MacOS – Why is “Find My Mac” still complaining about “Wake for network access” being inactive, although I just activated it

find-my-macmacossystem-prefs

Environment

  • MacBook Pro 15" (Mid 2014)
  • macOS 11.2.1 Big Sur
  • Find My Mac gets activated for the first time on this device. There was no other user before ever, I bought it refurbed from Apple.com, and I do not recall that I have ever used that function before, but now I wanted to activate it.

Problem

I did my initial setup of "Find My" on the Mac exactly as Set up Find My on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac (HT210400) describes, but in the process got a warning about "Wake for network access" being not active, although it was.

Reproduction

Exactly as HT210400 instructs. Numbers correspond to my screenshot series:

1 ) Preconditions: System Preferences > Security & Privacy:
"Enable Location Services" is ON, "Find My" is also ON. All fine.

2a) System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud > Find My Mac is currently OFF. Toggle "Find My Mac" ON.

2b) In the dialog press "allow".

2c) "Find my Mac" not shows as ON but has a warning symbol and a "Details…" button. Press that button.

2d) Dialog informs that you need "Wake on network access" being active. Press button "Open Energy Saver". Btw an outdated label, the former prefpane "Energy Saver" in macOS Big Sur is meanwhile called "Battery".

2e) I get redirected to the prefPane "Battery". Activate "Wake for network access". In my screenshot session I already did so earlier.

2f) Go back to prefPane "Apple ID" and "Find My Mac" still shows an error due to missing "Wake for network access". Note: You can repeat cycle 2a-f as long as you want: The status icon is not refreshing properly as long as "System Preferences.app" is running!

3 ) In prefPane "Battery" I checked both sections "Battery" and "Power Adapter". Option "Wake for network access" is only shown in section "Power Adapter" and there it is on.

Why is "Find My Mac" still complaining about "Wake for network access" missing, although it is activated?

Solution

4 ) Quit "System Preferences.app". Restart it. Then go to: Apple ID > iCloud > "Find My Mac" now shows as ON and without any error symbol.

Screenshot series









Best Answer

In reality this is just a refresh issue as I as a tech-savvy user later realized. But average Mac users won't, as everywhere else on macOS you typically do not have these kind of refresh errors, but the software objects update each other quite reliably.

Step 4 in the question now shows the solution: Simply quit and then restart System Preferences. Then the status of "Find My Mac" in preference pane "Apple ID" shows updated correctly.

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