Unable to launch automations via NFC tags on iPhone 11

I’m trying to create a shortcut through the shortcuts app that triggers whenever I tag a specific NFC tag.

I created the shortcut and when it asked to tag the NFC tag, it recognized it properly. However, when I tried to exit the shortcuts app and tag it from the home screen, it doesn’t launch my shortcut. It’s as though the NFC chip is not enabled in the background.

I tried on other iPhones and it worked properly. Is this an iPhone 11 issue?

Solution 1:

Turns out I was in Airplane mode, and the NFC chip is not enabled in the background when in Airplane mode.

The reason other NFC functions work (e.g. write, Apple Pay, etc) is because there is an explicit NFC foreground UI present, which turns on the chip even when in airplane mode.

Unfortunately, this means you cannot have an NFC tag turn off airplane mode, for example.