Microsoft Support Supervisor said Find my Device only works with Surface devices and not desktops and that's why I'm having issues??

Question

Microsoft Support Supervisor said Find my Device only works with Surface devices and not desktops and that's why I'm having issues??

Jason Perrotti 0

Good morning. I have been having an issue with location settings on my Microsoft account for Find my Device. I am using a Windows 11 Desktop. After a repair install of Windows my location in devices worked briefly. Now the account and devices links on my dashboard bring up a screen with empty gray boxes. When trying to switch to them from a working link I get this screen very quickly pop up: Screenshot (2)

After 4 chats with Microsoft support a Supervisor came online and said that you could not find your PC with a Desktop, only a surface device. What? Then they said I should reach out to HP and then asked if I was all set. I have never had someone with no idea what to do next just make something up and ask if they can go.

Bulldog 3,760 Reputation points

2026-07-27T22:20:10.1233333+00:00

Find My Device only applies to laptops, since a desktop ordinarily does not leave the desk it's on, so it won't get lost.
Jason Perrotti 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T00:38:13.63+00:00

Thank you for responding but actually any device with a Microsoft account attached should show. The only difference with a Desktop is possibly location accuracy. From my research, copied:

Yes, you can use Find My Device with a Windows 11 desktop, provided you sign in with an administrator Microsoft account, turn on location services, and enable the feature in your settings. However, because desktops are stationary and typically lack GPS or cellular data, tracking relies entirely on your active Wi-Fi or Ethernet network connection.

3 answers

Your answer

Bulldog 3,760 Reputation points

2026-07-27T22:20:10.1233333+00:00

Find My Device only applies to laptops, since a desktop ordinarily does not leave the desk it's on, so it won't get lost.
Jason Perrotti 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T00:38:13.63+00:00

Thank you for responding but actually any device with a Microsoft account attached should show. The only difference with a Desktop is possibly location accuracy. From my research, copied:

Yes, you can use Find My Device with a Windows 11 desktop, provided you sign in with an administrator Microsoft account, turn on location services, and enable the feature in your settings. However, because desktops are stationary and typically lack GPS or cellular data, tracking relies entirely on your active Wi-Fi or Ethernet network connection.

Answer 1

Horace Wiggins 530

Is this what you are trying to use?

User's image

Here is what my Windows 11 Pro Dell Desktop shows for its location.

User's image

Jason Perrotti 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T00:50:22.55+00:00

Horace Wiggins, that is precisely what I am trying to find. But my Microsoft account had been showing gray boxes on the device screen. Now for the first time in days when I went to screenshot the device page my devices are showing with

But this is what happened when Microsoft support had me repair install Windows 11 Home. It worked fine and showed my devices and location exactly. When I checked it the next morning it had disappeared and gone back to gray boxes on the account and device pages. You can see all the text on the left and top of the page but the devices are just grayed out boxes with no text, graphics, etc. I wish I had screenshotted that but since I was dealing with support and they were remote accessing they could see it without saving.

Answer 2

Thank you for your response. I know as I have had 'find my device' activated on all compatible devices in the past, I was just shocked that was what they used to get out of trying to fix it. If anybody would know there was a problem you would think they would have and just advised me. I never had an issue in the past and after we did the repair upgrade it was working correctly. It had both of my Windows devices still connected and one is disconnected so it shows disabled but the other did show my correct location. I thought it was a done deal but had a hunch to check it this morning and there it was. I looked into it deeper today and found this on here from response to a post in January:

Hi,This is a known issue with the Devices page in Microsoft account where devices may disappear after a clean installation. Some users suggested it could be related to a computer name conflict, while some suggested this happened after a BIOS update. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and stated that a fix is being worked on. However, since it has persisted for several months, it does not appear to be a high priority. Unfortunately, there is currently no action we can take on our end, so we will have to wait for Microsoft to roll out the fix on this. In the meantime, you may check this thread and this page for additional details.

But I could consistently view devices every time without location showing for the last month I have owned the brand new PC. I finally decided to address it. So it seems the issue has been around for a bit but as to why it worked briefly I do not understand. Yet to finally work after a repair install and show devices and location and then revert to not only not show location but suddenly gray out the devices confuses me.

Answer 3

DaveM121 918.5K Independent Advisor

The 'Find My Device' function should work on all devices, if you have Location services and the 'Find my device' setting enabled, and the device registered on your account online.

There is nothing wrong with your Microsoft account, PC or browser, currently there is a widely reported problem the Devices section and Bitlocker Key section on Microsoft account online is inaccessible, this is a server side fault that Microsoft needs to fix, hopefully they may resolve the problem soon

DaveM121 918.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-28T05:16:01.22+00:00

Sorry, I was offline.

I just checked, the problem with the Devices section on Microsoft accounts not showing now seems to be fixed.