Find My Mac allows users to locate their lost or stolen Mac, mark it as lost and even remotely erase data if necessary. This is a very helpful security feature, however, there are times when you are required to disable Find My Mac - such as when you are preparing your device for a repair or wiping your Mac to return to an employer or put it up for sale.
It is fairly straightforward to turn off Find My Mac, you can find instructions for how to do so here.
However, if you are unable to disable Find My Mac and keep getting the error message “Find My Mac Couldn’t be Disabled, Try Again Later”, we have some solutions for you!
Poor Internet Connection
Apple ID and iCloud are internet based services. The most common culprit of this error message is poor internet connection. Check your WiFi first before moving on to other solutions.
Apple System Server
An outage of the Apple System Server can also cause the ‘Find My Mac could not be disabled’ message. Take a look at the Apple System Status page to see if Find My is in normal condition. If the circle next to Find My is yellow or red, this means that Find My is not available to use.
Restart Your Mac or Boot in Safe Mode
Terminating all processes and restarting your Mac may resolve the issue. Booting your Mac in Safe Mode can also help isolate and solve macOS related errors on your Mac. To boot your Mac in safe mode turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window. Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.
Remove Your Account
You can also try to turn off Find My Mac via iCloud.com. To do this you will first need to visit www.iCloud.com/find and then follow the steps below:
- Sign in with your Apple ID and password.
- Click All Devices on the top.
- Select the device that you want to disable Find My Mac on.
- Choose the Remove from Account option.
Disabling ‘Find My Mac’ on a Used Mac
If the previous owner of your Mac has not signed out of their Apple ID account then you will need to retrieve the previous owner’s Apple ID password to disable Find My Mac. The Mac can also be remotely removed from the Apple ID account via iCloud.
If you are unable to get in contact with the previous owner of your Mac you may have luck resetting the NVRAM, where Find My Mac data is stored.
