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Macbook Pro stolen, location unavailable, icon showing up as mac mini in Find My

I recently got a vandalism to my vehicle and my 16-inch Macbook Pro with touch bar stolen from my car.


Upon discovering the theft I immediately opened "Find My" on my iPhone and my iPad, however I couldn't seem to find the Macbook Pro at first sight. I went through my device list again and at the end of the list there appears to be a device with the Mac Mini icon, however its name is "User's Macbook Pro" instead of "XX(my name)'s Macbook Pro". I never owned a Mac Mini so I was pretty sure this is the one that got stolen, but for some reason the icon is not showing up as a macbook.


What's more strange is that I can't see the location of this device, but I was able to send an Erase Request and then it showed that the device was successfully erased.


I am very confused about this situation. Was that really my stolen Macbook Pro? Or was it some kind of bug that prevented the icon being correctly shown? What would the Find My list normally show for a stolen Macbook Pro minutes after its theft? Could the thief take out the hard drive and format it then put it back in to keep using the machine?


Please help!

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Oct 25, 2021 7:52 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 25, 2021 8:18 AM

The icon thing is odd and I presume they aren't just using a Mini as a generic icon for all computers. Maybe something you need to ask Apple about and/or report as feedback.


Contact Apple. Click here --> https://support.apple.com/choose-country-region Select your country, then a product. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.


or:


Contact Apple for support and service --> "See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world."

Click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT201232


Click on this link for Apple products feedback links --> http://www.apple.com/feedback/


Location is an issue with Macs. I think if it connected to the Internet then it should be reporting some kind of location information but with computers that may be wildly inaccurate since computers don't have GPS and the location may be based upon the service provider. Service providers may cover a wide area and simply report corporate headquarters as an address.


See the section titled, "What if I don’t recognize the location shown in my sign in notification?" by clicking on the link for this support article 'Two-factor authentication for Apple ID' --> https://support.apple.com/HT204915


You weren't really asking about this but if I don't post it then somebody else will...


Read what to do...

'If your Mac is lost or stolen.' Click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT204756


Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 25, 2021 8:18 AM in response to SpiralArmZ

The icon thing is odd and I presume they aren't just using a Mini as a generic icon for all computers. Maybe something you need to ask Apple about and/or report as feedback.


Contact Apple. Click here --> https://support.apple.com/choose-country-region Select your country, then a product. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.


or:


Contact Apple for support and service --> "See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world."

Click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT201232


Click on this link for Apple products feedback links --> http://www.apple.com/feedback/


Location is an issue with Macs. I think if it connected to the Internet then it should be reporting some kind of location information but with computers that may be wildly inaccurate since computers don't have GPS and the location may be based upon the service provider. Service providers may cover a wide area and simply report corporate headquarters as an address.


See the section titled, "What if I don’t recognize the location shown in my sign in notification?" by clicking on the link for this support article 'Two-factor authentication for Apple ID' --> https://support.apple.com/HT204915


You weren't really asking about this but if I don't post it then somebody else will...


Read what to do...

'If your Mac is lost or stolen.' Click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT204756


Macbook Pro stolen, location unavailable, icon showing up as mac mini in Find My

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