Bruce Thomson
Level 6 (10,410 points)

Q: Does Find My Mac require a WiFi connection on the target Mac?

This weekend I upgraded my Macs to OSX Lion 10.7.3 and most everything is great. I spent some time trying to figure out why iCloud's Find My iPhone app will find my wife's MacBook Air and my iPhone 4 (iOS 5.1) but will not find my 2008 vintage MacBook Pro. I finally found one misconfigured AppleID and corrected that which then caused Find My Mac to report the MacBook Pro as "Offline" when it was clearly connected to the Internet (via Ethernet cable to my Time Capsule)  and even logged in to iCloud itself.

 

On a whim, I turned on WiFi and that did it. The MacBook Pro is now found and its location reported.

 

I have not found any caveats about the Find My Mac requiring WiFi. Did I miss something?

Posted on Apr 8, 2012 12:47 PM

by Kappy,Solvedanswer
Kappy Kappy
Level 10 (271,850 points)
Desktops
A:

Yes. Unless the computer/device is connected to 3G/4G/WiFi/Internet it cannot be tracked using Find My Phone.

Posted on Apr 8, 2012 12:50 PM

Close
Bruce Thomson

Q: Does Find My Mac require a WiFi connection on the target Mac?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,Solvedanswer

    Kappy Kappy Apr 8, 2012 12:50 PM in response to Bruce Thomson
    Level 10 (271,850 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 8, 2012 12:50 PM in response to Bruce Thomson

    Yes. Unless the computer/device is connected to 3G/4G/WiFi/Internet it cannot be tracked using Find My Phone.

  • by Bruce Thomson,

    Bruce Thomson Bruce Thomson Apr 8, 2012 1:04 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 6 (10,410 points)
    Apr 8, 2012 1:04 PM in response to Kappy

    On rereading your reply, you confirmed my observation (I think), but does "3G/4G/WiFi/Internet" imply a wired ethernet connection to the Internet or should it read "3G/4G/WiFi Internet connection" to eliminate a wired ethernet connection from the set of acceptable connection types?

     

    ----------------------------

     

    I found the answer in http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4006 that the Internet connection must be via 3G/4G cellular or a known WiFi base station.

     

    So, having a wired ethernet connection even to a known WiFi AirPort Extreme Base Station does NOT work according to that TroubleShooting note.

     

    I was able to send a message and play a sound, however the MacBook Pro was still reported as Offline.

     

    I would like to know what the technical issue is here. Am I the last one using wired ethernet?


    Thanks for your help.

     

    Message was edited by: Bruce Thomson

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Apr 8, 2012 1:01 PM in response to Bruce Thomson
    Level 10 (271,850 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 8, 2012 1:01 PM in response to Bruce Thomson

    Yes, you understood correctly. Just any form of Internet connection. Doesn't make any difference which of the the three as long as it gets connected (and stays connected long enough to locate it.) You can also configure Find My Phone to automatically send a Lock command or an Erase command to the device as soon as it is detected. Note that if you send Erase then the device can no longer be tracked.