Lost Mode won’t activate

My iPad was stolen about a month ago and I immediately activated “Lost Mode” from the Find My app on my phone.


The iPad was recently found in China, but the Lost Mode won’t activate. It still says “pending”.


Is there anything that I can do? Getting the iPad back is probably impossible, but it is still traceable and it is on.

iPad Pro, iPadOS 16

Posted on Aug 15, 2023 3:40 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 15, 2023 3:48 PM

As described, there is nothing more that you can do.


An iPad that has been instructed to erase using Apple’s Find My service will only erase when it receives the command to do so - this, logically, being determined by the iPad having an active network connection. If the Find My service indicates that the erase is pending, then the erase command has not [yet] been successfully delivered to the iPad; the status will change when [if] the command is successfully delivered to the device.


Nobody can gain access to your iPad without successfully entering the correct device Passcode - and for this, there are a limited number of tries before the iPad will automatically become disabled. As such a brute-force attempt to access the iPad, by guessing the correct passcode, is highly unlikely to be successful. Only if your device Passcode is known to whoever finds your iPad will any locally stored data be at risk of discovery.


iOS/iPadOS is architecturally designed to protect the owners data. 


All locally stored data is encrypted; by design, the only copy of the encryption keys necessary to access local data are held within the Secure Enclave - the device security chip. The device Passcode unlocks the Secure Enclave, which in turn releases the encryption keys to the Operating System while the device remains unlocked.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 15, 2023 3:48 PM in response to nbvs9

As described, there is nothing more that you can do.


An iPad that has been instructed to erase using Apple’s Find My service will only erase when it receives the command to do so - this, logically, being determined by the iPad having an active network connection. If the Find My service indicates that the erase is pending, then the erase command has not [yet] been successfully delivered to the iPad; the status will change when [if] the command is successfully delivered to the device.


Nobody can gain access to your iPad without successfully entering the correct device Passcode - and for this, there are a limited number of tries before the iPad will automatically become disabled. As such a brute-force attempt to access the iPad, by guessing the correct passcode, is highly unlikely to be successful. Only if your device Passcode is known to whoever finds your iPad will any locally stored data be at risk of discovery.


iOS/iPadOS is architecturally designed to protect the owners data. 


All locally stored data is encrypted; by design, the only copy of the encryption keys necessary to access local data are held within the Secure Enclave - the device security chip. The device Passcode unlocks the Secure Enclave, which in turn releases the encryption keys to the Operating System while the device remains unlocked.


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Lost Mode won’t activate

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