Mark a device as lost in Find My on Mac
You can mark a missing Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch as lost so that others can’t access your personal information.
Important: In order to mark a device as lost, you must add it to Find My before it’s lost.
What happens when you mark a device as lost?
You can display a custom message on the screen. For example, you may want to indicate that the device is lost and how to contact you.
Your device doesn’t display alerts or make noise when you receive messages or notifications, or if any alarms go off. Your device can still receive phone calls and FaceTime calls.
Apple Pay is disabled for your device. Any credit or debit cards set up for Apple Pay, student ID cards, and Express Transit cards are removed from your device. Credit, debit, and student ID cards are removed even if your device is offline. Express Transit cards are removed the next time your device goes online. See Use Wallet & Apple Pay.
For iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch, the device’s current location appears on the map, as well as any changes to its location.
Mark a device as lost
In the Find My app on your Mac, click Devices.
In the Devices list, select the device you want to mark as lost, then click the Info button on the map.
Below Mark As Lost, click Activate.
Note: You can also Control-click the device in the Devices list, then choose Mark as Lost.
Follow the onscreen instructions, keeping the following in mind:
Passcode: For a Mac, you must create a numeric passcode, even if you already have a password set up on your Mac. This passcode is distinct from your password and is only used when you mark your device as lost or want to erase it. If your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch doesn’t have a passcode, you’re asked to create one now.
Family Sharing: If you’re trying to mark a family member’s device as lost and the device doesn’t have a passcode set or is a Mac, you must enter that person’s Apple ID password on this device.
Contact information: If you’re asked to enter a phone number, enter a number where you can be reached. If you’re asked to enter a message, you may want to indicate that the device is lost and how to contact you. The number and message appear on the device’s Lock screen.
Click Activate.
When a device is marked as lost, one of these status notes appears below the Mark As Lost section:
Pending: If the device isn’t connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network when you mark it as lost, Pending appears until the device goes online again.
Activated: Once the device goes online, the device is marked as lost.
Turn off Mark As Lost on a device
When you find your lost device, turn off Mark As Lost.
In the Find My app on your Mac, click Devices.
In the Devices list, select the device you marked as lost, then click the Info button on the map.
Under Mark As Lost, click Pending.
Click Turn Off Mark As Lost.
Click Turn Off to confirm.
You can also turn off Mark As Lost from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch by entering the device’s passcode (the one you use to unlock your device).
Note: You can’t turn off Mark As Lost remotely from another Mac. You can only turn if off directly on the Mac that you marked as lost—by entering the numeric passcode you set up when you marked your Mac as lost.
If you forget your device passcode, you can recover it using Find My iPhone on iCloud.com. See Use Lost Mode in Find My iPhone on iCloud.com in the iCloud User Guide.
If you lose your Mac and don’t own an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or another Mac, you can turn on Lost Mode using Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.
For information about using Find My with other devices, see the user guide for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch, or the AirPods Support website.