'Lost' Macbook

Spamalot · 28 Mar 2012 at 22:35

Hi Guys.

A mate of mine 'lost' his laptop, if you can call leaving it unattended on a train loosing. He came to me as a 'person that knows about computers'... he's worried about a couple of things, can people access his files (it's password protected and was turned off when it went missing) and would have course like to know if there’s anyway of tracking it/getting it back?

I know nothing about Mac’s as you can see…

Thanks!

Spamalot · 29 Mar 2012 at 00:00

rustynuts said:
Doesnt Apple have a track me feature in the MobileMe app. Sorry dont have much of a clue with the OS software i just remember seeing it for my iphone.

I know my iPhone has a 'find iPhone' app, I'll ask him if his MacBook had the same. As you say it was off though. Couldn't someone just format the hard drive and reinstall the operating system to get around that anyway?

Also no luck with the train company... From what he said he left it in the baggage bay and when he got off it was gone. He's not the sharpest tool.

Spamalot · 29 Mar 2012 at 09:06

hyper_piper45 said:
If he has iCloud setup and find my mac turned on he should be able to track it when it is turned on. Although if it is password protected it can actually cause problems because they won't be able to turn it on without first wiping/changing the hard drive which will mean it won't be trackable.

So find my mac can't track a serial number? It'll only track a mac that has find my mac set up on and if someone resets it to default then it will no longer be trackable?

Things are not sounding good for him.

Spamalot · 29 Mar 2012 at 17:08

Combat squirrel said:
He sounds like a plonker, basic common sense fail. Also tell him to install prey - allows u to track laptops

Again though if it was formatted this would bypass this? Yes he is a plonker, but then again we all make mistakes.