in a few seconds |
| **The search stopped** | The phone ended the search for another reason, which is shown where it gave one | Press Start to try again |
| **No tagged assets on this device** | No asset on the handset has a tag fitted | Only assets with a BLE tag fitted can be found this way. Sync when you have a signal |
| **This asset has no BLE tag fitted** | The asset you came from carries no tag | Fit one in the web app and sync afterwards |
## iPhones and iBeacon
An Android phone listens for a tag by its **MAC address**, the one printed on its label. An iPhone cannot: iOS hides MAC addresses from apps, and the only way an iPhone hears a tag is by its **iBeacon identity** — a UUID, a major and a minor number, set in the tag maker's configuration app.
So a tag with no iBeacon identity recorded cannot be found from an iPhone at all. Rather than let you sweep a corridor for something the phone is not allowed to hear, the screen shows **This tag cannot be found from an iPhone yet** in place of the Start button, and says what to add: the UUID, major and minor from the tag's configuration app, entered on the tag in the web app. Until then, look for it with an Android phone. The web app's BLE tags register flags the same tags as ones an iPhone will not be able to find.
The asset screen that offers Find its BLE tag.
The same kind of search with a handheld RFID reader.
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