iCloud Find Devices Mac Pics

[howardc64]

Recently revived some salvaged iMacs (pulled HDD, failed HDD, failed GPU, Incorrect macOS installation). After repair and adding them to a test icloud account, I see this pic for the computer with an icloud sign in code entry box



These computers sign into my test icloud account fine. Can locate them with Find My. Sign out and back into icloud etc.

My other macs looks like this in icloud.com Find Devices



Anyone know why? Pinging prior owners to check if these macs with the icloud code pic are visible on their iclioud.com Find Devices.

 

[tonesof2025]

Not related to your problem, sorry in advance, but can you do this in iPhone?

 

[howardc64]

Not related to your problem, sorry in advance, but can you do this in iPhone?

Just the normal find my listings on phone and mac system preferences icloud will not show this. Only icloud.com

 

[howardc64]

Well stranger than strange

Signed into my personal icloud account and authenticated via iPhone. This resulted in

1. 3 macs on this same icloud account. Mac 1&2 log into icloud.com no longer show mac 3 with 6 digit screen. Mac 3 sees itself in icloud.com with 6 digit screen. Mac 1 & 3 are identical macOS (Big Sur 11.7.10) and browser (safari)
2. all 3 macs have find my turned on (System Preferences iCloud settings) Privacy and Security location enabled for Find My to work. All 3 macs can be found on icloud.com
3. 2 macs shows iCloud Find My is off in System Preference Device listing's detailed view despite #2. One of the mac has been signed into icloud for months

Can't make heads or tails of Apple's icloud's inconsistencies.

 

[iStorm]

I've never seen that image before, but looks like it thinks the Mac is locked. (In Lost Mode?)

The image looks normal for my Mac, and the URL to the image is:

https://statici.icloud.com/fmipmobile/deviceImages-9.0/MacBookPro/Mac15,7-spaceblack/online-infobox.png

I took a guess and changed 'online' to 'locked', and sure enough, there's the image with the lock:

https://statici.icloud.com/fmipmobile/deviceImages-9.0/MacBookPro/Mac15,7-spaceblack/locked-infobox.png

I don't want to put my Mac in Lost mode to find out if that's what it is, but might be something to look into. Perhaps putting them in lost mode and taking them out will fix it. How do they appear under Devices in your Apple Account (https://account.apple.com/account/manage/section/devices)?

Could OCLP have anything to do with this? (Not sure if you're using that on these or not.)

 

[howardc64]

I've never seen that image before, but looks like it thinks the Mac is locked. (In Lost Mode?)

The image looks normal for my Mac, and the URL to the image is:

https://statici.icloud.com/fmipmobile/deviceImages-9.0/MacBookPro/Mac15,7-spaceblack/online-infobox.png

I took a guess and changed 'online' to 'locked', and sure enough, there's the image with the lock:

https://statici.icloud.com/fmipmobile/deviceImages-9.0/MacBookPro/Mac15,7-spaceblack/locked-infobox.png

I don't want to put my Mac in Lost mode to find out if that's what it is, but might be something to look into. Perhaps putting them in lost mode and taking them out will fix it. How do they appear under Devices in your Apple Account (https://account.apple.com/account/manage/section/devices)?

Could OCLP have anything to do with this? (Not sure if you're using that on these or not.)

Good hint, more info below and clarify 'online'/'locked'

OCLP

Yes, most of these macs were on OCLP. OCLP maybe confusing icloud? If server keeps tracks of model + macOS to determine particular version of icloud protocol specific to macOS versions, I suppose OCLP can potentially be confusing. I'll outline some observations below (still trying to get a more deterministic failure triggers)

'online' to 'locked'

icloud Find My Mac has at least 5 different UIs

1. macOS System Preferences Apple ID pane (slightly different look before and after Ventura but basically same)
2. macOS Find My app
3. icloud.com/find
4. iOS version of #1
5. iOS version of #2

Not sure what you mean by 'online' to 'locked'. I'm only aware of Activation Lock ( link ). Activation lock is achieved by turning Find My Mac on or off (through UI #1). If turned on, mac shows up in all 5 above UIs and disappears if turned off. Maybe you are on >= M1 and UI is yet different again?


For me, to see the 'lock' icon, Find My has to be turn on. Even stranger is this locked icon only appears in UI #3 on the mac with this issue. If UI #3 is viewed by another mac without this problem (on the same icloud account of course). It shows normal. Pic on left is from Big Sur Safari icloud.com/find on the 2010 iMac running OCLP Sequoia and Pic on the right is from Big Sur Safari icloud.com/find on a MBP 11,1. I have a iMac 14,4 on Big Sur Safari that behaves the same (doing a test to wipe OCLP completely and just run network recovery installed macOS Big Sur to see if anything changes)



Potential OCLP iCloud Issues?

Per above note on possible macOS + model confusion on server side of icloud introduced by OCLP ( running macOS higher than max for the model ) I've seen the following

• UI #1 to remove mac from account doesn't work (or not immediate) UI #4 to remove mac from account works immediately (shows changes on all the UIs)
• Have an iMac 14,4 running network recovery installed Big Sur (max macOS for the iMac 14,4) + OCLP installed Sequoia in a 2nd volume in the same APFS container as Big Sur. Check for updates in Big Sur shows Sequoia.
• Mac Details ( click '>' on post Ventura UI) on UI #1 will show OCLP Macs with Find My Mac turned on as off. Since its turn on, all 5 UIs above shows Mac's location on map. But UI #1 detail shows it as off

Latency

Maybe there are latencies in the icloud Find My Mac services. Probably multiple servers synced with each other on various time intervals. Adding to the confusion.

====

I guess most people don't care about this detail level. Just can sign into icloud and get icloud pics on all devices is probably the main feature most people care about. Beyond this, syned imessage, Mail accounts, iCal, Find My are pretty far down the list for majority of users and probably dev team priorities.

 

[howardc64]

A bit more experimentation

Tried lost lock and found unlock. No improvement

• icloud.com/find lock on another mac, enter 6 digit code to unlock
• locked mac (iMac 11,2 OCLP Sequoia) reboots to recovery
• Power off and on. Get lock icon with code box. Enter unlock code
• iMac powers back on, log in.
• icloud.com.find click lost again to unlock. Enter icloud credentials to unlock the lost mac

After all this, back to a locked mac icon on cloud.com/find (not under All Devices, only when clicking on the device)

 

[howardc64]

After 3 level of Apple support and 1.5 hours. They've filed a bug for the devs to look into. 2 main anomolies

1. Mac signed into Find My Mac (and fully working by checking against icloud.com/find and Find My app on multiple computers and iPhones in the account) but shows not Find My Mac as off in the System Preferences iCloud ID list



2. Why some macs are shown with lock image in icloud.com/find on some Macs while other Macs shows normal image



Will report back if Apple provides any answers.