What to do if you can’t turn on or use Find My on Mac

I keep Find My enabled on all my devices, but recently it turned off automatically on my MacBook, and then refused to turn back on. But after trying various solutions, I was able to fix the problem, and I’m sharing those same tips with you.

So, what exactly happened…

I was using the Find My app on my iPhone to see the location of a family member and noticed that my MacBook, though on my desk and connected to Wi-Fi, was not showing up in my list of devices! This happens when Find My is disabled on that Apple device.

I immediately went to MacBook System Settings > Apple Account name > iCloud > See All > Find My Mac and sure it was off. So, I turned both Find My Mac and Find My network back on.

However, even after enabling Find My and waiting for more than 30 minutes, my MacBook didn’t show up in the Find My app on my other devices or iCloud.com/find.

Why does this problem happen?

I’ve been using a Mac for over a decade, and in my experience, Apple’s Find My tracking service turns off automatically or doesn’t show up in iCloud because of these reasons:

• You add another user account to your Mac and sign in with a different Apple ID. Then, Find My may show up only for that account.
• You install another copy of macOS on a separate volume/partition and log in to your Apple Account there. Then, Find My may show as if it’s switched on in that macOS installation, but off in your primary installation.
• Issues with the Find My Property List and cache files.
• System glitches and bugs.
• You turned off Location Services on your device.
• You reinstalled macOS, and then maybe didn’t turn Find My back on.

Here’s what I did to fix this problem.

The compulsory basic solutions

To address the Find My issue, I first did what most of us would do:

• Restarted both my MacBook and my iPhone.
• Reconfirmed that the MacBook is connected to the Internet.
• Went to macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and made sure the switch next to Find My is green. Then, I clicked the “Details” button next to System Services and ensured Find My Mac is allowed to access my location.
• Went to MacBook System Settings > Battery > Options and set “Wake for network access” to Always so Find My network can work reliably.
• Checked Apple’s System Status page to ensure Find My is working and there are no server issues on Apple’s end.

Then, I waited for more than 20 minutes, hoping my MacBook would start showing up in Find My on my iPhone as before. But it didn’t. So, I left everything as it was and checked the next day. Still, the same problem.

Thereafter, I tried these solutions, and they fixed the problem. Find My has been working perfectly ever since. I believe that one or a combination of these solutions should work for you as well.

Turn off Find My for another user account

I’ve two user accounts on my MacBook: mine and my wife’s. By design, Find My on one Mac can only be used with one Apple Account. So, if I’m using Find My with my user account on Mac, I can’t turn Find My on for my wife’s user account and vice versa. But as far as finding lost Mac or Activation Lock is concerned, in an ideal situation, your Mac’s location will show up in the Find My even when another account is logged in and using your computer, so that’s a relief.

Now, coming back to my Find My problem, when I logged into my wife’s user account on Mac, it showed Find My was switched on (and I could also turn on Find My in my admin user account, even though it didn’t actually update the location and status).

So, I turned off Find My for her account, logged out of it, logged in to my account, and made sure Find My is enabled here. Then, I waited for a while, allowing time for this change to take effect and for my MacBook to appear in Find My on my iPhone.

For most people, this should have done the trick, but it didn’t work for me somehow. Thankfully, the next two solutions helped.

Turn off Find My for your other macOS installation on the same Mac

Since my work involves testing the ins and outs of Apple devices, I usually have more than one macOS installation on my Macs. I also sign in to them with my Apple Account so that all iCloud data can sync. And I usually have no issues with Find My or other Apple services.

But this time, with macOS Tahoe beta on my main volume and macOS Sequoia on a separate volume, I was having problems with Find My. So, I booted my MacBook to macOS Sequoia installation and turned off Find My for my Apple Account.

Then, I rebooted to my main macOS Tahoe 26 installation, turned Find My off (it had been falsely showing as ‘On’ all this time), and then turned it back on. But still, Find My didn’t work for me, even though it had worked for a couple of users who also have two or more macOS installations on the same computer. Of course, this doesn’t concern you if you’ve just one macOS version, so skip to the next solution.

Delete the Find My Location plist file

Finally, this is the solution that worked for me to resolve the issue of Find My being enabled on my MacBook but not actually showing up in the Find My app on other devices or in iCloud. I assume the Find My Location plist file (Property List) file that stores settings, preferences, and configurations was corrupted. Having my Mac recreate this file helped fix the problem.

1) Make sure you’re in Finder, click Go from the top menu bar, and do one of the following.

• Select Go to Folder, paste this address /Users/YourUsername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.findmy.findmylocateagent.plist and hit the return/enter key.
• Or, hold the Option key to reveal the Library folder and click it. Then, open the Preferences folder and find the com.apple.findmy.findmylocateagent.plist file. You can also use the search bar to locate it quickly.

2) Move this plist file to the Trash and empty the Trash. You can also move the plist file to another folder, such as Downloads, for backup purposes.

3) Now, restart your Mac. Your computer will automatically re-create the com.apple.findmy.findmylocateagent.plist file with no existing issues. Check System Settings to ensure Find My Mac is on, and soon it will start showing up in Find My app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iCloud.com.

In case deleting the Find My Location property list file didn’t work for you, turn off Find My on your Mac (in case it falsely shows it’s ON). Then, go to /Users/YourUsername/Library/Caches and delete the Find My folders from there. Restart your Mac, turn on Find My, and it should work smoothly.

If the problem continues…

In case the above tips don’t work for you in fixing Mac’s Find My problem, consider the following solutions:

• Update to the latest version of macOS.
• Try turning Find My on (or off and back on) after a while.
• Sign out of your Apple Account on this Mac, restart it, and sign back in.
• Remove this Mac from your Apple Account and sign back in.
• Reinstall macOS without losing personal data.
• Take it to an Apple Store for help.

Were you able to fix the problem? Share in the comments section below.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/09/04/fix-find-my-issues-on-mac/