I lost my AirPods but my find my will not connect to them even though they are alive it says setup incomplete, please help me

Hello -AnonymousAppleUser-,

Based on the article that you already found, If you get an alert in the Find My app that your AirPods setup is incomplete - Apple Support, you would need the AirPods in order to resolve this error. With them already being lost, unfortunately Find My will not work. You'd do best to alert local law enforcement that they're missing and see if they are turned in.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities!