Lost MacBook, please advise

[Ofe1818]

Hi all! So I made one of those stupid mistakes that happens once in a while in life and lost my MacBook Pro. It is likely somewhere on the side of the road in a soft case unless someone has found it. I have looked where it could be and no luck. Plan to go back and search more tomorrow. I was able to go into “find my iPhone” app and see if I could track it that way and it is offline so nothing. I have it set to alert me if someone opens it and there is also a message for them to call me. Has anyone experienced this? Does it work? I’m sure there are people that can get into the Mac even tho I locked it, right? Lastly, at what point would you go ahead and erase it? TIA!

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Sounds like you've put it in Lost Mode. That's your best bet. Lost Mode kicks in as soon as the thing gets connected to the internet.

Find My Mac is less effective than Find My iPhone because Macs don't have cellular data connections - until the Mac is connected to wifi or ethernet it can't be tracked and it won't get the signal to go into Lost Mode.

Leaving it in Lost Mode holds open the possibility you'll recover it someday. If you switch to Erase, then you're protecting your data but making it easy for whoever finds it to actually use it. Whichever you choose, it won't happen until the Mac is connected to the internet.

 

[960design]

Hi all! So I made one of those stupid mistakes that happens once in a while in life and lost my MacBook Pro. It is likely somewhere on the side of the road in a soft case unless someone has found it. I have looked where it could be and no luck. Plan to go back and search more tomorrow. I was able to go into “find my iPhone” app and see if I could track it that way and it is offline so nothing. I have it set to alert me if someone opens it and there is also a message for them to call me. Has anyone experienced this? Does it work? I’m sure there are people that can get into the Mac even tho I locked it, right? Lastly, at what point would you go ahead and erase it? TIA!

You've done all you can.
Now just wait on society and see if it rallies to the call.
Also, put in a report with the local police ( why not? ). Certainly not a priority for them, but it someone walks into the police station with a Mac... maybe?

Good luck!

PS. It does not help you at this time, but the next version of MacOS does some sneaky stuff with bluetooth that allows the device to be found even if asleep and not connected to the internet.