There’s nothing worse than having your Mac stolen, but here’s how to find it and hopefully get it back.
MacBooks are constantly being stolen due to owner negligence or breaking into your home, and your Mac is the unlucky one. Usually, the only way to even try to get it back is to try to find it. Fortunately, Apple has some tools to help with this process.
If your Mac has been stolen, all hope is not lost yet as you can try to find out where it is. Many users try to pay the insurance company by tying it to a loss, but this can sometimes be a chore, depending on your insurance company.
Therefore, it may be a good idea to invest some time and effort in finding your stolen Mac and returning it to the right hands.
Without further ado, here’s how to find a stolen Mac.
Track with Find My Mac
Find My Mac is a free service that Apple includes on every Mac computer, and it lets you find your Mac if it’s lost or stolen.
The only caveat is that if you haven’t enabled “Wake for network access” in settings, you can find your stolen Mac even when it’s sleeping, then Find My Mac will only work when the machine is turned on.
you can sign in iCloud.com and then select . You’ll be taken to a full-screen map and shown where all your devices are, including iPhone, iPad, and any Mac you own.
You can click at the top of the window to see the list of your Apple devices, and when you select your stolen device, you will have some options to choose from: , and .
These are pretty self-explanatory, but Play Sound will force the Mac to play a loud sound that will alert you to where the device is if it’s close (it will also annoy the thief to the fullest). The Lock option locks the Mac out of the thief’s access, and then Erase Mac erases the entire Mac from the factory so the thief cannot access your personal information.
Personally, if any of my devices are stolen, using Find My iPhone would be the first thing I would do, but don’t spend too much time with it. Make sure to log in quickly and check if you can track your Mac, and if you know its location, turn it off and move on to the next step.
Call and Report the Police
This is perhaps the most important step. Be sure to call the police and file a police report. You can also notify them of the location of your stolen Mac; they can help you track it down and hopefully get it back.
It’s always wise not to go after the thief. bad things can happen. Instead, let the police handle it. Even if they just stole a MacBook, they have the training and resources to deal with thieves and other criminals who could be dangerously armed.
However, if you don’t know the location of your stolen Mac, there is little the police can do other than file a report with your insurance company. At this point, you’ll need to take a loss and hopefully it’s easy to work with the insurance company at this point.
Wipe Your Mac Remotely
The last thing you want to do (that is, if you can’t find your Mac) is to wipe your Mac remotely because you’re at a point where you’ll likely never see it again. Therefore, it is best to at least delete it so that the thief does not gain access to your files and other personal information.
Go back to iCloud.com and sign in. Select your Mac from the top drop-down menu and click on it. There is an option to remotely wipe your device. Choosing this will remotely wipe your stolen Mac so the thief cannot access your stuff.
Again, keep in mind that erasing your stolen Mac will prevent you from using the Find My iPhone service to locate the device in the future, so be sure to say goodbye officially before you pull the plug.
It’s unfortunate that not all stolen Apple devices can be recovered and the thief may end up near it, so it still happens quite often, but if you follow these steps, you might at least have a fighting chance. Mac is never played.