Mark as Lost feature on ipad not much use. Any tips ?

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Mark as Lost feature on ipad not much use. Any tips ?

So I left my ipad on a train a couple of days ago. It only has wifi and the screen lock is enabled.

I activated the Mark As Lost feature on it using my iphone, which sounds great. Someone looking at it should get a message saying its lost and my phone number / email to contact me.

However..... As I understand, it's got to be connected to wifi for that to happen, and if it's got a screen lock noone else can connect it to the wifi as far as I know.

Am I right in thinking this Mark as Lost feature just isn't going to work for me because of the above ?

In the same way, noone can connect my Ipad to wifi so I can locate it via Find My Ipad. I guess if it had a sim card this might be different as it could use the phone network.

Any help much appreciated

iPad Air, iPadOS 18

Posted on Mar 6, 2025 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

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MrHoffman

Level 10

148,707 points

Mar 6, 2025 12:13 PM in response to mungo17

Mark as Lost is a messaging and lock mechanism.

Find My is a means that can potentially locate a lost device.

An iPad with no communications, or broken up for parts, no power, or other such, will not be locatable.

And thieves usually take steps to prevent communications.

Here is what Mark as Lost does: Mark a device as lost in Find My on iPad - Apple Support

What to do: If your iPhone or iPad was stolen - Apple Support

Using Find My to try to: Find your lost iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Mar 6, 2025 3:16 PM in response to mungo17

If the iPad sees a Wi-Fi network that it previously joined, it might rejoin that network automatically.

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Answer 3

MrHoffman

Level 10

148,707 points

Mar 6, 2025 2:58 PM in response to mungo17

The message is shown on the display, assuming there is a network connection available to get the message to the device. If there is no network connection to the device, then there is no message, the passcode is unchanged, etc.

If it hasn't shown in whatever lost-and-found for the area where it was lost, or shown in Find My, then I'd assume it's either battery-depleted, or is gone.

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Answer 4

mungo17 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 6, 2025 2:35 PM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for that, but I still dont get how someones supposed to see the message, if the ipad cant be connected to wifi because its got a lock screen activated. If you normally used a lock screen, whoever finds the ipad cant connect it to wifi, therefore they'll never see the message. At least that's how I understand it. This is what it says following the link you posted.

When the device has been marked as lost, you see Activated below the

Mark As Lost section. If the device isn’t connected to a network when

you mark it as lost, you see Pending until the device goes online again.

And that's what I've got : 'Pending'. I've had that for 2 days. I assume because whoever found it cant get past the lock screen to hook my ipad up to wifi. (assuming they're a nice type that wants to get the ipad back to me !) Am I missing something here ?!

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Mark as Lost feature on ipad not much use. Any tips ?

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