Why is my stolen iPad's location greyed out in Find My?

Your stolen iPad's location is greyed out in Find My because it's offline (turned off, dead battery, no connection) or location services are disabled, meaning Apple can't get a real-time update.

The last known location will be displayed until it connects to a network again. 

Common reasons for a greyed out location:

• Device is powered off or battery is dead: No internet connection means no updates.
• No cellular / Wi-Fi connection: The thief may have disabled connections or is in an area with no service.
• Location Services disabled: The iPad isn't sharing its location even if online.
• Find My feature turned off: The person may have disabled it, sometimes linked to "Stolen Device Protection" settings if they accessed the passcode.
• More than 24 hours have passed: Apple stops showing location history after this period. 

What this means for Lost Mode/Erase? These commands remain "Pending" and will only execute when the iPad comes back online. The grayed-out status indicates the device is not currently reachable. 

I hope that helps.

If the entire device's status is greyed out/offline in the device list:

This is the most common reason for a stolen device. It typically means the iPad is powered off or has no internet connection (no Wi-Fi and no cellular data).

If "Send Last Location" was turned on, you should see the last location before it went offline. If not, the location dot will likely be grey and say "Offline" or "No location found."

If you had "Find My network" enabled (available on newer iPads with iOS 13 or later), it can still be located by other nearby Apple devices even if it's offline—but this location update is not real-time, and sometimes the status may still look grey/offline until a location ping is received.