MBP to go in for repair - why does Find My Mac need to be switched off?

[jennyp]

I'm due to take my 2015 MacBook Pro in to Apple for a repair.

On the reservation confirmation web page I see the message, "To service your Mac, Find My Mac will need to be temporarily turned off," and "If you are unable to turn off Find My Mac, Apple cannot provide support services. This policy is in force to prevent unauthorized persons from servicing your device without your knowledge".

That last sentence doesn't make sense to me: why does it apply to "unauthorised" persons? How are 'unauthorised persons' prevented from servicing my Mac by me turning Find My Mac off?

This old MacBook Pro does not have a T2 Security Chip, btw.

 

[Six Mac Abs]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that last sentence would be more correctly stated as "This policy is in force to prevent unauthorized persons from sending your device for service without your knowledge".

Perhaps it's a safeguard to make sure the device is really yours and not stolen 🤷🏻‍♂️

*EDIT* Highlighted the correct passage of text

 

[jennyp]

If it's "sending it for service", I still don't see how turning off Find My Mac would stop them.

 

[Six Mac Abs]

Because turning off find my Mac requires you to know the password for the connected iCloud account, not the device.

 

[russell_314]

It’s always been a requirement for iPhones and other Apple devices. If you don’t turn it off they won't repair it.

 

[e1me5]

Maybe they don't want you to know the location of the service point so you won't go and loot it in the night.
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Maybe they don't want you to know the location of the service point so you won't go and loot it in the night.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I don't know what kind of service you're having done but if it were me I wouldn't leave it anywhere with any of my stuff on it, if possible.

 

[jennyp]

Because turning off find my Mac requires you to know the password for the connected iCloud account, not the device.

But I might not have enabled Find My Mac in the first place. In any case, it seems irrelevant: I still don't see how turning off Find My Mac "prevents unauthorised persons from servicing it without my knowledge" (that was the full wording).

Maybe it should say that, in the case of T2 chip Macs (which this isn't - there's no activation lock), leaving Find My Mac on prevents anyone from servicing it? (Though I read somewhere that resetting the PRAM/NVRAM turns Find My Mac off anyway.)

Oh well 🤷‍♂️
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I don't know what kind of service you're having done but if it were me I wouldn't leave it anywhere with any of my stuff on it, if possible.

It does have FileVault switched on. Isn't that enough to protect the data?

 

[avidsimmer]

I'm due to take my 2015 MacBook Pro in to Apple for a repair.

On the reservation confirmation web page I see the message, "To service your Mac, Find My Mac will need to be temporarily turned off," and "If you are unable to turn off Find My Mac, Apple cannot provide support services. This policy is in force to prevent unauthorized persons from servicing your device without your knowledge".

That last sentence doesn't make sense to me: why does it apply to "unauthorised" persons? How are 'unauthorised persons' prevented from servicing my Mac by me turning Find My Mac off?

This old MacBook Pro does not have a T2 Security Chip, btw.

I'm taking my 2015 MacBook pro for a repair too and I think I figured it out.....

"to prevent unauthorized person from servicing your device", so think in that hypothetical. say somebody swipes your computer and tries to mess with it. They'll probably want to turn off Find My Mac so you can't track them, but you need to type in your ID and password to turn it off, so they can only mess with it with the location turned on. That way, you can find who stole it. If you are letting someone go under the hood, then its kind of like a marker on the timeline of you knowing that FMM was turned off for a legit reason.

Sorry if that still doesn't make sense :/ Even with that reasoning, I still don't like not being able to track my stuff, who knows where our stuff goes behind closed doors!

hope that helps (>‿◠)✌

 

[deckard666]

Friend of mine used to put a postit on his Porsche 911 dashboard with the mileage on it as he got fed up with it being returned with a LOT of extra miles on it after a service !

 

[Christopher Kim]

Old thread, but here's how I see it.

If it's "sending it for service", I still don't see how turning off Find My Mac would stop them.

Clearly, this is not the intention. The act of turning it off can't stop unauthorized persons from sending your computer in - of course it can't. It's the policy of not servicing unless it's off that stops them.

If you don't have enable Find My Mac normally, than this doesn't apply. This means an unauthorized person *could* service your computer without your knowledge, but frankly, if it's off they can do whatever they want with it. Wipe it. Sell it.

If you do have it enabled (which I would think most people do), then this policy (eg. NOT servicing unless
Find My Mac is turned off) keeps from unauthorized persons from being able to take your laptop and then service it. So the policy is to offer some level of protection to those who normally have Find My Mac enabled.

 

[anshuvorty]

The answer is obvious....it is because if and when Apple needs to reinstall macOS for any reason, they can easily do so without Activation Lock kicking in....

 

[calliex]

I'm due to take my 2015 MacBook Pro in to Apple for a repair.

On the reservation confirmation web page I see the message, "To service your Mac, Find My Mac will need to be temporarily turned off," and "If you are unable to turn off Find My Mac, Apple cannot provide support services. This policy is in force to prevent unauthorized persons from servicing your device without your knowledge".

That last sentence doesn't make sense to me: why does it apply to "unauthorised" persons? How are 'unauthorised persons' prevented from servicing my Mac by me turning Find My Mac off?

This old MacBook Pro does not have a T2 Security Chip, btw.

It might be to give them complete access to your machine. Not sure how their diagnosing software works but with out disabling find my mac it may ask them for your password to perform some test. Just a thought