MacBook – Lost the MacBook Air two weeks ago and it still says offline on Find My iPhone!

There is no way to trace your MacBook Pro if the thief does not connect it to the internet, because at the very least the MBP needs to 'dial in' to announce it's location.

Since you did not enable "Find my Mac" and did not install any other recovery software, you might want to check in with some other services installed on your MBP.

Dropbox for example shows the last connected IP address for any given device you linked to your Dropbox account. If you use Dropbox, force a sync by making a change in your Dropbox folder. If the thief connects to the internet and Dropbox syncs the changes, you'll know the IP address he was connecting from. You can find this information on the Dropbox website, in your account settings.

Gmail is another popular service that allows you to see recently connected IP addresses. If you set up a Gmail account in Mail.app for example, you might want to check this information. You can find a link on the bottom right of your Inbox page.

Have a look at all possible cloud-based services you installed on the MBP, possibly others allow viewing a list of recently connected IP addresses as well.

However, if the thief does never connect to the internet, this will not help you either. There is also a possibility the thief reinstalls the OS from scratch to prevent the MBP from dialing in.

1. If you can see your MacBook Pro with Retina Display in iCloud, it has been enabled. The reason it is showing as offline is because it is either (1) shut down and not connected to internet, or (2) the device has, somehow, already been wiped, with the first option being much more likely in this situation. Computers are particularly vulnerable to this type of situation because they don't have a constant data connection like an iPhone, or data-enabled iPad, often would. The user must boot the laptop and connect to a wifi before Find My Mac will know anything about it's where-abouts or be able to perform any actions.

   The first, and main thing to do is to select the the "Lock", or "Erase" option. If it is a neighborhood kid and you think some noise might provide truth, you could always do the play sound feature. This plays an alert at maximum volume. You should probably use this sparingly, and only activate it, for example, if you are within earshot of it. Chances are the user could take quick actions to dampen the sound.

   As for the "Lock", or "Erase" option, it will do this as soon as the computer is connected to the internet. Obviously, if they never connect the computer to the internet before wiping it, then the Lock feature won't do any good, but at least if they do, it will help you.

2. Good news for you is you can erase your Mac and still be able to locate it with Find my Mac. (Another helpful Q&A on that).

3. And yes, you will get an email when any action occurs on your Mac - such as it being locked or found.